Spy Shots: 2010 Ford Taurus SHO spotted without camo!
by John Neff on Jan 19th 2009 at 11:57AM 
Click above for high-res gallery of 2010 Ford Taurus SHO spy shots
Thanks to our friends at BringBackTheSHO.com, we now have more evidence than ever that the SHO will rise again. These spy shots show a pair of serious looking Taurus sedans snapped along the I-75 corridor in
We expect to find Ford's new 3.5L EcoBoost V6 underhood, which produces 355 horsepower and 350 lb-ft of torque. Well, that's what the engine produces in the 2010 Lincoln EcoBoost MKS, 2010 Lincoln EcoBoost MKT and 2010 Ford EcoBoost Flex. Whether or not Ford increases the engine's power for SHO duty (it does stand for Super High Output, after all) remains to be seen, but expect all-wheel drive and a flappy paddle, six-speed gearbox to be standard equipment. The 2009 Chicago Auto Show, where we expect this car to debut, just got a whole lot more interesting.
Gallery: 2010 Ford Taurus SHO - spy shots
[Source: VWVortex via BringBackTheSHO.com, Photos used with permission of BBTS.com]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Level 5 12:02PM (1/19/2009)
No manual? Unfap.
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Concerned Citizen 12:47PM (1/19/2009)
You mean to say you'd actually get excited over a Taurus if it had a manual? I think the "!" in the headline is already pushing it...
BoxerFanatic 1:37PM (1/19/2009)
I am with Level 5 on this one.
As a former Ford owner, this is the issue that really left me cold with Ford products.
I can understand not offering a manual transmission on the regular appliance version.
But if you are going to market it as a sporty car, it should have the option for a stick.
Fusion 3.5 Sport, Taurus SHO, or even cars like the old Lincoln LS V8.
Heaven forbid they have a nice coupe like the 93-97 Probe GT (how cool could that car have been on the Linc LS RWD platform with a Mercury nameplate, rather than the step backward that was the FWD Cougar.)
Manual transmissions are for performance, also, not just bargain basement models as a cost-cut/efficiency item. RWD is desireable for performance, as well. Haldex Faux-wheel-drive that is hugely front biased isn't exactly ground-breaking either.
Lack of manual trans, and lack of balanced or rear-biased drivelines pushed me to the other blue oval. The one with stars, rather than script.
Mike B. 2:05PM (1/19/2009)
the manu-matic with shift paddles on the wheel isn't good enough? it holds whatever gear you set it in... i've never been a stick driver, so i wouldn't know the diff... but i would think that it works similarly, you just don't have to do the shifting yourself, but you pick the gear. that's gotta count for something...
notYou 2:33PM (1/19/2009)
BoxerFanatic: I agree with your perspective, but a slight correction: the LS V8 never had a stick. I know, I was an LS diehard who owned and loved a 2002 V6 with a manual. That was the last year they ever made it with a manual, all 2003s and beyond - V6 or V8 - were autos. I think in total only about 3k were ever manuals - and kudos to Lincoln for making them!
I had a friend who worked on the LS project from inception, when they rooked the platform from the Jag S-Type (which was then another of FoMoCo's value brands) and they just never had a gearbox available to them that could properly mate with the torque of the V8 at the time. The tran in the V6 was a Getrag and, up through 2002, the V6 had about -20 hp than V8 auto but kept up with it and handled substantially better. In 2003 they upped the hp of the v6 and v8 which is probably why they had to abandon the manual all together.
Which is why I bolted from Lincoln to Caddy (06 CTS-V, FTW!) since I like my sedans sporting, not just sporty looking. fyi: the wife still drives an 03 LS V8 Sport, which is still a great, solid car. Too bad Lincoln abandoned the whole LS line and went with their Zephyr->MKwhatever lineup which doesn't enthuse me or her at all.
Randy 2:45PM (1/19/2009)
Guys... guys..... Ford didn't announce anything... These are spy shots and theories from autoblog.
MikeW 3:12PM (1/19/2009)
If you have a 6:1 ratio spread manual transmission 5,10,15,20,25,30, sure it would be slightly faster, but at the cost of highway mileage.
The 6 speed automatic has a 5th gear of about 30mph per 1K revs. 6th gear is over 40mph.
Does the SHO get the rear 'eLSD' or not? That is the deal maker.
Iteration 4 Haldex is nothing special (it is really generation 2)
and the price should be reasonable. It should be the same price as the entry level Hyundai Genesis, 33K, but if it ends up at $38K it is going to flop.
Red rear turn signals, on a 2010 model year?
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/staticfiles/DOT/NHTSA/NRD/Multimedia/PDFs/Crash%20Avoidance/2008/811%20037.pdf
tekd 5:44PM (1/19/2009)
This thing is such a massive car though, I'm not sure it really makes a lot of sense to put a manual in. It's like asking why GM never made a manual Park Avenue Ultra. They're just big cars with supercharged engines so they have powerful acceleration...nobody's going to be out there racing these cars.
It's not like the older SHO which was a much lighter and more agile car...the new Taurus is a huge car guys.
ambientFLIER 9:23PM (1/19/2009)
So Ford should make a manual version for the 10 people that are looking to race a large grandma sedan?
Ligor 12:13PM (1/20/2009)
you don't need a manual in this large a car with onnly a hint of sportiness to it
ah, had this been a Mustang without the manual thne I can see issues
I saw the new Taurus driving around here in MI, and it looks very nice in person, but it is big and paddle shifters with 355HP is just fine for what it is.
RamblinReck89 2:05AM (1/22/2009)
Mike B.
You realize that what you have said is considered on here the same as telling one of your buddies, "A mouth is a mouth. I don't see what the difference is," when he asks why you got a male hooker to give you a blow job, right?
Kumail 12:04PM (1/19/2009)
i really like this car, except for the back. something about the taillights just doesn't do it for me.
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Jason 12:06PM (1/19/2009)
Agreed. But hey, at least they're not 10-years-past-cool-ricer-Altezza tail lights like GM put on the G8... (and the Acadia).
NT 1:11PM (1/19/2009)
What's wrong with the taillights of a G8? Or the Altezza/IS300 for that matter?
Otherwise, yeah, the dovetail-slash-mocking-the-angle-of-the-rear-window thing is like they gave up when they got to the back. Which is the same thing Chevy did with the new Malibu.
Jason 1:59PM (1/19/2009)
@NT: That style tail light was cool about 6-7 years ago when the IS originally showed up on US shores, but now they're the staple of every clapped-out ricer that has been accessorized by PepBoys and ebay. I see tail lights like that now and expect them to be accompanied by an oversized wing (on a FWD car), fart can exhaust, still-primered body kit, and about 20lbs of vinyl decals and graphics.
What's even worse is when I see that style tail light on trucks and SUVs... ugh. And invariably one tail light is always missing the clear plastic cover or has condensation inside it.
MJL 7:54PM (1/19/2009)
Yeah, I totally agree. I thought the normal Taurus' headlights were untoppably bad, but these are somehow even worse.
suicycle.com 7:15PM (1/20/2009)
Compared to the brake lights, the reverse lights are enormous. The brake lights are relatively small compared to the size of the rear end. Probably not a very difficult design change if the trunk is pretty open. Nevertheless, it's one of those things that you would think would jump out to a few people as the car was being developed.
Domestic 6.0 12:05PM (1/19/2009)
Looks amazing !!!
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Thirty-Nine 12:05PM (1/19/2009)
Oh good ... more fender vents.
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Jason 12:05PM (1/19/2009)
Someone please tell the people at Ford that fender vents aren't cool anymore.
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