Ford Probe....why are these so unloved?
Discussion
I had one and it was s
t. It was worse than st, that's how st it was. Things that were st about it:
underpowered
dull, lifeless handling
enormous arse
would drive for a few minutes and then the engine would just turn off for no reason
then would refuse to start for ages
gearbox made of cheese. cream cheese. mine disintegrated
clutch made of dairy lea. mine burned itself to pieces
exhaust made of those old paper straws then went all soggy when you drank with them. mine dropped off.
only good thing was the view of the car from the front, from a fair distance, looked quite sporty.
but it wasn't.
Jeremy Clarkson said the Probe could 'snap knicker elastic at 100 yards'.
it couldn't.
t. It was worse than st, that's how st it was. Things that were st about it:underpowered
dull, lifeless handling
enormous arse
would drive for a few minutes and then the engine would just turn off for no reason
then would refuse to start for ages
gearbox made of cheese. cream cheese. mine disintegrated
clutch made of dairy lea. mine burned itself to pieces
exhaust made of those old paper straws then went all soggy when you drank with them. mine dropped off.
only good thing was the view of the car from the front, from a fair distance, looked quite sporty.
but it wasn't.
Jeremy Clarkson said the Probe could 'snap knicker elastic at 100 yards'.
it couldn't.
Ayahuasca said:
Jeremy Clarkson said the Probe could 'snap knicker elastic at 100 yards'.
it couldn't.
His review... http://www.driving.co.uk/clarkson/9054it couldn't.
hairyben said:
All of the above, plus terribly apologetic styling. Totally tesco value no frills margarine looks, probs the result of those old people advisory committees. Look at what else was available corrado, E36/46, evan the vx calibra dumped on the poor old probe.
Yeah, I will stick to my Corrado VR6 thanks!..I think I would have to drive a Ford Probe with a bag over my head in total darkness
BRMMA said:
I've driven a Cougar and it was abysmal, comically under powered, bad breaks and vague steering. to be fair it wasn't a well maintained one but it was enough to put me off
Badly maintained makes a huge difference.Years back I had a Cavalier 1.8LS (stop laughing), and its handling was never that good - but at least it was maintained. A few years later (when I had the '96 Mondeo TD) I test drove a Calibra 2.0i. Same basic car in drag, but with a more powerful engine. The engine was badly maintained (my old 1.8i was faster), the chassis was diabolical. The car had been shagged to within an inch of its life, and it showed.
Driving home in my Mondeo was like dropping back into some low slung sports car. It went where you pointed it, and rode beautifully (in comparison).
Friends who've owned Cougars over the years said that they did handle similarly to Mondeos, with the benefit of looking a lot better.
Did know one guy who had a Probe. He also had a 911 and a Ferrari 348. For some reason he actually used the Probe for the drive to work ....
One plus point to the Probe is (under arcane rules) it enabled Ford to use a Mazda 2-litre V6 in their Mondeo touring cars. I'm a bit hazy on the details, but I think it was a reduced capacity version of the 2.5-litre V6, but the rules merely required the touring car to have a 2-litre engine from a Ford company.
Johnnytheboy said:
One plus point to the Probe is (under arcane rules) it enabled Ford to use a Mazda 2-litre V6 in their Mondeo touring cars. I'm a bit hazy on the details, but I think it was a reduced capacity version of the 2.5-litre V6, but the rules merely required the touring car to have a 2-litre engine from a Ford company.
Quite right. When the Super Touring Car saloon car series came along in the 1990s, the rules required 2-litre engines - but these engines could come from anywhere in the contemporary 'family' of models. So when Ford was ready to develop the Mondeo, it concluded that a reduced-size version of the 24-valve 2.5-litre V6 Mazda/Ford Probe engine was the best of all their offerings. Andy Rouse built the original race car engine, but Cosworth later took up the contract - this being good enough for Paul Radisich to become World Touring Car Champion twice - in 1993 and 1994.
AC43 said:
bigandclever said:
Two words: Gareth Cheeseman.
You're a tiger, grrr!!!
This killed sales overnight.You're a tiger, grrr!!!
Back in the day my mates took the piss mercilessly the day after that was aired. Sales job in IT. Tick. Hugo Boss suit. Tick. Nokia mobile. Tick. The only thing I didn't have was the Ford Probe [cheeseman voice] 24 Valve [/cheeseman voice]. Unfortunately I had a 200SX which was close enough for them.
What did I do. Went to the office next day and started talking the mick out of my Probe-driving colleague.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaeK-YKeVpA NSFW
AAGR said:
Quite right. When the Super Touring Car saloon car series came along in the 1990s, the rules required 2-litre engines - but these engines could come from anywhere in the contemporary 'family' of models.
So when Ford was ready to develop the Mondeo, it concluded that a reduced-size version of the 24-valve 2.5-litre V6 Mazda/Ford Probe engine was the best of all their offerings. Andy Rouse built the original race car engine, but Cosworth later took up the contract - this being good enough for Paul Radisich to become World Touring Car Champion twice - in 1993 and 1994.
[Utter nerd mode]So when Ford was ready to develop the Mondeo, it concluded that a reduced-size version of the 24-valve 2.5-litre V6 Mazda/Ford Probe engine was the best of all their offerings. Andy Rouse built the original race car engine, but Cosworth later took up the contract - this being good enough for Paul Radisich to become World Touring Car Champion twice - in 1993 and 1994.
Where would one find out some more details about that engine? The touring car one, not the boggo spec base unit.
[/UNM]
Kozy said:
AAGR said:
Quite right. When the Super Touring Car saloon car series came along in the 1990s, the rules required 2-litre engines - but these engines could come from anywhere in the contemporary 'family' of models.
So when Ford was ready to develop the Mondeo, it concluded that a reduced-size version of the 24-valve 2.5-litre V6 Mazda/Ford Probe engine was the best of all their offerings. Andy Rouse built the original race car engine, but Cosworth later took up the contract - this being good enough for Paul Radisich to become World Touring Car Champion twice - in 1993 and 1994.
[Utter nerd mode]So when Ford was ready to develop the Mondeo, it concluded that a reduced-size version of the 24-valve 2.5-litre V6 Mazda/Ford Probe engine was the best of all their offerings. Andy Rouse built the original race car engine, but Cosworth later took up the contract - this being good enough for Paul Radisich to become World Touring Car Champion twice - in 1993 and 1994.
Where would one find out some more details about that engine? The touring car one, not the boggo spec base unit.
[/UNM]
Kozy said:
AAGR said:
Quite right. When the Super Touring Car saloon car series came along in the 1990s, the rules required 2-litre engines - but these engines could come from anywhere in the contemporary 'family' of models.
So when Ford was ready to develop the Mondeo, it concluded that a reduced-size version of the 24-valve 2.5-litre V6 Mazda/Ford Probe engine was the best of all their offerings. Andy Rouse built the original race car engine, but Cosworth later took up the contract - this being good enough for Paul Radisich to become World Touring Car Champion twice - in 1993 and 1994.
[Utter nerd mode]So when Ford was ready to develop the Mondeo, it concluded that a reduced-size version of the 24-valve 2.5-litre V6 Mazda/Ford Probe engine was the best of all their offerings. Andy Rouse built the original race car engine, but Cosworth later took up the contract - this being good enough for Paul Radisich to become World Touring Car Champion twice - in 1993 and 1994.
Where would one find out some more details about that engine? The touring car one, not the boggo spec base unit.
[/UNM]
Graham Robson's officially-approved (by Cosworth) book : COSWORTH - THE SEARCH FOR POWER (published by Haynes) tells just about everything that Cosworth ever listed about the engine. The engine, for instance, produced more than 300bhp at 8,500rpom, but that was where the compulsory-by-regulations rev-limiter kicked in, and Cosworth did admit that it would have revved to more than 10,000rpm, producing more and more power as it did so, if only there had not been a rev-limiter ....
AAGR said:
As you might guess, Cosworth was always very secretive about what went on inside the engine. As far as I know, they never even released the (revised) bore and stroke of the 8,500rpm racer.
Graham Robson's officially-approved (by Cosworth) book : COSWORTH - THE SEARCH FOR POWER (published by Haynes) tells just about everything that Cosworth ever listed about the engine. The engine, for instance, produced more than 300bhp at 8,500rpom, but that was where the compulsory-by-regulations rev-limiter kicked in, and Cosworth did admit that it would have revved to more than 10,000rpm, producing more and more power as it did so, if only there had not been a rev-limiter ....
I did think that, the 2 litre V6 must have been a very short stroke engine capable of some crazy speeds. Surely potential there for some impressive power figures!Graham Robson's officially-approved (by Cosworth) book : COSWORTH - THE SEARCH FOR POWER (published by Haynes) tells just about everything that Cosworth ever listed about the engine. The engine, for instance, produced more than 300bhp at 8,500rpom, but that was where the compulsory-by-regulations rev-limiter kicked in, and Cosworth did admit that it would have revved to more than 10,000rpm, producing more and more power as it did so, if only there had not been a rev-limiter ....
That said, 300bhp @ 8.5k would suggest 185lbft, or 92lbft/litre. That's impressive to the point of being questionable, AFAIK not even F1 engines make that much...
Edited by Kozy on Wednesday 8th May 22:28
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