Distinctive design
You immediately associate certain cars with one specific detail. With the last Ford Scorpio we immediately think of the striking nose with the ‘frog eyes’.
In July 1990 the British magazine Car headlines EURO-CAR CLONES! For eight pages, the magazine complains about the design of modern European cars. It’s too uniform, and the Europeans should take Japan as an example. The article caused quite a stir in the car world. Also at Ford, where World Vice President Design Jack Telnack has been annoyed by the characterless Fords for a while. Fords need to be recognizable again, like a BMW. But how do you do that? The answer to that question is literally right in front of him: the Ford logo. Organic, rounded shapes have been popping up more and more in the design world in recent years. What could be more logical than using your own oval logo as inspiration for a new design language?
A few thousand kilometers away, European design boss Fritz Mayhew breaks his head over the Scorpio. Ford is leaving this market segment to make room for the newly purchased Jaguar. There will be no new Ford Scorpio, the old model has to last a few more years. Mayhew decides to go out with a bang. The Scorpio gets the scoop of the new, round house style, with a gigantic oval grille as an unmissable highlight. In the course of 1994 the car press gets wind of the new Scorpio. The criticism is not kind: it is like a deep-sea monster, with its bulbous frog eyes and open fish mouth. One magazine even does a poll among its readers: more than three quarters think the new Scorpio is terrible.
Mayhew tries to calm the mood with a remarkable move. He invites the entire car press to Ford’s design center in Cologne. During a slick presentation he gives his vision on the future of car design. It will be soft and round. Large headlights and grilles give cars a recognizable face again, and chrome is making a comeback. To back up that prediction, Mayhew shows off a number of iconic models, including a Jaguar XK120, a Facel Vega and an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider. Then he pulls the curtain off the Scorpio…
Ford will try it with organic shapes for a while, but that trend will soon pass. It was not until the late 1990s that a truly recognizable design language appeared with New Edge. The poor Ford Scorpio with his astonished frog eyes can barely survive until 1998. He does find one loyal buyer: the Dutch royal family.
This article originally appeared in AutoWeek Classics issue 6 of 2019.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl