Your thoughts on a Miraphone 186-4U BBb tuba

[MiBrassFS]

Yamaha kinda sorta. It was a combined development effort and Yamaha supplied the advanced heads. At one point Cosworth was supplying the block assemblies, too.

I worked in the former “Alpha Staff” group in Dearborn right around the time these were big news. Unfortunately, they disbanded that group and everyone was dispersed to various other advanced engineering (meaning early development) groups instead of being a unified area. The management quit/retired after disagreements on direction…

[peterbas]

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[bloke]

The suspension was also Yamaha, and I'm thinking the entire Powertrain. There are a whole bunch of parts on the body and other parts that look like regular Taurus parts but they were actually only specific to that model. ...and no I'm not saying that those parts were made by Yamaha.
I think it would be amazing if I had that car again in the condition was in when I first had it.

The engine was amazing, but it actually wasn't heavy enough to hold down the front of the car if you really stomped on the gas from a dead stop, if you were pointed very much uphill and trying to make the 60 MPH in 7 seconds, the front of the car would start hopping. Some people actually put cinder blocks under the hood of theirs.

[MiBrassFS]

Cheese? I like it.

[peterbas]

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[bloke]

Thanks for the correction on the rest of the powertrain...but I did remember correctly that it's not Ford.

[MiBrassFS]

Sierra Cosworth = Mercury Merkur in the U.S.

[arpthark]

Any love for the Geo Prizm?

Is the Geo Prizm the Meister Gerhard Schneider of the car world?

[peterbas]

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[peterbas]

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[tofu]

The suspension was also Yamaha, and I'm thinking the entire Powertrain. There are a whole bunch of parts on the body and other parts that look like regular Taurus parts but they were actually only specific to that model. ...and no I'm not saying that those parts were made by Yamaha.
I think it would be amazing if I had that car again in the condition was in when I first had it.

The engine was amazing, but it actually wasn't heavy enough to hold down the front of the car if you really stomped on the gas from a dead stop, if you were pointed very much uphill and trying to make the 60 MPH in 7 seconds, the front of the car would start hopping. Some people actually put cinder blocks under the hood of theirs.

Nah, only the engine was Yamaha. The transmission was from Mazda.
Every front drive car has problems getting the power on the tarmac. My previous Avensis diesel would lay a lot of rubber on the road giving it a little too much throttle taking of.

In Europe Ford made this, a Sierra Cosworth RWD (and a few 4WD) with a turbocharged 2.0L, 204 HP (2700 lb).

Yes the engine was Yamaha. That engine was a real oddity for Ford. I don’t know how that deal with Yamaha came about. I’m trying to recall what application Yamaha was using it for - perhaps powerboat. It did pack a punch. Ford never sold many of the SHO. I don’t think the dealers knew who to sell it too nor did the factory really. They also needed to do something with the bodywork. Getting folks who wanted that kind of performance to buy - needed that. Those kind of people wanted everybody to know what they were driving and not just to be thought of as an every day production Taurus owners. Only a handful were into the wolf in sheep clothing idea.

Ford cars of that era did have a lot of Mazda components as Ford owned 25% of Mazda back then and seriously was considering buying the whole thing. But Ford did the same dumb thing GM did and not the smart thing the Japanese carmakers did. Way too many drivetrain platforms. The Japanese makers each had maybe 4 or 5 platforms and just did variations off them. GM had like 46 unique platforms. The engineering cost is immense and the truth is the majority of buyers don’t know and don’t care. Even more bewildering the domestic makers like GM cars shared pretty much the same bodywork across lines - Cadillac/Buick/Oldsmobile/Pontiac the cars in the various sizes with the exception of grills and trim - looked alike. A Caddy would have a higher grade interior but a car like the Cimmarron was hard to distinguish from a base model J car from Chevy. People didn’t want to pay 75% more for a Caddy that looked like a Chevy. Way cheaper to have a few platforms and then have way different looking bodies. But then GM CEO Roger Smith was a complete moron (and a bean counter) - you could have fired a cannon off at GM HQ executive suite in Detroit and not hit an actual car guy.

The various CEO’s of Ford never really could get a true direction for the company of who they were and who they wanted to be. You had the huge buy of various high end odd ball going out of business european luxury brands like Jaguar, Aston Martin and Volvo etc. They over payed and then They poured buckets of money into them to no avail. - when they really should have been rebuilding the Lincoln brand nameplate to do battle with the oncoming Japanese luxury brands of Lexus, Infinity and Acura from Toyota, Nissan and Honda respectively.

It’s staggering to think that at the start of the 80’s GM had probably 55% of car market and Ford 30%. And Ford had a huge European business as well.

[tofu]

Sierra Cosworth = Mercury Merkur in the U.S.

I did drive the Ford/Mercury Cougar against each other.
Ford was a 2.0L and the Mercury a 2.5L V6 and guess what the Ford was quicker on the test track because of the super soft suspension of the Mercury.
Ahh, cultural differences.

The Mercury Merkur was a sales disaster in the US and a bad car plagued with numerous mechanical issues. Dealers in the US couldn’t give them away. Buyers loathed them. It was a poor attempt by Ford HQ to have a car here to compete for BMW buyers.

[MiBrassFS]

The Ford/Mazda relationship was a prickly one and the separation was welcome on both sides by many.