Ford Indigo
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The Ford Indigo was a
concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle or show vehicle) is a car made to showcase new styling or new technology. Concept cars are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not ...
developed by American automobile manufacturer
Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...
for the 1996
auto show An auto show, also known as a motor show or car show, is a public exhibition of current automobile models, debuts, concept cars, or out-of-production classics. It is attended by automotive industry representatives, dealers, auto journalists a ...
circuit and designed by Ford's design and technical director
Claude Lobo Claude Lobo (20 August 1943 – 3 June 2011) was an automotive designer who served in various design positions at Ford Motor Company over 32 years, playing a prominent role in designing Ford automobiles including the Ford Capri (Mk I), Mercury ...
. Only two examples were built, of which only of them one was actually functional. It took Ford six months from the original computer designs to the finished show car. The functional concept is still owned by Ford. The non-functioning show car was auctioned off to
Jack Roush Jack Roush (born Jackson Earnest Roush on April 19, 1942) is the founder, CEO, and co-owner of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, a NASCAR team headquartered in Concord, North Carolina, and is chairman of Roush Enterprises. Roush Enterprises is the ...
.


History

The Indigo was developed to showcase Ford's
Indy Indy may refer to: Computing and technology *Indy (software), used for Internet access to music *Internet Direct, or "Indy", a software library * SGI Indy, a computer workstation Periodicals *''The Indy'', shorthand for newspapers that include ...
car technologies, including new materials and construction techniques as well as powertrain and aerodynamic enhancements. The
monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...
chassis was developed in conjunction with
Reynard Motorsport Reynard Motorsport was the world's largest racing car manufacturer in the 1980s. Initially based at Bicester and latterly at Reynard Park, Brackley, England the company built successful cars in Formula Ford 1600, Formula Ford 2000, Formula Va ...
as a single piece tub made of a
carbon fiber Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers ( Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon comp ...
composite material A composite or composite material (also composition material) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or physical properties and are merged to create a ...
, to which the suspension is directly attached. The suspension was a direct copy, in both design and materials, to Reynard's various Indy cars, needing only slight modifications to allow for a two-passenger layout.


Specifications and performance

The working Indigo had a 6.0 L V12 48 valve DOHC engine which used the pistons, rings, rods and the valve train from Ford's Duratec V6 engine found in the
Taurus Taurus is Latin for 'bull' and may refer to: * Taurus (astrology), the astrological sign ** Vṛṣabha, in vedic astrology * Taurus (constellation), one of the constellations of the zodiac * Taurus (mythology), one of two Greek mythological ch ...
and
Mercury Sable The Mercury Sable is a range of automobiles manufactured and marketed by the Mercury brand of Ford Motor Company. Introduced on December 26, 1985, as the replacement for the Mercury Marquis, the Sable marked the transition of the mid-size Mercur ...
. The engine had no relation to the V12 used in the GT90 concept unveiled a year earlier (using parts from the Modular V8), despite both having the same displacement. The engine had a power output of at 6,100 rpm and of torque at 5,250 rpm. This engine would later go on to power many cars manufactured by
Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC () is a British manufacturer of Luxury car, luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Headed from 1947 by David Brown (entrepreneur ...
which was owned by Ford until 2007. The engine was bolted directly to the chassis, and was a load-bearing member for some suspension components, as was found with most Indy cars. The transaxle was a 6 speed unit with a manual clutch, and steering wheel mounted push button gear shifting, developed by Reynard for its Indy cars. Ford claimed that the engine was so efficient that it should have been capable of on the highway. Five of these engines were built by Cosworth as commissioned by Ford are kept by the company. The Indigo used Fikse three-piece modular wheels (measuring 17x11.5-inch at the front and 18x12.5-inch at the rear) wrapped in wide tires supplied by Goodyear. The steering was a modified rack and pinion power assisted unit borrowed from the Taurus. The brakes were from
Brembo Brembo N.V. is an Italian manufacturer of automotive parts that most notably produces braking systems, for high-performance cars and for the sim racing series Gran Turismo. Its operational head office is in Curno, Bergamo, Italy, while Amst ...
, with the rotors measuring 13.2-inch at the front and 14.0-inch at the rear. The Indigo was estimated to accelerate to in 4 seconds and could attain a theoretical top speed of .


Design and features

The carbon fiber and fibreglass body of the car had scissor style doors for easy access to the car,
High-intensity discharge lamp High-intensity discharge lamps (HID lamps) are a type of electrical gas-discharge lamp which produces light by means of an electric arc between tungsten electrodes housed inside a translucent or transparent fused quartz or fused alumina arc ...
s mounted on the rear view mirrors, deep leather bucket seats, a premium stereo, air-conditioning, and a four-point racing harness enhanced the road friendly character of the car. The interior employed an LCD screen behind the steering wheel to display the vital information of the car to the driver. The low, wedge shaped design of the car incorporated a shark nose at the front with an attached front spoiler and an integrated rear spoiler in the bodywork for improved aerodynamics. The front spoiler also housed the LED turn indicators while the rear spoiler housed the neon-tube tail light assembly. The car did away with front and rear fenders with small fenders covering the exposed wide tires. The static show car had a visor for protection of the occupants from wind while the working prototype did away with the visor.


Other media

The car was featured in the PC/
PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...
arcade racing game ''
Need for Speed II ''Need for Speed II'' is a 1997 racing video game released for PlayStation (console), PlayStation and Microsoft Windows. It is a part of the Need for Speed, ''Need for Speed'' series and is the second installment, following ''The Need for Speed' ...
'' as a class B car,in
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, in ''
Ford Racing 2 ''Ford Racing 2'' is a 2003 racing video game developed by Razorworks and published by Empire Interactive and Gotham Games. The game was released for Windows, Macintosh, PlayStation 2 (PS2), and Xbox. It is the sequel to '' Ford Racing'' (2000) ...
'', ''
Ford Racing 3 ''Ford Racing 3'' is a racing video game published by Empire Interactive, 2K (company), 2K, and ZOO Digital. It is the third game in the Ford Racing (series), ''Ford Racing'' series, and was released in Europe in October 2004, for Microsoft Window ...
'', in the Promat arcade game 96 Flag RallyFootage of 96 Flag Rally on the Bloggo's Pow YouTube channel at 39 seconds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOD1o-9tPDQ and also in the
Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...
game ''
Project Gotham Racing 3 ''Project Gotham Racing 3'' is a 2005 arcade-style racing video game developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Microsoft Game Studios as the third entry of the ''Project Gotham Racing'' series. It was released exclusively for the Xbox 360 ...
'' as the "Ford Super Car Concept".


References


External links


Ford Press Release: Indigo Concept
{{Ford Concept
Indigo InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an India, Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest List of airlines of India, airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market ...
Cars introduced in 1996 Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive vehicles