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This makeover for 1993 trades turbo terror for 6-cylinder silk.
From the August 1992 Situation of Automobile and Driver“This time, we had been in on the project earlier,” Ford designer Mark Kelly told us. All along, we had thought the Ford-Mazda partnership that produced the Probe and MX-6 front-drive 2-plus-2s had been an even-Steven deal from day one particular, so we wondered: had Ford just been tagging along when these vehicles first appeared in 1988?
Kelly and product improvement chief Neil Ressler explained that the very first time around, they were handed an existing Mazda platform, that of the 626 sedan. For their half of the joint sports-coupe project, they could only restyle the skin and fiddle with chassis tuning. All the “difficult points” had to remain fixed in space. Cowl height, suspension places, wheelbase, track—the important mechanical-architecture cards had already been dealt just before Ford walked into the room.
For the second-generation, 1993 models, however, Ford engineers had been in a position to spec out the new platform the way they wanted it. They began with a significantly larger and a lot more steady footprint by stretching the wheelbase almost 4 inches and pushing out the track, front and rear, far more than 2 inches. Dropping the cowl height a dramatic 3 inches and pulling the windshield base forward practically 4 inches offered the canvas on which a lean, lengthy, contemporary shape could be drawn.
Ford is hoping this 2-pronged attack—improving handling dynamics and styling—will extend the car’;s productive lifespan, which is normally fleetingly quick in this hotly contested sports-coupe category. Company marketing and advertising men and women acknowledge that a catchy new player has about eighteen months (typically much less, we reckon) just before its drawing power fades and everybody begins searching to the subsequent hot debutante. Ford’;s intent with this new Probe was to lay on the very good appears and driving entertaining so thickly that the new Probe would hold its own in this style-fickle industry segment for something closer to its 4- or 5-year product cycle.
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We can’;t see clearly that far into the future, but we can report that the 1993 Probe packs a lot of appeal into its sleek new package. It appears fresh and flowing, with none of the slab-sidedness of the previous, high-cowl body. And it drives with spirit and maturity, feeling stiff, stable, sporty, and controllable.
Most likely the biggest single aesthetic improvement is 1 you can’;t see, because it really is nestled under the gently arched hood of the Probe GT model. Mazda’;s small, free of charge-spinning V-6 engine has been punched out to 2.5 liters (from the MX-3′s 1.8) and named in to replace the reasonably strong but unreasonably raucous turbocharged 4 of the former Probe GT.
We discovered in our April 1992 sports-coupe comparison that time and relentlessly rising standards had overtaken the 2.2-liter twelve-valve turbo motor. Its 203 pound-feet of torque gave the preceding Probe GT wonderful mid-variety thrust, and the auto trounced all corners in street-start off 5-to-60-mph acceleration and in the prime-gear 50-to-70-mph roll on. But it was a noisy, buzzy bugger, and it contributed to the twitchy full-throttle torque steer that grabbed and held adrenal glands better than it held a heading.
In marked contrast, the new 6 spins out a liquid stream of torque, whisking straight to its 7000-rpm ceiling in an simple rush. It never ever generates the apparent kick of an abnormally aspirated engine, and the apparent flatness of its torque curve minimizes the sensations of acceleration. But its 164 horses (compared with a really conservative 145 for the preceding turbo 4) do a fine job propelling the car. The new Probe GT’;s performance is a touch better than that of its stablemate, the Mazda MX-6 LS, all the way up the speed variety. The Probe hit 60 mph in 7. seconds, .2 quicker than the MX-6. Its quarter-mile clocking of 15.5 seconds at 89 mph also edges out the MX-6′s 15.6-second/88-mph efficiency. And the Probe’;s 133-mph prime speed is 4 mph more quickly than the MX-6′s.
Continued…
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From the C/D Archives: 1993 Ford Probe GT
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