NAIAS Highlights: Concepts
Ford goes retro with Forty-Nine
The 1949 Ford, the company's first all-new, postwar design, attracted 1.3 million orders even before it officially went on sale at dealerships. As a concept, its reincarnation as the Forty-Nine isn't for sale, but it sure is attracting a lot of attention.
To create the Forty-Nine, Ford designers went back to the car's roots: simple shapes, clean body panels, and modern conveniences. The Forty-Nine concept's "hyper-smooth" appearance is achieved by an all-glass upper body structure with concealed pillars and windshield wipers.
The interior also is a modern interpretation of the original car's simple design cues. A cantilevered, bench-style front seat is power-actuated. A floating center console runs the entire length of the interior, giving the impression of four-passenger bucket seating while also serving to stiffen the vehicle's structure. The floating console houses the five-speed shift lever and ventilation for both front- and rear-seat passengers.
The car's primary gauges are contained within a single round instrument binnacle - similar to the production '49 and hot rods of the era. The analog tachometer is surrounded by an electronic speedometer. Audio and climate controls are presented in a flip-out panel located in the instrument panel, just ahead of the shifter. Their respective readouts - along with temperature, oil, and fuel gauges - are displayed on either side of the centrally mounted clock, at the base of the windshield. A two-tone, leather-wrapped steering wheel features cruise and radio controls on a metal ring, reminiscent of the "horn-ring" popular in the 1950s.
The rearview mirror is positioned along a prominent "wind-split" rod, which extends from the instrument panel to the front header. The mirror can be adjusted up or down along the length of the rod, which serves multiple purposes. It adjusts to the needs of drivers of all sizes and serves to house the radio antenna, which extends through the roof. The audio system features a multi-disc CD changer and a strategically placed speaker network, anchored by a massive sub-woofer, all driven by a 200-W amplifier.
The design under the hood is an obvious extension of the exterior design philosophy and the interior theme and is an homage to hot-rodders' concern with performance and appearance. Filtered interior air inlets are located at the trailing edge of the front wheel opening, and dual stainless-steel exhausts penetrate the rear bumper fascia.
The Forty-Nine concept is powered by a specially tuned Thunderbird 3.9-L, DOHC, 32-valve V8.
- Patrick Ponticel
