Ford Motor Company may have shed a brand in the past year but they used the extra space at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show to offer an absolutely massive display for the Ford brand.
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The Ford display at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show covered nearly a quarter of the main floor in Cobo Hall with the centerpiece being a huge test track to feature the newest electric vehicles – the Ford Transit Connect and 2012 Ford Focus electric vehicles made laps around this small track, stopping on a set of rollers to show how quickly they can dash from 0-45. The inner portion of this elevated track offered a closer look at the new Focus Electric and some of its components alongside the popular Fusion Hybrid.
While the Ford display had a portion of the area devoted just to the 2011 Ford Mustang with a Boss, V6, GT and GT500 all in attendance, there were other Mustangs scattered around the huge Ford area, offering a chance to climb in and out of convertibles and a few GT/CS models. The key Mustang attraction was the slot-car road race area – an interactive race with 1/43rd scale Boss 302 Mustangs tearing around a road course. The winner of the 4-car race got a chance to go for a dyno-ride in the 2012 Mustang Boss 302 with a Ford engineer down a simulated quarter mile and hearing the new Boss in action made for a great way to draw spectators from all over Cobo Hall.
The key new debuts in the Ford display at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show are a handful of new vehicles based on the architecture of the 2012 Ford Focus – including a variety of new Focus models in different trimlines and one in race form. The Ford C-Max has been a major mover in the European market but the compact 5-door people mover makes its American debut at the 2011 Detroit show. Also using the Focus platform was the new Vertrek concept and while I expect many people to question an SUV based on the Focus, the Vertrek really is a nice looking SUV. The aesthetics might be a little too futuristic for production but with some more traditional headlights and taillights, the Vertrek could make for an enticing compact SUV.
Finally, Ford wasn’t going to leave out their popular new trucks and SUVs so spread throughout their sprawling display were the Ford Edge, the 2011 Explorer and the Ford F-Series pickups. Ford went so far as to cut one of the new Explorers in half to show literally every feature of the vehicle and to show off the underpinnings of the new SVT Raptor SuperCrew, they had a display that rolled the off-road performance truck onto its side.
There are 6 days left in the 2011 Detroit Auto Show and this year’s show is one of the best of recent years, so if you are close enough to Detroit to make the trip – I recommend it. Check out the gallery below for a closer look at just a few of the vehicles from the Ford auto show display.
Other Ford News:
The 2011 Ford Fiesta RS World Rally Car to debut in Finland
The Ford Focus Electric makes its Motor City debut
Ford shows off Explorer, Taurus SHO Police Interceptor models at 2011 Detroit Auto Show
Video of Need for Speed Shift 2 Unleashed from the 2011 Detroit Auto Show
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