1989 Ford Probe GT
By Kevin Smith

Ford's newest sports coupe, the 1989 Probe, is a lot of things: an intriguing example of international cooperation, an efficient and modern design, and one of the finest front-wheel-drive performance cars ever. One thing it is root, according to Roger Maugh, Ford's director of international programs: "This is not, repeat not, a Mustang." But it came oh, so close. The four-cylinder, front-wheel-drive two-plus-two began development as the successor for that ancient rear-wheel-drive favorite, but in the end, unfailing customer enthusiasm for the original pony car convinced Ford decision makers to rename the new car and keep the Mustang around.

And good on 'em for that, we say. Not even the Probe's 130-mph power, confident handling, and streamlined looks could take the place of a V8's rumble and power oversteer. A front-wheel-drive Mustang would represent diminished expectations, and we're glad to avoid all that for a little while longer yet, thank you.

We're also glad to welcome the Probe, with open arms and an eager throttle foot. The name may stir some controversy-yes, Ford admits, it made women feel squeamish in consumer clinics-but it is distinctive and recalls the company's line of highly aerodynamic show cars of the same name. And anyway, regardless of what they call it, this car has enough appeal and performance to be headed for major success in the hotly contested small-specialty segment of the market. It is aimed directly at Toyota's popular Celica, and will also face off with Nissan's 200SX and Honda's Prelude. Prices will likely range from about $11,000 to $14,000.

Ford went about creating the Probe in what was at the time ground-breaking fashion. In early 1983, after fooling around with Tempo/Topaz and stretched Escort platforms for the basis of the next-generation front-wheel-drive Mustang, Ford sat down with partner Mazda to see what a joint project using the 626 might produce. There were no ground rules, no formal agreements, no clear delineation of who was responsible for what. Establishing the working relationships as they went along, a team from Ford took up residence in Hiroshima and began working up a compact sportsspecialty coupe that would be unmistakably Ford, although based on 626 mechanicals.

Barry Johnson, import vehicle product manager, headed the small core group for Ford: "It was a neat arrangement. We never told Mazda that they had to do something. We would discuss it in terms of the benefit and the need, and try to demonstrate the logic. We were able to develop a very good working relationship."

As the areas of responsibility shaped up, Ford handled all the design work, and Mazda provided engineering support. Ford would, for example, ask for a lower cowl or hoodline, or speed-sensitive power steering, or suspension geometry compatible with anti-lock brakes. Mazda would then work out how to fill the bill.

Cross-cultural education was the dai1y routine. Barry Johnson gives an example: "There are things about the U.S. market and the needs and wants of our customers that we recognize. We had original assumptions for some feature, say, `illuminated entry.' Their [Mazda's] interpretation of that was a lighted ring so you could find the key slot at night. We said, `No, we want the interior light to come on when you lift the handle,' and they said, `What for'?' `So you can see if there is somebody in the car, maybe a mugger in the back scat.' Can you imagine that discussion'? Their eyes opened up and they looked at me and said, `Barry-san, why would somebody want to do that?' And I said, `You haven't been to Detroit!' "

Gradually the car took shape, developing alongside Mazda's own third-generation 626 and MX-6 coupe ["Mazda 626," September 1987]. It is also manufactured alongside the MX-6, at Mazda's new plant in Flat Rock, Michigan.

The factory turns out Probes in three different forms, but we need to look at only two of them-and to drive only one. At the top of the range is the GT, blessed with a turbocharger and an intercooler, all-wheel disc brakes with optional ABS, variable-firmness suspension, and Goodyear Gatorback tires. This one accelerates to 60 mph in under eight seconds, tops 130, honks into high-speed bends with dependable stability, and brakes hard and straight. It's the one you want to drive.

But the GT also has an epidemic of vents and slots in the nose, Mercedes-esque side cladding that we're about ready to call clichéd, and a rear spoiler hardly worth the bother. That's why you need to look at the Probe in midline LX livery, which we find clean, crisp, and contemporary. The wind tunnel agrees; the LX's outstanding drag coefficient of a little over 0.30 grows to a merely good 0.32 in GT trim, although wider tires are the primary culprits.

Unfortunately, the normally aspirated version of Mazda's 2.2-liter, three valve-per-cylinder SOHO injected four feels too clamorous and overworked for our taste, and that's all you can have in the LX. (It also powers the base GL, but you don't even want to ask about that model.) And the air intakes in the GT's snout are reportedly necessary to ventilate the turbo engine. So the best you might do is order a full-house GT and then see about removing the rocker cladding and rear spoiler. Then again, you might agree with the Ford stylists that those bits add an aggressive, high tech look to the GT, in which case you're all set.

Although the Probe GT rolls down an assembly line nose to tail with Mazda MX-6s, and workers bolt in most of the same hardware, the two cars are as different as fire and mud. Aesthetically, the round-edged, pointy-nosed, steeply raked Probe makes Mazda's coupe look like a sanding block. Even more impressive is how Ford's tauter suspension tuning creates a chassis so much more in harmony with the lusty output of Mazda's turbo 2.2. Apply lots of throttle in an MX-6 and the front tires often feel overwhelmed, the chassis unbalanced, the car unsteady on its feet. The Probe GT rockets forward obediently-in a straight line or in a bend-under the same power.

And it is exactly the same power. Ford considered a 2.5-liter enlargement of its own 2.3 for the Probe, but Mazda's new twelve-valve 2.2 showed better power, economy, and smoothness. Ford uses it (along with five-speed manual and four-speed automatic transaxles), intact and unmodified. In turbo intercooled form for the GT (and for the MX-6), this engine produces 145 bhp at only 4300 rpm. The torque spec looks even better, with 190 pounds-feet of twist available at a usable 3500 rpm. Redline is 6000. The turbo engine comes only with the five-speed box.

Electronics, naturally, control injection and ignition, and also manage the waste gate. Nominal peak turbo boost is 7.3 psi, which comes up by 2500 rpm on full throttle. The computer allows brief periods of overboost to 9.3 psi to aid acceleration.

The powertrain isn't all the Probe shares with its Mazda-badged cousins. Nitrogen-pressurized suspension struts, locating arms, uprights, subframes-most bits that bolt to the underside of the floorpan-look identical to MX-6 pieces. But Ford has increased the damping and spring rates, the bushing hardness, and the stiffness of the tubular anti-roll bars. With the GT in particular, Barry Johnson and his crew went after a more serious feel. "Mazda's MX-6 was intended to be a European-type touring car. We wanted the Probe to be a more pure performer. We've made a number of changes from what Mazda proposed, and from what Mazda has in its car."

As a result of these tuning changes, plus the fitment of excellent 195/60 Eagle VR tires, the Probe GT has a lithe, reactive feel that almost any driver should like, and that enthusiasts will love. Power steering assist trails off as road speed builds, but without the excessively light parking effort, followed by the sudden shift to the weighted mode, that annoys us more and more in Hondas. The GT also has adjustable shock stiffness. This system is similar to what Ford created for the Thunderbird Turbo Coupe: A microprocessor selects among three damping rates in response to speed, steer angle, and braking sensors, and the driver uses a switch to select soft, normal, or sport programs.

The Probe driver also has an uncommonly successful cockpit in which to work, thanks to excellent major control placement and thoughtful execution of the ancillary switches. Light and wiper controls are twist knobs on each side of the instrument binnacle (much like the current RX-7's), and turn indicators and cruise control are operated by matching stalklets pivoting on the face of the pod (ditto). Ford and Mazda deserve plaudits for obviously taking seriously the feel of these minor controls. All the levers and switches have a delicate and silky action that's just positive enough to let you know when their job is done.

In 928 fashion, the hooded binnacle adjusts up and down along with the tilt wheel, so the switches always remain a comfortable finger's reach away and the wheel rim never obscures the properly simple analog gauges. As legible as those dials are, by the way, we do wish the fuel, voltage, oil pressure, and water temperature needles swept more than 90 degrees. That's not really enough to distinguish a developing abnormal reading at a glance, making these instruments only slightly better than idiot lights. Call them idiot semaphores.

We can't leave the general subject of the Probe's controls without commenting on the pedals. No, it's not the cute tire-tread pads on them we particularly noticed. It was their placement in the car and relative to one another, as well as the arcs through which they move: It's all perfect. So perfect that you heel-and-toe through rev-matched downshifts without thinking about it, and when you do pay attention, you find your heels are resting on the floor and pivoting quietly side to side as your feet move across the pedals. You arc not lifting your feet and having to press with your legs. Small delights like this bespeak careful attention to detail and make a huge difference in how a driver responds to a car.

In most ways, actually, the Probe driver can maintain a quiet, calm activity level at the wheel, even when pressing the car to elevated speeds and serious cornering loads. Around Willow Springs Raceway the GT felt remarkably at home, with little of the clumsy body roll, floppy understeer, and tortured tire howl we find in most street cars when pushing them on a fast racetrack. There was some straight-ahead wander approaching triple-digit velocities that might have reflected sensitivity to bumps or crosswinds; and braking late in a turn, it was pretty easy to get the inside rear wheel close enough to locking to start the tail around. But the Probe GT managed racetrack lapping as calmly as anything we've driven since the Porsche 944.

Running the car in this fashion, or even trying to be smooth and quick on a winding road, we found a couple of shortcomings in the engine's performance profile. The turbo 2.2 is a bit boomy over 4000 rpm-not as rough edged as a like-sized Chrysler four, but a good bit harsher than, say, a BMW or a Mercedes 2.3 (which is about right, considering what all these cars cost). And on the pilot production cars we tested, response was hampered by slow takeup in the throttle pedal's initial travel and by a tendency for engine revs to hold up a while on overrun. However, power output and midrange flexibility definitely are not problems with this powertrain. Even turbo lag is sufficiently controlled that it does not impinge on a driver's sense of enjoyment.

Subjective sensations have a lot to do with our enthusiasm for the Ford Probe. From the feel and location of the headlamp dimmer to the way the chassis stays with you in a curve taken a touch too fast, from the forward surge as boost comes up to the rapid erasure of speed the disc brakes can manage, the Probe GT delivers a level of pure driving pleasure we are unaccustomed to finding in cars wearing domestic name badges.

 

Probe Design Notes

Although the Ford Probe is based on a Mazda 626 platform, its design, inside and out, is 100 percent the work of Ford designers. But there was a point in the development of the Probe when it seemed Ford might not be able to go public with its design role.

When Ford began what was once going to be its redesigned Mustang in 1982, muscle cars were déclassé in Detroit. This new Mustang would be front-wheel drive and fuel-efficient (its role model was along the lines of Toyota's Celica), designed and engineered by Ford. Ford got out of the engineering side of the equation in early 1983 when it cut a deal with Mazda, giving the Probe's designers the Mazda 626 as a platform to build a shape around.

Having worked out a basic shape in clay, the next step was to mesh Ford design with Mazda engineering in order to create a feasible production car. The clay model was shipped to Mazda headquarters in Hiroshima with a handful of staff-designers, a clay modeler, and design engineers-to complete the production design work of the Probe. Room 321 at Mazda headquarters became home away from home, Ford's Dearborn Far East control center for the Probe.

There was one catch in the program. The long-standing Arab boycott of Israeli goods and of companies that did business with Israel was particularly virulent at the time; Ford had a factory in Israel, whereas Mazda counted on sales in the important Middle East market. To be publicly involved with Ford in a joint project could have made trouble for Mazda in that region, so Ford people, on paper, said they were merely advisers to Mazda in the design and engineering of a new car.

"Mazda did not want us to say that we were there working with them," says Toshiaki Saito, design manager of Ford North American Design's small car studio at the time. "They made it clear to us that we shouldn't tell anybody, even in Japan, what we were doing there. If the Arab issue had continued, I don't think we could have said that we developed the car jointly."

It is probable that Ford was merely buying time, waiting for the political heat to cool, which it did. Ford acknowledged its full contribution to the Probe when the boycott's intensity was diminished (although it is still in effect). We'll never know if Ford would have gone through with the charade, selling a Ford-badged Probe as having been designed and engineered by Mazda.

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