Perhaps no longer the primary minivan, however a nod to family-first transportation.
That is an installment in a sequence of posts taking a look again on display automobiles that we really feel deserved a slight extra consideration than they were given. You probably have an offer for a Forgotten Idea subject, please kill us a sequence or drop a remark under.
Ford Carousel Prototype
First Discoverable
1973
Description
Passenger-van prototype
Gross sales Sound
One thing to put between the Nation Squire station wagon, and Membership Wagon van.
More Forgotten Concepts
Main points
Rendered by means of esteemed Ford fashion designer Dick Nestbitt—author of the hyper-popular Mustang II—in 1973, the Carousel was once conceived to handover households on the lookout for one thing higher and extra relaxed than a station wagon, however smaller and more uncomplicated to storage than a full-size Membership Wagon van. Next Ford President Lee Iacocca supported the “Nantucket Program” because the Carousel mission was once internally named.
To comprise prices, the Carousel featured the dashboard of a Thunderbird, and most of the inside components of the LTD Brougham. Despite the fact that nowhere related as petite as coming minivans could be, the Carousel stood simply 6 ft top, absolutely a foundation shorter than the Membership Wagon from field to roof.
The Carousel was once powered by means of Ford’s huge 460-cubic-inch (7.5-liter) V8, subsidized up by means of a 3-speed computerized transmission. To maximise cabin dimension relative to the Membership Wagon, the engine and transmission within the Carousel had been relocated additional ahead at the van chassis. And, regardless of its length, the Carousel was once conceived as a 5-passenger van, which most probably left enough of dimension for shipment.
As destiny would have it, Iacocca was once booted from Ford in 1978, and backup for the Carousel projected pale. Iacocca famously landed at Chrysler, the place he dropped at month the “K-Car” compact automobiles, and the new-for-1984 Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager minivans, disagree hesitancy the non secular successors to the stillborn Carousel. And, because the Carousel was once a prototype, and no longer an idea automobile, the car was once by no means observable at an auto display or alternative people match.
CG Says
Life the Carousel was once certainly brochure in thought, it was once no longer the primary minivan, and there may be completely no longer walk in the park that it might have offered neatly.
The Carousel was once a lot higher than the approaching Chrysler minivans, plus, it’s large engine would have made it a fuel guzzler, and its rear-drive design supposed that it sat upper off the field than many households would most probably have appreciated.
Timing, too, was once operating towards the Carousel. Gasoline costs had been at the stand, and large inflation—and similar top rates of interest—observable towards the tip of the 1970s would have made for an excessively rocky product starting.
We adore the glance of the Carousel, and the fashionable open-cabin glass design would have, certainly, made the van an magnificient long-trip conveyance. Click on right here to peer extra Forgotten Concepts.
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Ford Carousel Footage
(Click on under for enlarged photographs)
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