The Old Fox Body Wagon Should Have Lived On As A V8 AMC Eagle-Style Crossover

The brainchild of AMC’s chief design engineer Roy Lunn, the Eagle was to be a “line of four-wheel drive vehicles with the ride and handling conventions of a standard rear-wheel drive car” on a unibody platform. Always strapped for cash, AMC used its by-then-decade-old Hornet compact as a basis for this groundbreaking car. Oddly enough, despite AMC’s experience with Jeeps, they contracted FF Developments in the UK (makers of the awesome, pioneering all wheel drive Jensen Interceptor FF) to build a prototype in 1977.American Motors had predicted that consumers would want something with the mild capabilities of a utility vehicle with four-wheel drive and car-like comfort, and most importantly, fuel efficiency. Their gamble paid off when the second energy crisis hit in 1979 and sales of truck-based four-wheel drive machines (like AMC’s own Jeeps) tanked. Extra traction is nice, but if you never go to Moab, why suffer a 12-mile-per-gallon monster? The Eagle was just what the market needed.

The viscous-coupling center differential gave the Eagle on-road advantages that the only other car that might be considered a remote competitor (the much smaller Subaru part-time 4WD wagon) didn’t have. Audi’s Quattro was the only car offering something similar, but in 1980 it was only available as a high-dollar sports coupe (and not in NHTSA- or EPA-compliant specification yet, anyway). After testing an Eagle, Four Wheeler magazine deemed that it was “the beginning of a new generation of cars.” The author of this article likely had no idea how right they were.

AMC was able to move over 60,000 cars in the debut year, but sales quickly fell off. Most believe that it wasn’t lack of acceptance of the AWD concept; it’s just that the system was installed in a car introduced in 1969 and wasn’t really competitve with contemporary products. It took nearly a decade after the Eagle showed up for the Big Three to offer all-wheel drive as an option in their cars, and the idea of lifted sedans and wagons took even longer. Is there a way that Ford might have at least been able to dip their toe in the waters earlier? Fox yeah!

OutFoxed By The Jellybean

Like the Dodge Aries and Plymouth Reliant, nobody knew what they were in for when Ford debuted the Fairmont coupe, sedan and wagon to replace the Maverick (and essentially the Torino).

I’ve written about this before, too:

The Fox program was a sweeping change for Ford and ushered in a new era of more efficient and better-driving cars, even if it didn’t fulfill its initial goal. You see, many people think the 1981 front-drive Escort was Ford’s first “world car” failure, but it wasn’t. During the 1973 energy crisis, Ford launched a program to build a global platform to replace not only the American offerings like the Maverick and Torino but also the European Cortina and Taunus. Ford planned to have at least two sizes to make a one-car-fits-all solution. It took barely a year for Ford to realize that the wants and needs of the different continents would make such a program unfeasible.

Ultimately, US Ford took the ball and ran with it, developing a unibody design with a layout and boxy look that seemed almost like Dearborn’s interpretation of a Volvo 2-Series. A live axle on coil springs in back was paired with Macpherson strut front suspension and rack and pinion steering, allowing for a wide engine bay that could accommodate a vast array of motors from a Pinto four up to a 302 V8. The Ford Fairmont and its Mercury twin, the Zephyr, were introduced in 1978 and available in a bunch of body styles including two- and four-door sedans, as well as a station wagon.

This clean and functional-looking car was not exactly a thing of unparalleled beauty, but then neither was a boxy BMW or a Volvo 240 (a car it was almost identical to in every dimension and basic technical specification). Just a straight-up no-nonsense design.

By 1983, Ford started to “downsize” products further. With the launch of the Ford Tempo, the Fox now ranked as a “full sized” product below the just-wouldn’t-die “super full size” Crown Victoria. Ford put a new front clip on the Fairmont, as well as an angled backlight and angled tail to create the 1983 LTD. Despite the angular looks and sunken-in Mustang-style headlights it was deceptively aerodynamic with a drag coefficient of .38.

Externally, the station wagon version of the LTD received very little behind the firewall that was different from the Fairmont beyond different taillight lenses and bumpers. It’s especially noticeable in the Boring Beige and cheapest non-dog-dish wheel covers you could get:

When the Taurus debuted for the 1986 model year to take on the “full sized” place in Ford’s lineup, the Fox LTD was dropped. Actually, that was the end of any Fox that wasn’t a Mustang, Capri or a Lincoln. It’s not like the chassis was state-of-the-art then but, as early nineties Cobra ‘Stangs prove, it was hardly done. I see one role for a Fox wagon that might have been the perfect swansong for this much-loved chassis and also given Ford a shot at an emerging market to make up for their infamous fumbling of the minivan.

I Thought About FoxCross As Well

To make a Fox wagon crossover, we’d follow the same formula as the AMC Eagle did with a slightly lifted ride height and a central differential with a viscous coupling. This would push up to 35 percent of power to the front wheels; like the later Eagle models you’d have been able to disconnect the front drive mechanism for better fuel efficiency in times when you don’t need AWD. Unlike the Eagle, the Ford Ranch Wagon would have switched between RWD and AWD with a push button on the dash, and you’d be able to lock the central differential for extreme conditions

Styling would also have followed the Eagle formula that AMC applied to the old Hornet. To compensate visually for the raised height, you’d have had wheel flares and even small rocker extensions. Updating the looks of the LTD/Fairmont, I’d add a new bumper and composite headlights and new fascia with a more truck-like grille and high-mounted turn signals to sort of suggest a taller SUV than station wagon. Actually, it’s very similar to the nose I suggested for a Fox Body pickup truck some years back. Blacked-out chrome also goes a long way to updating what, by 1986, would have been an eight-year-old design.

Here’s an animation of a stock 1985 LTD and the 1986 (or, you know, 1987) Ranch Wagon.

I thought those turbine-style wheels sort of simulated the (larger) ones available on contemporary F-Series trucks, but what if we offered wheels that looked more like the ones on Ford Broncos as an option? Let’s have some fun.

In the back, a new bumper is matched with different, thinner two-color taillights and matching reflectors to continue like a part Heckblende on the tailgate. Backup lights are relocated to the bumper. Also, note the black painted or trimmed rear pillars.  I’m liking those ten-hole wheels on this thing!

Let’s animate between RWD wagon and AWD crossover SUV:

Inside, the dash of the LTD was looking pretty old by 1986:

I’ve kept much of the interior the same but updated it with bits like Taurus seats, steering wheel, and even window/lock switches to replace those vertical things on the LTD that I didn’t like (vertical in-a-row window switches are so counter intuitive to operate). The new dash is more rounded but also includes controls for the AWD alongside Ford parts bin pieces. I even put a new handle on the automatic shifter that Ford had used since at least the 1965 Mustang.

Under the hood, I can see a standard six cylinder but would imagine most would get the optional Windsor V8. If examples of such a car existed, one wonders what the likes of Roush or Saleen or even home-grown stuff that enthusiasts like our own LTDScott (gotta mention him in any LTD post) might be able to do with them.

Just Kidding: Here’s Why I Really Want An AWD Fox

I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the Ranch Wagon was a bit of a ruse. Well, not exactly, but the most exciting application of an AWD system for the Fox would be in something more sporting like the Mustang. I’ve already written about the 1965 Fergusen AWD Mustang, and most of you were quite excited by the prospect of a Pony Car that could make its way through the snow.

It’s not just better winter traction that we’re talking about; it’s handling and acceleration improvement in the dry as well. Proving out this point are some builds that heroic souls like this one did with a variety of different components to make an AWD Mustang mated to gobs of horsepower. Here you can see it in action on the drag strip:

Look at this thing launch and just disappear with essentially zero drama! Naturally, a factory-developed car with all of Dearborn’s development resources behind it would be a much cleaner build; they’d likely have the ability to get a front drive system in without moving the motor. Imagine a version of the Ranch Wagon’s AWD system in a Mustang Cobra; the possibilities for the final years of the Fox Body in alternate universe late eighties are pretty interesting, to say the least.

A Fox Can’t Fly But It Could Have Been An Eagle

I’m well aware that the old Fairmont wagon was nearly a decade old by the time I’m suggesting that it should have been turned into a lifted crossover. Still, it was younger and more competitive in 1986 than the Eagle was at its 1980 debut. Also, AMC had limited resources to tweak the old Hornet chassis and, more importantly, there was supposedly no way to get a small V8 to fit into the Eagle (a type of engine that AMC didn’t really have anyway).

Also, it’s important to remember that Ford was flying high by the end of the eighties, but they were still reeling from some money-losing years at the beginning of the decade. With the launch of the Taurus as well as a revamp of most of the other lines (Tempo and Thunderbird to name two) there wasn’t an infinite supply of money to develop an all-new product for a category in its infancy. The Ranch Wagon could have been developed for pennies compared to their new front-drive jellybean-shaped cars. Ford didn’t even have a four door Bronco or Bronco II at the time to compete with GM’s offerings so anything more family-oriented would have been welcome.

Ultimately it would have been nice for at least one of the Big Three to have explored the Subaru Outback-style lifted wagon idea. Instead, they ended up pursuing truck-based products that people bought but didn’t really need in a trend that sadly continues today.  Yet another lesson from the great American Motors that nobody bothered to listen to.

topshot source: Ford