The Third Generation Taurus SHO Blew Up The Legend Of This Hot Sedan Just Like It Did Its Own V8 Engine

Even legendary talents are fallible. Robert DeNiro appeared in such gems as Dirty Grandpa and Little Fockers, David Bowie made records like Never Let Me Down during his so-called “Phil Collins period” … think of any creative powerhouse, and you can probably name at least one clinker in their oeuvre.    There will always be missteps to tarnish the reputations of highly revered figures in all professions. Unfortunately, it’s the same situation with automotive nameplates that have been held up as benchmarks. One of these cars is the Ford Taurus SHO.

After nearly a decade and two generations of this modern-day muscle car sleeper, Ford replaced it with a radically different type of product that, on paper, appeared to be an exciting evolution from the original. In reality, it started out as a disappointment and ended up being a disaster. The third-generation 1996-99 Ford Taurus SHO failed on three major accounts, and we need to look at each of them to see how the whole SHO dynasty quickly came crashing down.

You Can Tune A Taurus But You Can’t Tuna Fish

Replacing an iconic, successful design is never an easy task. With the Taurus, the design staff reportedly likened their work to “having to repaint the Mona Lisa.” Just like DaVinci’s painting, the Taurus might not have been overpoweringly beautiful, but it was popular and iconic. These designers were also changing a car that for over half a decade had been America’s top-selling car; that’s the major reason why the 1992 redesign was so subtle and evolutionary. By the mid-nineties, however, it was no time to stand down as the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord were biting at the heels of Ford’s sedan in a big way.

Ford’s goal was to create an eye-catching car that, like the first generation, would look like nothing else on the road and revolutionize the industry. In 1986, that first Taurus apparently did not do spectacularly well in consumer clinics; it was a huge possibly catastrophic gamble that Ford took that ended up paying off in a big way. Ten years later, this same wager would not turn out to be such a good bet.

The inspiration for the design was, of all things, the oval of the Ford logo. A 1991 show car called the Contour was the motivating factor of the design; the concept was envelope-pushing but not exactly something you’d want to test out on a best-selling car and hope it would play in Peoria.

Those eyebrows alone are polarizing enough. Even the interior received this funky treatment with a “satellite” switch pod that looked a bit like a human organ:

You can see how the production Taurus really took a lot of cues from the concept. What was oval-shaped? Everything, that’s what. Everything was oval; headlights, grille, turn signals, rear window, all done in ovoid shapes that made the finished product look like something you might reel in on the end of a fishing line. You got ovals everywhere inside as well, including a control panel for the audio and HVAC that was as confusing as it was limiting to any kind of Double DIN upgrades. And quality wasn’t great, either, with interior materials often called out as subpar.

The basic shape wasn’t horrendous, as the much more conservatively detailed Mercury Sable version didn’t receive nearly as much criticism (and sales didn’t drop much from the previous year). If you were hoping that the SHO version of this disliked Taurus was going to get modifications to alleviate some of the objectionable parts, you’re out of luck. As with the earlier SHOs, the new version was not easily discernible from the stock car.

Other than the spoiler and rocker panel ground effects, there wasn’t a lot of difference.

You got a console inside at least, but you’ll note that’s an automatic transmission selector. That’s the only gearbox option for this new SHO.

Still, this generation of Taurus SHO added another two cylinders over the original. With a V8 under the hood, though, would you care about the looks? Well, about that V8..

That’s Only Like Seven Horsepower Extra Per Cylinder

Nothing gets people more fired up than hearing that some rather pedestrian, usually V6-equipped car is now going to get the option of eight cylinders under the hood. There was a bit of this hysteria when we heard that the new SHO was actually going to be V8-powered, and a rather high-tech one at that. A block from Cosworth and 32 valve heads from Yamaha? Could they legally sell something so exciting and put it in a family car?

Well, we should have prepared ourselves to be disappointed. The new V8 displaced a mere 200cc more than the outgoing six, and the new SHO motor only produced 235 horsepower, or just 15 over the second-generation car’s V6. And as I’ve already mentioned, the manual transmission option was now relegated to the history books.

At least it sounded pretty good, particularly on this one with the secondaries wired and mufflers deleted:

Our man John Davis took one for a spin as well:

The zero to sixty times of mid-sevens wasn’t bad, but it was over a second off the pace of the very first stick SHO from nearly eight years before. Supposedly the focus was now going to be more of a sport/luxury car than a hot rod; something that nobody really asked for. There’s was something else this new “hot” Taurus motor offered that few wanted as well.

Pistons, Meet Your Valves

You’re driving your 1996 V8 SHO along and all of a sudden, any forward motion ceases, combined with an unholy cacophony under the hood. A post mortem reveals a perfectly intact and taut timing belt. What happened?

Ford and SHO owners soon found that the sprockets on the camshafts of the new V8 had differing opinions about rotation, with catastrophic results. Many of these failures happened before 50,000 miles; the sole solution was to weld the sprockets onto the shafts. Removing the valve covers and examining the SHO V8 is the only way to confirm that this modification has been done if there’s no other documentation, and if it has been done, is it an expert job or some giant weld blob spinning at God-knows-how-many RPM?

Just when you thought that things couldn’t get worse for this poor car.

The Bull Gets Skewered

Surprisingly, the 1996 Taurus was able to maintain its position as best-selling car for that year, but there were some huge caveats. Reportedly over fifty percent of these sales were fleet buys, a fact that made the Japanese brands cry foul. They needn’t have worried; the lack of appeal of this new Taurus meant that the next year no amount of Hertz lot purchases could help avoid the car’s fate, as the new 1997 Camry with far more angular styling beat the Ford for the sales crown, fleet sales and all. The high-water mark of jellybean cars had been hit.

The SHO never even experienced the standard sedan’s brief moment in the sun. Sales of this generation of SHO peaked at around 9,000 units in 1997; total for the whole generation was only around 20,000 cars before they were discontinued after 1999. No immediate successor was planned due to both the damage likely done to the reputation by this third-gen model and then-President Jack Nasser’s supposed disinterest in the Taurus stepping on the toes of the newly-purchased brands in his “Premier Auto Group”.

Today, finding a third-generation SHO is a difficult task. Recently, a few surprisingly low mileage examples have appeared on auction sites, including one with 500 miles on the odometer that sold for $19,800.

I’ve never liked that dinky little two-sizes-too-small spoiler that looks like it’s taken off a rounded Kei car or something.

This was always one of the worst eras for bad-plastic Ford interiors:

Also, this untouched example almost certainly still has the original camshaft sprockets, so I’d be cringing any time I revved it:

However, this auction result for the low mile black car above is really an exception. As most commenters point out, these things are ticking time bombs if the camshaft issues have not been addressed. Most examples sell for far less; dramatically less with higher miles like this one with 86,000 on the clock that went for $2,705.

Our Thomas Hundal reported on this particular car a little while back:

These ultra-low values are even the case with some over-100,000 mile cars that claim to have had the camshaft reinforcement done; such an example would likely be a decent and reliable daily driver if you could find one. Doing such work to SHO now would be prohibitively expensive. It’s a sad case of rarity not equaling value and the effort to fix a broken one not really being worth it, especially when these things break they really break.

Could It Ever SHO Up Again?

Ford made one last attempt at a SHO with the fourth-generation model in 2010. This one went back to six cylinders with a 365 horsepower twin turbo motor, but if that figure impresses you don’t forget that it was now a heavier car. By now interest in what was once Ford’s big seller in general had waned to the point that the Blue Oval would soon drop the Taurus, four-door sedans and traditional passenger cars completely. In some ways, even if the later versions of the SHO had been near-equals of the likes of a BMW M5 it wouldn’t have mattered in the wake of the SUV onslaught. The Taurus was done.

In the unlikely event that a family hauler from Ford branded as a SHO ever appears again, it would probably be a heated-up Explorer, Mach-E or even Expedition. If they’re listening in Glass House right now, I hope they understand that we wouldn’t necessarily be mad about that.

Top graphic image: Ford