Secret Ford Sport Sedan That Briefly Ruled Detroit — Then Vanished

Ford’s experimental aluminum Mercury Sable SHO proved just how far the brand was willing to push materials and performance.

Today’s automobiles are built from all manner of materials and methods that once were considered exotic — advanced alloys, moldable composites, carbon fiber, ultra-strong adhesives — but which are now commonplace. Looking back, it’s easy to identify the 1990s as the decade that kicked off the gradual move away from steel as the primary focus when producing cars and trucks, as technological capabilities began to catch up with the dreams of engineers and designers eager to push state-of-the-art vehicles into showrooms.

Big companies tend to move slowly when it comes to upending years of ingrained production habits, so it’s perhaps not surprising to learn that Ford (which made headlines in 2015 for transitioning its flagship F-Series pickup to primarily aluminum body panels) initiated its original research into using this metal nearly a quarter century earlier.

So begins the tale of the Super Sable, the Mercury that made an ultra-light splash but that remains unknown to all but the most hardcore fans of the departed brand. Officially dubbed the Aluminum Intensive Vehicle, the starting point for Ford and aluminum went way harder than it absolutely needed to, leading to a tantalizing “what if?” timeline that could have positioned the automaker at the forefront of performance if only it hadn’t decided to test the waters with a member of its recently expanded luxury stable …

https://www.motortrend.com/features/aluminum-mercury-sable-sho-ford-aiv-history

(illustration credit: Ryan Lugo - MotorTrend)