The Ford Taurus SHO, driven by Kevin Holcomb in A Debt of Honor, is an exciting piece of American automobile history. In the book, Holcomb describes it as “fast with good handling,” and boy, was he right. While not quite a sleeper, this family sedan surprised more than a few unsuspecting sports car drivers with its high-revving power plant.
At its debut, the SHO, short for Super High Output, was one of the most powerful sedans in America. It’s true! The SHO’s Yamaha-built 3.0-liter V6 engine produced an impressive 220 horsepower and 200 foot-pounds of torque. To put it into perspective, the Ford Mustang was rated at a measly 205 horsepower that same year, a significant drop from the previous year’s 225 horsepower. Ford initially rated the new engine with its reworked camshaft profile and pistons at 225 hp but later admitted they overstated the new engine’s output.
In 1989, Car and Driver tested the SHO and noted that “the only production four-door sedans faster or quicker than the SHO are BMW’s $71,000 750iL and $51,000 M5.” C&D said, “the only cars of any kind that can approach the SHO’s combination of low price and high performance are the Mustang GT, the Camaro IROC-Z, and the new Diamond-Star twins.”
While the Mustang’s 275 foot-pounds of torque gave the lightweight Fox body the edge when racing from a dig, if you could lure the Mustang driver into a rolling start and slip the manually shifted SHO into the sweet spot in its power band, the five-seat family sedan would race to its screaming 7,000 rpm redline and leave the Mustang with nothing but tail lights.
In today’s power-packed automobile market, 220 horsepower is nothing special, but even the venerable Corvette could only muster 245 horses back in 1989. Today, the new Corvette ZR1 will come with a whopping 1,064 horsepower from the dealer. Showroom stock, its motor will rev up to 7,000 rpm on its way to 233 miles per hour and comes with a warranty.
