Yesterday was the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The massive display features hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cars and represents the pinnacle of Monterey Car Week. It’s a place to see cars you’ve only ever dreamed about, which is what happened to me when I spotted the Ford Probe 1 Ghia concept car mere hours before it burned to the ground.
I was milling about the Pebble Beach Concept Lawn, watching people take photos of the bb Targa Hybrid when an old friend from the industry walked up and asked me what my favorite car in the Concours was. This year’s best class featured 20 “wedge” cars and is, probably, one of the coolest collections of automobiles I’ve ever seen. It’s phenomenal and we’re going to keep writing about it.
The last of the wedges was the Ford Probe 1 Ghia Concept and I told him that was probably my favorite car there, mostly because I love weird old Fords and it accurately predicted a lot of the future. I went back to the car twice, spoke with the team who brought it, and just totally nerded out over it.
@exoticsimage 10 Million dollar car cought on fire at car week #carweek
It’s a good thing I didn’t skip the Probe 1, because a few hours later it ceased to exist.
Why The Ford Probe 1 Is Important
The OPEC oil embargo, fuel economy regulations, and the resulting skyrocketing of oil prices sent most major automotive companies into a tailspin in the mid-1970s. Automakers had these heavy, high-powered, block-like cars that pushed through the wind with the force of pure horsepower and gas that cost $0.33 a gallon.
A shift was on, but automakers weren’t able to just toss their entire lineup aside at a moment’s notice. Ford designer Don Kopka, the man behind the 1967 Mustang, had a thought: If we can’t totally re-engineer the cars maybe we can make them a little more aerodynamic with a few cosmetic changes? He estimated that his changes cost about $10 million to implement and resulted in a 1.5 MPG average improvement in fuel economy, which would have required about $3 billion to achieve through traditional engineering.
Around this time, Ford decided to design the car of the future and decided it would have to be slippery, as described by this write-up from the Christie’s auction house:
Probe I was created at the Ford Dearborn Design Center where Kopka was the executive director of the Advanced and International Design Studio. Its sleek and pointy aerodynamic shape, flat wheel covers, pop-up headlights and skirted rear wheels achieved a drag coefficient in the wind tunnel of 0.25, some 37 less than the 0.40 then typical for a 2-door 4-passenger coupe. It was introduced at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 1979. Probe I was extensively displayed at shows and events following its introduction and received widespread media attention, helping to spread the impression that Ford was on to something.
In fact, as The Bishop points out in this article, the Ford Probe was initially considered as a front-wheel-drive, next-gen Mustang built on a Mazda-supplied chassis. This concept didn’t go over well and Ford eventually decided they could build a FWD Ford (called the Probe) and a RWD Mustang at the same time.
This car is called the Ford Probe 1 Ghia by most, but it’s possible Ghia just built the thing and had very little to do with the design, which is credited to Ford’s Dearborn design office.
At some point, the concept got into private hands and was last sold by Christie’s in 2002 for just under $50,000, which is a bargain for something that’ll get you on the lawn at Pebble, though it was described in imperfect condition:
Built on a Mustang chassis of the period, or perhaps a Pinto, there wasn’t much difference, the Probe I package envisioned a collection of the advanced technological functions with which show concepts seem to be endowed. Little of it works, but it would be easy to cut a slot in the console and then say it “can be started by a universal credit card which also can be used to buy gas and pay tolls.” Probe I once had the 2.3 liter Mustang/Pinto 4-cylinder engine and automatic transmission but they have long since been removed. Ford claimed the Probe could achieve a fuel economy of 39 miles per gallon.
Finished in red with black lower body sides that accentuate the deep rear wheel skirts, Probe I has a body constructed of metal with a fixed tinted glass roof panel. The windows also are tinted glass. The wheels have machined disc-type wheel covers to reduce turbulence. The interior is upholstered in red cloth with tan leather trim. Its gauges appear to be functional.
Probe I’s age is showing, and not well. The exterior is in no better than fair condition, with a material number of scratches, edge chips and a small dent in the driver’s door. The interior appears to be in decent shape.
The team who bought it clearly put the love back into the car, restoring it to its original glory and adding a turbo 2.3-liter, possibly from an era-appropriate Mustang II Cobra.
Seeing It For The Last Time
As you’ll see in the video above, we unknowingly got one more chance to enjoy the Probe 1 Concept. The vehicle was in great condition with a lot of working parts, including the biggest parking brake I’ve ever seen in my whole life.
Because it’s Pebble, the car drove on the lawn, so it’s a runner. Even more impressive, the car had more than 1,100 miles on the clock, which is unusual for a concept car. That is the concept car equivalent of 1.1 million miles.
Unfortunately, shortly after we saw the car it was loaded onto a trailer and disaster struck:
As you can see in the video below, there’s not much left. Here’s a photo of it burning up:
It’s not clear what happened to the car, though it appears as if the fire started in the trailer. We’ve reached out to Monterey FD and will update if we hear anything back. The Scott Grundford Company, which restored it, posted photos of the crispy car with this update:
The owners of this car have the other Ford Probe Concepts and it’s possible they’ll be able to restore this one, although I’m not quite sure how. I don’t have much to add other than this sucks. I feel terrible for the car’s owner and for car culture in general. It’s a huge loss (likely not the $10 million quoted in the TikTok above, but history is more important than money in this case).
I’m just glad we got to experience it one more time and capture it on video for posterity’s sake.
Love the joy and delight in the guys’ voices and attitude while looking at all the wedges. Need more of that. Thanks!
Enjoyed the video. The Probe one part was frustrating, though. Oh my, look at those tail lamps, there astounding! We’re not going to show them to you in the video, but they are awesome, trust us on that!
This is a terrible loss. I always liked the Ford Probes that were later produced. I always thought the name “Probe” was awful and probably cost Ford a lot of sales. Whoever named that car wasn’t thinking.
Thermal probe.
It’s interesting, but it it really that significant?
It’s a prototype that eventually became a re-badged Mazda known mainly for threatening Mustang fans with FWD.
First draft of how Ford would get into aerodynamics in the 80’s – even if no Probe was significant, the Sierra and Taurus that followed were.
This truly breaks my heart. When I first seen this car back in it’s day in all of the mags, I thought it looked like it was in flight! My homeroom notebooks were filled with sketches of this as being a futuristic Thunderbird. It looked like a flying saucer. Perfect ski-fi T-bird. I endowed my sketches with T-bird emblems on the headlight doors and a proper full width sequential T-bird tail lamp panel. Of course I broughamified the interior LOL. I hope this car will be saved despite the damage. Maybe it can become a Phoenix, you know, rise from its ashes?
Super cool car, very sad day.
How in the world could you guys have been unfamiliar with the Aerovette?
I have a 1/24 scale model of an Aerovette in my display case
The Autopian should do a deep dive on the Aerovette and what I personally think was the most radical option GM was considering: replacing the V8 with a rotary. The development of that rotary engine has its own interesting side story in that AMC had it penciled in as the light and relatively efficient engine for the upcoming Pacer. After GM abandoned the rotary project AMC went back to the parts bin and plopped their venerable I6 in the Pacer. The AMC I6 was a solid engine (I have to say that so David won’t revoke my membership), but using it turned the Pacer from AMC’s economical car of the future into an even uglier Gremlin.
More than anything though I find it fascinating that stodgy old GM seriously considered making two radical changes to the Corvette at the same time. How would the market have reacted to it? Simply moving the engine was enough to have the old guys in white New Balances declare that the C7 was the last “real Corvette”.
Man kindly demonstrates parking brake for Autopians, car mysteriously catches fire after, coincidence? Dismissed as chance….
But seriously that sucks so bad, it’s like if it wasn’t in good running condition it wouldn’t have had much, if any gas in the tank to fuel the burn and wreck it so bad.
But, if it’s like any other supercar worth millions and was insured properly, it could be burned to a melted metal frame and still not be a total loss so hopefully they will rebuild it, just all that original stuff lost is such a shame.
Damn that sucks, that was a super cool car. I genuinely hope they can restore it.
I always thought the Ford Probe was a really cool car and wanted one for my first vehicle.
It wouldn’t have caught fire if you hadn’t needed to go back and ogle it a second time.
All I’m saying is: Before The Autopian, Ford Probe I was fine. After The Autopian, Ford Probe I was in ashes.
On a serious note, this one hurts a bit. I thought this was the coolest concept when I was a kid, it really looked like the future. However, I think I was even more impressed by the Probe Concept interior, which as far as I know was a separate project? I haven’t seen it mentioned in the context of this particular example that got destroyed.
I’m going to guess that this fire was started by a dragging trailer brake that set the hub/wheel/tire on fire. That sort of thing is unfortunately fairly common.
I actually seen a brand new Single wide Manufactured home going down the highway and witnessed it catch fire from one of the wheels. The tow truck driver was totally unaware. The more he drove at 70 MPH pulling that home, the quicker the flames spread. Was an interesting drive on 35W North that day!
Based on the Pinto.
Someone probably patted the rear bumper.
The Probe concept had no rear bumper, you might be onto something here……..
So now it’s a Firemann Ghia.
Too soon buddy, too soon. Were still mourning it’s loss
I’m going to hazard a guess that there’s unfortunately nothing salvageable off of this, and that if it ever does get rebuilt, it will be as a new replica. But, given that it was apparently a sleek new body on a Pinto/Mustang II platform, that should be a lot more achievable than that Chrysler Norseman replica project, which, at last word, seemed to have stalled
It’s sad how often concepts and custom cars get damaged or destroyed during loading or transport in a trailer. You’d think it’d happen when they were being moved, or used as movie props, or being driven. But no. The Golden Sahara II also got seriously damaged during transport after surviving years of being used as a prop and parade car.
Hopefully just like the Golden Sahara II this gets rebuilt.
Fortunately, its stablemate the Mercury Speculum remains in perfect condition at a Detroit-area clinic.
I’m just relieved that the fire was quickly under control before burning down the central California coast.
Thankful for our first responders.
On a similar note…
https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/i80-sierra-big-rig-fire-closure-emigrant-gap/
They rerouted car traffic is through our area (Grass Valley & Nevada City). They are holding trucks back. I heard an air attack bomber come back to base nearby, checked FlightRadar24 as anytime one is heard to see if it is a local fire or not, to find it had been circling the accident location. We had a fire at a local Honda+ motorcycle dealer on Friday which was within a mile of home. We could see the water-drop helicopter fly by at eye level as we are on a ridge. The shop recently started selling and service electric lawn equipment and motorcycles, so the fire department hung around a long time. I expected batteries to ignite, but we haven’t had any confirmed yet, still early. Fortunately the wind was parallel to us from the fire, but we were watching closely. They evacuated the nearby strip mall area and the road directly below us as a precaution. A sheriff came by to make sure we were aware of what was going on.
In this moment of anguish…
“The Toecutter! Ask the Toecutter! He knows what this was!”
This is totally unroadworthy. Sigh.
That’s assuming it ever was, being a concept car.
“…hotter than a rollin’ dice!”
After watching how much you three were enthralled with the Ford Ghia Probe 1in the video, it’s very sad to think it’s not with us any longer.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
A 5 speed 1990 Probe GT in red was my first car. I absolutely loved it and have nothing but fond memories and good things to say about it.
Damn, that’s a shame. I love all the crazy Ford/Ghia concept cars that came out of the ’70s and ’80s as they were in several automotive books I had as a kid.
One correction, no Mustang II ever came with a turbo 2.3L from the factory. That engine debuted in the Fox Body.
Yeah, the Mustang II Cobra came with the hilariously detuned 302 V8 right?
Yep. Which was still better than the garbage de-stroked 255 that Mustangs got in 1980.
Nope, worse than that – they were *de-bored* 302’s, down to 3.68 inches (from 4.00) – so they have no chance of ever making any power, because they can’t breathe at all. Eech…
That concept looks like a strange version of a 928.