I’m At A Ford Performance Event Today So Let’s Look At A Performative Old Ford

It’s very late, I’m in a hotel room in Charlotte, NC, where I made the mistake of “testing” the bed, knowing full well I had to write a Cold Start for the morning, and unsurprisingly I gave the bed a vigorous and comprehensive slumber test for several hours. But now I’m up! And I have to re-awaken in just a couple hours to attend this Ford Performance event, but first I need to tell you about a fascinating Ford concept car from 1976, the Ford Prima.

This car was based on the small subcompact FWD Ford Fiesta, and that may make you suspect that it shouldn’t be considered a performance car at all, seeing as how those came equipped with 1.1-liter engines making all of 50something horsepower. But I maintain that this car did, in fact, perform – it was, after all, a concept car, a show car, and it’s whole raison d’etre was to put on a performance for people, to make their imaginations run wild with possibilities and instill a deep desire for whatever Ford was selling at the time. Mustang IIs and shit, I suppose.

The kind of performance the Prima gave wasn’t about driving, it was about changing. Or having options to change. Because the Prima, designed by Ghia in Italy, was one of the early examples of a car with swappable body panels, allowing for the car to become four different kinds of vehicles.

I love this concept. Here, check this thing out; first, there’s the baseline vehicle, which is really sort of a little truck with an upholstered bed:

Here’s a view from the rear, where you an see it sports a real tailgate :

…or a view from the Chicago Auto Show, where the Prima was shown the year after it was introduced in Turin in 1976:

That’s a fun little open-backed pickup truck! Not a lot of weather protection, sure, but if you prefer to not be soaked in rain, you could transform that little truck into, say, a nice hatchback/fastback:

Note that it still retains the tailgate, which is a pretty slick touch. If you need more room, you can make it a wagon:

A tailgate is a bit more expected there, I suppose. That’s a roomy little shooting brake! And finally – which is, if you’re counting, fourthly, you can stick on a notchback panel and make a tidy little coupé:

Styling-wise, I think you can see a lot of what would become the 1979 to 1993 Fox-body Mustang, especially in Coupé form:

The hidden grille on the front end of the Prima is interesting, and while Ford never quite built anything quite like that, they did flirt with some near grille-less designs for the Taurus and the EXP, among some other cars.

The Prima is a really clever and novel design, a modular idea that car designers have been toying with for decades, and only really made it to market in a mass-produced car once, in the form of the Nissan Pulsar NX:

There may have been some other smaller-scale attempts, but Nissan actually did bring to market in a significant way a car that had a removable rear body panel, and you could take it off completely for a convertible-type experience, or put on a notchback one for a coupé, or a wagon-type back to make a little shooting brake.

It was very cool, but Nissan didn’t keep pursuing this idea, perhaps because the realities of people owning multiple body sections and figuring out where to store them is a non-trivial problem. I think Nissan dealers should have kept a little “library” of rear sections that owners could rent or swap out. Maybe you like a coupé normally, but you’re going on a road trip and need more room – so you rent or borrow a wagonback.

Maybe Nissan comes up with a special truck bed back, or a canvas-topped one? You try them out! Nissan could release new ones for specialized things like holding bicycles or skis or a small hot tub! The possibilities are dazzling!

Anyway, Ford definitely predicted the Pulsar NX here, then did nothing with it. Oh well. Maybe there will be a new take on the Prima at this event?

I bet there will be! I’ll get my hopes up now!