Ford Maya

The Ford Maya is a concept car designed and built by Italdesign for Ford that debuted in 1984 at the Turin Motor Show. It was designed to test the waters for a two-seater, targa top sports car for the United States market, and Ford had planned to put it into production at 50 units per day, about 12,000 a year, so the concept was built to be fully functional. The design was criticized for being too similar to the Giugiaro designed Lotus Etna concept unveiled the same year. It is powered by a mid-mounted Ford V6 engine producing 140 horsepower, a placeholder for a Yamaha co-developed 3.0 litre V6 producing 250 horsepower that Ford intended for production, driving the rear wheels through a five-speed manual transmission, and the wedge design has a drag coefficient of 0.28. In 1985 Ford had Italdesign build a second car, the Maya II ES, and a third, the Maya II EM, which has a longitudinally mounted biturbo 3.0 litre V6 producing 300 horsepower.