The year: 1990. Someone we all know and love was working at renowned coachbuilder Ghia. Or someone there was channelling him or something.
Regardless, a design study was pumped out and we got this. A little slice of late 80s/early 90s awesome.
Meet the Ford Fiesta Ghia Bebop, folks. She's a subcompact ute, and I want one badly. I honestly don't know much about it, except that it's based on the MK3 Fiesta platform, and was meant to test the market for a small car based pickup. I have to wonder though, who thought it would be a good platform to make a ute and then to slap on the RS vents and the lipkit? What are those lights on top for? And who actually saw it? The readers of the January 1990 issue of Popular Science, I suppose. But I didn't really see any references to things like autoshows or the like where concepts like this are normally showcased.
I can see why it was never developed further though. Here's a shot of it in action.
[caption id="attachment_2286" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="January 1990 - Popular Science"]
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Let's dissect the scene. It's a Fiesta. With a pickup bed. It's not going to be particularly good as a car. Why? For starters, you've lost room for two of your passengers. Moreover, you've also lost a ton of cargo space, since you've lopped off half of the greenhouse.
OK. What about as a truck? Well, we've still got that cargo issue to deal with. And since it's based on a Fiesta, I don't really see it being effective as a means to tow a trailer of any sort; nor does it seem like it could do anything offroad. And look at the size of the bed. Most people around here will not consider something a real truck unless you can fit a 4'x8' sheet of something in the bed. This one is bursting at the seams with two bikes. With the tailgate down, and the handlebars turned! But hey, at least it has what appear to be Recaros.
[caption id="attachment_2289" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="See? Those look like the ones they use in the A2 GTi!"]
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Regardless, I still like the idea. But the market for something like this would be limited to lunatics like myself, and some of the Speed Hero crew here. So here's what I propose as a low volume special edition:
[caption id="attachment_2284" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="I can live without the roof lights. Really."]
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All I need is a new 5 door hatch, and someone to teach me to weld. Ford Canada, are you listening? Let's do this thing!
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thank you Aaron!