The Ford P4 Taunus was launched in Germany in September, 1962.
It was Ford of Germany’s family-sized car and featured front-wheel drive and a V4 engine.
Yep, a Ford with FWD in 1962.
And a V4, too.
That ought to have been big news in the motoring magazines.
After all BMC in the UK was shouting from the roof tops about its “revolutionary” FWD Morris 1100 and its ‘floats on fluid” suspension.
So why no publicity for the P4?
And why has it been so overlooked all these years?
Those questions can be answered easily.
Just weeks after the P4 was unveiled, Ford announced its other European family-sized car — the Cortina.
The Cortina was strictly conventional in every respect.
Rear-wheel drive and an inline four-cylinder motor.
Plus, within months, the famed Lotus Cortina was on the market and race tracks, attracting significant publicity.
Quite simply, the Cortina took all the limelight.
And that might have also been intentional
You see, the P4 was originally supposed to have been sold in the USA.
In fact, it was developed in the USA with engineering input from Germany, principally the V4.
The idea of the P4, code named Cardinal, was for it to be positioned as a cheaper car than the newly released Falcon.
The thing is however, the Falcon was selling so well that Ford was concerned that a smaller cheaper car would undermine Falcon sales.
US Ford boss, Lee Iaccoca, also had his reasons for not wanting it in the USA.
He did not believe it had much potential and he wanted the P4’s allocated production line capacity to be made available for his new preferred project, the Mustang.
So, the P4 was restricted to Germany and the European motoring media largely ignored it, despite its innovative drivetrain.
It sold an average of 150,000 units per year during its four-year model run.
David Burrell is the editor of retroautos
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