Ford Probe III (1981 concept car)

Ford used this Frankfurt show car to get buyers used to a shape it was about to sell them. The Probe III appeared in September 1981, a year before the Sierra, with the same smooth, grille-light nose and rounded body that replaced the boxy Cortina, and its drag figure undercut that of the new 1984 Corvette. The production Sierra was tamer but recognizably the same car, and the Probe's twin-deck rear spoiler turned up on the sporty version that Americans bought as the Merkur XR4Ti. The aero thinking also fed the 1986 Ford Taurus. Pick this one to see how a concept can work as a public rehearsal: it softened the shock of a radical design before the real thing reached dealers.