1983 Ford Flair - AllCarIndex

Official press release:

DEARBORN, MICH. — A highly styled plastic-body concept car called the "Flair," equipped with a mobile "phone of the future," will make its European debut at SITEV 83 along with several other product and technological advances of Ford Motor Company's Diversified Products Operations (DPO). The 10th annual exhibition for suppliers of the vehicle industry will be held May 31 -June 3 in the Exhibition and Congress Center in Geneva, Switzerland.

This will mark DPO's second appearance at SITEV Geneva, a specialized industrial exposition providing worldwide vehicle suppliers with an annual forum for introducing their latest products and services to purchasers, researchers and design engineers from vehicle manufacturers around the globe.

Since its inception in 1974, SITEV Geneva has grown from five to 37 participating countries and from 200 to nearly 1,600 exhibitors. It is recognized as the largest and most important event of its kind in Europe.

DPO — a vast organization that includes five manufacturing divisions, a worldwide tractor organization, an aerospace and defense-systems subsidiary and a Brazilian electronics and home-appliance manufacturer — will rely on hardware displays and technical symposiums to acquaint showgoers with the product and technological capabilities of three of its manufacturing activities:    Climate Control Division (CCD), Electrical and

Electronics Division (EED), and Plastics, Paint and Vinyl (PP&V) Division.

Taking center stage in Ford's exhibit will be the Flair, a one-of-a-kind concept vehicle that demonstrates the broad scope of DPO's product and manufacturing talents. The car was styled and built in conjunction with ASC, Inc. of Southgate, Mich.

The fully functional vehicle is based on a Ford EXP platform with redesigned "A" pillars and roof structure. It is a fusion of the technological know-how of several DPO units.

For example, the Flair's exterior body panels — including its open-air roof — are of two-piece Fiberglass Reinforced Polyester (FRP), all of which can be produced by the compressionmolding process at Ford's Milan (Mich.) Plastics Plant.

Bronze-tint glass manufactured by Ford's Glass Division was used for the car's novel compound-curved flush-mounted windshield, the electrically powered hinged backlight and the side-window glass.

Highlighting the Flair's exterior is a unique topcoat system like those manufactured by Ford's Mt. Clemens (Mich.) Paint Plant. Comprised of a specially blended metallic-gold acrylic color coat covered with a clear urethane, this special paint system is excellent in appearance and durability.

The instrument panel — a new, soft design — is much like the ones manufactured at Ford's Saline (Mich.) Plastics Plant for current-model Escorts and Lynxes sold in the U.S. The soft feel of the panel is made possible by use of a new ABS vinyl "skin" produced at Ford's Mt. Clemens Vinyl Plant.

The Vinyl Plant also supplied the Polyknit material (soft nylon yarns over knitted vinyl) for the Flair's bucket-seat inserts, and the soft Acento vinyl for the car's seat bolsters.

Two blow-molded parts used in the concept car — a carpeted, fixed load floor and a high-density polyethylene fuel tank — are manufactured at Ford's Milan Plastics Plant.

The vehicle's heating and air-conditioning systems are products of Ford's Climate Control Division. The company's Electrical and Electronics Division developed the Flair's entertainment system, as well as an integrated "hands-free" cellular mobile-telephone system, the latest in mobile-phone technology.

Unlike the typical mobile-telephone installation with handheld receiver, the car itself is the telephone — and the booth. Several lucky show visitors will be selected to use the Flair's phone system to place a call anywhere in the world.

A call is placed by depressing the proper sequence of numbers on the 12-button keyboard of the vehicle's computer-controlled Message Center, which is patterned after the ones that are standard equipment in the 1983 Continental and Mark VI.

The caller speaks into a microphone built into the driver's sun visor. The other party is heard through the rear speakers of the car's entertainment system.

The Message Center can perform its regular functions at any time during a telephone call. These include displaying time, day, date, distance, speed and fuel-related data. The Message Center also can be programmed for trip information.

Only computer programming changes were required to make the telephone dialing function another of the Message Center's capabilities. This breakthrough — integrating the dialing feature into the vehicle's existing Message Center Trip Computer without modifying the hardware — illustrates the versatility and expandability of Ford's electronic instrumentation. Additionally, it demonstrates the company's skill in applying new technologies to make the automobile a better mode of transportation through enhanced communications.

This futuristic phone system, the first to be developed by Ford engineers, was designed to be compatible with the advanced "cellular" mobile radio systems that are gaining attention both in the U.S. and abroad.

Under a cellular system, a metropolitan area is divided into hexagonally shaped units called "cells." Each cell contains its own base-station transceiver. Transceivers operate at 800 MHz in the U.S. and 900 MHz in some European systems. The cells are adjacent to each other so that a vehicle never loses contact with a base station within the metropolitan area.

The net effect is that phone calls to or from a "traveling phone booth" like the Flair go virtually uninterrupted because the signal being transmitted from the vehicle automatically switches from one base station to another — and is assigned new frequency channels — the moment a cell boundary is crossed.

Cellular systems have been field-tested in Chicago, III., and Washington, D.C., and are expected to be introduced in Britain and France in the mid-1980s. By that time, Ford expects to have perfected its mobile-telephone system, which will be offered as optional equipment in one of the company's luxury models.

In addition to the Flair, several other product/technological advances will be showcased in DPO's exhibit area:

Climate Control Division (CCD) will display a mechanically assembled aluminum radiator, as well as a vacuum-brazed allaluminum radiator with plastic end tanks that will debut in the D.S. in May in the all-new mid-sized Ford Tempo and Mercury Topaz.

CCD also will display several products that now are — or soon will be — made in Europe. The division will show a copper/brass radiator with plastic end tanks that is produced for European vehicles at its radiator plant in Basildon, England. Additionally, a variety of European heater assemblies will be exhibited. The heater assemblies will be produced at the Basildon facility starting in June for installation in Ford's European Transit light truck and the award-winning Sierra passenger car.

Ford's Climate Control Division designs, develops and manufactures a broad line of radiator, heater and air-conditioning components. An eight-part photographic series on how an airconditioning system operates will round out CCD's SITEV display.

DPO's Electrical and Electronics Division (EED) designs and manufactures a wide range of electronic, electrical and electro/mechanical products, including vehicle controls, entertainment systems, exterior lamp assemblies and suspension components.

The EED exhibit will feature the division's fourth-generation electronic engine control (EEC-IV) system, and preview the electronic air-spring suspension system — an industry first — to be introduced in Ford's 1984 luxury car lines in the U.S. Also to be shown is an electronic instrument panel with multicolored graphics, a forerunner of the type to be used in the 1984 Continental and Mark VII luxury models.

Highlighting the Plastics, Paint and Vinyl (PP&V) Division display will be a split rear-seat back of blow-molded polyethylene that will bow to the public in the 1984 Ford Mustang. Other hardware to be displayed are an FRP leaf spring; a polycarbonate linear-welded bumper, similar to the one being used on the European Sierra and destined for application in the near future on several Ford U.S. subcompact models; a vacuum-formed foamed-in-place soft instrument panel with a unique simulated hand-stitched pattern; assorted new Polyknit seating-fabric designs, and samples of Ford-developed stone-chip resistance coatings and exterior glamour paint colors.

PP&V is recognized for its work in the development of new plastic, paint and vinyl products and processes. In furtherance of that cause, the division last December dedicated its new multi-million-dollar Paint Research Center, to provide an improved environment for the continued development of high-quality paints and coatings.

DPO's exhibits will be located at Stand C-4 in the Exhibition and Congress Center. Representatives from each participating Ford division will be available from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily to answer questions, and to provide information about products on display, as well as the wide range of other products and services available from the company.

During the hours the exhibit is closed, Ford representatives may be contacted at the International Hilton Hotel (the Noga Hilton) in Geneva. The representatives will include J. B. McKay, CCD; R. A. Grant, EED; H. W. Patterson, PP&V, and R. J. Eichenberg, DPO.

In addition to the hardware displays, EED and PP&V will present papers on automotive electronics and plastics applications as part of SITEV's technical symposiums on May 30 and 31.

Engine & performance:

Type: Ford Escort, 4-cylinder

Capacity: 1598 cc