PRESS THE electrically triggeredchrome door handle and the door popsopen. the sculpted one-piece leather seatsare as stiff as the suspension, and you slideonto them as into a Barcelona chair. A 21stcentury"shaker" looms in your view, and therest of the hood is long and upright…you'reoverlooking a similar expanse of sheetmetalas in a chrysler 300. Hit the electronic ignitionbutton on the headliner just aft of the header,and the 5.4-liter v-8 fires up with a rumble.the clutch is a bit heavier than aMustang Gt's, but it releases smoothly andprogressively. this big sedan is easy todrive—if you're into low-riders. it bouncesalong the smooth test road like a candycolored1964 impala on the haunches ofits hydraulics. it feels like one good bumpcould launch it into the air. You shift cleanlyinto second gear, but that's all she'll show today.

Two things make the interceptor important:the way it looks and the way it drives.especially the way it drives. ignore the factthe interceptor rolls on a cobbled-togetherMustang platform with a nonexistent showcarsuspension. it's the thinking behind thecar that matters. And the thinking is this: fordwants an all-new rear-drive sedan for northAmerica by 2011 or 2012.

Not that long ago, rear drive was on lifesupport at ford. the company had axedthe slow-selling Lincoln Ls sedan and fordthunderbird, both built on the expensivedew98 platform shared with the Jaguars-type, and announced the plants buildingthe Lincoln town car, Mercury Grand,Marquis, and ford crown victoria would beclosed in 2010. Under this scenario (Motortrend, August 2006), the Mustang wouldbe the only rear-drive ford car on sale inAmerica by 2011.

Now, under new ceo Alan Mulally, fordis rethinking rear drive for north America.insiders say Mulally has looked at what GMhas done to reinvent cadillac, seen the buzzit's generated around new rear-drive carslike the chevy camaro, Pontiac G8, andthe chinese-market Buick Park Avenue (allbased on the Australian-developed Zetarear-drive architecture), and asked: "whycan't we do that?"

It's more than just an obvious question.it also addresses a major dilemma for twokey ford products, the Mustang and fordAustralia's falcon. the Mustang has been arunaway hit for ford, but by 2011 the platformwill have been in production for sevenyears, and its live rear axle is no match for thesophisticated independent rearends underthe newer camaro and dodge challenger.down in Australia, the falcon, ford's reardriverival to GM's Holden commodore, isgetting a major overhaul for 2008, but itsplatform dates back to 1998.

Neither platform has the volume (2006sales totaled 160,000 Mustangs and 50,000falcons and variants) to justify an all-newreplacement each. so Mulally has asked for aplan to bring ford's rear-drive cars togetheronto a single, global vehicle architecture.that means Mustang and falcon. And it alsomeans potential replacements for the Lincoln town car, Mercury Grand Marquis, and fordcrown victoria. which is where interceptorcomes in.

By 2010, the Panther platform thatunderpins the crown vic, Grand Marquis,and town car will be 31 years old. to put thatin perspective, even the legendary Model tlasted only 19 years. the Panther cars arecheap to make and, despite their ancientchassis and ergonomics, sell in reasonablevolumes—combined sales totaled almost157,000 units in 2006. they make good moneyfor ford, but all three are hopelessly outdatedcars with little appeal to private buyers. theysurvive on taxi, police, and livery vehiclefleet sales, and even that market is trendingdown: 2006 sales were 10 percent lowerthan 2005, for example.

Throwing replacements for the threePanther cars into the mix changes theeconomies of scale significantly. evenallowing for natural shrinkage in Mustangsales and fewer sales of the Panther trio'sreplacements (which would be moreexpensive and aimed at private buyersrather than low-margin government andfleets), you're still looking at a global reardrivearchitecture with a potential volumeof over 200,000 units a year.

As you read this, ford staffers are racingto meet a July deadline set by Mulally. theglobal rear-drive architecture plan is justone part of a radical rethink of ford's entireproduct development process (see sidebar).At stake is nothing less than ford's survival asan automaker into the next decade: Havingtaken out an unprecedented $23.4 billionin loans to fund badly needed new models,Mulally and his team are literally bettingthe farm on this.
Interceptor. ford north American designchief Peter Horbury's team actually nevercalled the car by that name while working onit in dearborn, where the computer modelwas done by swede Andreas nilsson, andcalifornia, where the model was turnedinto a full-size clay under the watchful eyeof freeman thomas, the man behind suchicon cars as the vw Beetle, Audi tt, andchrysler 300c. "Galaxie was the name weused in the studio when we were workingon this," says Horbury. check those taillights.Yup, '66 Galaxie.

The interceptor isn't a retro car, but itclearly draws on design themes that forthe British-born Horbury defined the greatAmerican sedan at its very best. "A lot ofcars have lines that swoop upward andbackward," says Horbury with a sweep of ahand. "we did it the other way around here.on woodward Avenue in August [in thedream cruise] you see these fabulous '50sand '60s American cars, and they all havethat graceful line that flows down toward therear, rather like a yacht sailing by."

Look closely at the interceptor and you'llsee that, although there's a slight wedge inthe beltline, the shoulderline falls gentlyaway toward the tail.
There's a lot of subtle, almost subliminaldesign in the interceptor. the front endis anything but subtle, however, clearlyreferencing the massive super chief pickupconcept Horbury unveiled at the 2006 detroitshow. "it's a statement to say this is the superchief of cars," says Horbury.

He insists the way the interceptor looks"isn't a million miles away from what'spossible." those showcar wheels wouldcome down to real-world 18- or 20-inchitems, and the roofline—currently thesame height as a Mustang's—would beraised to ensure adequate headroom forall passengers.

Big sedans will never be the huge-sellingheartland cars they were in the 1950s and1960s; that territory today belongs to midsize,four- and six-cylinder front-drivers like thetoyota camry, Honda Accord, chevy Malibu,and ford fusion. And George w. Bush's callfor cAfe to hit 35 mpg by 2017 threatensto marginalize them even further (although,as european automakers have proved, it'spossible to get 30 mpg or more out of abig car right now if you stick a high-torquediesel v-6 or v-8 under the hood).

But if the reactions to cars like the chrysler300c, Pontiac G8, and chinese-market BuickPark Avenue are any indication, plenty ofAmericans still like the idea of a roomy,stylish, and affordable rear-drive sedan.these cars recall the quintessential Americanautomotive experience, an experience lostwhen American cars downsized and wentfront drive in the 1980s, leaving personal-usepickup trucks to take up the slack.

Ford, the company that put America onwheels, the company that gave us the Modelt, the Mustang, and the f-150, shouldn't walkaway from its heritage. Build the interceptor,Alan. call it the Galaxie. Build an upscaleMercury version, and a Lincoln flagship,too. find a way to make them fuel-efficient;make them hybrids or diesels if you haveto. But build them.