Features

Inside the Explorer America, the materials in the coolly minimalist cabin are from sustainable, mostly recycled, sources. The mixture of ballistic nylon and leather might remind you of a Tumi catalogue, and that's not as far off as you might think. The materials used were actually provided by a luxury luggage firm, Mulholland Bros, which is a sort of US version of Mulberry.

The green theme continues under the bonnet, where there is a choice of two EcoBoost (they were called TwinForce last year, but EcoBoost sounds oh so much cleaner, doesn't it?) turbo-charged petrol engines, a 275bhp 2.0-litre four, and a 3.5-litre 340bhp V6. Ford reckons that the turbo four-cylinder has the performance of a V6 and the blown bent six the power of a V8.

And it also recognises that most people won't take it much further than the supermarket as it has, by using the Freestyle/TaurusX D3 platform as the base, switched the Explorer's construction from body on frame to unibody. That means it'll be better on the road, but have reduced towing and off-road capabilities.

The overall design of the Explorer America has just two signature Explorer cues: the bottom of the side windows is lower than the bonnet height; and the rear window wraps around the rear pillars. Other than that, the team was left to its own devices to produce the car their first-hand research told them the people wanted.

Woodhouse launches into a stream of design consciousness to explain what they did, but it's probably best summed up as an amalgam of two of the most recent Ford concept cars. "If Interceptor and Airstream are the parents, the Explorer is the offspring," he says.

But what's all this about it being the Explorer American? "We want to see Ford as America's car company," he says. "The Interceptor was American Muscle, the Airstream was the American Journey and the Explorer is American Exploration."

Penned by Exterior Designer Stuart Jamieson, there are loads of fabulous details. There is the non-glare, non-direct lighting; the exquisite Explorer badge aping the US flag; and the colour-coded interior of the pop-out door handles.

None of them will make it to production, of course, a bit like the cool-looking but useless 3D ship's compass sitting in the dash, but that doesn't deter the designers one bit. "Look, we love the details," says Woodhouse. "But they are not the point. We are genuinely trying to produce cars that help people. Cars that are simple. Solid. Robust."

And successful, of course. It's going to be a long, hard slog to get Ford back to the top of the heap, but with a car based on this new concept, perhaps it can make it. Explorer helped destroy the company once - now's its chance to help it get back on its feet.

Pat Devereux