Ford Taunus P3

Taunus 17M (1963 )

The 1960 presented Taunus P3 ( = Project 3, that is, the third new car design at Ford-Werke in Cologne since the end of World War II ) is a car of the upper middle class of Ford Germany. He presented himself in a show created by designer Uwe Bahnsen novel, factual form for which the slogan " line of reason " was coined, but also earned him the nickname bathtub.

The new Taunus P3 had, in contrast to its predecessor, neither P2 tail fins still exuberant chrome trim and had something more European. In addition to the sedan, there was the Ford " tournament" said station wagon, beginning with high-mounted rear lights on the roof edge, later placed on the fenders and most recently inserted into the fender taillights. When combined you could temporarily choose among three different tailgates: one is on top of the roof struck, the second is a attached to the left side door and the third was injured in the car floor, the rear window had to be retracted to open the door only with a crank. During the entire construction period (1960-1964) the buyer had a choice of three engines ( 1498, 1698, 1758 cm ³) and a variety of color combinations of paint and interior. On request, the automatic clutch " Saxomat " was available in three-speed transmissions.

Specifically, there were the following engines:

With this model, Ford was able briefly to the registration figures of Opel catch (number of built P3 669 731 pieces, of which 86 010 wagon). Even today, several hundred copies of this series in use (mostly by vintage approval).

In a very small number, about 150 pieces, the body shop German a convertible and a coupe variant produced. Some vehicles were rebuilt in South Africa and Greece for pickup.

The Taunus P3 is now regarded as a design milestone and was popularly nicknamed " bath ". He was replaced by the Taunus 17M P5 series.