Scorpio intro	Styling	Design & engineering	Manufacturing	Marketing	Service & maintenance	About my Scorpio
1988, 1989	1995	Variants	(Future)	(Future)	(Future)	(Future)
Specs	'88 Survey	Design	Engineering	Testing	(Future)	(Future)

In Ford's British and German engineering centers there are major data systems connected to a European network of mini- and micro-computers. With a linkup through transatlantic cables and satellites, designers and engineers can also access the computers in Ford's engineering computer center in Dearborn, Michigan. It's a great advance since the days when I wrote the first program for automating the design of windshield wiper linkages. If you drove a mid-1960's GM car and liked the smooth, efficient motion of your wipers, you can thank my little free-standing IBM 1620 computer.

In the years of the Scorpio's development, Ford's staff used the computer system for computer-aided design, computer-aided engineering (for stress analysis, etc), test automation, powertrain analysis (to develop engines and transmissions anticipating pressures from legislation and market forces), and the coordinating of workgroups. That was a fairly sophisticated suite of applications for the early 1980's.

Even more impressive to me for that era is the computer-controlled three-dimensional bridge that Ford was using to scan the master model and to generate and confirm a database of thousands of spatial points. Today the need for a master model is much diminished, but at the time of the Scorpio's development it was still a necessity.

About 500 engineers and model makers were involved in designing and developing the body structure, inner trim, instrument panel, climate control equipment (they could have used more help there!), sound deadening, corrosion protection and paint. Together these components account for about half of the Scorpio's weight.

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