The Forgotten Ford Concept Car That Could’ve Been America’s Ferrari

The two-seat cabin featured a steering wheel with all of the car’s main controls on its center, including lights and turn signal buttons that replaced traditional stalks — something Ferrari would bring to its own road cars some 20 years later.

The Maya’s cabin wasn’t short on space, with no center console ahead of the gear shifter, and storage space behind the two seats for soft bags, says Ford Authority. In other words, Ford wanted to produce a practical, everyday supercar that might even have competed with the Porsche 911, the gold standard of that particular automotive genre.

It also featured independent rear suspension made from aluminum, a double-wishbone setup at the front and the potential for Ford to take on iconic sports cars like the Chevrolet Corvette.

Penned by Giorgetto Giugiaro, who also has the Ferrari 250 GT and Volkswagen Golf mk1 on his resume, the Maya shared its wedge shape with the DeLorean DMC-12 of Back To The Future fame and the Lotus Esprit, both also products of Giugiaro’s sketchpad.

But, while it shared its exotic shape with such esteemed British and Italian companies, the Maya’s genius was that it would underpin the poster-car looks with mass-market components already produced for other Ford vehicles, TopGear explains.