SHO Taurus Coming in February?

The SHO Taurus is one of the forgotten performance heroes of America's past.  It was originally a high-performance variant of the first three generations of the Taurus family sedan, which used (in early years) a Yamaha-designed 3.0L or 3.2L V6 making 220 horsepower, and later another Yamaha-designed 3.4L 32v V8 making 235bhp.  After years of flagging sales, the SHO was dropped in 1999 with the introduction of the 4th generation (rental fleet) Taurus in 2000.

Well, if you are a nutcase like me, I've got news for you!  The return of the SHO has been long rumored in the industry, and come February, we'll find out if our dreams are coming true.  There's a little nugget of information hidden on Ford's Microsite for the 2010 Taurus which shows every little tiny detail of the upcoming Taurus.  If you go over to "Key Features" on the menu...

Then, you roll your mouse over "Performance series" (at the bottom of the list), you are told...

That it's coming February 2009!

Now, just a bit of conjecture on my part.  I predict (or rather, hope) it will be called the SHO.  I am quite sure it will have the 3.5L EcoBoost twin-turbo V6, as well as the 6-speed automatic and all-wheel drive.  Don't hold your breath for a standard shift like the old SHO's - as far as I'm aware, Ford doesn't possess a FWD transaxle with a hope of dealing with 350lb-ft of torque - but basically, it'll be an EcoBoost MKS in a Taurus body.

The SHO (or whatever they'll call it) will most likely debut at the Chicago Auto Show in February, as that's really the only large auto show that happens in February.  As always, we'll give you more details when we know them.