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Ford's "secret" Orion spy shots

During a press conference yesterday, Ford included images of the car among a disk of photos related to the company’s expanded facilities in Geelong — but did not announce at the briefing that the disk contained Orion content.

Inserted into the photography of noise evaluation rooms and stamping presses were shots of a heavily disguised vehicle being tested at Ford’s You Yangs proving ground.

Apart from some illustration boards found at a Melbourne rubbish dump earlier this year — and published by News Limited newspapers a couple of days later — the images released yesterday are the first Ford-sourced look at the car.

However the company declined to give any information about the car, with president Tom Gorman saying only that more details would be discussed closer to the launch of the sedan in May next year, which will be closely followed by the ute and wagon versions.

But despite the bandaging and taped add-ons camouflaging the Orion, the photos show an echo of the 'kinetic' design of the recently arrived Mondeo.

It is expected that the engine will be a revised version of the 4.0-litre six-cylinder in the current Falcon.

Ford hopes the new vehicle will reverse the slide in Falcon sales over the past few years, as the public moved away from large cars in favour of smaller ones.

Related blog: Star of Orion: and the inaugural award for Best Car PR Strategy goes to...

Karla Pincott is the former Editor of CarsGuide who has decades of experience in the automotive field. She is an all-round automotive expert who specialises in design, and has an...
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