Did I miss anything?
Ford benchmarked the performance and styling of BMW but the mechanical executions were way different, no BMW 5 or 6 series had a front suspension anything like these, they had L arm lower control arms and MacPherson struts, our cars use SLA with strut rods which frankly is more of an evolution of what Falcons and early Mustangs used for front suspension way back in the 60s. The IRS is different as well since it to is SLA with a lower H arm, rather than trailing arms like the Germans tend to, I don’t know for sure but I’d speculate it’s probably more influenced by the classic Jaguar IRS.
The DEW98 platform may have some MN12 DNA in it, it’s not well documented but given the MN12’s structural similarities it was likely used as the starting point, certain things like the shock towers besr an uncanny resemblance between the platforms. Tbirds were even used as test mules for the suspensions and drivetrains, there’s an old article somewhere titeled “Dewbirds” that goes into it a bit.
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The DEW98 platform may have some MN12 DNA in it, it’s not well documented but given the MN12’s structural similarities it was likely used as the starting point, certain things like the shock towers besr an uncanny resemblance between the platforms. Tbirds were even used as test mules for the suspensions and drivetrains, there’s an old article somewhere titeled “Dewbirds” that goes into it a bit.
They got it from Detroit in 1961 😉
