Ford Hid These Rare Cars For Decades. Now You Can Seem Them All In One Place

Broncos, Mustangs, one-offs, concepts, and never-before-seen studio models are now packed in the new Ford Vault.

Ford Vault Tour

Photo by: Ford

Anthony Alaniz

By: Anthony Alaniz

Nov 13, at 11:30am ET

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Tucked in the far corner of the warehouse next to a Mustang—probably a rare GT500; I can’t remember—sits a small maroon sedan. The car is over a quarter-century old, designed in the last millennium for a customer that no longer exists. It’s a relic, a piece of automotive history forgotten by many, but preserved by Ford.

I can’t even recall the last time I saw one on the road: a Contour SVT. This one, a 2000 model, has just 123 miles on the odometer, its window sticker still attached, and is now one of more than a hundred cars on display in the new Ford vault.

Located in a former Amazon fulfillment center tucked between Ann Arbor and Detroit is a new collection of cars that’s more than the company’s greatest production hits. This isn’t The Henry Ford Museum 2.0—it’s Ford Motor Co-centric.

2000 Ford Contour SVT

2000 Ford Contour SVT

Photo by: Anthony Alaniz / Motor1

Beyond the cars, which include concepts and never-before-seen studio models, there is memorabilia, signage, a kitchen, and even an arcade game. Ted Ryan, FoMoCo’s archive and heritage brand manager, said the project began three years ago after CEO Jim Farley saw the collection the company had assembled in England.

Since then, Ryan and his committee, which includes Gordon Platto, Ford’s design director, and Nick Terzes, Ford Racing's heritage business manager, have been gathering the cars for this living collection.

They have reached into the deep crevices of the automaker’s history while rummaging around the dark corners of its garages, storage units, and studios where disobedient employees tucked away cars that should have been destroyed, like the V10-powered New Edge Mustang GT that once served as a development mule for the Cobra R and GT programs.

The Cars

The Ford Vault Collection

The Ford Vault Collection

Photo by: Anthony Alaniz / Motor1

Ford engineers originally swapped the Mustang’s 4.6-liter V8 for a 5.4-liter unit. Once the Cobra R program wrapped, the automaker began developing the 2005 GT, and it considered several different engines.

One was a naturally aspirated V10, which replaced the 5.4-liter in the Mustang mule. The GT would ultimately get a supercharged V8, and the development mule should have been crushed, but it wasn’t

“We couldn’t crush this car,” said Terzes. He added:

‘A lot of times these kinds of prototypes get crushed, so when you hear we hid cars and moved them around, this is a perfect example. This car literally sat in a warehouse hidden away from eyes, got moved from group to group, and thankfully we kept it.’

2001 Ford Ranger Lightning Bolt

2001 Ford Ranger Lightning Bolt With A Supercharger 5.4-Liter V8

Photo by: Anthony Alaniz / Motor1

And Ford is still using it. When engineers slipped the V10 under the hood, Ford didn’t have a powertrain control module capable of operating at the speeds needed for a 10-cylinder, so the mule had two PCMs.

Recently, Ford decided to update it. “We put a new PCM in, all-new harness, and the car made a lot more power. So, we’re still using this car today for learnings,” Terzes said.

The Mustang GT mule is just one of the more than 100 cars Ford has curated, including vehicles borrowed from others. Jay Leno’s 1934 Ford pickup is on display alongside the Cougar II concept, which is on loan from the Detroit Historical Society. The four blue police cars, dating back to 1957, are from the Michigan State Police.

The Secrets

Early Ford Focus Design Prototype

Early Ford Focus Design Prototype

Photo by: Anthony Alaniz / Motor1

The Ford Vault is more than a warehouse of cars—the exhibit tells a story, with distinct pillars like "Answering The Call,” “America's Race Team,” and “Backbone of Work.” The most interesting is the one dedicated to design, which has a few never-before-seen studio models alongside some of the company's most striking concepts.

An early Ford Bronco design study, created to convince management to revive the nameplate as a proper off-road SUV, is on display for the first time, parked next to the 2005 Ford SYNus concept. The Bronco isn’t even a full model—it lacks a proper interior, with just the tops of the headrests and steering wheel.

The automaker is also showing off a compact studio reference model made from high-density foam that served as an early Focus prototype. It has a cab-forward design and aerodynamic shape, which Ford created to study how to maximize interior space.

Also on the floor is the elusive Ford UXC concept, which looks like a four-door version of the last Mercury Cougar.

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Will The Ford Vault Be Open To The Public?

2006 Ford Reflex Concept

2006 Ford Reflex Concept

Photo by: Anthony Alaniz / Motor1

“Yes, eventually,” said Ryan.

Ford is working with the City of Romulus to update the property's zoning and meet building codes so the public can visit. The automaker provided no timeline as to when that could happen.