This 1982 Ford Concept Is The Perfect Car For the Zombie Apocalypse
You probably don't remember this Ford concept car. But if the zombie apocalypse that's so popular in movies and TV shows right now ever comes true, it could prove to be the perfect car for a world of walkers.
Debuting at the 1982 Detroit Auto Show and continuing its tour in Chicago, the Ford Alternative Fuel Vehicle was a highly aerodynamic two-door concept designed by Ghia—or whatever was left of Ghia after being reduced to a trim level after Ford took over the company in 1970.
At the Chicago Auto Show in 1982.
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The AFV was powered by a highly modified version of the European Ford Escort's 1.6 liter four-cylinder engine, and could run on natural gas, methane, ethanol or alcohol as well as conventional gasoline. A later development even promised to add diesel to the list of acceptable fuels. Yet it's not like Ford was about to put anything like that into production, according to a passage from the academic textbook Progress in Biomass Conversion, published when the AFV concept was new:
Ford Motor Co. is playing a leading role in developing alternate fuel vehicles for maximum operational flexibility. The AFV concept car introduced at the Detroit Auto Show in January 1982 has been designed to operate on compressed natural gas, with provisions for conversion to liquified propane, alcohol or diesel fuel. The current Ford engineering and marketing thrust is toward alternative single fuel vehicles, rather than multi-fuel vehicles, because of the performance and operational compromise associated with instantaneous multi-fuel capability [...] Ford has sold 40,000 cars in Brazil for operation on ethanol from sugar cane, and has 40 research cars on methanol in the Los Angeles mechanical fleet. Moreover, the auto giant has been selling propane diet Granadas and Cougars to fleet operators since November 1981, and will offer 2.3 liter four-cylinder Ford LTD and Mercury Marquis propane models to the general public starting in the fall of 1982.
Ford's multi-burner AFV concept wasn't as cool as the also Ghia-designed Chrysler Turbine Car. Then again, nothing is.
What It's Like to Drive the Chrysler Turbine Car
Looking at the tiny ATF and its giant compressed gas refueling system that you're supposed to keep in your garage, I understand why this Ford doesn't seem like an ideal survivor vehicle. But hear me out!
If too many people get through the end of the world as we know it, you're doomed anyway. Dream all day long about beefed up SUVs crashing through the debris, but with such a crowd sucking up whatever fuel is left, the party won't last long, and you're not Mad Max. That's why you need to wish for the brainless zombie apocalypse scenario, with only a scant number of humans surviving.
Frankly, zombies have no idea how to fill up a car. Nor do they have the dexterity. That leaves you, the few remaining humans, to pick from the variety of combustible fuels left at your feet. And while your friends who foolishly put their trust in finicky, slow-starting wood-gas generator setups get eaten alive ...
wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sonett72
... you can comfortably drive around these obstacles in your 1.6-liter Ford, extending your range using gasoline, natural gas, methane, ethanol or alcohol. Hypermiling to safety has never been easier.
This is not what Ford had in mind in 1982.
Ford
Unfortunately, with only one AFV in the world—hidden only Ford knows where—it's going to be hard to secure access to this particular concept in the event of the zombie apocalypse. However, you should know that in Australia, the car we call the Chevrolet SS was available as the Holden Commodore LPG wagon in 2012. It's a bi-fuel V8 running on LPG as well as gasoline. You get less flexibility than with the AFV, but more burnouts.
So if the zombie uprising happens, you can try to make your way to Australia. Me? I'll stay in Europe, closer to where Ford keeps its discarded concept cars.