The Maya II ES was a styling mock-up created by Italdesign for Ford, forming part of the Maya project that Giorgetto Giugiaro and his technical partner Mantovani continued on their own initiative after Ford's Special Vehicle Operations withdrew from funding it for cost reasons, with roughly 35,000 work hours invested overall. After Ford USA executives saw the Etna and Maya prototypes, they decided to rejoin the project, proposing a revised Maya design along with a version using a longitudinally mounted mid-engine. This led in 1985 to the Maya II ES mock-up and the related Maya II EM prototype.
The Maya II ES largely retained the original Maya's lines, refined and made less aggressive, though its tail was given sharper contours. It was finished in Ferrari red for a clinic test presented to a selected audience. The design was a high-performance targa coupe with two doors and two seats, built on a mid-mounted, longitudinally installed Ford USA V6 of 2979 cc with 24 valves and twin turbochargers, producing around 300 hp at 6400 rpm. Dimensions included a wheelbase of 250 cm, a track of 152.5 cm, and length/width/height of 427/187.5/118 cm. No production model resulted from the project.
