MERCURY PREMYS: A WORLD-CLASS DESIGN EXERCISE

Take abstracts from the signature elements of the long history of Mercury car designs, then transfer those distinctive shapes and curves to Ford’s new global car and you have the recipe for the Mercury Premys concept car. Premys was created in the Ford of Europe design studios as a world design team exercise intended for the North American auto show circuit, done as part of the CDW-27 global car program. CDW27 is already on sale in Europe as the Ford Mondeo and will be launched in mid-1994 in North America as the Mercury Mystique and Ford Contour.

"The Premys reflects an uncluttered execution of a strong, competent design," said David Turner, Ford Motor Company’s executive director, U. S. car design. "It goes beyond the superficial approach to car styling into a smooth, clean, simple, purposeful shape."

The Premys was created to integrate the longest possible wheelbase with the least possible overhang, using the CDW-27 as a starting point and taking the overall visual cues from the existing car. Using as few styling lines as possible, the design team fashioned the Premys by minimizing corners, cracks, seams and bumps. This "pure execution" approach resulted in an uncluttered exterior with no visual clutter.

"The Premys shows the look of Lincoln-Mercury’s future product designs," Mr. Turner said. "The backlight has gone from formal to fast to become part of an overall move to world market cars, but the look of the Premys is all Mercury. A styling exercise like Premys helps load up our design ’bookshelf’ with elements from which future car designs can be drawn."