Concept Car of the Week: Ford Splash & Pontiac Stinger (1989)

In the late 1980s the last of the Baby Boomers and the older of the Gen-Xers were at an age where they were considering their first new car purchase. It was a ‘Mustang moment’ for a new generation. But the Mustang, though still on offer at the Ford dealers, did not hold the novelty or cachet that it had a generation before.

This new generation was looking for a car or truck that could be a fun everyday car, and also a sporty activity vehicle which could tackle anything from surfing and mountain biking to back country off-roading It was the beginning of the Sports Utility era, one that would soon spawn the likes of the Nissan Pathfinder and Xterra, Suzuki Samurai and Dodge Raider/Mitsubishi Pajero, among others.

Ford and GM had spotted the emerging trend, and decided to create concept cars that would draw the interest of a new generation of buyers.

The Meyers Manx – the classic dune buggy. Like the Mustang, its exact contemporary, a car for the endless summer

At Ford, Vice President of Design, Jack Telnack, looked at the market research and decided that a group of interns from the Center for Creative Studies would be the perfect designers for this new concept, as all were aged between 21 and 24, near the centre of the target demographic age group. The four designers – Brad Baldonado, Chris Gamble, Warren Manser, and Ricky Hsu – had been on a six-month internship with the company between May and December of 1988, and all were placed on the project.

“I asked the students to design and build a vehicle that they would like to use year-round as well as on a summer weekend”, recalled Telnack. “We wanted them to develop a vehicle that would cut across traditional market segments and appeal to entry level buyers and the youth market.”

The Ford Festiva – the unlikely base platform of the Splash

The resulting design was a four-seat SUV that could convert from a street cruising coupe to a mild all-terrain vehicle. Counter-intuitively, the car was based on the platform of the Festiva, a frumpy Mazda-built subcompact that was the very definition of an entry-level econobox. It was the right size, though, with a 93-inch (2360mm) wheelbase, 143-inch (3630mm) length, and 70-inch (1780mm) width.

Shark-like glare of the mask contrasted with the fun-and-friendly sun-and-surf spirit the car was meant to portray. That front mask was prophetic, though

The Splash sat on suspension that could be raised and lowered depending on road (or no road) conditions. Mudflaps descended from the backs of the wheel wells for off-road driving, and could be retracted once back on the pavement.

The body was highly sculpted with strong upswept lines; its glaring mask and aggressive, angled body sculpting was a contrast to the friendly countenance that characterized most dune buggies.

Aggressive body sculpting contrasted with Ford production offerings of the period

Above the beltline, almost everything on the Splash could be removed – body panels, side windows, and hatchback. Even the headlight assembly could be removed for rough-terrain exploits.

The interior was actually rather spartan and functional, with its main feature being the neoprene-covered seats (neoprene being the material of insulated wetsuits). Seats could fold to create a micro-lounge. The instruments and controls were closely clustered around the driver, but there were no real innovations – just a sculptural functionality.

Neoprene-covered seats were the highlight of the interior

Over at General Motors, an extensive and more formal market research study had come to the basically same conclusion that Ford had reached. Pontiac’s design team was tasked with designing a fun, youthful vehicle which had virtually the same brief as Ford’s Splash.

Ed Benson, Director of Marketing and Planning at Pontiac in the late 1980s, described the situation like this: “We looked at the marketplace and the increased interaction between small sporty vehicles; fun-to-drive, outdoor vehicles; utility kinds of cars,” said Benson. “There is an emerging interest in the young group (primarily 35 and under) for special sport vehicles that fully express their unique lifestyles.”

The Stinger’s custom-built frame was fitted with an engine and sent to the test track on a borrowed set of Corvette wheels

Unlike the Splash, The Pontiac Stinger had a custom-built tubular steel frame for the chassis and as a frame for the carbon fibre body panels. Also unlike the Splash, the Stinger carried over some of Pontiac’s design language, particularly at the front mask where the angled nose, split grille, and fog lights at least nominally identified the car as a Pontiac, and vaguely recalled the Banshee concept of a year prior.

The pointed Pontiac beak was very much a feature

The overall massing was simpler than the Splash, with a smoother, but still angled body shape. Like the Splash however, numerous body and glass panels could be removed to create an open roadster/quasi-dune buggy. Even the glass panel in the lower door could be removed and replaced with a storage/ice box unit.

Panels were removable and swappable – like this door-mounted icebox

The Stinger used a Pontiac high performance variation of GM’s legendary ‘Iron Duke’ four cylinder engine, and the suspension was tuned both for on- and off-road driving, with a pneumatic system available to raise the car four inches. The overall package of the Stinger was a bit larger than the Ford Splash, with a wheelbase of 98 inches (2490mm) an overall length of 165 inches (4200 mm), and a width of 74 inches (1880mm).

Plenty of electrical outlets and gadgets featured in the Stinger’s interior

The interior continued the theme suggested by the replaceable glass/icebox unit. It was an extravaganza of snap-in, snap-on, and strap-down gadgets of all types. To name a few – a snap-in Sony Walkman, a removable stereo/boombox, two(!) stowable mini-vacuums, six electrical outlets, and a garden hose.

The Stinger, too, had neoprene-covered seats, with five-point seat belts

Like the Splash, its seats were covered in neoprene. The front seat interior panels were removable to create beach chairs. The rear seat could be raised to give the occupants a better view, or the entire set of assemblies could be folded to create a sleeping platform.

The public and the press were most impressed with the seemingly infinite configurations of the interior. It seemed adaptable for almost every situation. Jim Mateja, reviewing the car for the Chicago Tribune, quipped: “If the Stinger had a (toilet) it would be called a ‘mobile home.’ ”

The overall aspect of the Stinger seems more resolved than the Splash

The Pontiac Stinger was a better resolved concept car than the Splash, and GM devoted considerable resources to market studies and the styling and construction of the car itself. GM also spent a good deal of money promoting the car, as shown by the videos below – you’ll very much enjoy those if you need a bit of 1980s nostalgia.

Although neither car was meant to be overtly futuristic, both would predict trends in the future. The Stinger’s interior anticipated many features that have just found their way into vehicles in this decade, including the adoption of plug-in electronics. But the Splash anticipated the aggressive modelling and glaring masks that are so common in today’s cars and SUVs.

The aggressive mask of the Splash predicted design in the current decade

The two cars look so much alike it would be easy to mistake them for the same studio assignment-either in a college or within the design studio of an OEM. In retrospect, there was a certain inevitability about it. The ideal conceptual model for these cars lies somewhere between an entry-level econobox, a dune buggy, and a Jeep. Both the Splash and the Stinger seemed to have achieve their stated goals.

Getting these concepts into production, however was quite another thing.

The Stinger, despite its late 1980s styling, seems like a fun car that could be sold today

The Splash and the Stinger would be destined to remain concepts. The 1990s were dawning, and although the modern SUV would begin to emerge in the following years, the 1990s would be ruled by the minivan, a vehicle format that, interestingly, neither Ford nor Pontiac ever mastered in the US.

The real game-changer of the decade was a car by Mazda – ironically, the manufacturers of the lumpy Festiva. It would be a car that captured the imaginations of old and young, and had both the spirit of the original Mustang and of classic British sports cars – and, in a way, the friendly open spirit of the dune buggy, though it was strictly a road car.

That innovative Mazda? The MX-5.

Mazda MX-5 –the real game-changer in the 1990s. A car for the endless summer

Below: Two Stinger videos. Very, very much of their time. The second is longer, but better. If you like 1980s nostalgia, that is…