Junkyard Gem: 1990 Ford Taurus SHO

Ford sold the first-generation Taurus SHO for the 1989 through 1991 model years, and no Taurus since that time has attained its level of madness. Oh, sure, later Tauruses had more horsepower, but the combination of lightweight, ordinary-looking sedan, high-revving engine, and manual transmission made the original Taurus SHO the purest of the factory-hot-rod Detroit sedans of its era. Ford hired piano- and motorcycle-builder Yamaha to turn the unexciting Vulcan V6 into a performance engine, and the result was a 7,000-rpm redline, 220 horsepower, and one of the coolest-looking intake manifolds in automotive history.