1993 Ford Probe GT dashboard and front grille

FORD PROBE GT the <9 Ver ict: Highs: Sweet engine, friendly handling, serious tires. Lows: Some excellent competi- tors have more sheer punch. The Verdict: A grownup GT, with sleek styling and smooth , 11131111613. rival exoticars boots, but they tower over everything in this sportycoupe class. The MX6, for example, rolls on mere 205/5515s. The Probes suspension calibration fol- lows in this more aggressive vein with a thicker front antiroll bar and markedly stiffer springs than the MX6 uses. As a result, the Probe comers with a at, stuck down cornering posture that delivers 0.86 g of roadholding compared to the Mazdas 0.85 g. However, the Probes ride is con siderably less supple on rough roads. Power rack-andpinion steering and the GTs standard disc brakes (the base four cylinder car uses a disc/drum setup) feel precise and accurate, with light effort and smooth, positive action. Coupled with the Probes wider tires, this braking system delivers 176-foot stops from 70 mph. The car makes a benign partner in crime for strafing mountain roads. It understeers safely if you muff a corner and otherwise changes direction cleanly and grips tena ciously. The new Probes handlingand every other facet of its performancebenefits from a weight reduction. As in other recent 34 Mazda-engineered products (the MX6, the RX7, and the 626), overall mass was trimmed even as body rigidity and control of noise, vibration, and harshness were improved. Both the base Probe and the GT carry higher levels of standard equipment than did last years modelsincluding a new drivers air bag. Even so, this new GT weighed 2894 pounds, 66 pounds less than the last GT we tested. Of course, as Ford and Mazda made the new Probe lighter, quicker, smoother, better composed, and nicer looking, the MX6 twin was improving apace. Which cant make life in the alreadynasty two plus-two coupe market any easier. To dis tinguish its version, Ford went for a more aggressive, sports-oriented character. In the GT especially, you see it in the angry face frontend treatment, whose many air slots and sculpted chin spoiler echo the racetrack (even if the result is less pretty than on the base car). And you see it in the retracting headlights, the glass-over-C- pillar, and the dashing upkick in the belt line over the rear wheels. A good-fitting bucket seat in a tidily laid out cockpit enhances the drivers sense of control. The instrument panel, with its hooded gauge binnacle, has a more conventional shape than the new MX6s dramatic wraparound design, and the reach to the small controls and the sight lines to the whitemarked (soft blue at night) gauge faces all work out very neatly. If you have the impression that our April comparison is crying out to be rerun, CAR and DRIVER