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There are many kinds of controversy, and a car manufacturer which has been operating for 120 years, as Ford Motor Company has, will inevitably have experienced most of them.

Here are 40 examples of the company’s models which have caused disputes of one kind or another. They’re listed in chronological order, and were marketed either by Ford itself or by brands Ford owned before 1950, but not ones it acquired after that year.

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Ford Model T (1908)

The Model T is now perhaps the most celebrated car Ford ever produced, but to get the full picture we have to consider how cars in general were viewed when it first appeared in 1908. Although they developed an enthusiastic following, they were also considered by many people to be noisy, smelly, frighteningly fast and terribly dangerous.

The T wasn’t necessarily a specific target, but by its very existence it was part of a large controversy, and became central to it as sales skyrocketed. Henry Ford was however criticised for hanging onto it for too long, as it stayed in production for 19 years, and during the latter half of its life General Motors overtook Ford in the US market.

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Lincoln Zephyr (1936)

The Zephyr was a remarkable car for 1936, not least because it had – remarkably for its relatively low price – a V12 engine related to (but not simply an enlarged version of) the Ford flathead V8.

The V12 was the car’s most appealing, but also most controversial, feature. Its most serious flaw was that the exhaust gases were ported through the cylinder blocks, and heated up the water which the radiator was trying to cool down. Lincoln later made amends, but the Zephyr never quite lost its reputation for unreliability.

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Ford Parklane (1955)

Sometimes a controversy can arise between a manufacturer and its customers. This was the case with the Parklane, a two-door station wagon which sold so poorly that Ford offered it only in the 1956 model year.

Ford tried again with the very similar Del Rio, which was more successful in the limited sense that it lasted for two whole model years (1957 and 1958) before being canned.

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Ford Taunus (1957)

The P2 generation Taunus, sold from 1957 to 1960, must have come as quite a shock to people who had been accustomed to earlier German Fords of the same name. While the previous models appeared relatively staid, this one had lots of chrome, prominent tailfins, a frontal resemblance to the contemporary Mercury Monterey and in some cases two-tone paintwork, the different colours appearing above and below a line which resembled Buick’s ‘sweepspear’.

All this flamboyance led to the P2 being nicknamed Barocktaunus, or baroque Taunus, in reference to a highly decorative artistic style of the 17th and 18th centuries. More positively, it was also known as the fliegende Teppich, or flying carpet, in a tribute to its excellent ride quality.

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Edsel (1958)

Possible reasons for the failure of Ford’s calamitous Edsel brand, which was introduced in 1958 and axed just two years later, include incoherent marketing, a change in customer preferences towards smaller cars, low quality, dubious styling and a horrendous recession in America which saw new car sales halve.

Nearly 70 years later, the exact cause no longer matters. What does matter is that Edsel was Ford’s first major disaster, and a sign that even an enormously wealthy company with talented staff can sometimes get things very badly wrong.

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Ford Anglia (1959)

The last of many European Fords to bear the Anglia name is probably best known now for its appearance in the Harry Potter films, though it’s also notable for being the first car fitted with an engine from the Kent family. Its most controversial feature, which applied only to the saloon versions, was a reverse-angled rear window, which one authority has described as being given “short shrift by customers who could see no rationale for it beyond a perverse desire to be different”.

That might well have been the case when the Anglia was launched in 1959, but in the following eight years Ford had reason to build more than a million examples, so the car’s other qualities seem to have overcome early distaste for its unusual appearance.

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Ford Taunus (1960)

The appearance of the P3 Taunus was approximately as controversial as that of the ‘baroque’ model it replaced in 1960, but for completely different reasons. American influence had been eliminated, and the car’s shape was so unusual for the period that it became known as the Badewanne, or ‘bathtub’.

Even more remarkably, the P3 had lozenge-shaped headlights. These would have had to be replaced if the car had been exported to the US, since it was illegal to use anything other than round headlights there at the time.

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Ford Consul Classic (1961)

While Ford of Germany was removing American influence from the Taunus, Ford of Britain adopted it in a big way for the Consul Classic. By UK standards, the front end was brash and the finned tail was enormous, while the reverse-angled rear window was carried over from the Anglia.

Despite early concerns, the Anglia quickly became accepted, but the even more unusual Consul Classic never was. Production lasted only from April 1961 to September 1963.

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Ford Consul Capri (1961)

It’s difficult to say if the Consul Classic looked stranger than its coupe equivalent, or the other way round. The first Ford model with Capri in its name was lower than the saloon, and although its rear window sloped the ‘correct’ way, this also emphasised the length of the car’s tail even more.

At under 20,000, sales of the Capri were less than a fifth those of the Classic, though in fact the Capri remained on the market for slightly longer, until July 1964. It’s possible that Ford needed a replacement for the Consul far more urgently than it did for the Capri.

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Ford Corsair V4 (1965)

The Consul Classic was replaced by the far more conventional-looking Corsair, which was relatively cheap to develop because it shared all its mechanicals and part of its structure with the Cortina. Launched in 1963, it remained uncontroversial until late 1965, when Ford decided to replace its Kent engine with the Essex V4. Also available in the Transit, the Essex was larger and more powerful than the Kent, but it was also heavier.

While the Corsair’s performance certainly improved, it was now also less economical, didn’t handle as well (due to the extra nose weight) and sounded harsher. Demand fell to such an extent that Ford needed to build slightly fewer V4 Corsairs in four years than it had been obliged to manufacture Kent-engined versions in just two.

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Ford Thunderbird (1967)

The glory days of the Thunderbird were already behind it when Ford introduced the fifth-generation model in 1967. The T-bird was now larger than before, there was no convertible derivative, a saloon was added to the range, and Ford returned to the old-fashioned body-on-frame construction method for the first time in a decade.

Customers were unconvinced. Sales were reasonably strong at first, but dropped to just over 36,000 in the 1971 model year, the lowest figure for the nameplate since 1957.

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Ford Torino Talladega (1969)

The Talladega was the subject of a motorsport controversy rather than a general motoring one. Based on the Sportsroof fastback version of the regular Torino, it had a more aerodynamic front end which reduced drag – a very useful feature on high-speed NASCAR oval tracks.

In early 1969 Ford built just enough road-going versions to qualify for that year’s NASCAR series. David Pearson (1934-2018) won eleven rounds and his third title. Other manufacturers followed Ford’s lead until the aero warriors, as they were known, were legislated out of contention, a sure sign that someone had had a better idea than the rule makers were expecting.

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Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II (1969)

The Spoiler II was the exact equivalent of the Ford Torino Talladega homologation special, built in similar numbers from the same material and for the same reasons. It was also equally competitive, at least potentially – LeeRoy Yarbrough (1938-1984) won two rounds in a Spoiler II in 1969, but competed more often in a Talladega, in which he won five.

The contrasting results achieved by the two models were appropriate, and possibly deliberate. While the Spoiler II gave Mercury a lot of publicity, the idea of the junior brand beating the senior one across a whole season might not have sat well with upper management.

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Ford Pinto (1971)

Ford’s first North American subcompact sold in very high numbers throughout the 1970s, but it’s more famous now for its tendency to burst into flames if the fuel tank was ruptured in a rear-end collision.

While there are differing views on just how dangerous the Pinto really was compared with similar cars built in the same decade, there is no doubt that it was an extremely costly car for Ford in terms of both money and reputation.

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Ford Falcon GTHO Phase IV (1972)

Along with high-performance versions of the Holden Torana and Chrysler Valiant Charger, the GTHO Phase IV was one of the most controversial cars ever developed for road use. All three were created as homologation specials for the 1972 model year, and were expected to battle it out on Australian race tracks in that season.

However, a newspaper article in the Sydney Sun-Herald gave rise to what has become known as the supercar scare, which led to these cars being strongly criticised by politicians. Within days, each manufacturer had abandoned its project. As a result, very few GTHO Phase IVs were actually built. In 2021, one of them set a new auction record for an Australian-built car of $1.75 million.

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Ford Granada (1972)

By far the most controversial thing about the first-generation European Granada introduced in 1972 was its name. The Granada Group, a large UK media and catering conglomerate (including operating motorway service areas ), took Ford to court over this, on the grounds that members of the public might think it had something to do with the car, which was described in court as “an unfair and unlawful incursion into [the Group’s] goodwill”.

The judge, Justice John Graham, decided Granada had “failed to produce evidence that satisfies me that such is likely to be the case”, and found in favour of Ford. The car went onto great success in Europe, becoming the car to aspire to for any senior manager, before German brands inevitably came calling for that market…

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Ford Mustang (1973)

The second-generation Mustang, introduced in the 1974 model year, is widely regarded as a poor substitute for the first, which had made its debut a decade earlier. Media reaction was mixed, and often hostile – journalists complained at the time, as later commenters have also done, that it just wasn’t sporty enough to be a ‘real’ Mustang.

The controversy made little difference to customers. Mustang sales in 1974 were higher than they had been since 1967, and over the course of five years the car found more than a million buyers. Whatever people think of it now, it was successful in its day.

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Ford Escort (1980)

The Escort launched in 1980 was a completely different machine from the two versions built over the previous 12 years. It was available as a hatchback, it had front-wheel drive, and it came with a new engine called the CVH, which had an overhead camshaft and hydraulic lifters. After more than a decade of rear-wheel drive and overhead-valve engines, it was all rather exciting – or, if you were a traditionalist, rather alarming.

Reviews were mostly favourable, but there was immediate criticism of the poor ride quality, which Ford responded to by revising the suspension. In 1982, the new Escort became the most-registered car in the UK, according to figures collated by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, and remained so (if you include the fourth-generation car, which was really just an update of this one) until 1989.

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Ford Mustang (1980)

The third Mustang arrived around the time of the second global oil crisis in six years. In an effort to keep fuel economy favourable, Ford smothered its Windsor V8 engine, reducing its capacity to 4.2 litres and its power output to just 120bhp.

In this form, the engine was available in the Mustang from 1980 to 1982. Cars of that period had miserable performance, and are now regarded as the low point both of V8-powered Mustangs and of the generally respected Windsor.

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Ford Sierra (1982)

A section of the British motoring public, familiar with the Ford Cortina for two decades, reacted hotly to the arrival of the Sierra in 1982. It had a silly name, they said, and it looked like a jelly mould.

The controversy eventually died down, and the Sierra became as familiar as its Cortina predecessors had been. The high-performance RS Cosworth and later RS500 variants added glamour to what, by the end of the decade, was regarded as a very conventional car.

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Ford Bronco II (1984)

The Bronco II, a compact SUV sold from 1984 to 1990, developed a terrible reputation for falling over due to its combination of a small footprint and a high centre of gravity. Other vehicles of the same type have had similar problems, but the Bronco II became the poster child due to a series of high-profile cases.

The total cost to Ford is difficult to determine, but a magazine report published in 2001 included an estimate that the company had had to pay “approximately $2.4 billion in damage settlements”. Its follow-up model, introduced in 1991, became controversial in another way when a 1993 example became involved in one of the most famous - albeit slow-speed - car chases in history when it carried OJ Simpson, in Los Angeles in 1994…

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Ford Probe (1988)

The controversy surrounding the Probe was over and done with before the car went on sale in 1988. This compact coupe was designed in collaboration with Mazda, had front-wheel drive and was powered by either a four-cylinder engine or a V6, all of which seemed acceptable.

The problem was that it was originally planned as the new Mustang. Both inside and outside Ford, it was felt that front-wheel drive, partly Japanese heritage and the lack of a V8 option simply didn’t add up to something that could be called Mustang, so the car was launched as the Probe instead. The then-current Mustang wasn’t replaced until 1994, by which time the Probe was in its second generation.

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Ford Escort Mk5 (1990)

The European Escort entered a new generation in 1990. Compared with its immediate predecessor, the car was roomier, better equipped and only slightly more expensive. Customers liked it, and it was a big success for Ford.

This happy tale is spoiled only by the fact that early models were heavily criticised for their ride, handling, gutless engines and appearance. Ford reacted very quickly to the complaints, and introduced a revised version in only slightly more than two years, making the new Escort the car it should have been in the first place. Luckily perhaps for Ford the market, and competitor cars, were more forgiving then than today.

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Ford Scorpio (1994)

The final European Ford in the Granada/Scorpio line, launched in 1994, was a conventional large saloon/estate which in normal circumstances wouldn’t have offended anyone. The abnormal circumstance which made it one of the most talked-about Fords ever (in an entirely negative sense) was its design.

Commentators fell over themselves trying to out-do each other with ever more insulting remarks about the car’s appearance. Ford couldn’t do much about this without starting again from scratch (too expensive to contemplate), but it did give the Scorpio a minor facelift in late 1997, which helped slightly.

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Ford Aspire (1994)

Like the much earlier Parklane, the Aspire was an example of a mild controversy between Ford and its customers – the former wanted the latter to buy it, but the latter weren’t interested.

This inexpensive little hatchback was co-developed with Kia, which sold it as the Avella. It was introduced in North America in 1994, but dropped three years later due to lack of interest.

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Ford Explorer (1995)

The second-generation Explorer SUV went on the market in 1995, and quickly became notorious due to a series of major accidents. This led to a legal battle between Ford and tyre supplier Firestone. In February 2001, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that it had denied a request by Firestone to open a safety defect investigation into the handling and control characteristics of the Explorer if the tread of a rear tyre came away from the rest of it.

The NHTSA stated that analysis of claims data showed there was “no significant difference in the likelihood of a crash following a tread separation between Explorer vehicles and other compact SUVs”. The affair led - among other things - to the exit of Ford CEO Jac Nasser.

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Ford Fiesta (1996)

The 1996 Fiesta (also sold as the Mazda 121) was largely the same as the previous one apart from a new engine, less weight and a mild restyle. The last of these was perhaps the least successful and caused adverse comments, some of them including the word ‘fish’.

Fortunately, it didn’t last long. Ford adopted its New Edge styling for the facelifted version, which looked significantly better.

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Ford Ka (1996)

The original Ka, which made its debut in 1996, was only mildly controversial, but there has always been disagreement about how to pronounce its name – with a short ‘a’ as in cat, with a long ‘a’ as in ‘car’, or even spelling out each letter as if they were intials (which is not the case).

Then there was the question of its styling. The Ka was the first production Ford with a New Edge design, and while it looks innocent enough now it was quite startling at the time, especially to people who hadn’t seen pictures of the similar Saetta concept car.

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Ford Racing Puma (1999)

The 1999 Racing Puma was a special version of the Fiesta-based Puma coupe developed by Tickford. Among other modifications, the standard 1.7-litre engine was uprated from 123bhp to a still less than startling 153bhp, though the emphasis was more on handling. Two race drivers, one of whom later became a British Touring Car Champion, agreed that it suffered from understeer on a circuit, but this was not apparent in road use.

The most controversial thing about the Racing Puma was its price. Ford charged £22,750, at a time when a Subaru Impreza WRX cost significantly less and a Lotus Elise only slightly more. Sales were understandably low.

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Ford Excursion (1999)

At 5758mm (226.7in) from end to end, and weighing around four US tons, the Excursion remains, nearly a quarter of a century after its debut, one of the largest, heaviest and least economical SUVs ever to go on sale.

Onlookers concerned about safety and the environment reacted with alarm, and came up with several nicknames for the vehicle, including Fordasaurus, Ford Saddam and Ford Valdez. The last of these was a reference to the Exxon Valdez supertanker which dropped ten million US gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound, Alaska, in 1989.

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Ford Focus RS (2001)

The first of what would become three series of Focus RS arrived in 2001, and was immediately impressive because Ford (for either technical or cost reasons, depending on who you spoke to) had made it front-wheel drive like the standard model rather than four-wheel drive like the versions competing in the World Rally Championship.

Torque steer, which happened only if you were driving very hard, was a controversial issue, and unfairly blamed on the car’s Quaife limited slip differential, which wasn’t in fact causing the problem. The second Focus RS – also front-wheel drive, and also fitted with the Quaife diff – behaved far better because of its superior front suspension geometry, which Ford achieved by developing the ingenious RevoKnuckle system.

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Ford Thunderbird (2001)

After building Thunderbirds in ten generations for 42 years, Ford discontinued the nameplate in 1997, but then brought it back five years later. Like the original T-bird, but unlike any of the nine in between, this version was a two-seat convertible, and was based on the same platform as the Jaguar S-Type and Lincoln LS.

After an initial flurry of interest, sales fell sharply, leading to the cancellation of the model after just four years. Perhaps a truly modern Thunderbird would have been more successful than a retro tribute, and perhaps also Ford had been right to abandon the two-seat convertible configuration in the late 1950s, and wrong to bring it back in the following century.

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Lincoln Blackwood (2002)

Ford’s luxury brand made the unusual decision to produce a pickup truck in 2002. Based on the contemporary F-150, it was resoundingly unpopular, and stayed on the market for just one model year in the US and one more in Mexico.

Lincoln’s next effort, the Mark LT, was barely more successful. Even in combination, they didn’t come close to GM’s equivalent, the Cadillac Escalade EXT, which wasn’t exactly a big hit either. The message seems to be that no matter how much you want to put a luxury pickup on sale, don’t do it.

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Ford Five Hundred (2004)

Ford’s second largest saloon of its period, after the Crown Victoria, was sold only in the 2005 to 2007 model years and was based on a platform inherited from Volvo, which made this car a slightly unlikely sibling of the Volvo XC90 Mk1. The Five Hundred’s lack of success has been attributed to its conservative styling, which was widely criticised. Ford designer J Mays admitted that the look of the Five Hundred was problematic. “It’s just lacking in the emotional appeal that we should have put into it,” he admitted in one interview, though this was not the whole story.

In another interview, talking about the same car, he hinted at another reason by saying, “I've been at the company 13 years and I've been through five CEOs. Some of those CEOs have had more conservative tastes than others.” Ford’s latest CEO, Alan Mulally who arrived in 2006, ordered an immediate re-design and the revival of the Taurus nameplate, which he said had much greater brand equity, having been around between 1986 and 2005; this seemed to improve sales, especially when an all-new Taurus arrived in 2010.

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Ford EcoSport (2014)

“It’s been a long time since a new Ford was as bad as the EcoSport,” we said in 2014. Launched in other markets two years earlier, the model had been developed in Brazil and built (for Europe) in India (and also in several other places), where it suited local conditions, and brought over to Europe, where it definitely didn’t, to allow Ford to compete in the highly competitive compact SUV sector.

With question marks over its ride, handling and interior quality, the EcoSport at first sold poorly in the region, though Ford made amends by improving it considerably in later years. It sold reasonably well in the US, despite being very small for that market – but at least it was cheap.

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Lincoln Continental concept (2015)

The concept version of what would become the new Continental caused quite a flurry when it was revealed at the 2015 Detroit Show. Bentley design chief Luc Donckerwolke (born 1965) thought it bore a suspiciously close resemblance to his own company’s car of the same name, and vigorously conveyed his objections on social media.

Lincoln made some adjustments (which would probably have happened anyway) before the production Continental went on sale two years later, but the basic shape remained the same.

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Ford Focus RS (2012)

The third and last Focus RS was the only one in the series with four-wheel drive, which wasn’t controversial, and a setting called Drift Mode, which was – at least in Australia.

Representatives of the Pedestrian Council of Australia and the National Roads and Motorists’ Association, along with a former head of Australian Medical Association, all expressed concerns about Drift Mode. Ford responded to calls for it to be disabled by not disabling it, and there the matter rested.

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Ford GT (2015)

In order to prevent ‘flipping’ (selling a car for a vast profit shortly after purchasing it) Ford required buyers of the second-generation GT to keep it for 24 months. Not everyone did, which led to various lawsuits.

Two particularly high-profile examples – one involving Mecum Auctions, the other wrestler John Cena – were amicably settled out of court. Ford donated the money it received to charity in each case.

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Ford Mustang Mach-E (2020)

The full name of the Mach-E, which went on sale in the 2021 model year, was not welcomed by people who felt that a Mustang should be a high-performance coupe or convertible, as it had been for the past 57 years, and not an all-electric SUV.

Ford stuck with it anyway. ‘Traditional’ Mustangs are still available (a new one, the seventh in the series, has recently been introduced) and manufacturers can call their vehicles anything they like, within reason.

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Ford F-Series Super Duty (2023)

The enormous size of some North American pickup trucks is an increasing cause for concern in their home markets, and regarded as madness in other parts of the world. Since they are built by several competing manufacturers, Ford is only part of the problem rather than the cause of it, but the current F-Series Super Duty certainly contributes to the controversy.

In its most extreme, long-wheelbase F-450 Crew Cab form, the Super Duty is a leviathan – 6762mm (266.2in) long, 2960mm (105.9in) wide including its mirrors, 2085mm (82.1in) tall, and with a kerbweight of 3895kg (8587 pounds). Perhaps one day legislation will be introduced to prevent vehicles of this size being available to American private users on standard licences, but there’s no sign of it at the moment; certainly in many other countries such as the UK a heavy-goods vehicle licence would be needed, with extra driving training and testing required.

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Do you believe?

YouGov surveys suggest three-quarters of British people adjudge that alien life exists somewhere in the universe, while a whole third think those extraterrestrials have visited Earth at least once. Seven per cent of our population say they have seen a UFO. But I'd happily wager those figures swell at least a little in this hilly, happy valley in West Yorkshire. The market town of Todmorden is the unofficial UFO capital of the UK - think Area 51 with less Nevada desert and more craft shops.

It's the perfect place to introduce Maserati's latest land-borne craft to British roads. The MCPura represents a nip, tuck and light rebrand for the wondrous MC20 supercar after five years on sale. To the eyes of dedicated car folk, little has changed - reprofiled bumpers and new wheel and paint options summarise its visual makeover - but this car will remain a UFO (unusually fabulous object) to many onlookers. Not least with its dihedral doors and the hugely theatrical folding roof of this Cielo cabrio, it makes even its everyday manoeuvres resemble the extraordinary.

Its dynamic elements are unchanged, a carbon tub at its core and a 621bhp twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 perched beneath its pert, Trident-stamped deck. It drives the rear wheels only through a snappy eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. The MCPura feels distinctly old-school for its lack of hybridisation and there's naturally an awful lot to like about that - particularly on roads as stirring as these.

Todmorden (pronounced Tod-muh-dun) sits at the confluence of three Pennine valleys, and while it doesn't inhabit the more famed driving meccas of the Yorkshire Dales or North York Moors, the Calderdale region it dwells in has a charm all of its own. Hills dominate the horizon in every direction, punching well above their official elevation figures with sweeping consistency and rich textures. Bleating sheep and topsy-turvy dry stone walls etch detail into the picture while wind turbines pepper many of the region's peaks to twist a useful positive from its often inclement weather.

Colin Lyall has owned a second-hand bookshop in Tod, as the locals call it, for 25 years. "Tod is open, welcoming and accepting," he tells me. "It's always been alternative - a nest of counterculture where people come to escape the elements of a more mundane society." Its philosophy clearly embraces a wide spectrum of views about what may occupy the skies above us.

Tod's most famous tale dates back to November 1980 and the apparent abduction of police officer Alan Godfrey as he performed an early morning search for some missing cows. There are copious books and resources that dig gleefully into the finer details (the BBC's Uncanny podcast explores the story with particular eloquence) but Godfrey claims to have seen a large, lit diamond in the sky - 20ft wide and 14ft tall, stationary save for an anticlockwise rotation on its lower section - before losing 25 minutes of his morning and finding himself 100ft farther down the A646, with no recollection of what had occurred in the interim.

Rational explanations abound, but Godfrey has steadfastly stuck to his story for nearly 50 years. And his is far from the only ethereal event on these roads. Reports of silver balls, beams of light and phantom Zeppelins roaming the sky date back to the early 1900s, when the pragmatic suggestion of military aircraft manoeuvres can't quickly shrug off the paranormal twist on events.

"Alan's experience is the big story, the one that centres it," says Colin as he divulges Calderdale's reputation for "high-strangeness events". Ghosts, witches and vampires also star in local legends. It's all up for discussion at his monthly Todmorden UFO Meet, open to all in the Golden Lion pub since 2017. It's well known among the UFO community and attendees have travelled from all over the world to tell their story. So does Colin have an experience of his own? "In Manchester, ironically! I had to go out of town to have mine," he says, laughing. "I saw a silver ball move across the sky very slowly. And I thought: 'Well, what is that?' There was no propulsion system with it. At the altitude that I could see it, it must have been pretty big."

Back in the MCPura, it feels like I'm in danger of triggering my own disturbance, because the car erupts with a histrionic blare each time I push its stark blue starter button. My momentum against the Millstone Grit buildings of Tod town centre feels rather brazen and its open roof alerts me to plenty of "bloomin' hecks" (and other utterances) as I potter around while photographer Sim takes some pictures.

In moments like these, I improbably wish for the hybridisation of its closest supercar rivals - or the fully electric MC20 Folgore, which Maserati promised at launch but cancelled, citing lack of demand. We come in peace, after all, and a mite more subtlety would be welcome. So I'm grateful when the chance arises to whisk Sim back into the Maserati and continue our clockwise loop towards the exact spot where PC Godfrey had his close encounter.

When we reach it there's no plaque, and with the sun shining and turbine blades spinning it's difficult to imagine a domineering craft hovering ahead to halt our progress. So I instead lean into the fast, gentle curves of the A646 to dig deeper into the MCPura's potential. On warm, dry Tarmac, it exhibits little of the savagery I've experienced in wetter conditions in its MC20 forebear. There's grip to spare and I'm quickly notching through the drive modes to sharpen its focus.

The damping is supreme across undulating Tarmac and you can quickly shrug off the more languid vertical movements of GT mode to indulge in the tighter-fisted feel of Sport or Race. This also sharpens the shifts of its already impressive dual-clutch 'box, and with the car's prodigious performance inevitably tricky to wring out on public roads, you instead play tunes on its Nettuno V6 by flick-flacking up and down the gears, feeling the car transform from mild to wild with a couple of choice downchanges.

Consecutive right turns at Cliviger onto The Long Causeway serve up tighter corners and more breathtaking dips and crests for enjoying Maserati's slightly ragged interpretation of the modern supercar experience. The MCPura's best work happens below its limits and there's great satisfaction in achieving a smooth, consistent flow, feeling its mid-engined balance and subtly rearward weight bias inform its cornering attitude rather than govern it. I'd have far busier hands and feet if the sun wasn't so golden, mind. And I don't once gel with its soft, unprogressive brake pedal, which clearly wishes to be stamped hard to the bulkhead on a racetrack rather than carefully modulated on a twisting B-road.

It's not the only imperfection, and while you can sense the influence its engineers took from rival supercars, the MCPura is unashamedly its own, unique thing. As you might well hope at a whisker under £300,000 as tested, with its generously ladled options. Yet it looks twice its asking price with the sun dancing across its multi-layered Fuoriserie paint and the flying buttresses on the Cielo's rear deck more than justifying its sacrifice of a glass cover above the V6.

This is a design more emboldened in drop-top form and I doubt its coupé sibling would have been any more thrilling across the moors. Its handful of niggles are much easier to tolerate with the sun beaming down and the chuffs, whistles and bass of its boosted V6 so easily populating the cabin.

We reach Hebden Bridge - a place brimming with its own UFO sightings - before turning right at Mytholmroyd to tackle Cragg Vale Incline, the longest continuous road ascent in England. Its 968ft rise across 5.5 miles earned it a place in the Grand Départ of the 2014 Tour de France. It's naturally a mite easier with 538lb ft of Italian muscle to call on and the MCPura makes light work of our climb towards Blackstone Edge and the border with Greater Manchester.

Darkness is gradually draping itself across the scenery and an immediate chill prickles our arms as stars begin to pepper the sky and bright lights beam ominously across the valley. "Must be tractors," we both mutter hopefully to one another. Believer or sceptic, it's hard not to glance through the Cielo's targa top with intrigue: the breadth of phenomena across these sprawling moors is enough to carve a glimmer of possibility in even the most closed minds. And should extraterrestrial life not extend a friendly hand to shake, we have the ideal getaway car.

Drive it yourself

Our 'Tod Triangle' takes in 32 miles and 1hr 10min of glorious Pennines scenery, delays caused by unplanned abductions or time slips notwithstanding. Tally your visit with the third Tuesday of the month to attend the Todmorden UFO Meet at the Golden Lion — friendly sceptics very much welcome.

Plentiful pubs or cafes can be tapped in as waypoints, but the towns of Todmorden, Mereclough, Hebden Bridge and Littleborough are your key anchors to replicate our route. Bridestones Moor and Stoodley Pike allow you to park up for a dramatic hike among the scenery (and a closer peek to the skies) safe in the knowledge that you can soothe any aches and pains afterwards with the hot and cold contrast sauna at New Delight Inn (iglusauna.co.uk).

Short, worthwhile detours include Mankinholes, a ruggedly rural spot with numerous otherworldly occurrences to its name (though narrow lanes to negotiate), the towering structure of Baitings Reservoir dam and the unlikely inland beach of Hollingworth Lake, complete with fish 'n' chip shops, an ice cream parlour and an amusement arcade.

Maserati MCPura Cielo
Price	£227,070
Engine	V6, 2992cc, twin-turbo, petrol
Power	621bhp at 7500rpm
Torque	538lb ft at 3000rpm
Gearbox	8-spd dual-clutch automatic, RWD
Kerb weight	1560kg
0-62mph	2.9sec
Top speed	199mph
Economy	24.1mpg
CO2, tax band	265g/km, 37%
Rivals	Ferrari 296 GTS, McLaren Artura Spider

Internal combustion engines are far more complex than electric motors, and it’s correspondingly more difficult to make them produce a lot of power.

As the 2011 horsepower Lotus Evija demonstrates, the most powerful cars of the near future will be EVs, but remarkable outputs have nevertheless been achieved with engines fuelled by petrol or diesel.

Here we’re looking at 20 of the strongest examples created in the US, all of them available in cars or non-commercial trucks sold to the public for road use (so no 11,000 horsepower Top Fuel dragsters, for example).

They’re listed in ascending order of their quoted outputs, with the caveat that there was a change from gross to net horsepower in 1972, which muddies the waters considerably.

Only the most powerful unit from any family is included. This means that what you’ll be reading isn’t a top 20 in the usual sense, since many engines have been ignored because they are outpowered by close relatives, but it adds variety, and we all like variety.

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Chrysler FirePower: 390 horsepower (gross)

The FirePower was the first of three generations of Chrysler V8 engine collectively known as Hemi. Introduced in the 1951 model year, it was the only engine fitted to the first four models in the 300 letter series, each of which was produced for just a single year.

It was discontinued after the 300D of 1958, in which it produced 380 horsepower from 6.4 litres if fitted with twin four-barrel carburettors. Optional fuel injection raised the output to 390 horsepower, the highest achieved in any FirePower.

It’s important to note that this was a gross figure, measured when the engine was not burdened by power-sapping ancillaries necessary for it to function in a car. The net figure, as used from 1972 onwards, would have been lower, but still comfortably over 300 horsepower.

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Chrysler RB: 400 horsepower (gross)

The RB was a big-block V8 offered in capacities of up to 7.2 litres, but the most powerful version fitted to a road car measured 6.8 litres. This was used in the 300F of 1960, in which it normally produced 375 horsepower gross. As an extra-cost option, customers could order a 400 horsepower version, which was mated to a four-speed manual gearbox rather than the usual three-speed automatic.

The highest gross figure for a 7.2 was 390 horsepower. The Max Wedge variant was rated at 420, but this was intended only for use in drag racing.

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Ford MEL: 400 horsepower (gross)

The MEL (which stood for Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln) was Ford’s rival to the contemporary Chrysler RB. In 7.0-litre form it was easily capable of producing 360 horsepower, which was the standard output of the Mercury Park Lane.

In 1958, however, Mercury offered an uprated version with three two-barrel carburettors. Known as the Super Marauder, it produced 400 horsepower, and was an option on every model Mercury sold in that year.

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Oldsmobile Rocket: 400 horsepower (gross)

In 1970, the final model year of the first-generation front-wheel drive Toronado, Oldsmobile created the optional W-34 package to boost the output of its second-generation V8, which by that time had reached its maximum capacity of 7.5 litres.

As standard, the V8 was rated at 375 horsepower, which you might have thought would be about enough. The uprated camshaft and dual exhaust system included in the package raised this to 400, and for good measure Oldsmobile added “special transmission calibration for quicker acceleration”.

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Cummins B Series: 420 horsepower

The first and only six-cylinder diesel on this list is a 6.7-litre member of the long-running B Series family, supplied by Cummins to Stellantis for use in its Ram heavy duty trucks. The Standard Output version produces 370 horsepower and is available in the 2500 and 3500, but the 3500 also has the option of the High Output derivative which produces 420 horsepower, 10 more than the 6.4-litre petrol Hemi V8 in the same range.

In terms of torque, the High Output easily surpasses the others. It produces 1075 lb ft, well above the Standard Output’s 850 lb ft and the Hemi’s 429 lb ft.

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Chrysler Hemi: 425 horsepower (gross)

Originally intended only for racing, the first Chrysler V8 officially called Hemi (and nicknamed Elephant) later became available in several Chrysler, Plymouth and Dodge road cars – including the aerodynamically adventurous Dodge Charger Daytona and Plymouth Superbird – and also in the Monteverdi Hai built in Switzerland.

Measuring 7.0 litres, it was always officially rated at 425 horsepower gross, though in 1971 Chrysler and Plymouth also published a more realistic net rating of 350 horsepower.

PICTURE: Dodge Charger Daytona

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Ford FE: 425 horsepower (gross)

The FE V8 made its debut in the 1958 model year, when the 5.9-litre version was fitted to several models produced by the ill-fated Edsel brand. Two 7.0-litre variants arrived later, of which the more powerful was known as the 427, even though its capacity in non-metric units was actually 426 cubic inches.

The 427 was available in two power outputs, the higher being 425 horsepower. In this form, which first appeared in 1964, it was fitted to the Ford Galaxie and Fairlane and the Mercury Comet, Monterey and Park Lane.

PICTURE: 1964 Ford Galaxie 500XL Sportsroof

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Ford Godzilla: 430 horsepower

The Godzilla is a petrol-fuelled V8 introduced in the 2020 model year with a capacity of 7.3 litres, and has since become available as a 6.8. It’s fitted to larger vehicles, and usually has an output of under 400 horsepower.

The exception is the version fitted to the F-Series Super Duty trucks, which are in what’s known as the Heavy Duty class. For this application, the 7.3-litre Godzilla produced 430 horsepower, and 485 lb ft of torque.

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Chevrolet Big-Block: 450 horsepower (gross)

Chevrolet has been producing big-block V8s since the 1950s, though latterly they have been used more for load-hauling vehicles than for passenger cars. In 1970, the 7.4-litre version normally produced 360 horsepower, but it could optionally be uprated to 450 in that year’s Chevy Chevelle (pictured).

Another member of the same family which you can buy right now is the 10.4-litre ZZ632. This produces 1004 horsepower (net) and 876 lb ft of torque, but it’s a crate engine not fitted as standard to any production model, so for the purposes of this gallery it doesn’t count.

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GM Duramax V8: 470 horsepower

The L5P became the newest member of the 6.6-litre turbo diesel Duramax V8 family in 2017, when it produced 445 horsepower at 2800rpm and 910 lb ft at 1600rpm. For 2024, it has been upgraded to 470 horsepower and 975 lb ft at the same engine speeds.

It’s fitted to two very similar Heavy Duty pickup trucks – the Chevrolet Silverado HD (pictured) and the GMC Sierra HD, the latter being more or less the same as the former but with different badges and styling details.

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Ford Power Stroke: 500 horsepower

Also known as the Scorpion, the 6.7-litre turbo diesel Power Stroke V8 was introduced in 2011, replacing an earlier 6.4-litre engine from the same family, and has gradually become more powerful. Its 475 horsepower and 1050 lb ft were both best-in-class and a High Output version arrived in the 2023 model year with 500 horsepower and 1200 lb ft.

The High Output is standard in the top-spec Limited versions of the F-250, F-350 (pictured) and F-450 Super Duty trucks, and an extra-cost option in others.

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Cadillac Blackwing: 550 horsepower

Codenamed LTA, the Blackwing was a 4.2-litre twin-turbo V8 available very briefly in the Cadillac CT6 luxury saloon. In the CT6 Platinum, it produced 500 horsepower and 574 lb ft, while a version in a higher state of tune fitted to the CT6-V (pictured) made 550 horsepower and 640 lb ft.

Introduced in 2019, both models lasted only until the CT6 range was discontinued the following year. Today, Cadillac makes Blackwing versions of the CT4-V and CT5-V, but neither they nor any other vehicle use this engine.

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Chrysler Viper: 645 horsepower

The Viper V10 engine was only ever used in the Dodge Viper sports car. As launched in 1992, it already measured a formidable 8.0 litres, but its capacity was gradually increased over the years, finally reaching 8.4 litres.

The power and torque outputs rose too, peaking at 645 horsepower and 600 lb ft in 2015.

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Ford EcoBoost: 660 horsepower

Of the many Ford engines wearing the EcoBoost badge, the twin-turbo 3.5-litre V6 is by far the strongest. As far as road-going applications are concerned, the ultimate version was the one fitted to later examples of the Ford GT, which produced 660 horsepower and 550 lb ft of torque.

Still higher figures have been reached, but only in GTs built specifically for track, rather than road, use.

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Ford Modular: 760 horsepower

The most powerful engine in the Modular family is also the most powerful ever fitted to a production Ford. Known as the Predator, the supercharged 5.2-litre V8 produces 760 horsepower and 625 lb ft, and has only ever been fitted to the Mustang Shelby GT500 introduced in 2020.

Another version called Carnivore made its debut in the 2023 F-150 Raptor high-performance pickup truck. Developed with off-roading in mind, this has slightly less power – a still more than reasonable 700 horsepower – but a superior torque rating of 640 lb ft.

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Chevrolet Small-Block: 772 horsepower

Of the many Chevrolet V8s bearing this name over the past 70 years, the most powerful fitted to a production car has been the supercharged 6.2-litre LT5 introduced in the 2019 Corvette ZR1. Its standard output was 755 horsepower, but it made 772 horsepower when fitted with the optional Performance Intake system.

At the time of writing, no current-generation mid-engined Corvette produces anything like this, though that may be about to change.

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Chrysler Hemi third generation: 1025 horsepower

The SRT Demon 170, the seventh and final Last Call special edition versions of the Dodge  Challenger, was powered by the most monumental production engine in Hemi history. If it sensed that it was running on E85 fuel, the supercharged 6.2-litre V8 could produce no less than 1025 horsepower and 945 lb ft of torque. On E10 fuel, the figures were a still astonishing 900 horsepower and 810 lb ft.

At launch, Chrysler said that production would be “limited to at most 3,300 units”, 300 of which would be sold in Canada and the remained in the US.

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Saleen LM: 1500 horsepower

All versions of the Saleen S7 were powered by a 7.0-litre engine derived from the Ford Windsor V8. Power outputs varied considerably depending on how much, if any, forced induction was involved, but in twin-turbo form it was said to be as much as 1300 horsepower.

That claim was superseded by one made in 2019, when Saleen reported that the figure had been raised to 1500 horsepower and 1328 lb ft of torque.

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SSC V8: 1750 horsepower

The Tuatara hypercar produced by SSC North America (formerly Shelby SuperCars) has a mid-mounted twin-turbo 5.9-litre V8 engine whose output depends on what fuel it’s running on. According to its maker, it produces 1350 horsepower on 91 octane petrol and 1750 horsepower on ethanol or methanol.

A video released in 2022 shows the engine apparently achieving just short of 1900 horsepower on the Nelson Racing Engines dyno, though this is not an official figure.

With a performance upgrade, and only if running on methanol, the V8 is reported to be capable of 2200 horsepower in the Aggressor variant, but this is a track-only car whose performance, according to the SSC website, is “not possible in the street legal versions of the Tuatara”.

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Hennessey Fury: 1817 horsepower

Hennessey’s Venom F5 is available in four forms – Coupe, Roadster (pictured), Revolution Coupe and Revolution Roadster – of which the first and third had been sold out at the time of writing. All four are powered by the Fury engine, a 6.6-litre twin-turbo V8.

In each application, it produces 1817 horsepower and 1193 lb ft of torque, which makes the Venom F5 the most powerful non-electric road-going production car not only in the US but in global automotive history.

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