This concept was based on the Ford Escort and designed by Ghia. A few pre-production EXPs were built just for conceptual design and advertisement. These extremely rare EXPs included many features available in every EXP or LN7. They were all painted in vibrant colors with black painted across the entire car under the door bumper lines and had a round silver badge where Ford's blue oval would find itself in 1982. These models were distinguished from production models by dual vents towards the front of the hood instead of the vents later seen on the front bumper clips, an absence of bumper strips on the doors, and rear taillights that were completely red where production EXPs had black around the reverse lights. An SS package and bubble back hatches like the LN7, and second-generation EXPs were optional, with black paint around the door windows as seen on second-generation EXPs, aluminum oval-spoke wheels, and "1.6 L" badges on the front fenders. At least ten were built in Canada and featured in a rare catalog featuring only those cars. No sightings have been recorded since.
The first production EXP and LN7 rolled off the line on February 16, 1981. The EXP was driven off the line by then Ontario Premier Bill Davis. Ford expected to build and sell 200,000 EXPs and 70,000 LN7s in the 1982 model year, but only half that number were produced.
Source: Ford EXP - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_EXP\
Images: Ford
