Conan O’Brien has featured some moderately interesting cars, starting from a rickety old Trabant to a BMW i8 on the autobahn, not to say the Bugatti Veyron Mouse. But perhaps his most famous ride is his 1992 Ford Taurus SHO, which he bought recent and still owns today. On a recent episode of his podcast, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” he talked about his desire to “get it rehabbed and convey it back.”
O’Brien’s Taurus has change into certainly one of his running jokes through the years. “It will come up quite a lot of times with celebrities where they might say, ‘I just got a brand new Ferrari or something, what do you drive, Conan?’ and I say, ‘1992 Ford Taurus SHO, Super High Output!’ and it could get fun. And it could be like, ‘No, I’m being honest, that is what I actually have.” The SHO differed from other… Tauruses? Taurus? Taurii? Anyway, it had a novel 220-horsepower 3.0-liter V6 from Yamaha under the hood, mated to a five-speed manual transmission in early models like O’Brien’s. That is a really Jalop ride if I’ve ever seen one.
The Taurus SHO made regular appearances through the years, with O’Brien leaning hard into it being a cool automobile that actually is not (despite the fact that it truly is). He tried to impress Lisa Kudrow with it, and utterly failed. In a single segment, he tried to get it insured as certainly one of his most prized possessions. In one other, he joked about giving it to Brad Pitt, who proceeded to peel out and, in response to the podcast, tousled his clutch in the method. “Brad Pitt f***ed up my Ford Taurus. And who can say that?”
Years of neglect
Except for Brad Pitt, O’Brien’s Taurus SHO has been sadly neglected for years. This “60 Minutes” segment from 2010 shows it covered in dust so thick that individuals have written messages in it. (O’Brien says it’s higher than window tint since it’s free.) It still had its original Massachusetts inspection sticker from 1992 when he bought it. Not visible within the clip are the holes left by squibs that simulated a shootout for a “Tonight Show” segment, as O’Brien explains on the podcast.
It seems he lost track of the Taurus through the years, but he still owns it and recently found it in a Warner Bros. parking garage. He was surprised it hadn’t been towed away. Now, he’d prefer to get the automobile back and restore it to its former glory. Leno’s Law may not have passed, however the Taurus SHO is a somewhat rare classic now that will slot in perfectly at Radwood. I personally hope he can keep the 1992 Massachusetts inspection sticker, and never simply because it’s a part of the automobile’s heritage. My first automobile also had a 1992 Massachusetts inspection sticker, and I’d prefer to think that somebody like Conan O’Brien and I actually have not less than one thing in common.
This Article First Appeared At www.jalopnik.com
