styling cues, using large amounts of chrome on the body work and incorporating exaggerated fins, but in 1957 it was nevertheless hard to find any Borgward or Opel decorated with more chrome, nor featuring longer or larger tail fins than the Ford Taunus P2. The sharp “markers” atop the four wings of the car did nevertheless confer a practical benefit by making it very easy to determine, from the driver's seat, precisely where the car ended. The forward ones also positioned the turn signals high and in a spot where they could be seen through more than 180 degrees. For buyers who found a standard Ford Taunus 17M unacceptably restrained, Ford offered the Taunus 17M deluxe: this provided a two tone paint finish, an interior enhanced with Brocade coverings, an exceptionally stylish steering wheel, a tachometer shaped like a kidney, and even more chrome on the outside of the body. More than fifty years later the Taunus P2 has become very rare, and surviving examples tend to be of these deluxe versions. The “Flying carpet” soubriquet seems to have been the response of a keen drivers to the company's attempts to give the car the ride and handling characteristics commensurate with its flamboyant bodywork, modelled on the North American boulevard cruisers of the day, set up for a country associated with straighter, wider and more even roads than those commonly encountered in Europe then or indeed now. The car was mostly inspired from the 1955 Ford, especially the Deluxe version that had the same styling as the American counterpart. The French connection and the front suspension The Taunus P2 seems to have been developed in close collaboration with Ford of France, and it closely resembled that company's Vedette model which itself emerged with enlarged tailfins in 1957. However, in 1954 Ford had sold a majority holding in its strike prone French operation to Simca, and although Ford retained a minority shareholding in the Simca business until 1958, the P2's French cousin, despite having been developed when the business was under Ford control, was in most markets badged as a Simca. The Vedette had pioneered an independent front suspension system that involved incorporating an oil filled shock absorber within a spring in a manner intended to dampen the excessively rapid vertical movement of a simple steel spring. The resulting unit later became known as a MacPherson strut, and starting in 1951