with the British Ford Consul, Ford would fit them to many mainstream models produced by their German and British factories. The 1957 Taunus P2 was the first car from Ford Germany to feature a front end suspension configuration using MacPherson struts. The MacPherson strut arrangement would become known for combining good road holding and passenger comfort for a relatively low cost, but the shock settings on the Baroque Taunus nevertheless must have contributed to its informally awarded “Flying carpet” title Bodies The P2 came as a two- or four-door sedan/saloon. A three-door station wagon was also offered together with a van, which was in effect a station wagon with the side windows to the rear of the b-pillars replaced by steel panelling. The deluxe version was denoted with the letter “L” while the letters “CL” were reserved for a two-door cabriolet which was the result of a conversion performed by the traditional Cologne coach-builders Karl Deutsch GmbH. In retrospect the inclusion of a four-door sedan/saloon in the range seems unsurprising. However, the West German market, in contrast to the French and British markets, still had more of an appetite for two-door models in this category. The Borgward Isabella of the time was never offered with more than two doors, and the two-door Taunus 17Ms of the period seem to have comfortably outsold the four-door versions. 1959 facelift After the annual summer shut down in 1959 the Taunus P2 received a minor facelift in time for the 1960 model year which would be its final year of production. The roof line was flattened, reducing the height of the car by 3 cm (more than an inch). The chrome decorations on the car's body were rearranged. One of the results of that was that the basic model now flaunted the same front grill as the de Luxe model. On a more practical note, buyers paying extra for the four-speed transmission now enjoyed synchromesh on all four forward gears. Under the bonnet/hood September 1959 saw the introduction of a redesigned cylinder head and a slight increase in the compression ratio. There was no change in the listed power output or top speed resulting from this, but there was a 5% reduction in fuel consumption. <div style="float: right; margin: 0 0 0.5em 1em; width: 29.5em; text-align: right; font-size: 0.86em; font-family: lucida grande, sans-serif; line-height: normal;"> <div style="border: 1px solid #999999; background: #ffffff; text-align: left;