Those coupes look terrible with a B-pillar. I'm so glad they kept the pillarless aperture and the signature shape that it was - no mistaking an XA/B/C hardtop profile - perfectly angled & proportioned to work with the rest of the body shape.
That bulky rear end is more like Mustang II, but the II is even worse because it's convex, and had those horrible bulky lights whacked on - like the UC Sunbird's backward step.
The EA interior prototype looks like it was created in the earlier part of the 80s based on the seat trim. You can also see how heavily influenced they were by the relationship with Mazda - the door trim style is very reminiscent of the 80s 929. It's also amazing to see how much of the original concept made it into production - with minor changes to the boot & fuel buttons, and the shape of the area above the centre air vents. Even the profile of the glovebox went into production.
The hidden headlights on the XE would have been interesting in rural areas. Bonnets already copped enough stone chips on the front fascia - the headlight covers would have been peppered. Even my VL Calais flippers, that are less exposed due to their size & angle, suffer a lot of chips. I wonder if Ford had the concept before Mazda used it on the 929?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._Cosmo_001.JPG