The Jalopnik satellite in geosynchronous orbit over the COBO center in Detroit sent us a very interesting image tonight: a plan of the layout of Ford's booth, which includes a large display area for Ford performance vehicles, and at the center is a car named Phoenix. Right next to it, in a smaller area, is the Hummingbird. What are they?


So far, there's no references to any Ford concepts called the Phoenix or Hummingbird (1 and 2), so it should be pretty exciting to see what these turn out to be. We know Ford is planning a return to motorsport, and that return could very likely feature a new Ford GT. Phoenix would certainly be an appropriate name for a new Ford GT (likely in concept form), rising out of the ashes of its GT 40 and GT predecessors, so I'm hopeful that's what this flaming bird will prove to be.


The Hummingbird name isn't one I normally associate with Ford, or even cars in general. But there it is, and there's two of them.

A source has told us that "Hummingbird" is Ford's internal code name for the GT350, making it probable it will be the Shelby we've been talking about. And the Hummingbird 2 could be the GT350R.

There's also an "Eco Racer" nearby, likely a small, light racecar using the Ecoboost 3?


If I had to imagine what a "Hummingbird" would be, I'm picturing a very light, Ariel Atom-type car with a version of Ford's 1L Ecoboost 3 cylinder engine that revs up to 20,000 RPM and needs to refill its one gallon tank every 10 minutes. But that's probably not likely, since this is likely the GT350.

I guess we'll find out what these mystery avians are in just a few days. Here's the full satellite image of the Ford booth plan: