Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Ford Tempo Fanatic has chosen a difficult path. Today we honor his devotion to the Tempo.
After at least a couple of years of FTF's presence as a regular commenter, we've all learned more about the Tempo (and Topaz) than we ever thought we'd know. Perhaps all some of us wonder how it is that one becomes a Tempo fanatic, but no matter- today is FTF's special DOTS day! I decided that the next Alameda Tempo I spotted would be the one I shot for DOTS, and it happened to be this well-loved '93 with its snazzy tape stripes.
I'd assumed I was looking at an early example, maybe an '85 or '86, but the Tempo's design was just so timeless that Ford kept the same look well into the 90s. The standard engine for '93 was a 96-horsepower 2.3 four-banger (no, not the Pinto engine, thanks for asking), but we might be looking at a sleeper with the optional 135-horse V6.