Conan O’Brien is funny for so many reasons, but one of our favorites is his relationship with a car: his second-generation 1992 Ford Taurus SHO. The former late night host bought his SHO in the early ’90s and drove it for decades. While his contemporaries in Los Angeles were coming up and buying Porsches and Ferraris, he stuck with Ford’s sleeper sedan. At some point, driving his emerald green SHO became its own bit that garnered laughs, and he enjoyed trotting the car out on television every once in a while.
Conan’s famous SHO, though, may be due for a comeback. On a recent episode of his podcast Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, the comedian told his stand-up colleague Nate Bargatze, “I want to get it rehabbed and bring it back… It’s in the parking garage, at this moment, at Warner Bros.” If he follows through and has his SHO restored, he might find himself the owner of the most valuable Ford Taurus in existence.
The History Of Conan And His SHO
O’Brien has used his SHO in many bits over the years. A quick search of “Conan Ford Taurus SHO” on YouTube will bring you all the best clips. There was the time he was interviewed for 60 Minutes and took correspondent Steve Kroft for a spin in it. He also invited a State Farm agent to come on his late night show to help him insure the SHO.
Our favorite, though, is when Brad Pitt was on his show to promote the movie Troy, and O’Brien gave him the keys to the SHO. Pitt was last seen outside the studio tearing off down the street in the Taurus. He was a little aggressive with his shifting, though, and O’Brien revealed the famous actor burned up the car’s clutch. To this day, it hasn’t been repaired and should be one of the first items on the car’s list of restoration repairs.
For those who don’t recall the bona fides of the second-generation Ford Taurus SHO, it has one of the most beautiful engines ever made: a 3.0-liter V6 made by Yamaha in Japan with the most artfully arranged snaking intake runners. It produced 220 horsepower, which in its day was enough to make the car a poor man’s BMW M5.
While the second-generation SHO was the first to be offered with an automatic, O’Brien opted for the 5-speed manual transmission despite not knowing how to drive a stick at the time. While he bought the car in Massachusetts, he soon moved to LA, where one spends as much time in stop-and-go traffic per day as they do sleeping.
TopSpeed’s Take
Conan O’Brien is the anti-Jay Leno. These two comic heavyweights have a sordid history due to Leno allegedly screwing O’Brien out of hosting The Tonight Show. Leno is one of the most famous car guys in the world, with a collection that would make even a sheikh jealous, whereas O’Brien couldn’t really care less about cars. The fact that he brags about this old sleeper sedan that’s a classic to no one highlights the absurdity of Leno receiving his latest $3 million hypercar.
How Conan came to buy this obscure gem from the early ’90s is anyone’s guess, but he’s used it to great effect as a prop in his comedy. It’s a character unto itself, and with O’Brien’s comedy career continuing at full strength even without a show to host, there should be plenty more opportunities for it to appear onstage with him in the future. Can we just get this poor thing fixed up a little first?