Conan O’Brien has featured some rather interesting cars, ranging from a rickety old Trabant to a BMW i8 on the autobahn, not to mention the Bugatti Veyron Mouse. But perhaps his most famous ride is his 1992 Ford Taurus SHO, which he bought new and still owns today. On a recent episode of his podcast, “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,” he talked about his desire to “get it rehabbed and bring it back.”
O’Brien’s Taurus has become one of his running jokes over the years. “It would come up a lot of times with celebrities where they would say, ‘I just got a new Ferrari or something, what do you drive, Conan?’ and I say, ‘1992 Ford Taurus SHO, Super High Output!’ and it would get a laugh. And it would be like, ‘No, I’m being honest, that’s what I really have.” The SHO differed from other… Tauruses? Taurus? Taurii? Anyway, it had a unique 220-horsepower 3.0-liter V6 from Yamaha under the hood, mated to a five-speed manual transmission in early models like O’Brien’s. That’s a very Jalop ride if I’ve ever seen one.
The Taurus SHO made regular appearances over the years, with O’Brien leaning hard into it being a cool car that really isn’t (even though it really is). He tried to impress Lisa Kudrow with it, and utterly failed. In one segment, he tried to get it insured as one of his most prized possessions. In another, he joked about giving it to Brad Pitt, who proceeded to peel out and, according to the podcast, messed up his clutch in the process. “Brad Pitt f***ed up my Ford Taurus. And who can say that?”
Years of neglect
Aside from Brad Pitt, O’Brien’s Taurus SHO has been sadly neglected for years. This “60 Minutes” segment from 2010 shows it covered in dust so thick that people have written messages in it. (O’Brien says it’s better than window tint because it’s free.) It still had its original Massachusetts inspection sticker from 1992 when he bought it. Not visible in the clip are the holes left by squibs that simulated a shootout for a “Tonight Show” segment, as O’Brien explains on the podcast.
It seems he lost track of the Taurus over the years, but he still owns it and recently found it in a Warner Bros. parking garage. He was surprised it hadn’t been towed away. Now, he’d like to get the car back and restore it to its former glory. Leno’s Law may not have passed, but the Taurus SHO is a somewhat rare classic now that would fit in perfectly at Radwood. I personally hope he can keep the 1992 Massachusetts inspection sticker, and not just because it’s part of the car’s heritage. My first car also had a 1992 Massachusetts inspection sticker, and I’d like to think that someone like Conan O’Brien and I have at least one thing in common.
