Last night I attended the premiere of the new film “Raptor - Born in Baja” which is a joint production between Ford Motor Company and Brentwood Communications. The premiere was held at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood and it came complete with a few celebrities and a red carpet that covered a makeshift dirt entrance. The movie was certainly intriguing; telling the story of the Raptor team and their quest to build and race the truck in the Baja 1000. However the truck itself was the most interesting part of the night.

  Continue reading Ford SVT Raptor - Born in Baja Premiere

Photographs by Jack Baruth

It would be poetic to say that the return of the Great American Sedan was announced as the speedometer of the 2010 Taurus SHO swept past the one-hundred-and-twenty-mile-per-hour mark with the insouciant prowess of a young Mark McGwire taking practice swings in the batter’s box. And it would be more than delightful to describe the way this big sedan trail-braked into an off-camber hairpin, smoking in sideways and providing my dry-heaving fellow member of The Press As A Whole the most panoramic view possible of the Great Smoky Mountains above the spectacular dashboard and sculpted bonnet while the steering spoke to me with crystalline clarity and the transmission snapped off two flawless downshifts. Or I could describe how, on a hill so steep walking it would be a challenge, the twin-turbo SHO squeaked its front tires for a nearly imperceptible moment before swapping drive to the back wheels and rocketing us up the slope with the force of a small-block Chevy.

The truth of the matter, however, is that I knew everything I needed to know about the 2010 Taurus when I was handed a floppy-looking interior door skin.

Continue reading 2010 Ford Taurus and Taurus SHO — The return of the great American sedan.

Price: $22,165
Major equipment: 2.5-liter Duratec four-cylinder, six-speed manual transmission, sunroof, SYNC, autodim rear-view mirror.

In the fleet: 5/15/2009 - 5/22/2009

Approximate mileage driven: 450

J. BARUTH: Remember all the things we used to love about “foreign” sedans back in the dino-sized Big Three days of the Eighties? They were good-looking, reasonably-sized, fuel-efficient vehicles that offered manual transmissions, interesting equipment, decent handling, and bulletproof durability.

So now here we are in 2009, and the average “Camcord” is a bloated, cost-conscious, automatic-transmission sled. Meanwhile, Ford has a car that reminds us more than any current mainstream Japanese sedan of what those great Accords and Stanzas used to be like. It’s not overtly sporty, the convincing-looking wheel covers aside, but it’s an acceptably rapid, very spacious, rather pleasant conveyance. To make things more interesting, you can now choose the option of a six-speed manual transmission to help the 175-horsepower Duratec kick the Fusion down the road.

Continue reading Speed Read: 2010 Ford Fusion SE 6-speed

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Story by Jack Baruth, photographs by Jack Baruth and Ford

Highway 1 is Northern California’s “Shoreline Highway”. Green hills to the right, blue water to the left, blue sky above, blue Mustang surrounding me. Second gear in the 2010 Shelby Mustang GT500 reaches above the speed limit on pretty every road in the United States, and it gets there quickly. Traffic ahead but the road doubles back along the coast and I can see the gap. So… See the gap, apply the throttle, make the pass. With a muted supercharger whine, the big blue snake lights both rear tires and transports me to redline in the space of thought. Time for third, I think. It’s good for One. Oh. Eight. Or thereabouts. And it, too, arrives with a tire-spinning fanfare. Across the crown of the road and the “Botts dots” send the rear end wagging. Left. Right. Left. Power is still on. The oscillation is violent but it’s as regular as a grandfather clock. The shift light flashes: a bright red “SVT” logo. Let’s settle it down. Let’s reach for fourth. And that, dear reader, is where we must draw the curtain. For now, anway.

We know the GT500 is fast. In its previous incarnation, we pedaled one around MSR Houston just as quickly as a Lotus Elise. It takes a lot to get a two-ton, iron-block, traditional ponycar around a road course at Lotus velocities, and Ford’s SVT division knows the secret formula to make it happen. But this time, the Blue Oval boys are promising more than just raw speed for the revised GT500. By applying a series of incremental improvements and changes to the platform, many of which were previewed in the mega-buck GT500KR, Ford believes that it has created a pony which is both powerful and refined. “You’ll get some track time,” we were told, “but it’s on the road that you’ll see the real difference in the new car.”

Oh, there’s that phrase. “New car.” Exactly how “new” is the 2010? We covered many of the differences in our 2010 Mustang GT test, but the Shelby is, in fact, more heavily revamped than the normally aspirated models. Not only does it benefit from all of the “regular” changes, there’s far more differentiation between it and the cooking GT than there was in the previous model. Ahead of the A-pillar, only the fenders are shared with regular Mustangs. A new bonnet design addresses the problem of “hood shake”, while Shelby-specific bodywork can be found from the unique nose to the faux-diffuser surrounding the four-inch exhaust tips. The rear badge is applied with wide letter spacing in true Sixties style, a minor touch which required a fair amount of production-line engineering to accomplish. Ford’s worked very hard on the Shelby’s detailing. The overall effect is a visual home run: cohesive, trim, and unbelievably aggressive, all at once. And there’s more to see once you open the door.

Continue reading 2010 Mustang Shelby GT500 First Drive: Even faster, but not as furio… angry.

In the foothills of Tucson’s Mount Lemmon, Toyota’s public relations staff delivered Utterli tragic news: a driving impression embargo would preclude live video microblogging coverage of the 2010 Prius. Crushed, I resolved to hike the mountain in the Prius anyway. Now that the embargo has passed, here are a few excerpts from my notes.

Continue reading Speed:Sport:Life First Drive: 2010 Toyota Prius

Hola! Judge Lieberman here (grunt).  Some of these LeMons clowns just don’t get the fact that the 24 Hours of LeMons is a joke. No, instead they take themsleves all seriously thinking they’re real racers by building websites, trying to win and printing t-shirts. Though I oughts point out that Team Unintended Acceleration — the guys that put my beautiful face on a shirt — are absolutely brilliant. Anyhow some dude named Tommy or Travis — Beavis? — or Floyd (who cares?) started bugging Justice Dube and me on Facebook of all places. And just to get my lady off my back (”who the hell are you always yacking with on the computer?”) I agreed to interview TAJracing about their horrendous (but no doubt cheatin’) Ford Escort “GT” crap can of a “race” car. They’ll be competeing at the LeMons South Spring event in just two short weeks. 

Judge Lieberman: You guys are from Florida. That has to suck.
TAJracing: Yes, we are from FLA and yes, it does suck. From the almost constant heat to the damn Snowbirds and tourists that can’t drive on our roads. These blue hair fogeys drive slow in the hammer lane and drive 15 MPH under a posted speed limit… ON ANY ROAD! But, we have one good thing here in FLA…..SEBRING!

Continue reading 24 Hours of LeMons: Judicial Interview with TAJracing

Vehicle: 2010 Ford Mustang GT Coupe Premium

Price-as-tested: $35,470

Major equipment: 4.6L 3V OHC V8 engine, 5-speed manual transmission, Premium trim package ($395 option), 19″ wheels ($1,095 option), Safety Package ($395 option), Comfort group ($595 option), Glass roof ($1,995 option)

In the fleet: 1/29/2009 - 2/5/2009

Approximate mileage driven: 430

Birthdays. I celebrated my twenty-first by drinking until I fell over, and my insurance company celebrated my twenty-fifth by cutting my rate a few bucks — but I haven’t felt much like celebrating my thirtieth, which happened this past month.  Still, the past twenty-nine years haven’t been short of good (or bad) times, particularly with regards to cars. On nearly any given day of the week during my high school years, I spent at least a couple of hours a day wrenching on cars with my friends. One friend had a beautiful red ‘68 Mustang with a 351 Windsor engine and the transmission out of a ‘91 Mustang LX 5.0 in it.  Another had a ‘69 Mach One, complete with shaker hood and the original 3-speed manual transmission.  Somewhere between the time spent under those hoods and the nights running down the Houston freeways, I became a real Mustang fan.

Continue reading Black Beauty: Taking the 2010 Ford Mustang GT to the Streets of Houston

Tokyo’s Grand Hyatt garage was the site of a telling diplomatic summit. As flashy ex-pats shuttled out of pricey European and Japanese metal, a red 2010 Ford Mustang found itself in cosmopolitan company. I figured that, among caches of cachet, the muscle-bound Mustang would fidget. However, in a singular moment, the Mustang demonstrated capability without the arrogance of a neighboring Ferrari, individualism without the pretense of a Bentley, and accessibility without the apology of an anonymous Toyota. I could have cried.

Continue reading Mustang Drifts Japan: America’s performance mainstay is an ambassador abroad.

[High-Resolution Photo Gallery] + [Utterli Microblog Feed]

Speed:Sport:Life and highmileage.org trailed Guinness-setting drifter Vaughn Gittin Jr. all the way to Japan, and disappointingly discovered a dearth of wireless connectivity. Go figure. Instead of a live video microblog, S:S:L will bring readers a daily digest of Captain Clutch Kick’s first sideways excursion at Ebisu Circuit. Vaughn’s 2010 Mustang has been tuned with Ford Racing accessories to deliver over 500 horsepower — enough to shred two sets of fresh Azenis per day. Don’t worry, they’re free…

Continue reading Mustang Drifts Japan: Not Just a B-Movie Anymore

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Story by Jack Baruth, photographs by Dave Everest

Reader beware: there won’t be a single reference to “burnouts” in this review. There won’t be any photos of a grinning journalist smokin’ the back tires or throwing up a set of “rock horns”. We won’t talk about 0-60 or quarter-mile times, Woodward Avenue, nineteen-sixty-four, or Steve McQueen. The words “Camaro” and “Challenger” will appear exactly once, and you just saw the one time they’ll appear. Everybody knows what the Mustang can do; let’s talk about what it traditionally can’t do.

I’d had a plan, and the plan was good. We would take the 2010 Mustang to Virginia International Raceway and let it run free against the Porsches, Nissans, and Corvettes which litter VIR’s paddock like a batch of giant Hot Wheels thrown to the ground by an angry god. We’d collect some data and place the 4.6-liter GT squarely where it belongs in the pantheon of mid-priced track rats. Good plan? Heck, it was a great plan, and it’s straight out of the usual Speed:Sport:Life playbook. But you know what happens to the best-laid plans of mice and men. The East Coast fell beneath a sudden blizzard. VIR canceled our two days on-site and sent us back home empty-handed. We knew we’d only have one chance to test this car at speed before it arrived at your local dealership. Time for Plan B. Which is to say, time to make a Plan B.

Ohio’s Hocking Hills area, dubbed the “Hockingheim” years ago by the once-brave souls at Car and Driver, happens to be right in my backyard. During the off-season weekdays, it’s possible to spend hours on the twisty, treacherous hill roads without seeing another driver. I’ve run up the Route 374 hill to Cantwell Cliffs in my Porsche 911 dozens of times, the siren song of a nearly unmuffled flat-six at the top of fourth gear bouncing off the ice-lined rock faces and down the long, sheer dropoffs just inches from the road’s gravel-strewn edge. It would be a great substitute test — for something besides a ‘Stang.

The Hockingheim ain’t ponycar-friendly, you see. Up here, traction trumps torque, visibility is worth more than style, and persistent understeer will send you to an early grave. We brought a C****o here a few years back; it took its thoroughly surprised SCCA-regional-champ driver off the road at a ninety-degree angle. The Hills have little patience for big, flashy Americans of any kind. This is rally-rep territory, plain and simple. And with ambient temperatures hovering at eighteen degrees Fahrenheit, we could expect everything from glare ice around blind corners to two-inch-deep pools of rock salt in the braking zones. We knew our “chase car” — a new-for-2010, all-wheel-drive Fusion Sport V6 — would shine under these conditions, but the Mustang? It was a setup for failure.

Continue reading Mustang Red: running the backroads of Ohio in a search for the ponycar’s modern soul.