It’s no secret that we are big fans of the refreshed Ford Mustang here at Speed:Sport:Life. Nor are we alone: the vast majority of the automotive press has awarded the 2010 Mustang first place in the revitalized ponycar wars. The common theme among many reviewers is that the Mustang’s light weight, manageable size, and obsessive detailing are enough to overlook the relatively uncompetitive engine choices.
For the 2011 model year, those caveats are history. We’ve already shared the details on the variable-valve-timed, 300-plus-horsepower 2011 Mustang V6 with you, and now we are free to tell what has been the worst-kept secret in the industry: the five-liter Mustang is back, and it’s pissed off.
With U.S. demand for B-Segment cars at an all-time high, Ford couldn’t have picked a better time to introduce the hugely successful Fiesta to the U.S. market. On sale in Spring of 2010 as a 2011 model, this U.S. specification Fiesta looks nearly identical to its European brother, but actually only shares 60% of its parts with the European model. Many of the changes are related to U.S. crash and safety regulations, but Ford promises that the great driving experience of the European model will be carried over to the U.S. version.
For many ponycar fans, the most compelling variant of Chevrolet’s reanimated Camaro isn’t the big-money, nose-heavy SS model. The lighter, more efficient “high-feature” V-6 base car has captured a lot of hearts and minds since being released earlier this year, and although Ford’s revised 2010 Mustang meets or beats the Chevy in many areas, it was severely hampered by its thrashy, understrength four-liter V-6. With this morning’s announcement of a Duratec-powered V-6 2011 Mustang and a track-oriented Performance Package to match, Ford has made it plain that they intend to match the Camaro pony for pony — a stance that we can only hope they back up further with a new high-performance “Coyote” V-8 announcement in weeks to come.
Getting tired of drag racing the same old straight 1,320 feet? Is autocrossing around cones in a parking lot, racing against the clock, not doing it for you anymore? What if I told you about a place where you could compete head to head against similar cars with similar modifications in a drag race format on two mirrored autocross courses? Does the idea of blasting away from a drag race Christmas tree and then barreling into a tight turn interest you? How about coming out of that turn and seeing your competitor out of the corner of your eye, sideways, coming out of his turn just a few feet ahead of you over on the other track? You’ll need to push harder and run the next corner even faster if you plan on being the first car across the finish line. Sounds pretty crazy doesn’t it? It is absolutely fantastic competition. It’s called Pro Solo, and it’s drag racing with corners.
Price has been a common theme of late in Ford product reviews. While impressions are generally positive (or even better, in many cases), The Press as a Whole just can’t seem to wrap their collective heads around how much these cars cost. Whether it’s the upscale new Taurus or the (apparently) stratospherically-expensive EcoBoost-equipped Flex, nearly every evaluation ends on the same note:
“This is a great car, but are buyers willing to spend this much for a Ford?”
In the world off loss-leader Escorts and Cavaliers (and even Focuses and Cobalts), that question may not be entirely out of line. But when you start dealing with family haulers of the tall and wide variety, the premise is not so solid. So how ’bout it? Are Americans willing to shell out $36k+ for a barebones twin-turbo Flex?
Faithful Ford truckers often fall into a dichotomy. Lightning enthusiasts crave quick rigs to gain cred at the track. Bronco fans miss muddy rockcrawlers meant for trails. Ford’s Special Vehicle Team could’ve easily built a truck for either purpose, but as guardians of automotive culture, it’s not their duty to take a safe route. SVT rethought “speed truck” ethic entirely. Instead of engineering a tire-shredder, SVT focused on sustaining high speed off-road in a way that no stock vehicle has before. The 2010 Ford SVT F-150 Raptor tackles both asphalt and desert sands so masterfully that it is instantly deserving of supercar status. The Raptor’s victories in design, safety, navitainment and ergonomics mean that it isn’t just a great truck — it’s a great vehicle. Children will mount posters of this desert bandit on their walls. In an era of lowest-common-denominator commodity cars, that’s indicative praise indeed.
If you weren’t able to follow my Tweets from the introduction, this video preview of the 5.4-liter V8-equipped model should tide you over until this winter, when Ford will begin shipping faster Raptors equipped with a new 6.2-liter V8. You can expect a full review from Speed:Sport:Life then.
The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb is a relevant, engineering-driven, lightly commercialized race endangered by uncorralled fans’ lack of common sense, the commoditization of the car, waning manufacturer support, and the paving of the roadway.
If you didn’t go this year, you need to be there in 2010 — before inevitable filters change the event forever.
In wild western Colorado, both vehicles and footwear are earth-toned and traction-centric. For outdoorsy natives that may very well burst into a 20-mile hike or interstate whitewater trip at any moment, camping on the Peak is akin to a passport stamp. Camping is permitted only once a year, on the day before the race. It’s feasible, then, that a sizeable portion of the yearly attendees are drawn primarily by the prospect of personally taming the mountain, and stay for the race out of both casual curiosity and convenience. Staking a spot on the mountain entails a steep $100 charge per car. Proceeds benefit the US Forest Service, which cedes control of the mountain during practice sessions and on race day.
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.
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.
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.
SpeedSportLife: Or Superman. Or Keanu Reeves. RT @joelfeder: RT @IDS07: Just saw a guy using a pay phone. I'm guessing dead cell battery. Or, drug deal. 2 days ago
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