Among the numerous innovations we'll see in the 2011 Ford Explorer are these new rear seat inflatable seat belts. Ford says the new inflatable belts spread out crash forces over a much greater area of the body than conventional belts. The redesigned Ford Explorer is due out next year and Ford says it will eventually add the technology to its entire global lineup.
Spy Photos: 2011 Ford Explorer
Why would anyone want a temporary Ford tattoo? Your guess is as good as ours.
Have you seen the shocks on the Ford SVT Raptor? They are about as big and burly as you're every going to find on a stock truck. But compared to the other race applications built by Fox Racing Shox, the Raptor's units are comparatively tiny. They're on the right, Fox's 4.4 external bypass dampers are on the left.
Ford SVT Raptor XT Debuts at SEMA
Roush is working on a couple of Mustang drag cars that would stop the beating of Hank Hill's heart.
One of them, a 2005 Roush Stage 3 Mustang to be driven by drag racer Donnie Bowles, will be unveiled this week at SEMA. The other, a 2010 Roush Stage 3, will be raced by Susan Roush-McClenaghan (Jack Roush's daughter) and is slated for a February 2010 debut. Both are fueled by liquid propane.
This is a green play, of course, but Roush has the resources to do it, as the company already sells propane conversion kits for Ford F-Series trucks and Econoline vans.
Each of these Mustang drag cars has a normally aspirated version of the 5.4-liter V8 from the Ford GT. Compression is higher at 12.5:1, though, and the fuel system is modified to cope with propane. The V8 also gets CNC-ported cylinder heads with different camshafts and valves. Also, these Mustangs will use a wet-sump oiling system, so it's a loose connection to the GT at best. Claimed horsepower is "in excess of 600."
Bowles and Roush-McClenaghan will race these propane-fueled Roush Mustangs in the NMRA Modular Muscle and NMCA Open Comp classes.
This is something cool I came across in Ford's SEMA booth. It's called the Mustang Dream Giveaway and it's a sweepstakes to benefit the Healing Heroes Network, an organization dedicated to assembling a network of health providers willing to donate services to treat injured American soldiers.
So, it's a good cause and the prizes are these two awesome Mustangs. The one on the left is a 1967 Shelby GT500 with a 428 cubic inch engine and a 4-speed manual transmission. And the one on the right is a 2010 Shelby GT500 called the Patriot Edition. It's the only 2010 Shelby to be painted Wimbleton White with guardsman blue stripes. That's right, it's one of one and it can be yours.
One ticket is just $3 (but they'll sell you as many tickets as you want) and can be purchased at winthemustang.com/sema or call toll free 877-700-8946. They even take credit cards.
The winner of these two incredible Mustangs will be announced on July 4th, 2010. Good luck.
Before there was Grave Digger, Speed Channel and Monster Jam, there was Bigfoot, the original Monster Truck. And now it has become an American legend, perhaps the world's most reconizable truck.
Thirty-five years ago (that's 1974) Bob Chandler built the first of several dozen Bigfoots and as the sign says on the next page, it first hit the SEMA Show in 1977 and it crushed its first car in 1981.
To celebrate the truck's birthday, Chandler and the boys have even reskinned a modern Bigfoot to look like the original (pictured). In other words they built the monster truck version of the restomod. And this year the two Bigfoots are displayed at SEMA side-by-side. Pretty cool.
Oh, and just in case you're too young to remember, those are two Predator carburetors sticking through Bigfoot's hood. And it just didn't get any cooler than that in the mid-1970s.
Continue reading Bigfoot Sighting At SEMA.
Cobra Jet is just one of those names that's so manly it would be use it for our fighter-pilot radio handle. Or maybe it could be our on-screen name if we worked on-camera for a local network TV affiliate: "...reporting from the Hackensack city council chambers, this is Cobra Jet."
Ford Motor Company has chosen, instead, to use the name for its factory-built drag racer -- a moniker it's used since 1968. Most recently, the company used the name for a series of 2008 drag-dedicated Mustangs. The company has brought to the SEMA show in Las Vegas a 2010 version in "one-of-a-kind 'SEMA Special' silver Cobra Jet with charcoal...graphics package.
Make the jump for more information and a full photo gallery
Continue reading Hate Turning? Try The 2010 Cobra Jet Mustang Shown At SEMA.
When we submitted a Ford F-150 SVT Raptor to our usual battery of track tests as well as a whole new selection of dusty, jumping antics, we came away with only one major complaint about this life-size Tonka truck: "Needs more power..."
Indeed, the 310-hp 5.4-liter V8 that's standard fitment in the Raptor has always been the weak sauce of the pickup truck upgrade motors. So beginning at the end of this year, Raptor buyers will be able to order an engine to match the Raptor's outrageous looks. The 6.2-liter V8 bring 101 more horsepower and 69 more pound-feet of torque than the 5.4-liter engine. The 6.2-liter Raptor starts at $41,995 including destination and delivery charges.
The 6.2-liter gas motor will also find it's way into the engine bay of the 2011 Ford Super Duty, although Ford says it might not exactly the same amount of power as it does in the Raptor.
Little pop quiz for y'all.
The most expensive Ford Motor Company product is?
Wrong. FoMoCo already unloaded Aston Martin. The most expensive factory-built Ford is the FR (Ford Racing) Raptor XT truck that the company is to unveil today Tuesday at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. Well okay, so we exaggerate. The truck doesn't actually cost $100,000. It's only $99,950.
The XT is a turn-key professional pre-runner that Ford says is "nearly" the same truck it raced at the 2008 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000.This means you get a 6.2-liter V8 which at "about 500 hp," makes almost 100 more hp than the production 6.2-liter will make. A 6-speed automatic, electronically selectable 4x4 with 4.56 gear sets and front and rear e-lockers. A revised suspension (compared to even the pretty extreme standard Raptor) brings 15 inches of front wheel travel and 18 inches of rear travel. The XT also comes with a chromoly roll cage, extra skid plates, tubular front and rear bumpers and sweet lighting.
And, although the XT will not be street legal, it comes standard with air conditioning and power windows. Ford Racing will make only 50 XTs. If you want something a little more, you know, less hugely expensive and more useful, try a street legal Raptor with the new 6.2-liter motor.
Please note that the photo above is the race truck from Baja, not a production XT.
Rarely do the words "tasteful" and "Mustang" go together. There's just something about America's pony car that brings out the worst of the aftermarket.
Thankfully, the new Mustang RTR is not one of those instances. Factory Ford drifter Vaughn Gittin Jr. saw the gaping hole in the market for a modified Mustang that didn't look like it crashed into an Autozone and created the Mustang RTR.
The mechanical upgrades are mild. A cold air intake, new mufflers and a set of cross drilled Baer brakes are the biggies. There's also a set of 19-inch wheels with Falken FK452 tires and new springs that lower the car an inch and a half.
On the cosmetic side, the Mustang RTR gets a full aero upgrade that includes a deep front splitter, rear diffuser, revised sills and a mild aluminum spoiler. The interior changes are limited to adding the "RTR" logo to various parts like the floormats, shifter and speedometer.
The Mustang RTR will be available through any Ford dealer starting in February of next year for $7,800.
Looks like Ford has discovered turbocharging and it's bringing the innovative new technology to SEMA next week. We're currently searching our archives to see if this is the first ever SEMA Show hot rod powered by a turbocharged V6 engine, but until then, feast your eyes on this six-barreled beast and enjoy.
We must admit, we figured Ford would be spreading great heaps of 2010 Taurus SHOs around SEMA like grass seed. Not so much. Ford has revealed only two SHOs that it gave to two Detroit-area tuners.
Ford first went to Mobsteel in Brighton, Michigan, which went full comic-book villain on the big sedan. No surprise we suppose, since Mobsteel specializes in mean-looking, black-wearing, low-riding '60s Lincoln Continentals. For the SHO, the Mobsteel team dropped the SHO with Air Runner front struts and Mobsteel adjustable rear air ride suspension. The team bolted on 22-inch wheels wearing Pirelli PZero Nero tires. Then they painted everything black, and we do mean everything. Mobsteel says it anticipates the SHOs EcoBoost V6 can be tuned to about 420 horsepower.
The other SHO went to former Ford employee, Scott Hoag, who is now owner of MRT-Direct in Plymouth, Michigan. Hoag went for more of a subtle approach than Mobsteel. His SHO gets a coat of candle-apple red paint, a new hood, tasteful body kit. The body is lowered a bit on a stiffer suspension, a new exhaust system is added and "increased performance is achieved through turbo system efficiencies." How much the performance is increased, Ford isn't saying. Nice looking ride though that's not likely to be mistaken for a standard Taurus as the stock SHO often is. 
There was a time when an event such at the Specialty Equipment Marketers Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas would have been packed to the rafters with modified vans, carrying horrid metal-flake paint jobs and interiors that looked like the inside of a trombone case.
That time has passed. Still, Ford dropped off its dorky, little Euro work van with the folks at Azentek and Grant Products to load it down with custom paint, BBS wheels, navigation and entertainment systems as well as what Ford described as a "kitchen on wheels."
Okay sure, it's cute in a dorky VW Camper van sort of way. But we think it still pales in comparison to the custom Transit Connect we designed months ago. To each their own, we guess. (original art by Boris Vallejo; illustration by Kurt Niebuhr)
In the midst of hotly contested pony-car contest, Ford will litter the Las Vegas Convention Center with modified 2010 Mustangs for the SEMA show, which starts November 3.
Ford donated these Mustangs to various tuning shops, parts makers or favored associates to create something tasty (with some guidance from Ford officials, of course). The company will also have at least a couple of surprises it created independently, but the company isn't ready to talk about those yet.
So meanwhile, peruse this collection of Mustangs starting with the car above. It's called the Mustang RTR-C, but we prefer to call it The Black Death. This carbon fiber-bodied 'Stang is the work of champion drifter Vaughn Gittin Jr. and is alleged to be an "extremely limited production" model. Beyond the carbon panels all that we know about The Black Death is that it carries a 550-hp motor. That should do the trick.
Make the jump to see many, many more Mustangs.
Continue reading A Whole Mess Of Mustangs at the 2009 SEMA Show.
Not likely, especially when it comes to muscle cars like the Ford Mustang. Of all the vehicles in Ford's lineup, the iconic pony car seems like the last piece of property the company would let out of its sight.
So what are we to make of these latest spy pictures that show a Mustang prototype emerging from GM's proving grounds in Milford, MI? Collaboration? Theft? A GM employee with an odd sense of humor and bad taste in paint?
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