At last year's Get Your Heart Racing benefit event for the Edith and Benson Ford Heart and Vascular Institute, Ford designer and Heart and Vascular Institute patient Melvin Betancourt decked out a Mustang Boss 302 in slick Parnelli Jones-inspired school bus yellow paint as the signature piece of the auction.
Betancourt is back again, but this time with a vehicle that's going to command a significant higher price: A customized, one-of-one 2013 Shelby GT500.
The auction takes place on September 22, 2012 at the Ford Test Track in Dearborn. There are driving experience tickets (complete with a Pit Party) for $1,000 each or $1,750 for a team of two; pit party tickets are $250. If you can't make it in late September, bidding is available by phone.
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Categories: Car Auctions,Ford,Sports Cars
Yesterday was a big day for NASCAR as two rear-wheel-drive, tube-frame, V8 racecars pretending to be even remotely like FWD, four-cylinder family sedans were finally revealed.
Like their production counterparts, the 2013 Ford Fusion and the 2013 Toyota Camry NASCAR racers do look pretty sharp -- especially the Ford -- but the stickers and subtle body cues are the only thing even remotely close.
Check the two newest NASCAR rides out in all of their "not nearly enough stickers to actually go racing" liveries after the jump.
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Categories: Ford,Motorsports,Toyota
At this point there's really nothing I can say to sell you on spending 5 minutes of your day watching an extended cut of Gymkhana Four. You either read the title and said, "Oh boy, bonus footage and deleted scenes of Ken Block and his Ford going Gymkhana-y stuff!" and skipped right to the video, or you said, "This guy's still around?" and aren't reading this anyway.
With that stirring introduction, I preset to you Gymkhana Four: Bonus Edit. There are new angles!
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Categories: Celebrities,Ford,Motorsports
Last we heard from Ford, the official word was that the Detroit-based automaker "remains open" to selling the Fiesta ST in the U.S.
The ST was officially shown at this year's Geneva Motor Show equipped with a 1.6-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder producing 178 horsepower and 177 pound-feet of torque. The car was also sporting slick Recaro seats which are in place on this test car. A number of sport-tuned cars (think Golf R) have fun seats in Europe but replace them here with seats that are wider and pass our crash tests. The fact that Ford is testing the seats here is simply a cause of them having the seats in stock, not that we'll get them.
The US-spec headlights, however-- note the lack of LEDs-- indicate that Ford is working to comply with our regulations. this is the best "hint" that this one is for real for US.
Beyond the ST stuff, we've also got some shots of the new interior treatment set for the Focus which includes simplified buttonry and a touchscreen interface.
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Categories: Ford,Hatchbacks,Spy Photos
You're following us on Twitter, right? If so, you know we've spent the last few days driving the 2013 GT500 from Atlanta to L.A. And by "we" I mean Niebuhr and Dan Edmunds.
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Categories: Ford,Sports Cars
Our government is watching you, but are you watching our government? We thought it would be fun to snoop inside our state and federal garages to see which models are most popular with Uncle Sam. After all, these are our tax dollars being spent.
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Categories: Chevrolet,Dodge,Ford
The Ford Taurus SHO, per the last time we tested one, weighs 4,368 pounds. The $1,995 Performance Package now available for the SHO does virtually nothing to address that.
It does, however, attempt to minimize the impact of such road crushing mass: Ford has upgraded the brake pads (handy as during our test the brakes were smoking after acceleration testing), sportified the calibration on the electric power steering, added higher rate springs, new shocks, stiffer stabilizer bars, 3.16:1 final drive (2.77 was standard), heavy-duty and added a true off setting to the traction control. In our testing we found that the non-defeat stability control in the normal SHO was very prohibitive of any action that could be classified as fun...or fast. This new setting is a good thing. Performance summer tires are also standard with this package.
Ford did mention that they've replaced the spare tire with a sealant and inflator kit that is likely slightly lighter than the temporary spare the regular SHO comes with.
See it in action on the track (a rare thing indeed) after the jump.
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Categories: Ford,Motorsports,Videos
Here's what we're looking forward to when we finally drive the 2013 Shelby GT500 on our home turf: Switching off the traction control, dumping the clutch and melting a few miles off of the life of the 285/35ZR20 rear tires. With 631 pound-feet of torque at 4,000 rpm, that should be easy.
Some people, however, are more sensible about these things and would rather have a smooth, steady launch and get a good ET. Traditionally, this sort of maneuver was reserved for people who were, you know, good at launching. Thanks to launch control, however, nearly anyone can be shockingly fast. This is how Ford's works.
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Categories: Ford,Future Vehicles,Sports Cars
The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported that GM would pull advertising from Facebook after the marketing team determined that the ads had little impact on consumers. I use Facebook and can confirm that the ads are, mostly, ineffective. This is a decision companies make every day. You don't run a successful company if you're not monitoring the ways you spend money and if you're not tracking the results of your actions. You've got to know when to hold them etc etc.
In other words, while this has two HUGE names involved (GM and Facebook), it's kind of a non-issue.
Or at least it was until Ford got into the mix...
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Categories: Auto Industry,Ford,General Motors
You read the title; you're either into this video or you're not.
If you are into loud, smokey, ridiculously painted supercars going unreasonably fast, here's your daily dose of rear-mounted-camera dizziness for the day!
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Categories: Coupes,Ford,Motorsports,Sports Cars
Ford's 2013 Fusion can't come soon enough. It's not that the current Fusion is bad, it's just that we want to see this Aston / Jag face prowling our suburbs instead of the Gillette-inspired multi-blade faces we've got today.
It's not a release date and they haven't released pricing, but Ford has officially launched the configuator for the 2013 Ford Fusion which allows you to spec out your own Fusion S, SE, Titanium or SE Hybrid. Engines offered include a 2.5-liter I4, a 2.0-liter EcoBoost 4 and a 1.6-liter EcoBoost 4. The latter is the only option available with a manual transmission.
Categories: Ford,Future Vehicles,Sedans
The difference between professional racers / professional vehicle engineers and guys like me is clearly defined in this spy video of the 2013 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 testing on the Nurburgring.
They've got a 2013 GT500 in the rain and there's barely any oversteer!
Maybe that's why they kicked it up to 662 horsepower, up from 650, or maybe that's why I don't test things for times on the track. Either way, even without lurid powersliding, getting to see and hear the GT500 on the track is still worth it. Note specifically how it handles the hop at 1:06 and the speed accumulation as it powers out of the corner at 1:13.
Embedding has been disabled (booooo), so you'll have to go over to YouTube to see this one.
Categories: Coupes,Ford,Future Vehicles,Sports Cars,Videos
Is this the 2015 Ford Mustang? Close to it, at least that's what a Ford insider told us recently. Set to be released about two years from now on its 50th anniversary, the 2015 Mustang will be much closer to a "world car" than any Mustang before it.
What does that mean exactly? Well, obviously it means this Mustang will be exported to markets outside the U.S., but more importantly, it means that the next-generation Mustang will evolve into a performance car for varying tastes.
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Categories: Classic Cars,Coupes,Ford,Future Vehicles,New York Auto Show
After what seems like forever, a high-performance Ford Focus-- the 2013 Focus ST-- is finally available to order in the US market. Powered by a 2.0-liter four-cylinder making 252 horsepower and 270 pound-feet of torque routed through a six-speed manual, the Focus ST is now officially priced at $24,495.
The 2013 Focus ST also gets a sport suspension, variable-assist steering with torque steer compensation, 18-inch wheels, Recaro seats, dual-zone climate control, Xenon headlights and ST specific gauges.
As if that weren't enough, Ford is sweetening the pot by including a free GoPro HD camera with the first 1,000 pre-sale orders -- they will be delivered after the buyers pick up the car. To see what these cameras are capable of, Ford strapped a few to some pre-production Focus ST prototypes and had some fun.....
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Categories: Ford,Future Vehicles
When the 2013 Ford Shelby GT500 debuted at the 2011 L.A. Auto Show, Ford announced it would make 650 horsepower and 600 pound-feet of torque. But those were still targets, rather than actual SAE-certified ratings.
At a recent Mustang owners' gathering at the Odyssey restaurant in Granada Hills, California (that's the place with the panoramic view of L.A.), Ford officials shared what are reportedly the certified ratings, and they're a bit more than expected -- 662 hp and 630 lb-ft of torque. For reference, the 2012 GT500 is rated at 550 hp and 510 lb-ft.
Likely EPA ratings also came up -- 16 mpg city and 24 mpg highway -- and those are a bit better than the current car's 15/23.
(Team Shelby via Motor Authority)
Categories: Coupes,Ford,Future Vehicles
Ford avoided bankruptcy and a federal bailout all right, but the automaker had to borrow a lot of money to do keep afloat. As a result, it lost its investment-grade credit rating back in 2005 and has carried a junk bond rating ever since.
But that could change any day now. Fitch Ratings upgraded its rating for Ford from BB+, which denotes high-yield junk status, to BBB-, which is just over the threshold into investment-grade status. If Ford gets a similar boost from Standard & Poor's or Moody's, its credit rating will officially be considered restored to investment-grade -- and that would be a draw for investors interested in lower-risk bonds.
(NPR, Wall Street Journal)
Categories: Auto Industry,Ford
At the 2011 SEMA Show, one of the biggest talking points (besides the pretty girls) was a creamsicle of a Trophy Truck called Big Oly. It was a recreation of a Trophy Truck owned and raced by the legendary Parnelli Jones and dressed up like a Ford Bronco. Jones won his first Baja 1000 in the original Big Oly and this one was designed to commemorate that victory. Clearly it made our Top Ten Vehicles of SEMA.
This version of Big Oly has 723 horsepower and everything is plated in either brass or nickel or is anodized and is currently for sale on eBay for $535,000.
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Categories: Ford,SEMA Show,Tuners and Modifications,Videos
Through March, Ford has sold 20,133 Mustangs in 2012. This isn't a bad start to the year, in fact, it's better than they managed through this same period on 2011, but these are not the kind of numbers that dreams are made of. Part of this is competition. The Camaro is still a hot seller and the Genesis Coupe was just re-styled and given some additional sauce. And, despite subtle evolutions, the Ford Mustang is still carrying the same retro look it's had since 2005.
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Categories: Ford,Future Vehicles,Sports Cars
So a couple of weeks ago, we took a look at the models with the highest proportion of male buyers. The list was pretty much a supercar orgy, packed with the kind of six-figure sports cars that make financial sense only if your name is Mark Cuban or Kobe Bryant.
It got us (and you) wondering what things look like on the humbler end of the spectrum, so we decided to put a price cap on that sucker and do another list focusing on those vehicles favored by guys who are regular Joes.
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Categories: Audi,BMW,Chevrolet,Ford,GMC
Perhaps this is a bit of a stretch, but it comes with qualifier so I'm running with it: the 2013 Ford Escape is the most anticipated crossover we can remember. It's stylish, reasonably priced and from what we can tell by being around some pre-production models -- we'll be driving it shortly -- it will have a high-quality, well laid-out interior. And, sorry, did we mention the looks?
So let's say you are that eager crossover buyer sitting patiently, watching deals go by on CR-Vs, watching Lorax/CX-5 commercials and brooding, the wait is almost over! You may not be able to set foot into your Ford dealer just yet, but you can configure your own on Ford's site starting now.
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Categories: Crossovers,Ford
