Monday, July 11th, 2011
Ford FPV GT Black Concept
Ford Performance Vehicles or FPV, as it’s known in Australia, calls it simply the FPV Concept. Pulling off the wraps in Melbourne, at the Australian International Motor show, they might have come up with a more creative name, on the other hand, perhaps they spent every brain cell figuring out how to make this GT based car impossibly cool.
It’s interesting to note that while the rest of the world is figuring out how to emit nothing more than pine trees, and puppy dogs, Ford, Chrysler and GM appear to be continuing their war on horsepower. With the concepts supercharged five liter pushing 335kw, that’s roughly 450 bhp to you and me, the Falcon based sedan should be quick, but with the same motor making 500 bhp on this side of the pond, it’s apparent that ozone conscious Aussies are indeed turning the screws.
The “concept” car is FPVs first ever, and if you had to venture a guess on the likelihood of it actually making an appearance the chances are good. As a concept, the car is not much of a reach. The demographic that will post a picture of it on their wall might call it “murdered out”, but the gentlemen who actually put down the cash for one would more likely call it “collectively black”. If you took a standard GT and dipped it in black paint, well, you get the idea. FPV said that they ticked all of the boxes that consumers normally choose when optioning their GT so you get things like leather, in black of course, and a rear view camera as standard.
Other goodies include a track-tuned suspension, performance-spec six piston front, and four piston rear brakes with large, equally black, air ducts and a high flow stainless steel dual exhaust. You also get fashionable matte black paint on the hood, sides and wing. No one will be fitting aftermarket wheels to replace the gorgeous 19” forged alloy rims either.
In truth, this car is not all that different from the one you can buy right now, but what they have done is add some bits and pieces that you might really want. It may be a little hard to quantify the value of a car that is a foreign icon, but here in the land of Mustangs, and Camaros it’s not hard to wrap your mind around the value of rear tire destroying, oversteering madness. We may be 9000 miles apart, but we share the same ethos as our Australian brothers and sisters, even if it does leave a few kangaroos coughing in our wake.
Posted in Concept Cars, Muscle Cars | No Comments »
Thursday, October 28th, 2010
2011 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350
Recently Shelby released the much anticipated specs for its 2011 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350. With initial hopes of 500hp being tossed around, Shelby have passed this marker with the supercharged version of the car developing 525hp, and totally blown the marker away with a special ‘R’ version of the model, set to produce 624hp.
The standard supercharged model is expected to hit 60mph in an incredibly rapid 3.7 seconds, and run the quarter in 12 seconds dead at just over 121mph.
There is a normally aspirated version for those who cant stomach the cost, or speed, of the supercharged models, though even this version will still be developing 440hp, still enough to see you get to 60mph in around 5 seconds.
We don’t have performance figures for the special ‘R’ version of the 2011 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350, but with the extra 100 horses, and possibly a drop in weight, we have no problem imagining the car being able to hit 60mph in little over 3 seconds.
All versions feature uprated suspension and braking components, ensuring the Shelby GT350 will go around corners as well as it goes along the straights, and of course with so much power on tap, and rear wheel drive, its fair to say an over-zealous right foot (where allowed) will induce huge tail slides guaranteed to put a smile on your face.
Coming in at $27k for the normally aspirated version, and $34k for the 525hp supercharged version, on top of the price of the base car, its likely there wont be many spots available to pick one up, obviously Shelby has limited production capacity and there is little doubt demand will be strong for the model, and for those with the cash to spare, there can be fewer better ways to spend it.
Posted in Custom Cars, Muscle Cars | 1 Comment »
Monday, September 6th, 2010
2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302
Ford has certainly produced some wonderful cars over its manufacturing years. Among one of the favourites for a lot of people, us included, is the Mustang Boss 302 that was produced in a short stint from 1969-1970. In fact, the vehicle actually had a great deal of success for a car of a 2 year life span, winning the Trans Am series in 1970.
Ford has finally made it official that the Mustang Boss 302 will have a new lease of life. They are developing a new version of the model, which will be based on the foundations currently set by the 2011 Ford Mustang GT.
Now, many Mustang enthusiasts already knew that the company would be producing a new 302. The difference is, the model that was already in the pipeline, was the 302R, which was being developed for racing only.
With that in mind, the 2012 Mustang Boss 302 will be much more of a day to day car. It will use some similar mechanical parts as the 302R and will actually look similar, but the differences are fairly substantial. For example, the emissions count and fuel consumption are much more reasonable on the 302, when directly compared to the 302R.
So what is so good about the new Boss special edition? Well, for a start, Ford has decided to incorporate a huge 5 liter engine, which has the help of 8 cylinders. This V8 muscle car engine is effectively an upgrade to the one used in the 2011 Mustang GT, and GT produces well over 400bhp.
The mechanics are some what spectacular. It features the likes of a fully re-designed intake system, which allows the engine to run a lot better when it is being revved high. This is also helped along by the fact that it incorporates a new camshaft timing setup, which keeps the car producing the power where it should, even when it is being driven aggressively around a track!
The combination of the re-designed interior components of the engine and some minor modifications means that this is much faster. In fact, the new engine produces of 29bhp more than the GT version, which means much more speed and better throttle response!
Unfortunately for Mustang enthusiasts, it is unlikely that this vehicle will hit dealerships before 2012.
Posted in Muscle Cars | No Comments »
Monday, August 16th, 2010
2004 Ford Mustang GT R Concept
The Ford Mustang GT-R Concept that first debuted at the 2004 New York International Auto Show has been sold at auction, the lucky buyer had to cough up $110,000 for the privilege of owning this one off, and by all accounts he picked it up for peanuts as the estimated auction valuation was between $250k and $350k!
The car itself was a put together as a tribute to the 40 years the Mustang had been around, and became a popular dream car to many Mustang fans. This Mustang Concept boasts a 440hp 5.0L power-plant, a six-speed transmission and a race prepared chassis including huge Brembo stoppers, though we somehow doubt that the new owner will ever take this Mustang on to a race track, despite the fact that is one of the few places he will be able to drive it as its not street legal.
We don’t know what the new owner plans for the car, but we would like to think he will cherish it as we would ourselves, its a very special one off, and as an investment, a fantastic buy, we can see this selling in 10 years time for a million bucks… we’ve already started our collection jar.
Posted in Concept Cars | No Comments »
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
Ford Start Concept - Ford aims to capture a large slice of the Asian small car market.
Ford is is looking to wrap the Asian small car market with this little number, the Ford Start.
Looking rather like an evolution of the KA that is so popular in Europe, the Ford Start concept is aimed at capturing a large percentage of the market for a small economical car so sought after in many countries across Asia.
The car will feature a 1.0-litre three-cylinder EcoBoost direct injection turbo engine which surprisingly has the power of a 1.6 liter unit, but throws out less than 100g/km CO2, this is the same engine set to make its appearance in the Fiesta and Focus.
The car is set to use various techniques to reduce costs, lots of one piece construction and use of lightweight composite materials where viable.
This Ford Start concept looks great to us and it seems a shame Ford has seen fit to only plan this for the Asian market, the great design and unique look would surely be a hit on the roads of Europe and the more cosmopolitan cities across the US.
Still, that should mean capturing a glimpse of one outside of Asia should make for an even more eye catching experience and we’re sure there will be a fair number of people aiming to import them so as to drive something different.
Posted in Concept Cars | No Comments »
Saturday, July 17th, 2010
More details have been coming from Ford about the 2011 Ford Edge. Along with a revised interior and exterior, the powertrain is also getting a rework, to include the same 3.7-litre V6 engine from the 2011 Mustang V6 that boasts 305bhp (compared to 265bhp in the current model), along with a six speed auto with paddle shift (nice for all your F1 fans).
Obviously the higher weight and increased drag factors of the Edge compare to the Mustang will mean somewhat lower fuel economy than the Mustang gets, we don’t know what exactly yet, but our guess would be approx 25mpg.
Along with the uprated engine, the new 2011 Ford Edge will also get a beefed up suspension to cope with the increased performance, and pretty decent 22″ alloys for everything to sit on.
Posted in Worldwide News | No Comments »
