With its Pep Boys-inspired rear wing, fancy stick-on graphics, and a growlingly means-business exhaust note, the King of All Mustangs does not just show up — it sort of presents itself. Its appearance should be accompanied by a "ta-da!"

Such as, "Ta-da! There it is rounding Turn Three!" And "Ta-da! Now it’s coming into the pits!"

Ford would like to sell you one. "Ta-da! Thanks for your $225,000! Please enjoy your new full-race, 550-hp Mustang."

Your first question is, of course, "Can I drive it on the street?" The answer: If you live in Hazzard County, maybe.

The list of available-to-the-public hot Mustangs, already lengthy with efforts by Ford’s own SVT and tuners such as Shelby, Roush, Steeda, and Saleen, grows by one with the pending addition of the King of All Mustangs, which comes from an unlikely source: Ford’s own racing division, which turned to Multimatic Motorsports, a Canadian performance company, to complete the project. The naturally aspirated engine comes from Roush-Yates, the NASCAR boys. The inspiration and the initial investment come from Dan Davis, director of Ford Racing Technology.

Read more »

Well, it was about time; Ford has finally decided to equip its base Mustang with a modern V6 engine to compete against GM’s ‘been there, done that’ 2010 Camaro V6. In particular, Ford will replace the 2010MY’s obsolete 4.0-liter V6 with its comical output of 210HP and 240 lb-ft of torque with an all-aluminum Duratec 3.7-liter DOHC Ti-VCT V6 that delivers 305 horsepower and 280 ft.-lb.

That’s only 10HP and 45 lb-ft of torque less than the current Mustang GT’s 4.6L V8.

In another technological breakthrough for Ford (…), the new V6 will be coupled to six-speed transmissions, either manual or automatic. We remind you that the 2010 Mustang V6 and V8 models are offered with 5-speed gearboxes.

Read more »

The 2010 V-6 Mustang may have been redesigned, but its specific output makes it seem like a relic. In this segment, both the Chevrolet Camaro and the Hyundai Genesis coupe offer V-6s of smaller displacement that nevertheless make more horsepower and more torque. Chevy gets 304 horsepower and 273 pound-feet from 3.6 liters; Hyundai gets 306 and 266 from 3.8. The Ford manages only 210 horses and 240 pound-feet from 4.0 liters.

That may be because the Mustang’s V-6 dates from the first Bush administration. Ford reengineered the six in 1997, switching the valvetrain from pushrods to overhead cams. The output was, and has been, 210 horsepower. In 13 years, don’t you think Ford should have been able to find—we don’t know—10 more ponies?

Read more »

The upcoming Frankfurt auto show is fraught with more leaks than a post-posse Bonnie and Clyde, and the latest news to trickle out concerns the racy 2010 Ford Grand C-Max. This seven-seat mini-MPV—think Mazda 5—will debut at the show alongside a five-seat sibling, both of which wear the intriguing style of the Iosis Max concept from last year’s Geneva auto show.

Both are said to ride on the next generation of Ford’s global C-platform, which will also underpin the new Focus we will eventually see in the U.S. (our current Focus is derived from Model T mechanicals). The C-Max and Grand C-Max will likely showcase a new family of EcoBoost turbocharged and direct-injected four-cylinder engines. We’ve been expecting a Ford of this ilk to make its way to the U.S. for some time now, and the seven-seater might make sense for Americans looking to downsize their vehicular footprint without giving up seating. We’ll know more when the car officially debuts in Frankfurt—or, as has been the case, sooner.

Ford is playing a familiar tune with the new Fiesta. It goes like this: Take a hot product from the European portfolio, adapt the car to U.S. regulations, and spread the development cost over another continent. It sounds simple, but the Focus and the Contour—Ford’s previous attempts at a “world car”—showed the complications associated with that orchestration. The Contour’s size (and especially its back seat) was too small for American tastes, and the Focus, while a sales success, was plagued by recalls in the switch to North American production.

With the Fiesta, Ford is hoping three’s the charm. We drove the European version of the car, and our impression is that it has what it takes to be a hit. We’ll see if that’s still true when production begins early next year at Ford’s plant in Cuautitlán, Mexico.

At 155.5 inches long, the Fiesta is 19 inches and change shorter than a Focus sedan and plays in the subcompact segment with the likes of the Honda Fit. Both the Fiesta and the Fit have the same basic jelly-bean silhouette, which maximizes inter­ior space, but the Honda, with an extra 6.1 inches of length and marvelous folding rear seats, wins on cargo size and versatility. When folded, the Fiesta’s rear seats don’t make a flat load floor, but the Honda’s do. Read more »