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Ford Mustang

Bob Lutz Steps Up With Cadillac CTS-V Challenge

The Cadillac CTS-V is already a media darling and one of the fastest four-door sedans in the world, but General Motors would like to show potential buyers just how well the performance vehicle fares against the best of what other car companies have to offer. The latest publicity stunt by GM executive Bob Lutz is called the “CTS-V Challenge,” and it involves pitting Cadillac’s hottest model against any driver out there with a production four-door who thinks they can beat the Cadillac CTS-V’s lap times around the Monticello Motor Club racetrack in New York.

Scheduled to take place October 29, 2009, track rats from across the country will get 5 laps in which to prove the superiority of their machines versus the best of what GM has to offer outside of a Chevrolet Corvette. Anyone over the age of 21 who gets their application in on time will be able to take part in the Challenge, which is shaping up to be a fun publicity stunt on the part of a company that could use as much goodwill as possible from beleaguered car buyers.

Volvo to Introduce Diesels and Hybrids

In an effort to both catch up with some of their European competitors and also differentiate themselves on the eco-friendly car front, Volvo has announced that they will produce alternatively-powered automobiles and bring them to North America. Closest to being ready for prime time is the Volvo V70 PHEV. This hybrid is capable of traveling for up to 30 miles on battery power alone, and features and electric motor driving the rear wheels and a diesel engine spinning those in the front. A more experimental hybrid system known as Volvo ReCharge has also been shown at auto shows, and it extends battery range to 60 miles and swaps in a four-cylinder gasoline engine for the diesel engine. ReCharge disconnects the gasoline-powered mill from the drive wheels, and instead uses it exclusively to charge the vehicle’s lithium-ion battery.

On the diesel front, Volvo plans to produce oil-burning versions of the Volvo C30, Volvo S40 and its Volvo V50 variant. Under the DRIVe banner, these aerodynamically-treated vehicles will all share a common 1.6 liter, four-cylinder diesel engine that should offer fuel economy of at least 50 miles per gallon.

Audi Surprises Industry With Announced Production of Audi e-tron

When Audi proudly showed off the Audi e-tron pure electric sports car at the Frankfurt Auto Show, few in attendance thought that it would ever see the inside of an Audi showroom with an MSRP taped in the window. Shockingly, Audi appears to be serious about launching the Audi e-tron as a road-going vehicle inside of a three year window. The Audi e-tron is not only remarkable for being a pure electric vehicle in a world where few such automobiles exist, but also for its astounding power. Four electric engines provide the Audi e-tron with more than 3,000 lb/ft of torque, as well as 313 horsepower – figures that no other passenger vehicle on the planet comes close to matching. Combined with quattro all-wheel drive, the sports car can hit 60 miles per hour in just 4.8 seconds on its way to a top speed of 154 miles per hour. The Audi e-tron will no doubt give boutique electric car companies like Fisker and Tesla a run for their money in the high-end segment of the market in the coming years.

NASCAR Edition of 2010 Ford Mustang Unveiled

After years of campaigning the Ford Taurus in NASCAR stock car racing competition, Ford has produced a version of the Ford Mustang that is fully qualified to race in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Unlike the top-end NASCAR Sprint Cup cars, which are based on a very specific template labeled the “Car of Tomorrow,” NASCAR Nationwide vehicles bear a far greater resemblance to their street-going cousins.

Over the course of the last five years NASCAR has been heavily criticized for moving closer and closer to becoming a spec racing series and deviating from the stock car roots encapsulated by the “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” mentality that permeated NASCAR automotive sponsorship. The NASCAR Ford Mustang’s DNA is clearly derived from the same platform that graces dealer showrooms across the country, and the vehicle is meant to forge stronger ties between NASCAR’s legion of fans and the production cars that the series ultimately promotes. The NASCAR Ford Mustang will hit the track four times in 2010 at some of the series’ most respected venues. At this time, Chevrolet has no plans to retaliate with a NASCAR version of their Chevrolet Camaro muscle car.

Ford Joins the Recall Roll Call

In a Fall season that has seen untold numbers of cars recalled by a variety of manufacturers due to safety and quality concerns, Ford has been forced to add another 4.5 million vehicles to the list. Thanks to a defective cruise control switch, Ford has expanded a recall that originally began in 1999 in an effort to head off a possible fire hazard. The cruise control switches in question have been known to overheat and ignite flammable materials inside a vehicle, and perhaps scariest of all, this can all occur even with the engine off. Ford’ solution to the problem is to install a wiring harness with a fuse that should eliminate the risk of a conflagration.

In total, Ford has recalled 14 million cars and trucks facing this specific problem. Vehicles subject to the recall were built between 1992 and 2003, and include certain models of the Ford Windstar, Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer, Ford Ranger, Ford Excursion, Ford F-Series Super Duty (diesel editions), and the Ford Econoline van.

It’s been decades since NASCAR has raced vehicles that even remotely symbolize a “stock car,” but at least Ford Motor Company is trying to bring some respect to the sticker-specific racing series. Starting next season, the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) will begin using the “Car of Tomorrow” (CoT) with all Ford teams switching to the design of the Ford Mustang rather than the Ford Fusion. While the Sprint Cup series will continue to use the Ford Fusion as its CoT, the branding of the Ford Mustang on Nationwide cars will further help differentiate between the two series. Not that vehicle design has much impact in NASCAR racing, but the official Nationwide Mustang looks much better than the renderings that Ford released back in July.

Currently, the Nationwide cars use a similar shape that the Sprint Cup used to run, but the Series will begin an eventual transition to the controversial CoT. Starting in 2010, NASCAR will be phasing the CoT into the Nationwide series only the cars will look much different than their Sprint Cup counterparts. As evident from the Ford Mustang Nationwide CoT, the front end will be more upright with a less pronounced front bumper and it will have a lower front chin spoiler that juts out further. Ironically, this front spoiler actually gives the car more of a production look as it mimics the 2000 Ford Mustang Cobra R with its removable front chin spoiler. With the traditional upper grille and headlights being just stickers, the engine gets its fresh air through the lower air intake similar to the Sprint Cup CoT. The car’s rear design will also change to include a lower rear bumper, but unlike the rear wing used on the Sprint Cup cars, the Nationwide cars will retain the tall, vertical decklid spoiler.

"Mustang is a proud and historic brand for Ford. This is a car born to race, and NASCAR is the next logical step for its racing pedigree," said Brian Wolfe, director, Ford North America Motorsports. "This truly marks the start of the next era of Mustang racing, [and] we fully expect this Mustang to start to enjoy the kind of success so many other Mustang racing programs have enjoyed throughout the last four decades.”

Like the Sprint Cup, the purpose of the new design for the Nationwide cars is twofold: it creates an equal template across the four competing automakers to promote more competitive racing and it helps to improve driver safety by reducing the vehicles’ top speed and redesigning the safety cage and layout. It is not clear how the Nationwide rules will work, but all of the cars competing in the Sprint Cup series must fit identical templates regardless of the automaker. While most of the changes are necessary to create a more equal playing field for the Dodge, Chevrolet, Toyota and Ford teams, the new body also helps create a safer cockpit with the driver’s seat closer to the middle of the car.

The 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Ford Mustang will only compete in four races next season, but it will likely phase the new car in by the following season. The first track to see the 2010 Ford Mustang “stock car” will fittingly be the Daytona International Speedway for the midseason night race on July 2, 2010.

Photo via Ford Racing