Ford GT goes over 250 mph in ONE mile!

On March 14th of 2010, Ford GT TT(twin turbo for those that don't know) built by Performance Power Racing(from Florida) and driven by Johnny Bohmer broke the 250mph barrier in standing mile. The exact number is 252.9mph, read that last number I typed one more time and think about this for a second. The event was organized and held in Florida with a deserving name "topgunrun" http://www.topgunrun.com/ and it indeed lived up to every part of that name.




To put this awesome feat in perspective for some of you I will only mention that Bugatti Vayron hit the top speed of 253mph in about 3 miles on the popular British show called Top Gear. This twin turbo Ford GT managed to hit that number in third the distance.

2011 Ford F250/350 Super Duty gets a face lift and a new diesel powerplant!

For many years Ford has been putting Navistar built diesel engines in it's bread and butter of trucks, the super duty truck series. However, while that relationship wasn't a total disaster, it started to be plagued by a myriad of problems that slowly started chipping away at Ford super duty image and reliability heritage it has enjoyed over it's history. Navistar engines didn't make the Ford's super duty customers happy and Ford decided to be done with them and build their own. Simple concept it seems, but it took a while to get to it.

New engine is Ford designed and Ford built 6.7 liter turbocharged engine that according to Ford will at least match if not surpass the current setup they have, but with less reliability issues. All while meeting stricter emission standards that in the past. The new engine block is graphite iron, slightly stronger than the more common cast iron engines but this particular one will be 160 pounds lighter than the Navistar 6.4liter it's replacing. Not that most current or future super duty owners care much about weight in a full size pick up, but it's nice to see more efficient engines being designed and built. I am going out on a hazard and assuming that the new engine will have a better diesel mileage because to be frank, current Navistar 6.4liter has such poor mileage that a normal person would be hard pressed to justify the premium difference it commands versus a gasoline engine, even the V10 one.

Other goodies of this power plant include a massive turbo, boosting 30psi, forged steel crankshaft and oil jets that cool the underside of pistons. Ford also went to great lengths to make sure that problems that plagued Navistar engine won't happen again. The engine testing consisted of 1200 hours of continuous usage. Ford also ran the engine for 6 hours straight at peak torque and for 3 hours at peak horsepower—and rev it to 4200 rpm even though the rev limit is set to 4000. All sounds impressive at the time and I am excited to wait for it's immediate arrival to the market and reviews that are to follow.

2011 Ford Explorer looks confused!

I really don't know what Ford was thinking when they decided that making an SUV that looks like a mix of a crossover and an SUV would look good. I was pretty sure the reason we got crossovers is because of all the "save the planet" yuppies that needed something smaller than an SUV but bigger than a car. Last thing we or even "they" want is for their socially approved crossover to be associated with an SUV, or even look like one.

New Ford Explorer looks as if someone smashed an older model Explorer into the current model of Ford Flex. Ugly and confused are the first two words that come to mind when seeing this vehicle.

It is back, Ford made another 5.0 Mustang for 2011, and it looks like it will be top dog in pony car class!

I have been hearing about the new Mustang 5.0 for over a year but it was nothing concrete so I didn't get too excited about it. Being that the country is in recession and Ford didn't take any help from the Government, I had little faith they will go through with it, thinking they will be conservative or cheap. To my delight, my skepticism was proven wrong and Ford is on the way to releasing a Mustang GT with over 400 hp next year. Yes, I said 400+hp, and to top it all off, it will be naturally aspirated 4V engine in what is rumored to be a a body that weighs under 3,600lbs. I am no mathematician, but it looks far more appealing in the power to weight department than it's government funded competitors from GM and Chrysler.

Anyway, the official numbers are 302 cubic inches, 4,951cc, 412hp, 390 pounds of torque and curb weight of just TEN pounds more than it's dated 4.6l predecessor. Another important thing to know is that it will also be "4V", meaning 4V per cylinder, versus 3 valves per cylinder old Mustang GT engine had.
For the very first time in a long time, it appears as that Ford is ACTUALLY listening to it's gearhead cult like following of America's favorite pony car.

Job well done Ford!