We love car configurators here at Autoblog, and we also enjoy competition. has just found a way to combine the two with a brand new website that lets you pit your online automotive creation against examples built by others. The vehicle that you’re tasked with making your own is the , and the automaker wants you to do battle with other Mustang fans across the Internet.
This special Ford Mustang Customizer will go live on Tuesday, September 20th. Once it does, users can pick between all varieties of the Mustang, from V6 up to the big-boy . Once a user decides on his machine, it’s time to customize it to his or her liking. Ford has a offered-up virtual wheels, body-kits, decals, grilles, decklid spoilers and a few choice parts from the Ford Racing Performance Parts catalog.
Once your mega Mustang is created, you can upload it to your Facebook page where it can “battle” against examples produced by your friends and other Mustang fans. There will be a leaderboard so you can see how your design stacks up against the rest of the world.
Also, if you end up falling in love with your work, Ford will help you turn it into a reality. A PDF description of how you optioned your car can be printed out, and then brought to your local dealer. All of the Ford performance and styling pieces can be purchased there, while the available aftermarket items will have to be sourced from the applicable vendors. Head over to on Tuesday to get cracking on creating your dream Mustang.
Earlier this year, we headed out to California’s Willow Springs Raceway to see for the very first time. It took just a few minutes for Gittin and his pony car to get acquainted, then it was all sideways action and tire smoke for the next couple of hours.
We weren’t the only ones watching Gittin that day, though. A film crew had their lenses pointed at the RTR-X as well, getting footage for a video about the making of the car. That video, produced by Team Need for Speed, has now been released, and it provides a glimpse into what it took to build the car, along with the people behind the project. There’s also some great footage of Gittin doing his thing in the RTR-X at Willow Springs. To watch the video just and hit play.
Design-World Company in Sundern, Germany is offering to turn your into what you see above for just €12,150 ($17,091 U.S.). That will get you a 23-horsepower bump (to 435 hp) as well as the wheels, a “thread undercarriage” from H&R, and “the main accomplishment” which appears to be the grinding and varnishing of plastic parts and the lively paint scheme.
There’s more information in the press release , but good luck making sense of it, or there’s always the gallery of high-res photos… and then a call to your Swiss banker to get this metallic orange and black and white party started, right?
Making A Case Against Increasingly Excellent Factory Options
The last time we drove a Roush Mustang – – we declared that the company had set the bar for tuners around the country. But that was nearly two years ago. Since then, the pony car landscape has evolved immensely. itself revamped the entire Mustang lineup, introducing the new 412-horsepower 5.0-liter V8 , dropped weight off the with a new aluminum block 5.4-liter V8 and successfully launched the track-ready, -fighting . Every Mustang that comes from the factory now offers more performance than ever, and a $50,000 aftermarket Mustang from a couple of years ago with a paltry 435 horsepower simply can’t compete with an OEM-developed ‘Stang.
But Roush hasn’t been sitting idly by. Its answer to hottest factory options from Ford comes in the form of the 2012 Stage 3 Mustang. Offering up 540 supercharged horsepower, a fresh look and Roush’s legendary suspension tuning, the RS3 is perhaps the company’s most appealing Mustang yet. But does it still have the magic of Roush’s previous pony cars?
According to the singularly obsessed minds at , is already hard at work updating the for 2013. Owners of the 2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302, while seemingly quite pleased with their new coupes, have apparently made a few suggestions to Ford that would make them even happier. The Blue Oval has reportedly listened to most of the suggestions and is planning a few updates for the 2013 model.
For starters, Sync is coming to the previously infotainment tech-less cabin of the Boss 302, along with a modest 4.2-inch LCD screen and the MyKey system. The exterior will get a few changes in the form of a broader color range and new forward illumination. High-intensity discharge headlamps are on the way, though it’s not clear if they will be made a standard feature or an optional extra. The choice of exterior paintwork will now include Gotta-Have-It Green, School Bus Yellow, Grabber Blue, White and Red.
If you don’t need Sync, the 2013 will make your 2012 a little cheaper. If you do want Sync, then 2013 will be your year. As Michael Scott might say, this represents a win-win-win. (Ford getting the third nod.)
Having a drag strip behind your office would be both a wonderful play thing and an unyielding distraction. Hennessey Performance Design has such a delightful strip of attention-destroying asphalt at its disposal, and it uses this quarter-mile test track to examine the straight-line acceleration of its latest products. The most recent vehicle to run down this stretch is the Hennessey-tuned .
According to Hennessey, the supercharged engine of this Boss 302 pumps out 650 horsepower. That’s enough scoot to push the car from 0-60 miles per hour in 3.9 seconds, and on down the strip in 11.9 seconds with a trap speed of 124 miles per hour.
It’s fast, it’s loud and it’s captured on video. for the clip.
What separates an old car from a classic? In many cases, not a lot. Beautiful sheet metal, a legendary powertrain or world-class performance could make a world of difference, and so can attention to detail.
We’re suckers for a well-stamped curve, an intricate chrome grille or even an elegant hood ornament. And then there are the engines. You won’t find many plastic covers in these beautiful bays, but you will find plenty of interesting details and, in some cases, a boat-load of chrome.
We strolled the streets of with cameras in hand to capture some of the best and brightest details from the 2011 Dream Cruise. Click on the image gallery above to browse everything from the to the engine bay of a .
Let there be no doubt: Classic American muscle cars are the bread and butter of the . And why not? These machines hearken back to a time when horsepower was king, nameplates like , , and first started rolling off the tongue and Detroit was at the forefront of the automotive world.
That said, we’ve noticed an interesting trend over the last several years. Modern muscle is making up a more significant portion of the festivities than ever before, a fact we can surely attribute to the rise in quality and performance of today’s crop of high-horsepower offerings. Naturally, you’ll see plenty of Detroit muscle from the 1960s straight on through today in this gallery from the 2011 Woodward Dream Cruise.
We’d like to take a moment to explain our definition of muscle cars. We’re mostly cutting Detroit’s history into two segments: classics and muscle, using 1964, the inaugural year of the seminal Pontiac GTO, as the dividing line. Two seats, four seats or five; two doors or four; modern or vintage – these are the cars that place straight-line performance above all else… and we love ‘em for it.
We went ahead and labeled each vehicle, but if we’re off by a year or two on some of them, we apologize in advance to all you hardcore muscle car enthusiasts out there… With all that in mind, enjoy the gallery!
There are always at least a few Shelby Cobras at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the Monterey Motorsports Reunion, mixing it up with Shelby Mustangs and Corvettes, but for 2012 there will be quite a few more. Laguna Seca has announced that the Cobra has been selected as the featured vehicle for 2012 in honor of the car’s 50th anniversary.
Like with the 250 GTO that celebrated its 50th anniversary this year, it’s likely that many of the other events during the Monterey Car Week will be honoring the as well. We wouldn’t be surprised if the Cobra was also honored at the Quail Motorsports Gathering or given a separate class at Pebble Beach. Either way, if you’re a Shelby or a Cobra fan, start making plans to be in Monterey next August.
You can read more about the announcement in the press release , or get a taste of what’s coming next year with our gallery of Cobra photos above.
It’s difficult to choose where to be on Friday during the Monterey Car Week. Various car shows vie for our attention, including the Quail Motorsports Gathering, Concorso Italiano and . Deciding where to spend our time on Saturday, however, is easy. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is the place to be, with the Monterey Motorsports Reunion hosting hundreds of vintage race cars at the famous 2.24 mile racetrack.
was this year’s featured marque, highlighting the 50th anniversary of the E-Type. We generally think of the famous Jag as a beautiful road car, but it was a fierce competitor on track as well. An entire race category was dedicated to the E-Type, which made for an incredible sight.
Of course, not all of the race groups were Jaguars, and some of our favorite regulars were back at the track for another year. We always enjoy seeing the Shelby Mustangs and Cobras battle it out with the Corvettes, the IMSA racers, and of course the ever-competitive Trans-Am cars of the late 1960s and early 1970s. We only wish we could stay at the track all weekend to see every race.
Couldn’t make it out to Laguna Seca for the Motorsports Reunion? No worries, we’ve got you covered. Just browse through our high-res photos in the gallery above.
Hollywood and the automobile have had a long and storied relationship together. Iconic vehicles routinely appear on the silver screen, and end up earning a place in the hearts of millions of fans. When you see a highland green , you think McQueen and San Franciscio. A will push your throttle foot down until you’re driving 88 miles per hour, while a black will remind you to know how to walk out of the place you’re walking into.
The LA Design Challenge understands the link between car and star, and has decided to make this the main idea behind its theme for the . Design studios from around the world will compete to bring us their vision of the next automotive icon that should appear on the big screen.
Entries will need to tell the judges how their design relates brand identity to the plot of a film, how it relates to the target audience, how imaginative the design is and how unique their entire project appears. A winner will be announced on November 17th, and we will share all the entries once they’re released. Check out the complete press release .
has teamed up with specialty manufacturer SPX and Barrett-Jackson to create a custom widebody that will sell for charity early next year.
Inspired by the 1969 Boss 429, this features a hand-fabricated metal widebody kit that adds an incredible nine inches to the width of the car, functional side scoops above the rear wheels, and a functional hood scoop from an actual Boss 429. Under the hood is a Ford Racing supercharger system that boosts the 5.0L V8 to 700 horsepower. For the interior, Galpin added custom red suede and black leather seats and upholstery and a 1000-watt JLT audio system. To top it all off, the car is painted in a PPG Candy Apple Red hue.
The car is scheduled to make several appearances, including Barrett-Jackson’s Las Vegas auction and before going up for auction at the Scottsdale auction in January, with the proceeds from the sale to benefit St. Jude Children’s Hospital. You can read more about the car and the auction .
Over the past couple years, Oklahoma-based Classic Recreations has made a name for itself with various iterations of the Shelby GT500, starting with and moving on to the continuation cars including the most recent .
It looks like Classic Recreations will be branching out, if you can call it that, with a new model. The company has posted a new rendering of a GT350CR based on the 1965-1966 Mustang Fastback on its web site. Following the same theme as the other Classic Recreation cars, the GT350CR combines classic styling with modern amenities such as rack and pinion steering, coilover suspension and disc brakes. Each car also features a 545-horsepower, 427-cubic-inch V8 and plenty of authentic Shelby Performance Parts. No word on when the cars will be first delivered to customers, but Classic Recreations is currently taking order with a starting asking price of $119,000.
You can see a full list of Shelby GT350CR features and specs .
, and owners use statistics like 0-60 times and quarter-mile trap speeds to prove why their chosen muscle car is better than the rest. If there’s any other segment of the industry where numbers mean everything, it’s heavy duty pickups.
Need proof? Check out the latest set of towing and payload ratings for the HD versions of the , , and . For what it’s worth, the GM twins officially have the highest set of numbers with up to 23,000 pounds of capacity when trailering a fifth wheel, 18,000 pounds with a conventional trailer and 7,215 pounds of payload capacity when properly equipped.
So, GM’s got the bragging rights… for now. We expect and Ram to counter GMC’s latest statistics with revised ratings of their own, after a few small tweaks allow them to earn back their place atop the HD standings. After all, it’s been happening exactly this way for the last several years.
For a fun little rundown of how the three American pickup makers play the game of one-upmanship, we suggest you from our friends at PickupTrucks.com. Speaking of which, after that website’s latest HD pickup comparison, at least GM has earned the right to boast by against the F-Series and Ram.
Ford’s Vista Roof option has been selling well recently, and the automaker says this is, in part, to the little shot of Vitamin D it gives to drivers’ everyday commutes. The split glass roof also has UV protection comparable to SPF-50 sunscreen, which should satisfy even the fairest-skinned buyers. So far this year, the Vista Roof option is checked on 48 percent of sales, 56 percent of sales and 32 percent of all sales.
The numbers are staggering when you consider that the Vista Roof is a standalone option in most cases, and an expensive one at that. It costs $1,595 to let the sun shine in on the Edge and Explorer, and $1,495 on the Flex. The available all-glass roof on the is the most expensive at $1,995.
The Vista Roof is certainly a great way to work on your tan before you ever hit the beach, but it ain’t exactly your dad’s . for Ford’s official press blast.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation surrounding transmission issues in the . NHTSA has received 32 complaints citing inability to shift into gears at speed. Around 26,000 Mustangs are being investigated because of these claims.
Regarding the 32 complaints, NHTSA filed this in its report:
Some reports allege incidents occurred while merging into high speed traffic and others allege that incidents occurred while turning left across oncoming traffic. Some complainants allege that the erratic shifting behavior almost caused a collision with adjacent vehicles.
The official investigation was opened on August 3rd. According to The Detroit News, a spokesperson from Motor Company said that the automaker will fully cooperate with NHTSA regarding this matter.
originally appeared on on Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:59:00 EST. Please see our .
Drew Phillips photo tips, 2025 CAFE, Suzuki small pickup, Audi future products
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Episode #241 of the Autoblog Podcast is ready, and this week Chris, Dan and Zach are joined by Autoblog’s photo maven, Drew Phillips. Our discussion starts with the new CAFE standards and then moves to Audi future products as discussed by Johan DeNysschen before finishing up with the rumor of Suzuki considering a small pickup. Your questions and comments power the last third of the podcast, and for those of you who hung with us live on our , thanks for taking the time. We’ve embedded our Q&A module for you to scroll through and follow along, too. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #241:
In the Autoblog Garage
2012 Dodge Caliber Heat
2011 Land Rover LR4
2011 Roush Mustang
2011 Mazda2
Hosts: , , , Runtime: 01:23:38
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Earlier this month we showed you the built by for this year’s EAA AirVenture. The car features a unique blue chrome paint scheme and hand-painted graphics done by , along with plenty of Ford Racing Performance Parts goodies, an interior styled after the Blue Angels pilot suit, and beautiful HRE 590RS wheels.
The Blue Angels Mustang was not only built to celebrate 100 years of U.S. Naval aviation, but to raise money for the EAA Young Eagles program as well. It did just that at the EAA charity auction Thursday evening, commanding a high bid of $400,000. In addition to the car, the winning bidder also received a Blue Angels flight helmet signed by all of the current pilots.
You can read more about the car and the auction in Ford’s PR after the jump, or browse through our photos of the car in the gallery below.
TheDetroitBureau.com is reporting a few juicy rumors about the future of full-size pickups from both General Motors and . According to details supplied by shadowy sources, Ford is currently hard at task on the development of a range of new V6 engines. The powerplants are said to be under development in a range of sizes, including 2.6-, 2.7- and 3.0-liter displacements. The engines are being crafted under the codename “Nano” with a single dual-stage turbo making up for the cut in displacement. The largest of the trio is said to have a target of 300-315 horsepower, which is effectively what the current naturally-aspirated 3.0-liter V6 churns out. TDB maintains that the new V6 lumps may also work their way into the line at some point as well.
The report indicates that GM, meanwhile, is hard at work on a forced-induction V6 of its very own to fight Ford’s EcoBoost surge. Additionally, the company’s heavy-duty trucks will be the only models available with the big-boy 6.2-liter V8, while both light- and heavy-duty pickups will be available with the company’s 6.0-liter V8. Finally, the tried-and-true 5.3-liter V8 will soldier on for the next-generation as well.
Mary Kay’s annual Seminar gathering is being held in Dallas right now, and the company best known for its pink Cadillacs is giving its independent beauty consultants another reason to work hard: a black V6 has joined the fleet of available cars its consultants can earn the use of. The Mustang is by far the sportiest option among the pool, sharing garage space with the and , and, of course, that pink .
While Mary Kay is sold in more than 35 countries, each auto fleet is selected by the regional body so the Mustang is only on offer in the U.S. (sorry, Moldova). However, the pink Cadillac remains at the top of the heap for makeup-sales rainmakers – “that’s the icon,” we were told. Still, the Mustang was very well received: “there were lots of cheering women.”
You’ll find a press release with more info after the jump.
