Posted on 04/20/2012 6:21:08 PM PDT by rhema
The greening of a classic car makes it unrecognizable to drivers.
The Ford Motor Company is giving its Mustang a unique 50th birthday present: death.
Detroit will still market an automobile called the Mustang. It just won't bear much of a resemblance to the iconic roadster driven by the likes of Lt. Frank Bullitt and James Bond.
Ford's new "Evos" concept features gull-wing doors, a rounded, aerodynamic body, and a smaller design clearly inspired by Europe. When Ford officially unveils its new Mustang in 2014, company insiders insist it will embrace this visual transformation.
More pertinent than its changing look will be its changing feel. Rumors abound, to the chagrin of drag racers, regarding the introduction of independent rear suspension. The five-liter engine supposedly morphs into a two-liter one. There is even talk of a hybrid Mustang.
Why not a hang-glider F-18?
A 2012 Ford Mustang boasting an eight-cylinder, five-liter engine goes from zero to sixty in less than five seconds. It takes a lot of fuel to generate all that power. The muscle car travels an average of twenty miles for every gallon of gasoline consumed. It's a performance car, albeit one that performs the way that drivers, rather than bureaucrats, want.
Twenty miles per gallon is considerably less than fifty-six miles to the gallon. That is the 2025 industry fuel-efficiency standard announced by the Obama Administration last year. With automakers having to produce a fleet of cars traveling an average of further than 56 miles per gallon by 2025, and further than 34 miles per gallon by 2016, a Mustang guzzling a gallon of gas every twenty miles would be certain to bring the fleet average below the mandated standard.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
I tred that on my Opel GT. Virginia wouldnt let me replace both side mirrors with cameras. They said i could do one.
Bingo! check out my post
The Cobra IRS was fairly stout short of a 5000 RPM sidestep of the clutch, so it’s definitely doable. The aftermarket stuff nearly bulletproofed it (granted, it’s no 9 in.)
Check out what the off-Road guys do with Mendiola transaxles and Porsche/custom CVs. They withstand big power, and get 20+ inches of travel while pounding/shock loading everything in ways that makes that sidestep look like a Sunday drive. For 1000 miles at a clip.
Make that for 35,000 and give it 400 hp standard and they will sell a million a year
Its a shitbox my cat wouldnt even use.
I want my my muscle cars.
gen Y is a bunch of punkassed dumbasses running around in little handgrenades called JSBs.The reason a 51 year old man is the prime customer for the mustang is because he is not sadled with all the college debt from a studies degree.FORD will be jumping all over their unit if they go this route.My God what a shitbox.
I am not sure that a turbo 4 cyl. Rear drive Mustang is a bad idea.
The SVO turbo was a nice car.
What it will boil down to is weight control (keep it light), and good alloys for the exhaust valves so you can sustain high power outputs under high boost pressure.
But I doubt I’ll be a customer, because it will probably still be assembled by uaw workers, meaning quality will be hit or miss.
im not afraid to open my wallet for a Mustang. That broad in the front seat scares me more economically.
The original 64 Mustang was designed with IRS, but from a price perspective it didnt make sense. So they used a cheap Falcon axle. Having IRS is awesome. Drive an early 2000’s Mustang with IRS next to a faster, stronger GT with live axle. I guarantee after that drive what you want is the power of the v8 with the IRS.
The only downside to IRS I’m aware of is cost/complexity. When done right/beefy, they are killer. I think a lot of people just don’t understand them for performance applications.
Sure, drag racing is one thing when you have monster slicks and a ton of bite, but the reliability gained comes with a huge penalty in all other scenarios. Like I said above, the off-road racers perfected the beefy IRS in brutal conditions. 400 HP to the ground on 37 in tires puts incredible stress on IRS components - far more than a drag car. But that IRS helps the vehicles so equipped out handle their solid brethren. In the late 90s, Ivan Stewart’s Toyota Trophy Truck regularly beat up on the Solid trucks with far more travel. Of course that was all custom gear, but the principle applies.
It can be done with modern tech, no prob. I just think the real hurdle is in the traditionalist mindset.
“Back in the day when I was a yut (late 50’s early 60’s) my group of teenage friends and I prided ourselves on our ability to name the make, model and year of every car that we saw on the streets. Now they all look the same. ;-(”
I remember that very well. Reminds me of an old joke (hope I don’t get Zotted), where a bored house wife was out grocery shopping and followed the bag boy out to the parking lot. She watched his muscular rear end for a while, then moved up beside him and whispered “I have an itchypussy.”
The teenager promptly responded “You’ll have to point it out to me because I can’t tell one of them Japanese cars apart from the others.”
JC
I’m talking about the smoke...
Bleach, tires?
ROFLMAO! Great funny to send me off to bed. Thanks.
Bleach burnouts result in very thick white smoke.
Thanks for the pic...
No, it’s not a ‘64 Stang. 1964 was almost a half century ago. Not that the original Mustang was anything to write home about. I had one, and it handled like a pig and had brakes that were a joke, albeit a scary one. Basically, the Mustang formula was to take cheapo Falcon parts and cover them up better looking sheet metal. It was not until Ol’ Shel tweaked the dang thing and gave us the first GT350 that the Mustang started getting good.
Truth be told, the 2012 Boss 302 is a better car in every way than the original was in 1969-70. It is quicker, faster, stops better, handles MUCH better and even gets better gas mileage to boot. It’s arguably the best Mustang ever, and it will blow many much more expensive Shelbys with much higher horsepower ratings right off the track. Nostalgia is a wonderful thing, but given the choice of Steve McQueen’s Green ‘68 for the movie or it namesake Ford offered up 40 years later, I’d take the ‘08. I love the 390, but it was basically a truck engine.
It’s 2012, and Pontiac is gone, taking with it the Firebird and GTO. Plymouth is also gone, but it had been a long time since anything like the Road Runner or ‘Cuda had been built with a Plymouth nameplate anyway. Same goes for Olds and the mighty 4-4-2 which was finally reduced to a Cutlass trim package on models that had the 260 Olds V8. Getting rid of it was a mercy killing.
If the Mustang ever dies, it won’t be Ford that kills it this time. It will be Congress, CARB, the EPA and politicians like Obama who believe that all cars should be badge-engineered Chevy Volts. The 2005 and newer Mustangs are good cars in spite of these leftists, not because of them. No matter what kind of Mustang Ford builds, Shelby, Roush, Saleen (he’s bought his company back) and others will offer all sorts of interesting variants on it.
What’s going away is the manual transmission. Each year, more and more models (except for smaller cars) are not being offered with a true manual gearbox. On many models which do offer a stick shift, it’s usually on available with the weakest engine in the lineup and on the lowest trim level. On sportier models, paddle shifters for auto trannys are all the rage these days. Heck, you can’t even get a manual in a full-size truck anymore unless you opt for a heavy duty with a diesel engine.
I’ve owned two Mustangs, a ‘66 that was built on a Falcon chassis and a Mustang II hatchback that was built on a Pinto chassis. At least the II had the Cologne V6 with a four speed manual. Not exactly a bat out of hell, but it drove better than the wheezy 2.3 liter four banger. Funny thing was that the Mercury Capri II with the same engine was quicker and handled better mainly because it wasn’t as heavy as the Mustang.
Someday I hope to come across an ‘08 Bullit that hasn’t been trashed too badly. I’ll jump all over it. My dream car is a ‘12 Boss 302, but I don’t think I’ll be able to afford one, even used.
I looked at your about page; I was overhead in 73-74 flying P-3s locating NVN gun runners (small coastal freighters closely hugging the coast line) for you guys to move in and blow them out of the water! We had no armor, no weapons on board and no self-sealing fuel tanks so my eyesight improved to 20-100, and I could visually ID those sneaky little bastards from 5 miles away, back off and track them on radar while you guys closed in for the kill. I bet your gunners mates had fun with that!
JC
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