1974 Ford Bronco 1/2 Cab on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Chip Ganassi Racing switches to the Ford EcoBoost-powered Riley Daytona Prototype

Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (CGRFS) announced yesterday at Ford's SEMA press conference that it will field a Ford-Riley Daytona Prototype with the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 in the 2014 United SportsCar Championship (USCC). CGRFS is the second team to commit to the new Ford-Riley car, behind Michael Shank Racing (which has already used the racecar to break a 26-year-old top-speed record at Daytona International Speedway).
"Over the last 10 seasons we have been able to experience a great deal of success in Grand-Am," Chip Ganassi says, "and now with the dawn of the new United SportsCar Championship we feel that Ford power will be a key ingredient to writing the next chapter of our sports car program."
In the last Grand-Am season, CGRFS raced a BMW-Riley Daytona Prototype. The team has won seven Daytona Prototype championships, all in the past ten years. Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas return as the team's prototype co-drivers, and will attend their maiden race in the Ford-Riley at the Rolex 24 at Daytona in January.

2015 Saleen 302 Black Label Mustang unveiled with 730 horsepower

The last time Saleen made these pages it was to report that the firm was out of money. However, just before that announcement, the tuning specialist told us about the three Saleen 302 Mustangs it was developing at three levels - White Label, Yellow Label and Black Label, with those latter two trims to put out 640 horsepower and 565 pound-feet of torque. Well, the Black Label is here - don't let the California Sunset paint fool you - and it's more powerful than planned, with 730 hp and 600 lb-ft blasted out of a 5.0-liter Coyote V8 hooked up to a twin-screw supercharger. Saleen says it's the most powerful, refined, and advanced Mustang it has ever built. Keeping all that power on the road is the increase in downforce that comes from a body that's been extended one inch in front and two inches in the back, and the wing suspended over the decklid. The stock suspension is refitted with Saleen S4 springs, shocks, swaybars and bushings, and the 20-inch wheels on 275-section rubber hide 15-inch dimpled rotors. The interior gets the requisite frills in leather and contrasting stitches, as well as new gauges and badging. It'll take $73,214 to open the door, but just $2,015 to put down a deposit. For more info, check out the press release below. Related Video: 2015 Saleen 302 Black Label Mustang March 15, 2015 -- Earlier this year, Saleen Automotive released their 2015 White and Yellow Label 302 Mustangs to much fanfare. To round out their fleet, Saleen pulled out all the stops and developed one of the best Mustangs to date. This car is set to change the way pony cars are looked at from here on out. At a one-of-a-kind event in Downtown LA, Saleen raised the curtain on the latest pony car out of their Corona, CA headquarters. "Since I started building cars in 1984 my goal has always been to go above and beyond where anybody has been before", said Steve Saleen. "This will by far be the most refined and advanced Mustang we have built to date." With over 30 years of experience in both racing and manufacturing vehicles, it was only a matter of time before Saleen built a Mustang as comprehensive and technologically advanced as the 2015 302 Black Label. Power Saleen combined the reliability and potency of the 5.0L Coyote motor with a twin-screw supercharger. The pair produces the most power from a production Mustang yet at 730 horsepower and 600 lb-ft of torque on 91 octane gas.

2015 Ford Focus

Sitting down at the pre-drive briefing with Ford engineers ahead of sampling the refreshed 2015 Focus, water bottles clinked as we wet our whistles before Q&A. While pouring a glass, we noticed something stamped on the bottle label: "1L." One liter. We were palming the exact displacement of the EcoBoost engine our group was about to drive. This was undoubtedly coincidence (such bottles litter every conference and dinner table in Europe) but it served to drive home just how small the total swept volume of Ford's wunderkind powerplant really is. It's tiny.
Of course, this isn't our first run-in with the little triple - we've sampled its turbocharged charms before in Ford's smaller Fiesta. At that time, we found it had plenty of poke for the subcompact, but the larger C-segment Focus carries around another 450 pounds or so and pushes a wider profile through the air. Would the three-cylinder have the stuffing to make the most of the Focus' athletic chassis, or would it be a letdown? Would it be the same as it was when we tested it in a Euro-spec Focus a couple of years ago? There was nothing left for it but to head out on the bucolic roads surrounding Versailles the day after the Paris Motor Show and find out for ourselves.