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The 24 Hour War: Adam Carolla's new documentary brings the Ford-Ferrari battle back to life

Long before the GoPro or even videotape, races were filmed by guys standing next to the track with 16-millimeter cameras. The images kind of shook, they didn't always hold focus, and over the years all the color has faded out of the film. It all conspires to make the endurance racing battle between Ferrari and Ford in the 1960s seem like ancient history. What Adam Carolla and Nate Adams' new documentary The 24 Hour War does best is make that inter-corporate battle feel as if it happened yesterday. Yeah, if you're an obsessive you've likely seen most of the shaky-cam race footage used here before. But what you haven't seen are the interviews that frame the war and explain the egos and engineering behind the legends. It's not a perfect movie, but it's the sort of movie only fanatics could make. And it's easier to appreciate if you're a fanatic too. The first 25-or-so minutes of the documentary are taken up with histories of both Ford and Ferrari and an overview of how ridiculously deadly motorsports were in the Sixties and earlier. It's all interesting (if familiar) stuff, that could have been handled in about a third the time with some brutal editing. Still, the two protagonists in the story are well drawn: the racing-crazed Enzo Ferrari, who only builds road cars to stay solvent; and Henry Ford II, who after being thrown into the deep end of the Ford Motor Company management in 1943 at the age of 25, wasn't going to be humiliated after Ferrari pulled out of a deal to sell him the sports car maker. With one notable exception, the filmmakers were successful in rounding up practically everyone involved who is still alive for an interview. That includes Dan Gurney, Mario Andretti, Pete Brock, Bob Bondurant, Piero Ferrari, Mauro Forghieri, Carlo Tazzioli, and even Ralph Nader. There are good archival insights from the late Carroll Shelby. But where's A.J. Foyt? After all, he co-drove the stupendous Ford GT40 Mark IV with Dan Gurney to victory at Le Mans in 1967. The interviews make the movie worthwhile, but it cries out for more technical depth about the cars themselves. Yes, the GT40 was complex and engineered practically like a production car, but there's no mention of how the Lola Mk VI and Eric Broadley kicked off the development. There's only a superficial explanation of what made the American-built Mark IV such a leap forward.

Ford gathering data to improve how bikes and car interact

More than a hundred years ago, the Ford Motor Company changed the landscape of US cities with its cars, and the company is once again trying to disrupt the way Americans move around their metropolises by ditching four wheels for two. Ford is hoping data will make the difference in its quest to create a city friendly to both cars and bikes with what it calls a "mobility experiment" known as Info Cycle. Engineers are riding bikes with data sensors on the front fork around the tech town of Palo Alto, CA, according to CityLab. This data is analyzed and made public on Ford's open-source site called OpenXC. The sensors record everything from speed to temperature to ambient light. Ford hopes the data give city governments and biking activists the tools they need to make roads safer for all travelers. Along with data gathered from cars, Ford hopes to foster a better urban ecosystem for both bikers and drivers. Ford has tried to crack into the bike market before, but concepts like the Think and e-bike were never fully realized or came to market too early to capitalize on the current transportation revolution. Now that car ownership and miles driven are down and alternative modes of transportation are catching on in the United States, Ford wants to be on the cutting edge of the mobile revolution. Earlier this year, Ford introduced the MoDe:Flex, an electric bike concept, along with the previously announced MoDe:Me and MoDe:Pro. Related Video: News Source: CityLab Green Ford Driving Bikes data

Ford reports 58% drop in Q2 profits on European losses

Ford Motor Company announced Wednesday that it has posted a $1 billion profit for the second quarter of 2012. That sounds like good news for the Blue Oval, until you take into account that Ford posted a $2.4 billion profit for Q2 a year ago. That is a substantial 58 percent loss.
Ford also posted $465 million in international losses, with $404 million of those losses coming directly from Europe. The automaker also increased its European loss projections to $1 billion for 2012, due in large part to the economic crisis overseas, which has resulted in increased unemployment and decreased consumer confidence.