2010 Ford Focus Ses on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Has the 2015 Ford Mustang gained hundreds of pounds?

Automakers face competing interests when it comes to developing a new generation of vehicle. On the one hand, companies want to build their cars to be safer and better handling, with more equipment and maybe even larger dimensions over the model it's replacing. On the other hand, they strive to keep weight down to the benefit of both performance and fuel consumption. Usually something has to give, and in the case of the new 2015 Ford Mustang, those efforts may have resulted in a weight penalty of two or three hundred pounds.
This according to Blue Oval modifier Steeda Autosports, which states that "the 2015 Mustang ended up gaining 200-300 pounds in this remake". Despite the Mustang not being on the market yet, it would appear the leading Ford aftermarketer has been given early access to the 2015 model to help jumpstart its tuning efforts (a rather common development among trusted tuners). If Steeda's assertion is accurate, that would make the challenge of getting the new pony car up to speed for both Ford and aftermarket customizers like Steeda that much greater.
We're waiting for official word from Ford on the veracity of Steeda's claim, but if true, it's bound to be a bit of disappointing news for legions of Blue Oval performance enthusiasts. Watch this space for more.

Ford offering factory-spec EcoBoost reflashes that don't void warranty*

Buy a supercharger or cold-air kit from Ford Racing and a Performance Calibration handset comes with it to reset the ECU for the upgrade. Now Ford Racing is offering the ProCal handset a la carte for $595, allowing you to reflash the ECU on your EcoBoost-equipped ride to extract more of its inherent capabilities without any additional upgrades. It gives you control of variables such as throttle response, idle speed and turbo wastegate control, among others. As for that warranty asterisk, the press release says enthusiasts can up the power "while maintaining the Ford-backed limited warranty." However Ford Motor Co. and Ford Racing are separate entities, and, best we can tell, when you reflash the ECU, your Ford warranty gets supplanted by the Ford Racing warranty. Say you bought a 2014 Ford, that means your five-year, 60,000-mile warranty becomes Ford Racing's three-year, 36,000-mile warranty, if we're reading the fine print correctly. If you have an older car and have driven more than 36,000 miles, then your warranty options are kaput, at least as far as a Ford in-house option. If have warranty concerns, you might also want to consider having a dealer perform the reflash, or at least ask about it. Once you've got past the small print, what about the numbers? At the moment Ford Racing offers tunes for the 2.0-liter EcoBoost in the Focus ST and the 1.6-liter EcoBoost in the Fiesta ST, and we're told there's a 90-pound-foot boost in torque at the crank after you've pressed the right buttons. Anecdotal evidence from a commenter at Road & Track says he went from 252 horsepower at the flywheel to 254 hp at the wheels, and 272 lb-ft at the flywheel to 354 lb-ft at the wheels, but we can't be sure that his adjustments were within Ford Racing specs. Your mileage, naturally, may vary. What about custom numbers for the 2.3-liter EcoBoost in the 2015 Ford Mustang? They aren't ready yet, but we're told we'll get something by the end of next year. Featured Gallery 2015 Ford Focus ST News Source: Ford, Ford Racing via Car and Driver Aftermarket Ford Technology ecoboost ford focus st ford fiesta st ford racing

An in-depth look at the Ford GT with Xcar

Ford made big waves when it unveiled the new GT at the Detroit Auto Show this past January. But as far as details go, it's been rather quiet. Though Dearborn has revealed what engine will sit between those buttresses, it hasn't told us exactly how many horses or torques it will produce, or precisely how fast we should expect it to propel the new all-American supercar. Fortunately, the automaker let the crew at Xcar into the studio to give us a quick, four-minute rundown of all the information that is out there at the moment, along with all the most intriguing angles of the vehicle's design. The historically savvy among us will already know that the new 2016 Ford GT traces its roots back to the GT40 that conquered Le Mans half a century ago, and through the previous Ford GT that debuted a decade ago. Both of those featured V8 engines (supercharged in the latter case) while their modern successor goes with a twin-turbo V6. But as Xcar points out, six cylinders aren't without their precedence in the history of the GT-series Ford supercar: the GT70 rally car of 1970 originally packed a 2.6-liter V6. That engine was later replaced by a 1.6-liter inline-four, which puts another crack in the theory of the eight's hegemony over the history of the series – as does, we'll point out, the Bugatti-like quad-turbo V12 that featured in the GT90 concept of 1995 that sadly never made production. The point is that divergence from V8 tradition shouldn't dissuade anyone from getting excited over the arrival of the new GT, and we're looking forward to seeing what she can do – on and off the track. Related Video: