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Weekly Recap: Ford guns for 2016 Le Mans glory with new GT

On the eve of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ford confirmed it will return to the French endurance race in 2016 and campaign the new GT racecar 50 years after three GT40s swept the podium at the Circuit de la Sarthe. The factory will back a two-team, four-car effort that will compete in the World Endurance Championship and the Tudor United SportsCar Championship running cars operated by Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. The GT racecar will make its track debut in January at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, and the driver lineup will be announced later. "But rest assured, there's quite a line forming out the door," Ganassi said at the announcement. The GT is the modern successor to the iconic GT40, which won Le Mans four straight years from 1966-1969. The racecar is a rolling testbed of Ford's latest technologies, including a powerful twin-turbo EcoBoost V6. The car also makes extensive use of carbon-fiber pieces and advanced aerodynamics. Ford tapped Multimatic Motorsports of Canada and Roush Yates Engines to aid in the development of the GT racer. The road-going version, which was revealed in January at the Detroit Auto Show, is also set to launch next year. It caps Ford's growing performance lineup, and the company has ambitious plans to launch more than 12 new sporty models by 2020, including hot metal like the Focus RS, F-150 Raptor, and Shelby GT350R. The GT embodies Ford's best tech, but news of its return to Le Mans immediately conjured images of the company's fierce rivalry in the 1960s with Ferrari and intense competition with Porsche. "When the GT40 competed at Le Mans in the 1960s, Henry Ford II sought to prove Ford could beat endurance racing's most legendary manufacturers," Ford executive chairman Bill Ford said in a statement. "We are still extremely proud of having won this iconic race four times in a row, and that same spirit that drove the innovation behind the first Ford GT still drives us today." Ford is going back to Le Mans. Somewhere, Hank the Deuce must be smiling. OTHER NEWS & NOTES 2016 BMW 7 Series arrives in the fall BMW revealed the sixth generation of its flagship 7 Series this week, which will start at $81,300 when it launches in the United States this fall. BMW is billing it as the roomiest 7 Series ever, and it measures 206.6 inches in length.

2015 Ford Mustang dealer order guide surfaces

Details about the all-new, 2015 Ford Mustang continue to leak out. In fact, at this point, it's more of a stream than a drip. Its option prices are already available, and now the full ordering guide is on the web for all of the trims thanks to the Mustang 6G forum. Ford is rapidly running out of secrets to keep about its new sports coupe.
The 21-page guide can be perused in the gallery below and contains all of the standard features, colors, options codes, descriptions. Generally everything you might want to know about the 'Stang is there, other than its price or power. It even shows off the available wheel designs.
The guide finally gives away the contents of the Performance Package for the EcoBoost and GT trims. The EcoBoost's package includes: A larger rear sway bar, new chassis tuning, larger brake rotors, 19-inch black wheels, retuned driver assistance systems, an aluminum dash panel, added gauge pack, 3.55 limited slip rear differential, larger radiator, heavy-duty front springs and spoiler delete. When the options pricing leaked, it indicated the package would cost $1,995. If that is the case, it seems like quite a deal.

Ford nets $924M in first quarter

Where General Motors' first-quarter 2015 financials showed growth in many major metrics, Ford's newly released numbers had falling figures in most of the vital categories. The automaker's Q1 revenue shrank to $33.9 billion, down $2 billion, and net income fell to $924 million, a $65-million drop. However, pre-tax profits increased slightly to $1.4 billion, $24 million more than in the same period in 2014, and operating margin rose to 3.6 percent, up 0.2 percent. Despite the less-than-stellar numbers, the Blue Oval thinks 2015 should be positive for the company. "The first quarter was a good start to a year in which our results will grow progressively stronger as the new products we have been launching start to pay off," CEO Mark Fields said in the financial announcement. The automaker has 15 vehicles to launch globally this year, and only three of them are already out. By the end of 2015, Ford predicts pre-tax profits of between $8.5 billion and $9.5 billion. In terms of vehicle sales, Ford slipped by 21,000 to a total of 1.568 million worldwide in the first quarter. North American sales dropped to 678,000, which was 39,000 less than last year, and pre-tax profits fell to $1.34 billion, a $160-million fall. The company explained the reductions on this continent as linked to the launches of the latest F-150 and Edge. In other major markets, European wholesales grew to 376,000 vehicles, a 9,000-car boost from last year. Pre-tax results there increased by $9 million, but the area still showed an overall loss of $185 million. In the Asia Pacific region, Ford moved 16,000 more units than in Q1 2014 to reach 366,000. However, due in part to preparing for new vehicles, the company only made $103 million there, a $188-million drop. The automaker released all of these figures as part of a PDF, which you can download here. Related Video: