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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.

2015 Ford Edge First Drive [w/videos]

We're routinely told that it's not easy being the middle child. The oldest sibling will always outshine the rest, while the youngest is routinely doted upon. The middle child, meanwhile, is seemingly never able to measure up. You know the drill: Marcia, Marcia, Marcia! But that hasn't really been the case for Ford's mid-kid crossover, the Edge. Sandwiched between its highly successful big brother, the Explorer, and the stylish younger brother, the Escape, the Edge has had plenty of its own bragging rights over the years. It's where the Blue Oval chose to first launch MyFord Touch in 2011, and was one of the company's first applications of an EcoBoost engine in a CUV. For 2015, Ford has given the Edge a brand-new outfit, complete with stand-out sheetmetal and a revamped 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine fitted with a twin-scroll turbocharger and direct-injection. The result is a vehicle that truly stands out from its compact and fullsize siblings while promising to retain Ford's edge in the midsize CUV market. Where many of Ford's cars have opted for a slim, Aston Martin-like grille, the new Edge's face is big and bold. It's around back, however, where the Edge really comes up with its own personality. The slimmer D-pillar forms the edges of a more aggressively raked rear window. It's difficult to spot in pictures, but the result is a decidedly more assertive profile than the outgoing CUV. Beyond that, the rear is home to Fusion-inspired taillights, although unlike Ford's popular midsize sedan, they're joined together by a vehicle-spanning lighting element that prominently features a Ford badge at its center. Ford's work on the Edge's interior is less progressive, though. The owner of a 2014 model wouldn't feel the least bit out of place climbing behind the wheel of a 2015, as it features Ford's same reconfigurable instrument cluster, and a center stack that's been crowned by the latest (and final) edition of MyFord Touch. Meanwhile, more JD Power Initial Quality Study-friendly buttons have replaced the obstinate and unintuitive touch-capacitive controls. The conservative take on the interior design belies the big improvements in material quality. The leather inserts in the doors are more heavily padded and the plastics are far softer. It's a similar story throughout the cabin, where owners will notice softer dash plastics and generally richer materials.

Ford will put solid axles under the Bronco as the off-roading gods intended

We've been wondering what sort of creature the Bronco would be since we first heard of the thing last October, when a union chairman spilled the beans on the SUV and the Ranger pickup. Ford confirmed a 2020 arrival date for the Bronco at the 2017 Detroit Auto Show, but at that point pretty much all we were sure of was that the Ranger and Bronco would be returning. The open question would be how hungry Ford was to spoil the Jeep Wrangler's solo party as a compact(ish) off-roader with dual solid axles, since the easiest thing would be to carry over the suspension design of the presumably related international Ford Ranger and its Everest SUV version: independent front suspension with either a leaf- (Ranger) or coil-suspended (Everest) solid rear axle. Enter Dana, the long-time supplier of Jeep stick axles, to confirm that the 2020 Bronco is getting a pair of them. That means solid axles front and rear, just like under a Wrangler. So reports Automotive News, citing an investor presentation from Dana. All signs so far, such as the report that the Bronco would be engineered by the same team in Australia that created the Ranger pickup, indicated that the Bronco would share a platform with the Ranger and thus be body-on-frame. The solid axle confirmation essentially confirms that theory. Some off-road-capable vehicles have paired solid axles with unibody frames, like the Jeep Cherokee (XJ generation) and Grand Cherokee (ZJ and WJ generations), but they are outliers. Generally, if you've got solid axles at both ends, they're going in a vehicle with a ladder frame. It also lends credence to the notion that our Bronco won't simply be an imported Everest, which might be too understated to stand out from lesser crossovers anyways. This is good news if you have Blue Oval in your blood and pine for a modern SUV that'll show up the Jeep guys on the trail. Less directly, it could mean a wholesale assault on the formula that makes Jeeps successful in the first place: the massive aftermarket of off-roading equipment and dress-up bits that appeal to Jeep buyers almost as much as a Trail Rated badge. At a minimum, Bronco enthusiasts can breathe easy that the reborn SUV won't merely be a light-duty crossover with styling "inspired" by true off-roaders. There's still a lot left to learn about the Bronco. Keep up to date with our running summary of everything we know about the returning off-roader.