2000 Mercury Cougar V6 Coupe 2-door 2.5l on 2040-cars

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Icon and Stealth EV are building an electric Derelict Mercury

Icon, a company known for its high-quality restomod vehicles, is building another Derelict, this one a 1949 Mercury coupe. While the fact Icon is building another one of its sleeper hot rods with patina isn't the most shocking, what's under the hood is. The company has teamed up with Stealth EV to turn this latest Derelict into an electric car. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. The car was shown in the above Twitter post with video. The exterior is just what you'd expect from an Icon Derelict. It's solid but with a weathered finish. And even as the guy from Stealth EV approaches the car, it looks like it has a V8 under the hood. But as he explains, there's actually the two motor controllers and half of a Tesla battery pack under there. It's just that they've all been given some classy looking metal casings and mounted to look like a V8. Apparently the motors themselves are in the transmission tunnel. The Stealth EV rep says it uses a pair of AM Racing motors. Depending on which motor controllers the companies are using, those motors could produce as much as 700 horsepower. Power will go to the rear wheels and no transmission will be used, making it direct drive. It will have a limited-slip differential, and the whole car sits on an Art Morrison chassis with independent suspension. This actually isn't the first electric Icon, nor the first developed with Stealth EV. Before this, the companies created a totally awesome electric Volkswagen Thing. That little truck made much less power at 180 horses, but it was also a way smaller and lighter vehicle. Related Video:

Junkyard Gem: 2007 Mercury Mariner Hybrid

Once hybrid vehicles from Honda and Toyota proved to work well in the real world of American streets during the early 2000s, other U.S.-market manufacturers climbed aboard the gasoline-electric bandwagon. Ford introduced the Escape Hybrid for the 2005 model year and sales proved quite strong; its Mercury-badged sibling, the Mariner Hybrid, appeared the following year. The Mariner Hybrid never induced many vehicle shoppers to sign on the line which is dotted, despite gasoline prices going absolutely ape in 2008, though it remained available all the way through the Mercury brand's 2010 demise. Here's one of those rare trucks, found in a Denver-area yard last month. The Escape/Mariner Hybrids got amazing fuel economy for tall, truck-shaped machines, though the serious penny-pinchers with long commutes skipped anything built in the 21st century and began driving up the prices of the once-scorned Geo Metro XFi, gas-sipping champion of the previous decade. The Mercury brand was on the ropes by this time, with not much to distinguish the once-distinctive Mercury machines from their near-identical Ford counterparts. The 1999-2002 Cougar was the last Mercury sold here with no twin brothers over in the Ford showrooms. I do see the occasional Escape Hybrid in places like this, though such gas-saving small SUVs tend to retain their value well enough that it takes a crash to retire one. This Mariner Hybrid hit something hard and either flipped on its side or scraped a guardrail for some distance. The airbags deployed and, presumably, spared the occupants from serious injury. That's the good news. The bad news is that fixing this kind of damage to a 13-year-old vehicle made by a defunct brand just isn't worth it to insurance companies, hybrid-electric powertrain or not. We can assume that the battery pack lives on in another Escape/Mariner. Navigation, Bluetooth, and other features that were considered pretty slick in 2007. This truck was in pretty good shape until the very end. Jill Wagner proved that you can bury a Mercury emblem in volcanic soil and it will grow into a brand-new Mariner Hybrid. That's how science works! You can go to the same field and tap on a Mercury emblem, if you want to get a regular gasoline Mariner. Featured Gallery Junked 2007 Mercury Mariner Hybrid View 20 Photos Auto News Green Mercury Automotive History Crossover SUV Hybrid mercury mariner mercury mariner hybrid Junkyard Gems

Ford recalling 126,000 Fusions and Milans over wheel separation concern

Ford has announced a recall of certain Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan vehicles after an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A total of 128,616 2010 and 2011 models equipped with steel wheels may have been manufactured with wheel studs that could crack and split over time. If that happens, the vehicle may experience a wheel separation.
According to The Detroit News, the company is aware of a total of 30 wheel separation incidents, one of which occurred on the front of the vehicle. Even so, no injuries have been reported as a result of the defect.
The problem apparently stems from the fact that the mounting pads on the vehicles' steel wheels may have been faulty from the factory. In addition, the wheel mounting face on rear disc brakes may not have been installed properly. Ford will inspect the rear disc face and replace them as necessary. In addition, the company will replace all of the vehicle's wheel studs free of charge. Head to the NHTSA website for more information, and click past the jump to view the full recall notice.