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Ford Australia reveals updated Territory, Falcon via Twitter

Ford may have tied together much of its global lineup under the One Ford campaign, but one market where it still offers unique products is Australia. That will soon draw to a close as well, but before it does, the Blue Oval's Aussie operations are rolling out refreshed versions of its two unique products. For the moment, Ford isn't revealing much in the way of powertrain details, but it has shown off a couple of snaps of the revised products on its in-market Twitter feed.
First up is the new Territory. The SUV is neither based on a front-drive crossover platform nor on a truck frame, but shares its rear-drive underpinnings with the Falcon, taking it a step beyond the Falcon wagon alongside which it sits in Ford's Aussie range. Like the outgoing third-generation SZ Territory, the facelifted version is dominated by a narrow grille and larger front air dam, but further punctuates its big-chinned look with more rugged lower cladding and other metallic inserts that bring its look up to date.
And there's the Falcon, which Ford revealed in XR8 trim just last week and is now presenting in G6E spec. If the XR8 is the performance model, the G6E is the luxury version, swapping in more refined trim like a chrome-slat grille (instead of a black honeycomb), chrome foglamp surrounds, less-aggressive multi-spoke wheels (instead of five-spokes) and a flatter hood (instead of a power bulge). Otherwise, it looks essentially the same as the one we saw last week, its facelift bringing it more in line with the smaller, front-drive Mondeo (which we know here as the Fusion) and other members of the Ford family.

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.

Lewis Hamilton owns 15 cars, uses tow trucks to keep the mileage low

No matter how you feel about Lewis Hamilton off the track, it's impossible not to respect his talent behind the wheel. Currently, Hamilton is the second most successful Formula One driver of all time. His 67 wins and four championships place him only behind Michael Schumacher's 91 wins and seven championships. With all those winnings, Hamilton has racked up a decent personal fortune, much of which he uses to buy cars. Except he doesn't drive them quite as much as you might think. According to The Sunday Times, Hamilton's net worth of just over $207 million makes him one of the richest sports figures in the UK, just behind David Beckham. In a recent interview with the British newspaper, Hamilton gave some details on his personal car collection. His first car was a used Mini Cooper, soon followed by a Mercedes-Benz C200. Both have long since been replaced by a pair of original Shelby Cobras, a 1967 Shelby GT500, a Ferrari 599 SA Aperta, two LaFerraris (a red coupe and a white Aperta), a McLaren P1 and a Pagani Zonda 760 equipped with a manual transmission. All in, Hamilton has about 15 cars split between homes in Monaco and Los Angeles. Unsurprisingly, he has a Mercedes-AMG Project One ( a car that shares more than a little with his F1 W09 EQ Power+ race car) on the way. Hamilton has some hot takes on his personal collection. "The Zonda is terrible to drive," he said. "It's the best-sounding car I own, but handling-wise it's the worst. I got it in manual because I didn't like the tiptronic version. The tiptronic Pagani offered was worse than the Smart Roadster I had." He also says his Shelby Mustang is a "beautiful car, but a heap of junk." In order to keep the miles down (and valuations up), Hamilton apparently has a tow truck on retainer in Los Angeles. When he's finished driving one of his Ferraris, he'll have the car towed back to his place. Classic cars are becoming a solid and serious investment, and Hamilton doesn't want to squander his wealth like some other athletes. That said, there are a couple more cars Hamilton would love to own, including a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL (the one with the gullwing doors) and a Ferrari 250GT California Spyder (the one from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"). Related Video: