2012 Ford Edge Sel on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Chevy Corvette Z06, Ford F-150 Raptor join Lego Speed Champs

Get ready to park some performance machines on your desk: Lego's 2016 line of Speed Champions kits will add seven new vehicles for next year, according to an update to the database Brickset. These include some serious muscle like a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and Ford Mustang GT. There's also a listing called "Chevrolet Camaro Drag Race" and a very cool combo titled "Ford F-150 Raptor Ford/Model A Hot Rod". Fans of European performance don't need to be jealous, though. The database shows a kit called "Porsche 919 Hybrid and 917K Pit-Lane." Plus for fans of the Four Rings, the Audi R18 E-Tron Quattro and R8 LMS Ultra are also getting their own Lego models. Fourtitude appears to have some leaked shots, if you want to see what these kits will look like. Lego has partnered with Porsche, McLaren, and Ferrari and offers Speed Champions kits for vehicles like the Porsche 918 Spyder, McLaren P1, Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, and LaFerrari. The models in the series aren't as heavily detailed as the massive Mini Cooper or Volkswagen Bus sets, but they make up for that in value. The individual cars retail for a fairly affordable $14.99. The Formula One playset tops the current range at $99.99, but it comes with a truck, racecar and team figures.

How Ford switched gears for the all-new F-150

Editor's Note: This story is authored by Julia Halewicz, a senior editor with AOL's Custom Solutions Group. She holds a Masters in Journalism from NYU and has spent her career as an editor of various newspapers, magazines and digital outlets. Last year on the Friday before Labor Day, the 2014 Ford F-150 pickup truck came off the Dearborn assembly line for the last time. After the last seam was welded, the F-150 that had been so beloved by American consumers would begin the transition from traditional steel manufacturing to an aluminum body, and the second phase of Ford's 2007 blueprint for sustainability would begin. Jobs would be created, and Ford would deliver a stronger product to its consumers. It was a moment Ford would call the biggest in the company's 111-year history. Breaking The Mold For some, the change was almost unfathomable. How could a truck be made with aluminum, and why change what clearly was working very well for the company? "We have a saying at Ford that leaders lead," said Doug Scott, the company's truck group marketing manager. "This was an ideal product to make with aluminum-alloy, because lightweighting made so much sense for a truck, because the extent to which you could take weight out of a truck, you could add more value to the customer in terms of more towing, more payload, more durability, more efficiency – so again all this required us to be out in front further out in front that we normally would be to make sure that we would deliver on all those expectations." Ford began the planning process about five years before the first aluminum F-150 would come to market. The company had a lot of questions. What was customer acceptance of aluminum, could they build the truck, and could the truck be repaired out in the field? Finally, Ford needed to determine if there were enough materials available to support the demand for the F-Series. Aluminum vehicles aren't unusual, but had never been built on the scale of the F-150 – approximately one every minute. Ford created two prototypes to determine if the product would meet and exceed consumer expectations. Any change to the vehicle had to be justified in performance, safety and economy. An aluminum truck needed to be safer, lighter, have increased payload, haul more, and have improved fuel efficiency. After driving the prototypes, Ford knew it was ready to move forward. Once the aluminum truck was ready to build, the next challenge was quickly transforming the plant.

Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 has a bit of a dyno issue

We're of the mind that each and every dyno should come with Murphy's Law painted in big, visible letters down the side. For every ten successful dyno runs out there, it seems there's one where events to horribly wrong. Take, for example, the video below. The clip shows what happens when a Ford Shelby GT500 and a mobile dyno have a bit of a disagreement at the Performance Expo 24 in Sherbrooke, Quebec. We won't spoil the results for you, but we will say there's some substantial carnage involved.
It's unclear just how much damage ensues from the dust up or whether anyone was harmed in the incident, but from the looks of things, everyone made it out without serious injury. If only we could say the same for the machines involved. Check out the video below.