1929 Ford Model A Roadster Very Nice on 2040-cars

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Listen to the 2016 Shelby GT350R roar

With only 137 examples to be built this year, it may be a while before you get the chance to hear the new Ford Shelby GT350R Mustang clear its throat. Fortunately the boys at the Blue Oval have got that part covered, at least in part, with the release of this video. The short clip is only 25 seconds long, but shows the new track-tuned pony car revving its 5.2-liter V8 heart away on the track. And with output in excess of 500 horses and 400 pound-feet of torque, boy can she sing. This isn't actually the first time we're hearing the new GT350 kick over altogether, but the previous video was taken down shortly after it went up – and that was for the non-R version anyway. This, then, represents the first time to hear the new top-of-the-line pony car doing its thang, and we hope it'll stick around long enough at least for you to get an ear-full. So turn up the speakers, sit back, and hit play to hear the soundtrack that no artificially amplified turbo four will ever manage to replace.

Car companies used to cook up sales with recipe books

The evolution of automotive marketing has undergone a number of strange phases. Few, though, match the strangeness of the 1930s to 1950s, when automotive marketers turned to cookbooks as a means of promoting their vehicles. Yes, cookbooks. We can't make this stuff up, folks.
This bizarre trend led to General Motors distributing cookbooks under the guise of its then-subsidiary Frigidaire. Ford, meanwhile, offered a compilation of recipes from Ford Credit Employees (shown above). The cookbook-craze wasn't limited to domestic manufacturers, though. As The Detroit News discovered, both Rolls-Royce and Volkswagen got in on the trend, although not until the 1970s.
The News has the full story on this strange bit of marketing. Head over and take a look.

Ford using robot drivers to test durability [w/video]

In testing the durability of its upcoming fullsize Transit vans, Ford has begun using autonomous robotic technology to pilot vehicles through the punishing courses of its Michigan Proving Grounds test facility. The autonomous tech allows Ford to run more durability tests in a single day than it could with human drivers, as well as create even more challenging tests that wouldn't be safe to run with a human behind the wheel.
The technology being used was developed by Utah-based Autonomous Solutions, and isn't quite like the totally autonomous vehicles being developed by companies like Google and Audi for use out in the real world. Rather, Ford's autonomous test vehicles follow a pre-programmed course and their position is tracked via GPS and cameras that are being monitored from a central control room. Though the route is predetermined, the robotic control module operates the steering, acceleration and braking to keep the vehicle on course as it drives over broken concrete, cobblestones, metal grates, rough gravel, mud pits and oversize speed bumps.
Scroll down to watch the robotic drivers in action, though be warned that you're headed for disappointment if you expect to see a Centurion behind the wheel (nerd alert!). The setup looks more like a Mythbusters experiment than a scene from Battlestar Galactica.