1985 Ford Thunderbird Base Sedan 2-door 5.0l on 2040-cars

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Spy shooter claims proof of upcoming aluminum Ford F-Series Super Duty

Ford has already confirmed that the 2015 F-150 (pictured above) was just the beginning for its more extensive use of aluminum. CEO Alan Mulally said it himself during the 2014 Detroit Auto Show. We've even already seen the future Raptor testing with an aluminum body. But a recent discovery from an intrepid spy photographer might indicate that the lightweight metal is coming to the Blue Oval's Super Duty pickups in their upcoming generation, as well.
According to Automotive News, a spy shooter in Colorado spotted a prototype for the next-gen F-350 testing. He happened to have a magnet on hand and got close enough to check the truck out. When he held it up to the metal in the bed, it didn't stick, which signaled to him a switch from steel to aluminum.
Obviously, this claim raises some questions. Given that it was a test vehicle, one possibility is that the Blue Oval is just evaluating the feasibility of switching to aluminum for the Super Duty trucks, not necessarily committed to it yet. Ford has been testing it quite exhaustively, after all. In fact, much of the rest of the truck in question was covered in camouflage, so it's possible that the magnet failed to work along the rest of the body not because it was aluminum, but because it wasn't powerful enough to get through the disguising material. Thus, the lightweight metal's use could be far less substantial than on the new F-150. Still, it was a clever idea for the cameraman to check things out and might have given us the first hint about brand's next heavy-duty models.

Formula Drift kicks off 11th season on Streets of Long Beach

The 2014 Formula Drift series kicked off last weekend in Long Beach, and saw Chris Forsberg, who you'll recall went mad and drifted around a warehouse in an Infiniti M, take the title behind the wheel of his Hankook Tire Nissan 370Z (shown above).
Forsberg really ran away with the first round of competition, outscoring his closest opponent, second-place finisher Kenneth Moen and his Bridges Racing Nissan 240SX, by 20 points. Third place was 2013 championship winner Michael Essa and his Yokohama BMW M3, 30.5 points behind Forsberg.
In the manufacturers' title, Nissan took an early lead with 122 points, which isn't a huge surprise considering five of the top ten drifters were piloting either a Z or a product of the brand's S platform. Ford, which had two drivers (Justin Pawlak and Vaughn Gittin, Jr.) in the top ten, took home second place, while BMW is currently third in the manufacturers' standings.

Ford pulling out of V8 Supercars after 2015

Australian racing fans are staring down the end of an era as news breaks that Ford will no longer participate in the V8 Supercars series. Although the official announcement has yet to be made, the decision – as reported widely in the automotive press Down Under and in global motorsport publications – indicates that the Blue Oval automaker has already confirmed its intentions to its shareholders early on Monday to shut down its factory effort in the popular tin-top series at the end of next season. The move will mark the end of an era for what has become the International V8 Supercars Championship. Alongside GM's Holden division, Ford was one of only two manufacturers competing in the series from its inception in the late 1990s through last year when a change in regulations opened the door for entries from Nissan, Volvo and Mercedes. Further rule changes are expected to attract even more manufacturers to the series, with Lexus said to be first among them. Over the past eighteen seasons, the V8 Supercars Championship has been won in a Holden Commodore fourteen times, leaving Ford to win the title only four times with successive versions of the Falcon. Eleven of the cars on the grid this season were Commodores, compared to only seven Ford Falcons between two teams that will need to switch to another manufacturer for the season after next – although some could opt to stick with their Fords for one more season, even without factory support, until the open 2016 regulations take effect. The decision follows Ford's announcement last year that it will cease manufacturing in Australia by 2016, ending a 90-year presence Down Under that stretches back to 1925. Blue Oval models like the Falcon, previously unique to the Aussie market, are being replaced by imported models like the Mondeo and Mustang.