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How Ford hid the 2015 Mustang from spy photographers

Now that we've finally seen the 2015 Ford Mustang, it's fun to go back and look at the spy shots we spent months pouring over, trying to dissect what was under all the camouflage. For the most part, Ford did a good job of concealing the car from spy photographers, and it released a video showing how much work went into doing so.
As crude as the Mustang's camo looked, all of the hard plastic, foam, vinyl and ratchet straps were actually created and put in place by a specific design team. The whole idea was to hide the car's identity, but it certainly ended up acting as a magnet for attention, too. According to Ford's press release, it took less than an hour for spy shots to appear online after the car was taken on public roads for the very first time - this is likely in reference to our first official spy shots of the Mustang from June, shown in the gallery below.
Scroll down for a press release and video, which shows footage of the 2015 Ford Mustang testing with minimal camouflage. This is probably the same track session where we got our first look at the Mustang's face back in August.

Is that the Ford GT Le Mans racer in the background of this Forza video?

Shortly after the reveal of the new Ford GT in Detroit a couple of weeks ago, Microsoft announced that it was putting the new American supercar on the cover of the upcoming sixth installment of the Forza Motorsport video game series. Now it has put out a video of the process of digitizing Dearborn's latest. Whether you're into Detroit steel (or carbon fiber and aluminum in this case), exotic supercars or video games, the video is worth a watch in and of itself. But our eyes were focused on something else. In the background of one shot (around the 1:49 mark) you can see a design board with renderings of what looks to be the rumored racing version of the GT – complete with reshaped air intakes, deeper side sills, a bigger rear wing and a central rear fin like you'd find on the latest LMP1 racing prototypes. It wouldn't be the first time we've caught wind of the prospect of the Blue Oval's new supercar going racing. We first heard of the plans last October, further reinforced in December with reports of the new GT coming to Detroit. And as we reported just a couple of weeks ago following the supercar's reveal, a return to Le Mans could be in the cards – which would be fortuitous timing, since next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the original GT40 scoring its landmark 1-2-3 finish in the 24-hour race.

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.