2014 Ford Fusion Energi Se Luxury on 2040-cars

Auto blog

This 1969 Ford F-100 has a Cadillac CTS-V engine lurking underhood

Something always feels just a little taboo when someone builds a custom and then slots in a powertrain from a rival automaker. That's exactly the case with this modded 1969 Ford F-100 boasting a highly tuned LSA supercharged V8 like from the second-gen Cadillac CTS-V. However, with a claimed 800 horsepower on tap thanks in part to running an estimated 20 pounds of boost, it's easy to get over any bad feelings. Built by Tommy Pike Customs in South Carolina, the truck tries to keep the exterior looking somewhat stock. Although, the jade green and satin gold paint, Quaker State logo, lowered suspension and black wheels immediately suggest something is up. Once the F-100 starts up with its menacing growl, absolutely any doubts of this beast being unaltered are immediately gone. Not so obvious are some tweaks to actually help put all that power down, including disc brakes and independent suspension setups at the front and rear. The video gives some glimpses at a few of Pike's other creations, but the real star here is definitely his mean, green Ford.

2013 Ford Mustang V6

Secretary Trim, Evolved
There was a time not so long ago when opting for a base Ford Mustang meant getting little more than some sheetmetal, an anemic four-cylinder engine and what may very well have been the world's most disappointing automatic transmission. During the Fox Body years, Ford seemed hell-bent on living up to Carroll Shelby's derogatory description of the coupe as little more than a runabout for demure office assistants, and the result was a base model with fewer sporting intentions than a Dilbert day calendar.
Some 20 years later, hopping behind the wheel of an entry-level pony is an entirely different experience. With all of the menacing aesthetics of the brawnier GT, a well-equipped interior and a drivetrain that toes the line between efficiency and power better than few before it, the 2013 Ford Mustang V6 is an attractive option for buyers in the big coupe market. But is it attractive enough to forgo the beastly GT?

Ford opens research center in Silicon Valley

These days, the software running a vehicle's myriad of electronic systems seems to be getting nearly as much development focus from automakers as the traditional mechanical parts that keep a car going. Constantly improving that technology requires a lot of experimentation, though, and Ford is expanding its presence in Silicon Valley with the just-opened Research and Innovation Center Palo Alto to make that progress possible. Ford opened its first office in the country's technological hub in 2012 to draw talent and devise ways to deal with vast amounts of sensor data. Apparently, setting up shop in Silicon Valley was deemed a success because the Blue Oval decided to create this new lab in the Stanford Research Park to focus on five areas: connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, customer experience and analytics. Among the center's potential projects, Ford is hoping to develop better natural speech recognition, which is absolutely vital for improving infotainment systems. Assuming the tech eventually works well enough, your voice might even be used to adjust a vehicle's power seats, according to the automaker. The Blue Oval is also letting engineers from Stanford University test autonomous driving algorithms on a self-driving version of the Fusion. In a smaller stakes venture, researchers are working to get a Nest smart thermometer to automatically adjust the temperature at home depending on if an owner's vehicle is leaving or coming back. To really show that its serious about these ventures, Ford hired Dragos Maciuca away from Apple as the center's technical leader. The automaker also wants to have 125 researchers at work there by the end of the year.