Here’s a little nugget that finally managed to emerge from information about the 2010 International Auto Show that finished up about a month ago in Detroit.
Apparently, rapper Nelly and DUB Magazine have been working together with Ford to produce a whole new kind of Ford Mustang, with a whole lot of “street credibility”.
Admittedly, it’s a matter of some conjecture whether or not a car can even have “street credibility” in the first place, but the folks at DUB Magazine sure seem convinced.
It will be heavily featured throughout Nelly’s videos, as it represents his “dream car”, but there’s not a whole lot of regular data we can get from the video itself. In fact, most of this is just a giant commercial with Nelly in monosyllabic ecstacies about this car that, apparently, he helped design.
Reaction so far has been mixed, with a lot of people convinced that this car never needed to be in the first place and likely wouldn’t have been in the first place if it hadn’t been for Nelly’s name getting attached to it and Ford’s desperation to sell cars–any cars!–in the face of overwhelming market resistance.
We take a lot of looks at small cars, fast cars, sporty little cars that can zip around a track in less time than it takes some people to count to twelve. But in doing so, we forget the other major class of cars–big cars. Loud cars. Cars with insanely huge tires going through obstacles that would swamp those speedy little cars for good.
And thus, I’m happy to present this video of an old Ford 4×4 pickup with big tractor tires mounted to it.
You’ll be able to see, off in the background, how one truck appears to have become irrevocably stuck in the mud bog, which appears to be, relative to an average human, about hip deep. And despite a four-wheeler’s help, it doesn’t look like that truck will be leaving the mud bog any time soon.
However, the clear winner of the day is the modified Ford 4×4, whose enormous tractor tires tear through mud like nobody’s business. Enjoy the video below, because it really is great watching.
You wouldn’t expect a Ford F150 to be carrying a sleek name like “Raptor”, now would you? That big clunky thing? Oh no..better “Ford F150 Juggernaut”, or maybe “Ford F150 Dreadnaught” or even “Ford F150 Holy Hell That Thing Is Huge”.
But no, the Ford F150 Raptor does exist, and we’ve got video of it right here, thanks to everybody’s favorite merry car prankster, the crazy British bloke.
And the Bloke took us all out to check out the Ford F150 Raptor–this is what we got out of it. First, you may not have known that the Ford F150 Raptor actually gets a pretty respectable twenty five miles per gallon highway. That’s not bad for a big truck like this. City mileage, though, is somewhat less impressive–eighteen miles per gallon.
The inside is just as plush, from what we can tell through the frosted glass–two toned, lots of leather and wood trim.
So for those Ford fans out there, you should enjoy this video, and you’re probably already wanting to get behind the wheel of a Ford F150 Raptor.
Oh, that’s the great thing about the internet, folks–not only can you take a ride in a 2011 Mustang via the magic of video, you can also hear me TALK about taking a ride in a 2011 Mustang to see if you even want to do it yourself first.
The crew out at Motor Trend set this up, so if you’re so inclined, just check out the video at the bottom of this post.
And the word of the day, at least as far as Motor Trend is concerned, is “improvement”. the 2010 model had actually been referred to as a “boat anchor”, but now, thanks to some retooling and improvements, the 2011 will be MUCH better. You can almost HEAR the palpable relief in Arthur St. Antoine’s voice (he’s the guy starring in this particular video) as he describes how much better the 2011 Mustang is than its earlier iterations.
Special note: fans of the Aussie burnout, you will be disappointed, as the 2011 Mustang will exhibit a classic American burnout instead.
Interesting question posed by one of the videos I found for you today–would you pay double the price for a car that could go zero to sixty just slightly faster than another?
That’s the question posed by the Kelley Blue Book folks, who bring us a 2010 Ford Mustang GT500 and race it side by side against a 2009 Jaguar XKR.
Their stats going into the race are pretty similar–the Mustang weighs slightly more and has an engine that’s .4 liters larger. Both get the same miles per gallon and reach the same top speed. But who’s faster off the line? Check out the video.
Now here’s the kicker–the winner of that particular race was a fraction of a second faster. I won’t tell you who won, but suffice it to say, that that fraction of a second will cost you almost FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS.
While they aren’t busy recalling their Chinese vehicles due to faulty accelerator pedals, Ford is announced a few incentives to lure in potential buyers of their 2010 Focus.
If you opt to buy the 2010 Ford Focus you can get up to $3,000 cash back bringing the price down to just $13,290. Or you can get $500 cash back and 0% financing for 36 months. However, if you want to get down on this deal you better make haste as it only runs until March 31st.
Of course, Ford is sure to have some incentives after the 31st, as well.
We’ve all heard of the massive Toyota recall regarding the accelerator pedals, but it seems that they aren’t the only automaker that is getting plagued by the problem. It was recently announced that Ford will be stopping production altogether of their Transit in China due to the same problem. You may be thinking this is quite the coincidence but it seems that Ford actually gets the accelerator pedals from the same supplier that Toyota does.
While this problem probably won’t bother you much it just goes to show you how massive this problem is turning out to be.
What recession? That’s mostly likely what Ford is thinking these days, as the company posted an impressive $2.7 billion in profits for 2009, compared to a loss of $14.8 billion in 2008 — quite a turnaround. Ford also announced that they expect 2010 to have at least the same profits as 2009.
If you’re not quite as upset about Ken Block’s recent defection to Ford as Hitler was, then you’ll likely be interested in the following video putting Ken Block’s Ford Fiesta on special display, as well as telling us about the upcoming Monster World Rally Team’s racing schedule.
And although this particular installment is little more than a commercial showing off Block’s various sponsors–everybody from DC comics to Pirelli is represented here–his Ford Fiesta is indeed looking well cared for in advance of the new season.
This video, and those like it, do make me wonder why Block would decide to leave Subaru for Ford in the first place. Is it some desire to “drive American”, especially following the near c0llapse of the American auto industry? Or did Ford just straight-out make him a better offer?
Regardless of the cause, Block’s driving for Ford now, and this video is all the proof of that you’ll ever need. So be sure to check out Monster’s 2010 season!
According to new rumors, Ford is set to sell Volvo next month for a cool $1.8 billion to Chinese holding company Geely Holding Group Co. Ford originally bought Volvo in 1999 for $6.45 billion, so it’s losing quite a lot of dough on the deal.
