Ford’s new Mustang, from digital workbench

October 18, 2013 by Alastair Sloane

Ford's corporate face

Digital images of the new Ford Mustang have been published on Mustang6G.com, a site devoted to the sixth-generation muscle car.

It says the pictures have been “refined from CAD (computer-aided design) images of the actual car, with various spy photos used as a starting point.” It adds: “What you see here is a digitally accurate preview of the base 2015 Mustang.”

The new 50^th anniversary Mustang is expected to be officially unveiled at the Detroit motor show in January and later on go into production as a 2015 model.

No word yet on when right-hand-drive variants will be available in New Zealand and Australia, although some reports expect them later in 2015 before Ford shuts down its Australian operation in 2016.

Ford designers have kept the look of the Mustang true to its styling history while breathing into the car modern elements from the Ford Evos concept of 2011.

The pictures show the changes: sleeker silhouette, sculptured tail-lights, fastback roof, and Ford’s new corporate face up front.

The rear-drive two-door is expected to be smaller and lighter than the current model and get independent rear suspension to improve handling and cut fuel consumption.

Under the bonnet will be a choice of V6 and V8 motors, including go-fast versions delivering more than 400kW. These Coyote units are expected to come from Ford Performance Vehicles in Melbourne.

The base model is likely to get Ford’s four-cylinder Ecoboost engine that is already an option in the Falcon. Likely gearboxes for the Mustang are a six-speed manual and an all-new eight-speed automatic Ford is said to be developing with rival General Motors.

• More than 9 million Mustangs have been built since 1964.

If you are in a position to shell out upwards of NZ$600,000 for the 60^thanniversary Porsche 911 S/T or optional Porsche 911 S/T Heritage, you’ll no doubt want the signature titanium watch that goes with it. That’s how Porsche figures it anyway. Or, if you want the watch you’ll need to get the car. Both the car and the watch are limited to 1963 units, the year the original 911 model broke cover. The watch – Chronograph 1 911 S/T and Chronograph 1 911 S/T Heritage – and the car carry matching edition numbers. The watch is priced at $US13,500, or around $NZ22,200. The car, says Porsche NZ, starts at $NZ608,000. A “strictly limited number” will go into production for NZ early next year.

Eight European Union countries are pushing to weaken new EU emissions limits for cars, saying they are overly ambitious and unrealistic for carmakers to hit. The eight countries – France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – said in a joint paper that parts of the proposed Euro 7 regulation, including curbs on exhaust pipe emissions, should be scrapped entirely. They said the limits would force carmakers to invest in improving exhaust emissions performance, money which would be better spent on developing zero-emission vehicles. Taken together, the countries would have enough votes to block the proposal.

A go-anywhere EV concept for the US military uses an onboard 12kW diesel generator to top up the batteries on the move. The all-wheel-drive has 800-volt technology and a 200kWh battery pack to power three electric motors, two in the rear and one up front. Claimed output is 745kW/15,590Nm, or 1000hp and 11,500 ft-lb of torque. The four-seater was developed by the defence division of General Motors and is based on the platform of the Hummer SUV. It rides on Fox performance shock absorbers and 37-inch tyres and comes with “exceptional” approach and departure angles for off-road mobility. Maximum range using the generator to keep things ticking over is said to be around 500km.

The outside temperature in Midland, Texas, was 40.5C when staff at the local office of the US National Weather Service set out to show the cabin of a closed car can literally get baking hot in summer. They mixed up a batch of chocolate chip cookies and laid them on the car’s dashboard – the surface of which showed a temperature of 87.7C. A little over four hours later the cookies were ready to eat. “Even though ours weren’t golden brown, we can confirm that they are done and delicious,” the staff wrote on Facebook.