Ford Sports Cars

In case you’ve ever wondered just how much power the current turbocharged Ford GT supercar puts out, this video by Hennessey Performance will answer that past the decimal point, right down into the hundredths.

The Thunderbird lived its last days as a two-seater sports car in 1957 which is when Ford introduced the 312 5.1-liter V-8 engine. That’s how the E-Code Thunderbird was born, the beefiest of them all and the closest alternative to the Corvette that Ford ever offered.

Ford debuted the Thunderbird at the Detroit Auto Show in February of 1954 and quickly dubbed it "personal car" so as to suggest it wasn’t a direct answer to GM’s Corvette. What it was, in all fairness, was a luxury sports car tailor-made for the kind of people that were looking for a more refined 2-seater model than the Corvette.

The 1957 Thunderbird was the last which retained the original two-passenger layout before Ford decided that their clientele would much rather go for a 4-seater sports car with added amenities and weight. So, for 1957, Ford made the most powerful T-Bird ever by introducing the 5.1-liter V-8 engine, in a number of guises. The twin quad-barrel carburetor ones were distinguishable by the letter E in the car’s VIN code - the source of the ’E-Bird’ nickname.

Keep reading to learn more about the 1957 Ford Thunderbird E-Code

Imagine you’re one of the 138 owners of the Ford GT, the most technologically-advanced car ever built by Ford. Then the gearbox fails. You look for a replacement and dully pay the price of a Corolla in exchange for your broken one. You then tell your Mercedes-owning friend about it. He also had his identical gearbox changed on his AMG-GT, but he only paid half for it. How is this possible?

It’s not uncommon for unrelated manufacturers to share parts, those made by third-party companies. You may remember more striking examples like when Lamborghini borrowed the headlights for its Diablo 6.0 from the Nissan 300ZX or Venturi when it ripped the external rear-view mirrors from a generic Peugeot. This time around, we’re talking about two manufacturers, Mercedes-Benz and Ford, who use the same gearbox from Getrag.

Although the said transmission is virtually identical, even down to the gear ratios, the two companies resell the gearbox at different price rates. In fact, a version of the same Getrag unit but with altered ratios can also be found in two older Ferraris, the California and the 458, and the Italians too have a price of their own for this component.

Here’s the latest Superformance classic-looking Ford GT40. The American masters of continuation GT40s unveiled at the SEMA Show the Future GT Forty prototype which draws its inspiration from both the original 1960s GT40 Mk. and the modern, Le Mans-winning, V-6 Ecoboost-poweredFord GT GTLM race cars.

The South-African Superformance company has been building painstakingly accurate GT40 recreations for over a decade and a half. Their cars are officially licensed to use the GT40 name and even eligible for the GT40 register, which means the Blue Oval fully approves of these beasts.

This latest model, presented after an 18-months-long buildup in the MagnaFlow booth at the SEMA Show, features the same livery as the 2017 GTE-Pro Le Mans-winning Ford GT built by Multimatic and a host of aerodynamic and mechanical upgrades that increase the GT40s prowess around any race track.

Keep reading to learn more about the Superformance Future GT Forty

The second-generation Ford GT was launched for the 2017 model year as a revival of the limited-edition supercar that the Blue Oval first produced between 2004 and 2006. The modern GT is also a tribute to the original GT40 from the 1960s and marked Ford’s return to endurance racing. Following a handful of special-edition model, Ford created the Carbon Series, a lightweight version of the standard GT.

Fitted with an extended range of carbon-fiber parts as standard, including wheels, the Carbon Series is nearly 40 pounds lighter than the regular GT. It also features extra carbon inside the cabin, as well as customized seats and a dashboard badge. Is it more powerful? No, but the fact that it’s lighter makes it a more nimble car on the race track.

The GT supercar seems to be a hit among enthusiasts. To satisfy the ‘overwhelming’ customer demand, Ford has announced that the production of the GT supercar will be extended by approximately two years. For people who would like to get it this time around, the Blue Oval will start taking applications in selected markets for about a month, starting from November 8.

If you love a thumping big V-8, tire-shredding RWD power, and all the attitude that goes with it, you’re spoiled for choice. Indeed, there’s no shortage of badass muscle cars out there these days, and now, it looks like Ford is getting in on the fun with a new Mustang Shelby GT500, as revealed in a recent Instagram post by user sinister_lifestyle.

Supercars are designed and built to accelerate and go around corners quickly on smooth tarmac, but what if you have one with raised suspension, body cladding, and beefy off-road rims and tires? It’d probably look somewhere along the lines of this digitally manipulated previous-generation Ford GT and would even be decent off-road, but nowhere near as good as it originally was on-road.

The Ford GT once owned by WWE superstar John Cena is back up for sale. It’s the fourth time — maybe fifth? — that Cena’s Ford GT is on the market and the second time in the past month alone. The Liquid Blue Ford GT last hit the auction block during Monterey Car Week back on August 25. Barely a month later — seriously, it’s only September 24 — the supercar us now listed in Mecum’s auction next month.

A leaked product sheet for the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 reveals that the mighty muscle car will have a whopping output of 720 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque. In addition to the uptick in power, the product sheet also shows that the Shelby GT500 will 4,225 pounds, almost 300 hundred pounds heavier than its predecessor. The document looks skeptical, so even with these headline-grabbing numbers, it’s hard to trust what it says without any word from Ford itself.

There was news of Ford downsizing the Focus ST to a 1.5-liter, three-cylinder engine in the next-generation Focus, and also news of it upgrading to the RS’ 2.3-liter Ecoboost engine; but according to Motoring, it looks like Ford has balanced it out and retained the same 2.0-liter engine. Pushing the envelope a bit further, it looks like Ford is ditching the ST’s unique manual transmission in favor of an automatic. Playing it safe there, Ford?

If you were to run a BMW M2 against a Shelby GT350, which do you think would win? Well, throttle house decided to do just that and put them through the paces on the track and in a drag race to see which one was actually better. In one corner, the BMW M2 is capable of putting out 365 horsepower and a sprint to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds, thanks to a 3.0-liter inline-six. In the other corner, we have the Ford Shelby Mustang GT350 that pumps out 526 horsepower and 429 pound-feet of torque from a 5.2-liter V-8. On paper, the Mustang should kill the M2 all day long running a cylinder down. But, it’s not always so cut and dry as you’ll see in the video below. Go ahead and click play, then sit back and enjoy the action!

The most menacing sixth-gen Mustang yet, the Shelby GT500, is coming for the 2020 model year, and Ford just launched the first official photo of the car via Motor Trend. The teaser shows the top of the beefed-up coupe and some of its aggressive design and aerodynamic features.

Raj Nair, the former president of Ford North America, who left the firm earlier in 2018 following an internal investigation into "inappropriate behavior," has joined Canada-based company Multimatic Motorsports. The privately held racing shop has worked with Ford for decades, and it has built the Ford GT supercar since 2015.

First introduced in 2002, the Ford Focus RS was produced in very limited quantities during the first- and second-generation models. The third-gen car was launched in 2015 after many years of rumors with a Mustang engine under the hood and an all-wheel-drive system. Discontinued in 2018 just as Ford unveiled the fourth-generation Focus, the RS nameplate is likely to return sooner than before and with even more aggressive performance ratings. Although a production model has yet to be confirmed, Ford was already spotted testing a higher performance variant of the Focus in Europe. Whether it’s the ST or the RS remains unclear for now, but both nameplates are likely to return in dealerships soon.

But the big mystery here is not when the Focus RS will return, but what engine it will use. According to recent rumors, the next-generation Focus RS could become a hybrid. This would be a first for the nameplate and a big blow for the Volkswagen Golf R. There isn’t much info as to what it will have under the hood, but more details should become available as the Focus RS goes out testing. Stay tuned for updates and check out the speculative review below to find out what we already know about the hot hatchback.

Continue reading to learn more about the Ford Focus RS.

It’s been only a week since the fourth-generation Ford Focus was unveiled, and the company is already testing a new version of the hatchback. Our paparazzi just spotted a camouflaged Focus on the Nurburgring track, and despite the thick wrap, it’s pretty obvious that Ford isn’t testing the standard model. But what is it?

The Ford RS brand has always held its own, but the latest Ford Focus RS was something of a masterpiece that proved Ford still had what it took to compete in the hot hatch segment. The Focus RS came late in the Focus’ life cycle though, and with a new Focus ready to debut sometime in the next week, it’s time to start talking about the new Focus RS – a model that’s slated to debut for 2020 and could deliver as much as 400 horsepower, if not more, thanks to a 48-volt mild hybrid system. The system in question will be showcased on the Focus RS before making its way into all of Fords mid- and large-sized vehicles. Forget that, though, 400 horsepower in the RS? Hell yes!

Ford just released an extended outline of its product plan for the next few years, including a good deal of info on its line of SUVs, trucks, and off-roaders. The release also gives us a preview of the Mustang’s battery-assisted future, not to mention a slew of shadowy teaser images that includes a glimpse at the front end of the new Shelby GT500.

Continue reading for the full story.

The latest Ford Mustang Bullitt broke cover with a big bang at the 2018 Detroit Auto Show back in January. Far from surprising given that it’s one of the most iconic versions of the pony car and that the last Bullitt was sold all the way back in 2009. The fact that it had quite a few cool features over the standard Mustang GT made things even better. Somewhat surprisingly, the new Mustang Bullitt is going to Europe, having just made its official debut on the Old Continent at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show. The "Bullitt" movie was never as big in Europe as in the U.S., but I guess that Steve McQueen gained more notoriety over the years on the other side of the pond too.

The current Ford Focus RS is on schedule to leave us on April 6. When that day comes, we’ll be left with a Focus RS-sized hole in our lives. Ford has yet to confirm plans to build a new version that will be based on the next-generation Focus, but there are already rumors that it’s going to happen at some point in the future. More importantly, the same rumors suggest that the next-gen Focus RS is going to come with a hybrid system.

First, there was the Ford F-150 Raptor, then came the Ranger Raptor, but if Australia’s Drive.com is to be believed, Ford might have an Everest Raptor in the works. The Everest, the three-row SUV version of the Ranger, would theoretically be easy to give the Raptor treatment. Both the Ranger and Everest share similar frames and suspensions, along with the forward second of the cab.

So, what spurred this theory? No less than Ford Performance’s head engineer, Jamal Hameedi, in fact. He told Drive, “There’s no reason [we wouldn’t do an Everest Raptor],” he said.

Continue reading for more information.

The current-generation Ford Focus RS has enjoyed an eventful life since it was unveiled at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show. But like all good things, the Focus RS’s time in the sun is about to end. Weep not, though, dear friends, because Ford is giving the hot hatch the proper swan song with the release of the Focus RS Heritage Edition. Limited to just 50 units, the Focus RS Heritage doesn’t dabble in the subtleties. It’s got enough goodies and equipment to make even hardened hot hatch fans tremble in excitement. And, if that little tease isn’t enough to persuade you, maybe the hatch’s bright orange exterior will do the trick.

If you thought kissing, shopping, and watching Game of Thrones gives you the chills, a study conducted by Ford revealed that none of those activities compare to driving a sports car. The preliminary research showed that driving a sports car on a daily basis ranks as one of the best ways to boost a person’s sense of enjoyment, wellbeing, and emotional fulfillment. Riding a roller-coaster emerged as the only activity that surpassed driving a sports car in the study.