Ford Concept Cars Sold For Charity

These cars are often the beginning of an idea.

Some are design exercises, others are proposals to gauge public interest. All of them draw a crowd.

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Eighteen concept cars from Ford Motor Co. were auctioned off Thursday night in Monterey, Calif., as a fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Children's Center.

The three-day auction, open to the public and featuring 225 vehicles from around the world, began Thursday night. Ford raised nearly $1 million for charities.

"Concept cars serve as the auto industry's vision into the future, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase these vehicles at RM's Sports & Classics of Monterey," said Edsel B. Ford II, great-grandson of Ford's founder and a member of the company's board of directors.

Auctioning concept cars is not as rare as one might think, said Ford spokesman Robert Parker, who attended Thursday's auction. But "it's certainly not a common occurrence to do this many," he noted.

The highest price concept vehicle sold Thursday night was the 2006 Ford GT, which fetched $148,000, including the 10 percent buyer's fee.

"RM's all-Ford Thursday evening sale in Monterey presented the biggest single offering of concepts in the last 10 years," said RM car specialist Dan Warrener, who consigned the collection of Ford concept vehicles.

"All 18 of these automotive works of art found new homes and the prices realized were solid, especially considering the fact that they cannot be titled for use on public roads," he added.

Some concepts cannot be titled because they lack drivetrains and had to be pushed onto the auction block, Parker said.

The event in Monterey preceded the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, one of the most prestigious and expensive car shows in the world, which begins Sunday.

Source: The Detroit News

Spied! 2011 Ford F-150 with EcoBoost V-6

Ford is about half a year away from starting production of the first six-cylinder EcoBoost-equipped 2011 F-150 half-ton pickup, but our spies have caught a tester SuperCab FX4 model racking up the miles.

In the picture, you can see a turbo intercooler framed in the middle of the lower bumper.

The EcoBoost twin-turbo system runs at up to 1,740 degrees, according to Ford. An air-to-air intercooler is used to cool the compressed intake air before it enters the engine's combustion chamber, and water cooling protects the internal turbo bearings in the high-temperature operating environment. Using two turbochargers, rather than one larger one, helps fight turbo lag.

In an interesting reversal of tradition for trucks, it's expected that the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 (which also features direct injection) will be a premium engine for the light-duty F-150, along with the new 411-horsepower, 6.2-liter naturally aspirated gas V-8 that makes 434 pounds-feet of torque.

Ford has officially said the F-150's EcoBoost engine will arrive by late 2010 with improved fuel economy and low-end torque with a broad, diesel-like torque curve through most of its power band. Our sources say it will be rated at about 400 hp and more than 400 pounds-feet of torque. Gas mileage is expected to be at least 23 mpg on the highway.

What do you think? Would you buy the new EcoBoost V-6 or stick with a conventional V-8?

Source: Pickuptruck.com