American Dream: We drive the Interceptor, the full-size sedan that could save Ford

Press the electrically triggered chrome door handle and the door pops open. The sculpted one-piece leather seats are as stiff as the suspension, and you slide onto them as into a Barcelona chair. A 21st-century "shaker" looms in your view, and the rest of the hood is long and upright...you're overlooking a similar expanse of sheetmetal as in a Chrysler 300. Hit the electronic ignition button on the headliner just aft of the header, and the 5.4-liter V-8 fires up with a rumble.

The clutch is a bit heavier than a Mustang GT's, but it releases smoothly and progressively. This big sedan is easy to drive-if you're into low-riders. It bounces along the smooth test road like a candy-colored 1964 Impala on the haunches of its hydraulics. It feels like one good bump could launch it into the air. You shift cleanly into second gear, but that's all she'll show today.

Interceptor. It's just another Ford concept car. A nice piece of eye candy designed to take your attention away from the real horror story playing out in Dearborn amid collapsing sales, massive losses, and a demoralized workforce. Don't you believe it: Even as you read this, Dearborn insiders are sweating the details on a secret plan to radically change the way FoMoCo develops new cars and trucks. And the Interceptor reveals a key part of that plan.

Two things make the Interceptor important: the way it looks and the way it drives. Especially the way it drives. Ignore the fact the Interceptor rolls on a cobbled-together Mustang platform with a nonexistent show-car suspension. It's the thinking behind the car that matters. And the thinking is this: Ford wants an all-new rear-drive sedan for North America by 2011 or 2012.



Not that long ago, rear drive was on life support at Ford. The company had axed the slow-selling Lincoln LS sedan and Ford Thunderbird, both built on the expensive DEW98platform shared with the Jaguar S-Type, and announced the plants building the Lincoln Town Car, Mercury Grand, Marquis, and Ford Crown Victoria would be closed in 2010. Under this scenario (Motor Trend, August 2006), the Mustang would be the only rear-drive Ford car on sale in America by 2011.

Now, under new CEO Alan Mulally, Ford is rethinking rear drive for North America. Insiders say Mulally has looked at what GM has done to reinvent Cadillac, seen the buzz it's generated around new rear-drive cars like the Chevy Camaro, Pontiac G8, and the Chinese-market Buick Park Avenue (all based on the Australian-developed Zeta rear-drive architecture), and asked: "Why can't we do that?"

It's more than just an obvious question. It also addresses a major dilemma for two key Ford products, the Mustang and Ford Australia's Falcon. The Mustang has been a runaway hit for Ford, but by 2011 the platform will have been in production for seven years, and its live rear axle is no match for the sophisticated independent rearends under the newer Camaro and Dodge Challenger. Down in Australia, the Falcon, Ford's rear-drive rival to GM's Holden Commodore, is getting a major overhaul for 2008, but its platform dates back to 1998.



Neither platform has the volume (2006 sales totaled 160,000 Mustangs and 50,000 Falcons and variants) to justify an all-new replacement each. So Mulally has asked for a plan to bring Ford's rear-drive cars together onto a single, global vehicle architecture. That means Mustang and Falcon. And it also means potential replacements for the Lincoln Town Car, Mercury Grand Marquis, and Ford Crown Victoria. Which is where Interceptor comes in.

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Source: Motortrend

2011 Ford Mustang GT

The Return of the 5.0 -- and a New Boss 302R Racecar

December 28, 2009 / By Frank Markus Click Here for Complete Article

First things first. With a bore of 92.2mm and a stroke of 92.7mm, the high-tech DOHC 32-valve engine under the hood of the 2011 Ford Mustang GT making its debut at the 2010 Detroit show displaces 4951cc. That figure legitimately rounds to 5.0 liters, unlike the 4942cc displacement of its pushrod predecessor. That overgenerous rounding drove some of us persnickety engineering types crazy for all those years, so right off the bat we're inclined more favorably toward this new V-8. Indeed there is a lot to like about this high-tech engine, starting with its output figures: 412 horsepower and 390 pound-feet of torque (on recommended but not required premium fuel, slightly less on regular no-lead).

Designed according to best-practices established in the design of the 3.5 and 3.7-liter V-6's as well as the 6.2-liter V-8, the Mustang GT's new 5.0 boasts cam-torque actuated variable valve-timing on the intake and exhaust cams plus a long-runner single-scroll intake manifold and tubular stainless headers to optimize breathing. Moving the alternator out of the valley opened up space for the 80mm throttle body to breathe directly into the larger intake manifold. To cope with the engine's 11:1 compression and high combustion stresses, the crank is forged steel and fully counterweighted, using forged powdered-metal connecting rods, floating wrist pins, and hypereutectic pistons cooled by oil jets. The bulkheads are also 2mm wider and the six main bearing bolts are larger than those in the 4.6. This is reportedly as large a displacement as this architecture can handle with the 1.2mm cylinder liners and the current deck height (a slightly larger bore could be accommodated by switching to a spray-lined cylinder design).

The unique new cylinder heads will not bolt up to earlier 4.6's. The exhaust cam has been moved down and outboard, so the intake cam could also move outboard a bit for a more vertical intake valve geometry. Extremely light valves and compact roller finger followers permit the engine to rev to the speeds of 7000 rpm. To cope with the extreme g-loading experienced on a track and enable a 10,000-mile oil-change interval, the oil capacity has been increased to eight quarts. Extensive baffling and redesigned oil return galleys ensure that the cylinder head oil drains and the oil pump pickup is supplied even at sustained 1g lateral loads.


The 2011 Ford Mustang GT marks the return of the 5.0 V-8 to the Mustang's engine bay, rated at 412 hp at 6500 rpm and 390 lb-ft of torque.

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Siurce: Motortrend