Ford Mustang 2002 News

Up to 300 Ford workers in Geelong may still have work after they are made redundant when the company stops making cars in Australia in 2016, after a small Melbourne company yesterday announced it was planning to recruit them. Power Systems Australia is looking to make gas-fired generators to export to markets in Asia and the Pacific. It currently employs 22 people in the Melbourne suburb of Campbellfield, but is planning to start a new factory in Geelong. The company currently makes electrical and electronic switchboards, and repairs and recalibrates power supply systems, but has also been researching the development and manufacture of power generation and supply systems. Ford announced earlier this year it would cease building cars in Australia, and in a special Ford event in August -- attended by global CEO Alan Mulally -- confirmed that we would see the next Ford Mustang here as a hero car in place of the Falcon.  

The 2015 Ford Mustang is on track for an auto show debut within the next six months and already many of its details are becoming known. Today, we learned that engineers developing the car have targeted a substantial weight saving for the new model. A source familiar with the car’s development told Edmunds that the 2015 Mustang will be only slightly smaller than the model it replaces but weigh around 180kg less. The 2014 Mustang equipped with a V6 tips the scales at just over 1587kg which means the new 2015 Mustang may be as light as just a bit more than 1400kg. The source said engineers were trying to improve the fuel economy of the car, though no doubt lobbing off around 180kg from the current Mustang will also yield significant gains in virtually every dynamic statistic. Combined with a new independent rear suspension, the lighter weight should see the Mustang turn in new levels of performance at the track. The 2015 Mustang is expected to be about 38cm shorter than the current car and 15cm narrower. Getting the weight down will be done by using lighter materials such as aluminium instead of conventional steel. Improved chassis design will also mean less reinforcement will be needed. www.motorauthority.com  

Watch the full Ford Mustang RC chase video

Have you ever wished your transmission were smarter? We're not talking about a dual-clutch or a paddle-shift automatic, but a manual. No? Well, maybe you should have. Ford has developed a smart shift knob for manual transmissions (in this case, a 2013 Shelby Mustang GT500), that can help drivers learn how to shift properly. It's not available for purchase, as it's a Ford engineer's project using the company's OpenXC research platform--but the project is open-source, and the design files and firmware are available for download. So you can make one for yourself. So how does it work? It takes a haptic vibration motor from an Xbox 360 controller and a Bluetooth link to the car's data output and packages them all into a fairly compact shift knob. Then the system senses the car's rpm and speed, and vibrates to tell the driver it's time to shift. Engineer Zachary Nelson also says it could be modified to vibrate to indicate other information, including the optimal shift points for gas mileage. While the knob itself might not have all that much use for us--or for most people in the real world--the idea that a car maker is developing and prototyping products, then releasing those designs into the wild for further development by the automotive community, is downright amazing. www.motorauthority.com    

James Bond ‘Goldfinger’ Aston Martin was epic, and the $4.62 million that Steve Champagne (yep, a real name) gave American customiser George Barris for the real Batmobile was serious money, then you'd be wrong.Ford as part of an ongoing product placement arrangement with Warner Bros who financed the movie. Ford also offered two big Galaxie 500s for the baddies to drive in the chase scenes but they were rejected and the producers bought two new Dodge Chargers. And so the main players in this iconic car chase were gathered for the fray.David Burrell is the editor of retroautos.com.au

For a cool $US59,900 - that's about $56,500 in Australian currency - a replica of a car Ford never made - the 1965 Mustang wagon - is yours. Plus shipping. The replica, built on a 1965 Mustang Coupe and using as many original parts as possible, was built about 10 years ago by US specialist body builder Joe Ramp. It is based on a single wagon built by Intermeccanica at the request of Ford advertising agency J. Walter Thompson in 1965 to be shown to Ford as a potential new model. It didn't take off. Decades later and the Intermeccanica car is long gone but Joe Ramp decided on making his own. From the Coupe, the roof is stretched and new rear side glass added to the new D-pillars. The interior has a pseudo-bench style front seat in tan vinyl. It's actually a custom centre console with a padded filler between the seats to give the illusion of a bench. Under the bonnet is a late-model fuel-injected 5-litre V8 mated to a T5 five-speed manual gearbox. Out the back is an eight-inch Ford diff and 3.00 gears, custom control arms and upgraded shocks. It's now for sale on eBay US by RK Motors of Charlotte, North Carolina with a buy-it-now price of $US59,990. Last time we looked, bidding was at $US15,100.

Was it "Big Bopper" - the '79 XB Falcon from Mad Max, or Steve McQueen's '68 Mustang GT in Bullitt. Or could it be the '64 Aston Martin DB5 driven by Bond in Goldfinger. How about the Mini Coopers of 1969 in the Italian Job? Or, does the '77 Pontiac Trans Am from Smokey and The Bandit top your list?Take our poll below to tell us what you think, or leave a comment if your top pick is not listed.But if the Oscars gave out awards to cars instead of stars, Audi would probably get the most nominations. During the past few years, Audis have featured in all the Transporter movies, Ronin, I Robot, Mission Impossible 2, About a Boy, Legally Blonde 2, Hitman, The Matrix 2, Iron Man and now its sequel.In the first Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr plays Tony Stark (a.k.a 'Iron Man'). His workshop houses a 1932 Ford Flathead roadster, a 1967 Shelby Cobra, a Saleen S7, a prototype Tesla Roadster and a 2008 Audi R8.Supporting roles were played by the S5 sports sedan driven by American secret service agents and a Q7 SUV which is literally held up by Iron Man, who saves the family inside from the enemy. For the Australian premiere, Downey Jr arrived in a silver R8. In Iron Man 2 he drives an Audi R8 Spyder and his secretary, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), drives an A8 TDI.Audi Australia corporate communications general manager Anna Burgdorf could not confirm whether any payment was made for the placement. However, she could confirm that the super-sport R8 V10 Spyder will arrive here towards the end of the year.The R8 Spyder 5.2 FSI quattro features a lightweight-cloth top that opens automatically in about 19 seconds. Its V10 engine produces 386kW of power and launches the open-top two-seater to 100km/h in 4.1 seconds on its way to a top speed of 313km/h.Product placement of cars is not new to the sliver screen. Most critics believe it started with Bond films, notably the Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger, in 1964. Aston returned in 1965 for Thunderball and was replaced by the DBS for 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service.Other companies then got into the act of pushing their vehicles on to the Bond screen with the highlights being the amphibious Lotus Esprit in The Spy Who Loved Me and the launch of the BMW Z3 Roadster in GoldenEye. Even a pre-production Aston Martin DBS scored a role in Casino Royale, and scored a Guinness record for "the most cannon rolls in a car at the same time" - seven - for its very brief appearance.Iron Man 2 begins screening in Australia on April 29.

The Bonhams & Butterfields auction featured actor McQueen's 1949 Chevy pick-up truck offered for sale for the first time by his widow Barbara Minty McQueen. It sold for $37,570.McQueen died in 1980 and left a legacy of films, many of which included car and bike stunts performed, in large part, by the ruggedly handsome actor. They include the motorcycle chase scene in the 1963 war movie The Great Escape and the car chase through the streets of San Francisco in the 1968 movie, Bullitt, which is considered by critics to the best of all time.The auction included a first special edition Mustang Bullitt presented by Ford to McQueen's son Chad who is a professional race driver. Number 1 in the series and dubbed ‘McQueen 1’, the Mustang is in factory original and unmodified condition and has only 2012 miles (3238km) on the odometer. It was not sold but was estimated to go for up to $85,000.McQueen not only performed many of his own film driving and riding stunts, but also raced cars and bikes and represented America in the International Six-Day Enduro motorcycle event. His 1940 Indian Chief motorcycle used as his ‘Hollywood bike’ and featured on the cover of the book Steve McQueen: The Last Mile sold for $106,450 while his 1919 Indian Daytona twin with FLXI sidecar did not sell but was estimated to be worth as much as $135,000. It may not be a car or bike, but its McQueen motoring credentials are bona fide: a Heuer-mounted stopwatch set, used in the film Le Mans, starring McQueen was sold for an undisclosed price.A spokesman for Bonhams & Butterfields said they could not comment on post-sale negotiations, nor publicise the last bid price on unsold items. "But I'm sure Bonhams would certainly entertain offers from interested buyers," he said.Other celebrity vehicles in the auction included a 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz formerly owned by Frank Sinatra which was bought for $131,000 and motoring enthusiast Sam Garrett's collection of 28 American and European cars.Garrett invented the mascara brush by taking a brush used in the maintenance of camera equipment and, together with Max Factor, applying the concept to make-up.His collection includes a 1927 BNC type 110 Roadster, 1935 Brewster Town Car, 1937 Rolls-Royce 25/30 Limousine, 1948 Packard Custom 8 Wagon, 1950 Morgan SS and 1967 Mercedes-Benz 600 SWB. 

The iconic Ford Mustang began production in Dearborn, Michigan in 1964 and was first seen by the public on April 17 at New York's World Fair.