Ford Racing

Jay Leno is awesome.........

Nazz Nomad

Jay Leno is sort of a lameo, but he does know his cars. Good review, Jay.

Rebel73

I met Jay in person on a motorcycle ride to Malibu. He's a real down to earth, cool guy..

05fordgt

Yeah, Jay's shop is called Big Dog Garage. On the episode of Rides, they showed his mechanics working on the Duesenberg he found in the garage. His place is a car guys heaven. And to the guy above who said Jay was a lameo, he is the truest definition of a car guy. Remember, he was a Rolls Royce mechanic when we was just starting in the comedy thing back in the New England area. He knows his stuff, and isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. Jay is my hero.

06GT&06MCS

"I hear when Ford was looking at the Mustang name in the mid-1990s there was a suggestion it could take a Mazda and rebadge it as a Mustang. Now there’s nothing wrong with Mazdas, but they are not Mustangs. There were a lot of letters and e-mails to Ford complaining. Thankfully, they dropped the plan, and all credit to them."

mmmmm... just fot the record, isn't the Mustang actaully built on the same assy line as the Mazda 6? And doesn't even the VIN on Mustangs ID it as a non-Ford-import, ie a Mazda?

Boltzman

Thanks Bill
what method did you use to remove airbag stickers??

Hollywood_North GT

Nice try, but no cigar. Clarkson was driving a STOCK Mustang GT, not a Grand Am Cup car that's had THOUSANDS of extra dollars poured into it to help compensate for the iron girder axle.

erasmus

Oh the the bmws and porches it was beating were bone stock too.

celticstanger

I think you're missing his point...

Vermillion98

Actually I wasn't referring to what Clarkson said; he would find something bad to say about the Mustang just because it's American car. You said the live axle wasn't up to task of running at Laguna Seca. So I brought up the Mustang Grand Am cup cars winning at Laguna Seca.

Grand Am cup rules allowed very limited suspension modifications. The Grand Am cup Mustangs' "iron girder axle" rear suspensions have the same design and geometry as stock, but they are allowed to change to heavier duty bushings and reinforced control arms. The BMWs and Porsches are modified as well.

If the overall design of the Mustang rear suspension was so inferior , there's no way they could have kept up with (and beaten) their similarly modified competitors.

Edmunds did a test of a stock Mustang GT at Laguna Seca where they were comparing the real world to the virtual world of Gran Turismo 4

Here is what they said:
<!--QuoteBegin-Edmunds.com
On the flipside, the new Mustang (in the real world) provides incredibly solid feedback through the steering wheel and brake pedal. This made wringing the most out of it on the track not only fun, but also relatively easy. It also sounded cool, looked cool and could readily be put into a four-wheel drift whenever you felt more like looking fast than going fast. It's so not a 1978 Fairmont anymore thank goodness. [/quote]

Hollywood_North GT

[/b][/quote]
Again, you're missing the point entirely. We're talking about a STOCK '05 Mustang GT not modified in ANY way.

As to the Edmunds article, stuff pulled out of context doesn't paint the WHOLE picture, just like stuff taken out of context with film reviews and used to advertise a flick:

"This is certainly not the best film we've seen all year."

I'd be curious to read that ENTIRE Edmunds story.

Not knocking the Stang at all, just pointing out that as effective as they've made the SRA in the Mustang, that doesn't excuse that it is still a primitive bit of kit no longer used by the world's performance car makers for street vehicles.

Vermillion98

No, I'm not missing the point;you said the live axle in the Mustang GT was "not up to Laguna Seca". I provide an example of the live axle being capable of winning at Laguna Seca. So now you're back pedaling because the live axle Mustang which is supposedly inferior did very well against similarly prepared competiton with more sophisticated suspensions at Laguna Seca.

Quote:

Originally posted by BC_Shelby@January 27, 2006, 6:33 PM

Quoted post

As to the Edmunds article, stuff pulled out of context doesn't paint the WHOLE picture, just like stuff taken out of context with film reviews and used to advertise a flick:

"This is certainly not the best film we've seen all year."

I'd be curious to read that ENTIRE Edmunds story.

I provided a link to the entire article; what's stopping you from reading it?
What I quoted is not out of context. Here's the link again, in case you missed it :Edmunds article

<!--QuoteBegin-BC_Shelby@January 27, 2006, 6:33 PM
Not knocking the Stang at all, just pointing out that as effective as they've made the SRA in the Mustang, that doesn't excuse that it is still a primitive bit of kit no longer used by the world's performance car makers for street vehicles.

Quoted post

[/quote]
Uh, yeah, Jeremy Clarkson said so, so it's gospel! He's right about everything...

mstang

"1ZV" at the beginning of every Mustang's Serial Number indicates Auto Alliance Inc. and the Serial Number starting with "1" indicates built in USA. It is not specifically Ford, but it is not Mazda either.

As we can all remember, the uproar was more about a Front Wheel Drive Mustang and the Mazda content was secondary.

Even though the Mustang and Mazda6 are built on the same line, the Mazda content in the Mustang is virtually nothing.

When you consider the fact that two years ago the Mustang was only on the horizon, the people at AAI have really embraced the Mustang culture.
AAI builds Mustangs, and a few of them other Mazda things!

bobbo

Jeremy Clarkson: A very entertaining buffoon. The only Mustang criticism of his I agree with is about the brakes....they are cooked quickly on a track. But they are more than adequate for a street car.

I'm 100% with Vermillion98 on the live axle thing. It's so cool to bash the live axle. What many self-aggrandizing, "sophisticated" Europeans don't understand is well captured in a DaVinci quote "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

On a track, live axle is NO DISADVANTAGE to an IRS. 2005 Grand Am Cup series proved that. I proved that to myself when running against a number of cars at Laguna Seca with vaunted 21st century rear ends. The Mustang is so darn predictable you cannot help but love it on a road course, even in stock form (OK, maybe a brake upgrade). :bowdown:

In real world, bumpy onramp conditions, it sure as heck is a shortcoming when pushing 9/10ths, but not on a well maintained road course like Laguna Seca, nor in normal, safe street driving.

runfox

Pardon me if I add my 2cents to this discussion. I just want to address Clarkston's review of the Mustang. I did not know anything about this guy, now I understand he has a very popular show I knew nothing about, knows a lot about cars and likes to make fun of American cars. Fine! I was not really offended by his review anyway, I just read between the lines and understand where he is coming from.

He like many others beleive only the Germans and British can make superior cars and American stuff is vastly inferior to all thiers. But I really feal sorry for the average European, becasue there is no way your going to convince me they are all driving around in Porche's, BMW's Mercedes, with over 300hp and all this sophisticated engeneering.From what I read sounds like the average European is stuck with a VW GOlf or worse.

Yeah Mercedes,BMW, Porche all make great cars, FOR THE RICH!!!! If I remember right , when I was looking for a new car, beginning of 04 , I dont recall seeing any BMW's, Mercedes,or Porche's with 300hp running on regular fuel for under 30k. Mater of fact the only BMW even close to my 30k price limit, has a measlly 220hp??? Not much excitement there!!And I dont think Porche sells anything but maybe a service contract for under 30k, the only other players under the 30k limit were the 350Z and RX-8. OOOh nothing from Europe there!!!Some one please tell what new sporty 2 door import I can buy with 300hp on regular fuel for under 30k? Im not talking about a "Sporty 4 door sedan" either, I'm talking 2 door sports car, or in the Mustang's case Muscle Car.

So the facts remain , while the Europeans may be able to build engeneering works of art, there's one thing they cant do, that only americans can, and that's build affordable excitment fo the masses, other wise known as the Mustang.

celticstanger

:worship:

Hollywood_North GT

You're still not hearing what I'm saying. The Mustang in Grand Am Cup has been MODIFIED! Whether or not the import competitors were modified or not is irrelevant to that core issue.

A better test would be to run a STOCK Mustang GT against a STOCK M3 or 996...or whatever...and see which car won then. I'm almost certain the results would be very different; that it wouldn't be the Stang in that competition, since the latter two cars are more track worthy in stock configuration. My guess is that the Stang requires a greater degree of modification than those other vehicles to "bring it up to speed," as it were. (Admittedly, it also bodes well for the Stang's flexibility.)

As to Clarkson being a "snob," yeah, he is. He's also fickle. I've watched him trash BMW, too...and yet he loved the Ford GT so much that he bought a second one, even after ditching his first one because of the "alarm issue." But that's part of what makes him so entertaining.

And a word about Mercedes and BMW. Mid-range models from those manufacturers are "me-too" cars in Europe - they're not considered prestigious at all. In fact, Volkswagon is considered to be a better quality brand than either BMW or Mercedes in Germany right now.