In my opinion I think the CAFE standards are a good thing. It will kill off stupid gas guzzlers like the Hummer. But that being said, I am a died hard mustang fan and CAFE makes me worry that the 1970's are around the corner again. I hope ford puts money into research for an efficient V8. If not, I think we should be scared that we will be seeing power loss's on future stang models. thoughts?

 

Please see future EcoBoost/TwinForce engines for the answer

 

GM has already annouced the next C7 vette will get a drop in displacement (4.7 eng) as well as drop in weight. Horsepower was said to drop 150 horses and weight was said to drop 300-400 lb. They mention this should equal the performance of the vette today.
Link: http://www.leftlanenews.com/corvette...gulations.html

Chrysler has already annouced no Hemi for the future lineup. That doesn't mean there won't be a V8 in future production but possibly moving to a OHC design.
Link: http://www.autoblog.com/2008/01/22/c...mi-powertrain/

I feel all manufacturers will be feeling the weight of the new CAFE standards. I think all manufacturer will be making cars smaller as well as the engines. I could live with the Mustang strinking to the size of the old fox body stangs during the 80's to early 90's. It didn't take much power to get those things going. Even with 225hp/300tq they ran pretty impressive times due to the power to weight ratio. I am hoping Ford's Ecoboost will keep the Mustang with a V8 in years to come. I certainly wouldn't mind a smaller, lighter, fuel efficient, TT V8 Mustang over our current model.

 

It's simple physics, we're running out of ways to make a large displacement normally aspirated engines get better gas mileage. An internal combustion engine is merely an air pump. To make it run right requires a specific A/F ratio.

Direct injection will improve current MPG by about 10%, some tweaking of combution chambers to improve burn efficiency may add another 5%, but beyond that we're at the limit as to get the best mileage out of normally aspirated engines. Use of ceramic internal parts to allow higher combustion temperatures has been thrown around for years, but cost and emissions requirements seems to have kept ceramics from going mainstream.

So as Benny02GT said, the next step will be to reduce displacement and add power boosters for high peformance applications.

Regarding your statement "I think CAFE standards are a good thing", Bob Lutz said it best " Legislating higher CAFE #s is like outlawing obesity by passing laws that require clothes to be made smaller."