Filed under: Coupe, Performance, Ford, New Car Reviews

Cylinder-Envy No More



My first car was a used 1981 Ford Mustang. It was a complete piece of garbage, but it was the best I could do with $900 worth of hard-earned busboy tips. It only had one side mirror, the power steering fluid had to be filled every two weeks and there was a nail in the dashboard. I would have removed that last bit of nonstandard hardware, but whenever the Brown Bomber didn't want to turn over, touching the nail for luck seemed to work. But compared to my friends' cars, mine at least looked the fastest. Looks don't win at the stoplight, though, and my rust-colored 'Stang featured the double whammy of a 109-horsepower 2.8-liter V6 and an automatic transmission.

To say that my Mustang's powertrain was a disappointment could be the understatement of the century, but I wasn't the only V6-powered Mustang owner suffering from horsepower humiliation. It would be another 30 years before Ford would offer a V6-powered Mustang with anything more than mule muscle, but that's where we are today. The 2012 Mustang boasts a legit 305 horsepower, or more punch than the 4.6-liter V8 under the hood of the 2009 Mustang GT. I have no doubt that the 2012 Mustang is vastly superior to my 1981 shame machine, but does that 305 horsepower and a vastly improved rear-wheel-drive chassis make this Mustang one of America's great performance bargains? Hit the jump to find out.

Continue reading 2012 Ford Mustang V6

2012 Ford Mustang V6 originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FORD F-150
The obvious big news from the Blue Oval boys for the F-150 are the new engines and powertrains. From top to bottom, all of them are impressive, with class-leading power and torque in their segments. Weâ??ve previously tested the 302 hp 3.7-liter V-6 and 411 hp 6.2-liter V-8. For the purposes of this test, we focused on the 5.0-liter V-8 and the talk-of-the-town 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6. Itâ??s hard to beat the 5.0â??s musclecar soundtrack, except when youâ??re talking about the EcoBoostâ??s astounding 420 lb-ft of torque. With sales of V-6-powered F-150s out-pacing V-8s, it seems truck buyers are warming to Fordâ??s high-tech vision of the truck future faster than many expected.

Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/oftheyear/truck/1211_2012_motor_trend_truck_of_the_year_live/#ixzz1ibIrTumG