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-   -   Ford: Mustang News (https://acurazine.com/forums/automotive-news-6/ford-mustang-news-103955/)

123 05-22-2003 02:02 PM

Ford: Mustang News
 
wanted to know what the Acura community here thinks of the new Mustang. i like it...........but never really thought about buying a domestic car for daily use. love the power in those engines though.

There will NOT be an '05 Cobra. The Cobra will debut a '06, (start selling in mid '05,) and will not be a 4.6L. It is going to be a 5.4liter 3 Valve supercharged motor. The rated power output is 500BHP. Do the math on that and you'll soon figure that the '05 Cobra will be putting out about 470-490RWHP ('03 Cobra math.)

The GT will be offered in several models, but they'll all be the 4.6. They plan on offering the DOHC and the SOHC, but J. Mays said the SOHC won't be around much longer. The V6 and GT will start selling mid next summer ('04,) and will have a base price of $18k. The front end is different on each the V6, GT, and Cobra. He said in 40 years there'll still be Mustangs. The prototype isn't a 2+2 like all other Mustangs. The release versions will have a back seat. The body on the red prototype convertible is all carbon fiber! He estimated ~2,800lbs. The gauges and/or dash panel won't be the same either. These gauges in this car were all mechanical, and cool as hell! The GT/V6 will be solid rear, and the Cobra will be an IRS. The prototype was an IRS rear end with an '03 Cobra motor and a 5-speed automatic transmission. The GTs will have 18" wheels, Cobra will have 20" wheels.

bkknight369 05-22-2003 02:11 PM

what are your sources?

the debut version had 400 hp...though i think the GT will have 320 or so.

I personally like the design, but it isnt very practical, but thats ok too

123 05-22-2003 02:47 PM

Got it from this website
http://bradbarnett.net/mustangs/concept/s197/

Straight from J Mays via member of Deadhorse Mustangs in Oklahoma


Practical as in interior space, trunk space? At least the production version will attempt to seat 4.

gavriil 05-22-2003 03:36 PM

I do believe the above for the Cobra. It will go against the C6 Z06.

SiGGy 05-22-2003 06:02 PM


Originally posted by gavriil
I do believe the above for the Cobra. It will go against the C6 Z06.
It'll blow it away in $$, but I doubt handling... Guess we'll find out soon though :)

Although in the 1/4 mile, if the weight of the Cobra is near 3200lbs it'll be a good race.

I for one am waiting to get a 06 Cobra. It's badass. I just hope Ford doesn't let me down and the design is close to the concept.

heyitsme 05-22-2003 06:38 PM

i dunno, the lack of ind rear on the gt is a real turn off for me. the raw 'musclecar' era is over, time to grow up and let all models have it or at least have a package (other than cobra) that has it. also i think it would do more for the car to have the return of the 5.0 rather than the 5.4.

the 2000cobra r got beat by the old zo6 i don't see this newer generation being any different, ford seems unable/unwilling to keep the weight down.

Joe5.0 05-24-2003 03:38 AM

I love the design, but will wait for the production models to make a final opinion. They need to have 300hp in the GT, a midlevel plate like the Boss or Mach 1 with close to 400hp N/A, and a SC Cobra packing like it stated 500hp to really own the market.

Plus, put a decent interior in it and it will sell like crazy.

To be honest I'm glad they are staying solid rear axle. Nothing ruins the fun of rwd like axle hop.

heyitsme 05-24-2003 02:07 PM


To be honest I'm glad they are staying solid rear axle. Nothing ruins the fun of rwd like axle hop.
think you're contradicting yourself.

i didn't see any wheel hop on car and driver tv this morning as they did a couple burnouts in the cobra.

SiGGy 05-24-2003 06:00 PM

Both the Solid rear and fully independant rears are suppose to be available on the next mustang...

heyitsme 05-24-2003 07:05 PM

ford and their cost cutting :rolleyes: , i hope this is just bs and all the cars get the dews suspension.



Monday, March 24, 2003


Finance, focus, and the fate of Ford's Special Vehicle Team


By Paul Lienert / Special to Autos Insider

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Just as General Motors and the Chrysler Group are ramping up their performance vehicle operations, I get the impression that Ford's own in-house performance group, the vaunted Special Vehicle Team, is in danger of losing its autonomy and focus.

Worse still, replacements for SVT's core products, the Mustang Cobra and the F-150 Lightning, are months behind schedule, leaving a potentially embarrassing gap in Ford's performance-vehicle lineup. Even if everything goes right, the next-generation Lightning probably won't reach dealerships until model year 2006, while the next-generation Cobra may not hit the street until model year 2007--a year later than planned for both products.

And the next-generation SVT Focus? May not even happen, according to the speculation among suppliers.

Chalk up some of the pain to Dearborn's continuing financial crunch. Even SVT's relatively modest $35 million annual budget is coming under the scrutiny of the corporate cost cutters. Why not absorb SVT into the larger Ford Performance Group--which makes truck bedliners, among other products--and let the regular engineering group take over development of the SVT vehicles? goes one internal argument.

Why not indeed?

I'm old enough to remember fiascos like the ill-planned and poorly executed Merkur strategy to give Lincoln-Mercury dealers a "performance import" brand. I also recall more than a few tepid attempts to create "performance niche products" over the past thirty years. Is it just a coincidence that the best and most effective of these models were done when Ford had strong product guys in positions of power--guys like Lee Iacocca and Bob Lutz?

Despite its recent hiccups, including chronic engine problems with the Cobra, SVT deserves credit over the past decade for developing some of the most solid go-fast street hardware in the company's 100-year history. I've driven everything in the current SVT lineup, and it's an impressive range, particularly the SVT Focus hatchbacks, which pack an astonishing amount of power and entertainment into an inexpensive package.

Ford previewed the next SVT Lightning in January at the Detroit show and hinted that it would trail the introduction of the new F-150 by about a year. In the flesh and on paper, it looks pretty terrific. Except that suppliers are now saying that development work has yet to begin in earnest, and the truck could be delayed until late 2004 or early 2005, if not longer.

The next Cobra is in more serious straits. We began hearing rumblings last December that Team Mustang was going through the S197--the DEW98-based replacement for the current Mustang that is scheduled to begin production in fall 2004. Suppliers say the Mustang product planners, in an effort to shave piece costs, began gutting the DEW chassis. The independent rear suspension was the first thing to go, replaced by a solid axle. Then the front end reverted to a strut-type setup. All of a sudden, this new "modern" Mustang was beginning to look an awful lot like the current car, which is based on the aging Fox platform that dates to the Seventies and the old Ford Fairmont.

Problem is, a stripped-down chassis like this is no platform for a Cobra in sophistication, handling capability, ride quality, or the ability to handle 400-plus horsepower. So SVT now faces the gargantuan--and expensive--task of re-engineering a new IRS for the next Cobra.

Likewise, a normally aspirated 5.0-liter version of the 4.6-liter "mod" V-8 that was planned for the new Cobra reportedly has fallen victim to the cost cutters and is likely to be replaced by a supercharged 4.6, which undoubtedly will be heavier and more complex, not to mention just as expensive as the 5.0.

Vendors tell me that very little development work has been done on a replacement for the SVT Focus, even though the successor to the regular Focus is due to reach the market late next year. So even if SVT does manage to find the budget, don't expect the next-generation model to commence production before 2006-07.

I can't help but wonder if SVT would have been better protected if its last patron, Neil Ressler, hadn't taken early retirement. Ressler is still working as a consultant to Ford but is no longer in a position to provide air cover for the good folks at SVT.

In more ways than one, his departure could prove to be not just Ford's loss, but GM's and Chrysler's very real gain.

You can reach Paul Lienert at plienert@globalauto.net.

bkknight369 05-24-2003 10:00 PM

that sux :(

gavriil 09-19-2003 07:41 AM

05 Mustang possibly revealed in these "photos"
 
Not sure how true these are, but they look interesting:

http://24.221.29.240/Pics/2005%20Mustang/1.jpg

http://24.221.29.240/Pics/2005%20Mustang/2.jpg

http://24.221.29.240/Pics/2005%20Mustang/3.jpg

http://24.221.29.240/Pics/2005%20Mustang/4.jpg

http://24.221.29.240/Pics/2005%20Mustang/5.jpg

http://24.221.29.240/Pics/2005%20Mustang/6.jpg

http://24.221.29.240/Pics/2005%20Mustang/7.jpg

http://24.221.29.240/Pics/2005%20Mustang/8.jpg

http://24.221.29.240/Pics/2005%20Mustang/9.jpg

CLBean 09-19-2003 07:42 AM

That's about right.

gavriil 09-19-2003 07:43 AM

That aint photoshop! Can it? The interior makes a lot of sense. Not only it looks a lot like the concept car's interior, but also it's got design clues from the newly introduced F150 truck. It all makes sense.

This must be the real thing!

chef chris 09-19-2003 08:07 AM

Looks nice...

Nashua_Night_Hawk 09-19-2003 09:02 AM

the dash sucks balls... 50s style!

gavriil 09-19-2003 09:22 AM


Originally posted by Nashua_Night_Hawk
the dash sucks balls... 50s style!
Well, the objective was to resemble the 60s Mustang, but they could have gone a little more "quality on us" with the interior. But then again, starting at $17K or so, what do you expect?

heyitsme 09-19-2003 09:42 AM

yup, that looks like it. interior matches another spy pic from a while back with only one exhaust. seems to be a big step up in the right direction inside http://www.canadiandriver.com/testdr...g_interior.jpg not sure about the outside, sorts of looks like they killed the beauty of the conept. the rear is too mainstream. fogs look like they're from rally car.

http://www.doogz.com/pics/coupe2.jpg

gdubb 09-19-2003 09:49 AM

There is not one thing I dont like about it.

Aquineas 09-19-2003 09:58 AM

OMG those are the same crappy seats I had in my 99 Cobra, with different headrests. How NOT to design a car:
  • Take a modern, RWD world-class chassis (DEW98), also used in the Lincoln LS and Jaguar S-Type
  • Make it out of steel instead of lightweight aluminum, making sure it's picked up enough weight to make it even more of a dog than it already will be with a stock 3.0 V6 Vulcan engine which debuted with the 1986 Taurus. I don't know if the Mustang is getting the Duratec V6 (I doubt it, but I have no knowledge one way or the other), and even it it were, that engine lags behind just about any Japanese V6
  • Retrofit a fixed-axle suspension onto it, circa 1960ish, just to make sure there's enough low-tech to qualify it as a mass-produced American vehicle.
  • Make it stylish but trendy, so that it sells like hotcakes the first 12 months of manufacture, only to decline rapidly when word gets out that you made fundamentally bad engineering decisions to make it cost under 20K (ignoring for the fact that the Hyundai Tiburon also lists for under 20k and will be a more modern car)
  • Give it a name that people identify with an American icon, regardless of it's worth. Let's face it, the Mustang was a crappy car that looked good when it's released, and they're about to replace it with another crappy car that looks good.
  • Let's bring it to market 3 years after we originally said we would, just so we can keep the 1978 Ford Fairmount chassis in production for almost 30 years


Meet the new king; he's just like the old king. Poor John Colletti has to clean up this mess on behalf of SVT.

soopa 09-19-2003 11:02 AM

its definately not bad... but very cheap looking in and out.


they took the edge away from the concept. and the interior is just vanilla as can be. but its definately not as ugly as tradition.

danny25 09-19-2003 11:22 AM

it's hard to get excited about that car when the concept was so beautiful.

ApocalypseCL 09-19-2003 11:27 AM

looks like a toy to me....but really isnt very exciting i might change my mind if i see it in person.

Black CL-S 4-Life 09-19-2003 12:11 PM


Originally posted by danny25
it's hard to get excited about that car when the concept was so beautiful.
:werd: I have no interest in this car now.

heyitsme 09-19-2003 12:36 PM

heh i agree, that was a short lived dream about owning a mustang.

pimpscls 09-19-2003 03:02 PM

its still alright

ItalianStallion 09-19-2003 03:08 PM

cant see em... red x's

Moog-Type-S 09-19-2003 03:46 PM


Originally posted by ItalianStallion
cant see em... red x's
:stupid:

chef chris 09-19-2003 03:57 PM

Damn...pics are gone...

mantis23 09-19-2003 04:59 PM

http://www.thefiresauce.com/mbicons/i_cant_see.jpg

EdgarFanCLS 09-19-2003 05:21 PM

Are these the pictures that we can no longer see?
http://forums.bradbarnett.net/index....topic=781&st=0

ItalianStallion 09-19-2003 06:32 PM

looks fine to me...

gavriil 09-19-2003 07:57 PM


Originally posted by EdgarFanCLS
Are these the pictures that we can no longer see?
http://forums.bradbarnett.net/index....topic=781&st=0

Yes these are them.

Joe5.0 09-20-2003 12:56 AM

I think any alterations to the concept are gonna be a letdown, but they couldnt make the concept for $25k and be profitable. I'm not 100% sold on the interior just yet, but it at least looks better than the 94-04 by leaps & bounds. And if you are worried about it looking boring stock - it will, thats just the way it is. That is until Saleen, Roush, SVT, Steeda, and just about every single major aftermarket company gets their hands on the new design. :D

I'm more worried about the hp/tq numbers and curb weight.

Minch00 09-20-2003 01:05 PM

That's one ugly bish......:thumbsdn:

Nicky Pass 09-20-2003 02:37 PM

I like EVERYTHING.....except for the foglights jammed in the frot grille!!!!!

NOVAwhiteTypeS 09-20-2003 04:12 PM

every retro dash, I like if I was 60+ . THe front end looks good and also very retro but the rally fogs gotta go. or may be have it as an option to opt out. The tails looks just like any other mass produced car, I really loved the concept...

Nicky Pass 09-21-2003 10:35 AM

When is this thing supposed to come out????

gavriil 09-21-2003 05:53 PM


Originally posted by Nicky Pass
When is this thing supposed to come out????
Next year.

gavriil 09-21-2003 05:54 PM

As I said, my first impression of the interior was that it took major design clues of the new F150's interior. Which is a good thing.

Compare the three:

’69:

http://www.chien.com/mustang/mustalb...tang%20003.jpg

2005

http://images.cardomain.com/member_i...2_223_full.jpg

Ford F150 truck

http://www.uploadit.org/files/060903-04F150FX4int.jpg

http://www.uploadit.org/files/060903-04F150StxInt02.jpg


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