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Old TopGear.com is dead. Long live the new TopGear.com. Sort of.
This morning (Tuesday 7th October) Top Gear has switched on the first parts of their all new website. The new site features nearly 300 new car videos in a new player that allows you to share or embed them on your own site; a whole raft of new blogs with regular contributions from Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond. There is also a superlative index of every car on sale in the UK with some extremely cute tools that will actively help you choose your next car, or, if you're just having fun, will tell you whether you're better suited to a Ferrari or a Lamborghini.
'The Cupholder' is pure trivia, car videos, links and general car info from all over the world wide web.
'Sunday Afternoon Club' remains their F1 blog and they have big plans for that when the BBC takes over the F1 coverage next year.
Though it first debuted the 2009 Focus RS at the London Motor Show in July, Ford of Europe will do it again at the Paris Motor Show next month and today has given us even more info about the fastest European car to ever wear the Blue Oval badge. The '09 Focus RS is powered by a turbocharged Duratec 2.5L five-cylinder producing about 300 horsepower and 325 ft-lbs of torque and can reach 62 mph in less than six seconds on its way to a top speed of 162 mph. The front-wheel-drive pocket rocket will channel all that energy to the ground through a Quaife Automatic Torque Biasing limited-slip diff and what Ford calls the 'RevoKnuckle' front suspension. We couldn't explain how it works, but Ford found the system so effective at reducing torque steer that a heavier all-wheel-drive was taken off the table during development.
While we first saw the '09 Focus RS in July, Ford has released even more images of the car including details shots of the diffuser, hood louvers, wheels and fender vents. Ford has also revealed that in addition to 'Ultimate Green', buyers will be able to order their RS in Performance Blue and Frozen White. Those orders will be fulfilled sometime in early 2009 when the cars begin arriving in dealerships. Check out the new pics in our gallery below and read Ford's official press release after the jump for all the info you'd ever want to know about the 2009 Focus RS.
PRESS RELEASE
NEW FOCUS RS: FORD OF EUROPE'S ULTIMATE PERFORMANCE CAR
* Paris Show preview for exciting new Ford Focus RS
* Vibrant 'Ultimate Green' paint colour confirmed for production
* Genuine RS power confirmed as 300PS and 440Nm peak torque
* Fastest ever European Ford production car – 0-100km/h in under
* 6.0 seconds, top speed targeted to be 260 km/h or more
* Quaife Automatic Torque Biasing limited-slip differential and innovative 'RevoKnuckle' front suspension, for precise handling and assured traction
* Full aerodynamic pack at heart of purposeful design
Cologne, September 5, 2008 - The legendary Ford RS performance car brand is back and faster than ever. The stunning new 2009 Focus RS is previewed at Paris, while development work has confirmed it as the fastest ever European Ford production car.
Ford is confirming performance target figures for Focus RS as 0-100km/h in under
6.0 seconds and a top speed of 260 km/h or more.
However, for Team RS engineers, headed by Ford of Europe's Vehicle Line Director for Performance Vehicles, Jost Capito, this is only part of the story.
Said Capito: "We believe the new Focus RS will change expectations of a front-wheel-drive high... [Read More]
Today we made our way over to Ford's Beech Daly Technical Center, a nondescript building along the Dearborn side roads which houses what is, for lack of a better term, Ford's engine skunk works. Capable of doing everything from rapid-prototyped vinyl intakes to turning out fully functioning engines, the tech center is where all Ford's engines go to get the bugs worked out. Our mission was to get to know the 3.5-liter Ford EcoBoost on a nuts-and-bolts level by putting one together ourselves.
We met up with Patrick Hespen from SVT communications, who guided us through the rows of workbenches stacked high with engine parts from every imaginable engine product. Deep in the back was a set of parts which, when fully assembled, would form a production-intent twin-turbocharged, 340 HP, 340 lb-ft Ford EcoBoost engine. You know, the one they're touting as a V6 which delivers the power of a V8.
The beauty of the EcoBoost system is that it takes relatively few changes to go from a standard 3.5-liter V6 to a fire-breathing, twin-turbo monster developing peak torque at 1500 RPM. What it all boils down to is the combination of direct injection and two turbos. Those two main updates drive the smaller, but smartly executed, changes around them.
So, let's follow the fuel through the engine: The first difference the gas sees is the addition of a mechanically actuated, high-pressure fuel pump. The pump rides on top of the drivers' side cylinder bank and gets its motive power from a four-sided cam lobe, brilliantly added to the intake cam. The fuel then passes into a high-pressure (like 3000 PSI high) stainless-steel common fuel rail to which is mounted three injectors, one assembly per side. The injectors are mounted to the underside of the cylinder head and poke into the distal edge of the compression chamber.
Since the system direct-injects fuel into the chamber, games can be played with the actual flow of the spray. For instance, on start up, when the engine is cold and the catalysts aren't functioning, the engine injects a half-shot of fuel into chamber on the downward stroke of the intake cycle, then, as the piston comes back for ignition, a second half-shot is fired at the piston head. Notice the shape of top of the piston (sans the CNC'd EcoBoost logo): The little trough is designed specifically to ramp that secondary spray at the spark plug — the result is a locally rich mixture good for ignition, but a globally lean mixture, great for making heat fast.
As the spent fuel leaves the combustion chamber, it meets another innovative feature: a stainless steel, stamped and welded two-walled exhaust manifold. The manifold is much lighter than its cast counterparts, but more importantly, its insulative... [Read More]
DEARBORN, Mich., Aug. 27, 2008 – Curious about what the 2010 Ford Mustang looks like? Its new pony badge offers a clue. Like the upcoming restyled Mustang, the new pony is more defined, more muscular and sure to catch the eye of Mustang enthusiasts.
"It's just a faster-looking steed," said George Saridakis, Design manager for the 2010 Mustang.
A stronger, more dynamic pony badge with defined edges and crisper forms in a subtly toned tinted-chrome finish will charge across the grilles of the V-6 and GT versions of the 2010 Mustang. For the first time, a black-chrome version of the Mustang pony badge will accent the new GT grille.
"We wanted to give the Mustang pony a more realistic feel," said Douglas Gaffka, chief designer for the 2010 Mustang. "We lifted the head to make the pony more proud, tipped the neck into the wind to give it a feeling of greater speed and better balance.
"It's more chiseled and more defined and looks more like a wild horse," Gaffka added. "It's more realistic in terms of proportion to an actual Mustang."
Senior Designer Rick Howard spent hours researching images of horses and understanding their appearance in natural, wild settings. That effort, along with his personal riding experience, helped bring forward the design of the Mustang pony badge.
Like the Mustang itself, which was revealed at the 1964 New York World's Fair, the Mustang emblem has a proud heritage. The original Mustang logo was drawn by Phil Clark for the Mustang I. The Mustang logo then was refined for the Mustang II in 1974 by Charles Keresztes, a former member of Hungary's Olympic equestrian team. The pony continued on the front grille through 1978 when it was replaced by "FORD" in block letters through 1982. The iconic Ford Blue Oval graced the front of Mustangs through 1993. The pony emblem returned in 1994 with some refinements. The logo was updated again in 2005.
For Howard and the team, creating the new badge was a labor of love.
"We're very much concerned with detail and precision in our cars at Ford, and that includes the art we do," Howard said. "We want our Mustang pony badge to be as good as the rest of the car."
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