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While America Slept. Thursday, January 1, 2009

December 31, 2008

A short overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. Until Jan 4, 2009, WAS will be filed from Tokyo.
December possibly below 10m. Edmunds.com predicts the annually adjusted sales rate of light vehicles [...]

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Potent Pony: Ford Mustang Shelby GT500

December 31, 2008

One of the highlights of Ford’s display at the 2009 Detroit auto show will be the debut of the 2010 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 that has been blessed by 86-year-old Shelby himself.

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2008: The Cars We Loved

December 31, 2008

“So, what was the best car you drove this year?” It’s one of those questions that routinely crops up during holiday party conversations once folks find out what we do for a living here at Motor Trend . And it’s a…

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By the Numbers: 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS vs 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT8 vs 2010 Ford Shelby GT500

December 31, 2008

You know that second coming of the muscle car war we've been talking about for years now? Well, come this spring it's finally on. The 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, 2010 Ford Mustang and 2009 Dodge Challenger will all be available on dealer lots, and the three models detailed after the jump represent the most potent versions of each. Looks like Ford will have the edge initially, but if things start looking up for Chevy and Dodge, a more potent SRT8 or Camaro Z28 could arrive later in 2009.

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2009 Detroit Auto Show: 2010 Shelby GT500

December 31, 2008

So here it is, the first "surprise" of 2009, the 2010 Shelby GT500. As you might expect, it's much like last year's GT500 except for the new bodywork and a healthy bump in horsepower. Our man in Detroit has all the details on the 2010 Shelby Mustang here, and rest assured it is quite the potent pony car.
We will take a moment, however, to point out one annoying trend that we hope disappears like Madoff money in 2009: the fuel efficient muscle car. It's not that we don't appreciate a few extra miles-per-gallon here and there, but when the first paragraph of a Shelby GT500 press release talks about its improved fuel economy on the highway we just want to puke.
Remember Ford, it's a 540-horsepower, supercharged Mustang, not a Focus.
Happy New Year.

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Detroit Preview: 2010 Ford Shelby GT500 bites back

December 31, 2008

Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Convertibles, Coupes, Ford

Click above for high-res image gallery of the 2010 Ford Shelby GT500
When Ford introduced the new 2010 Mustang at the LA Auto Show in November, marketing boss Jim Farley promised the next chapter in the Mustang story would be revealed at the Detroit Auto Show in January. Well that time has arrived and to anyone who has been following the Mustang pattern over the last several years, it should come as no surprise that it’s the Shelby GT500. Just like the last iteration, the new GT500 is the most powerful factory production Mustang ever.
Like the more prosaic Mustangs, the GT500 is mechanically an evolution of the older model. Just as Ford used the current-gen Bullitt model as the starting point for the 2010 Mustang GT, the lessons learned from developing the limited edition GT500 KR fed directly into the latest Shelby-badged variant. [...]

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Top 10 People We Watched in 2008

December 31, 2008

DETROIT - You don’t need a reminder of how bad 2008 was for the auto industry. General Motors, Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Company were the poster children for what has happened to American manufacturing as we shifted to a…

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GM gets $4B loan, Chrysler waits

December 31, 2008

General Motors got the first $4 billion of a series of emergency loans from the U.S. Treasury Wednesday, but fellow struggling automaker Chrysler was still waiting as the new year rapidly approached.

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Teutonic Two-Step: C63, CC Are Germany’s Best in Power and Style

December 31, 2008

I recently spent long weekends in two German four-doors — the Volkswagen CC , which I had driven briefly before at the 2009 Car of The Year program , and the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG , which, alas, I’d driven not at all –…

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GM gets first $4 billion; Chrysler does not, yet

December 31, 2008

General Motors on Wednesday received the first $4 billion in emergency loans that the federal government has promised the automaker. Both GM and Chrysler had been scheduled to receive on Monday, Dec. 29, $4 billion from a total of $17.

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