Ford

In the past the idea of having a track comparison between a BMW M3 and a Ford Mustang GT was about as logical and fair as asking "The Rock" to compete against Jet Li on the Ninja Warrior course. The Rock may be strong, but his agility is lacking. Since its birth the BMW M3 has been known for its handling. It came standard with neautral balance and execellent turn in, with oversteer optional. The Mustang built its name on acceleration. If the muscle car Hall of Fame existed, Ford's pony car would get early admission. But with its live axle, big V8 motor and American upbringing teaching it success lies at the end of a drag strip, it was never seen as a competitor to the Bavarian acrobat. Recently the 2012 Mustang Boss 302 was suggested as a worthy competitor for the M3, but that's a special model that's meant for the track. Surely the plain Jane Mustang GT wouldn't stand a chance.

The good people at Motor Trend beg to differ. They think the 2011 Ford Mustang GT is a very good car. So good, it may have the skills and tools necessary to venture into the ring with a competitor that no one would expect: the 2011 BMW M3. This is a fight that has never happened. Some called MT crazy for even suggesting the Mustang even good enough to park next to an M3. Is the new Mustang that good, or was Motor Trend just trying to sell some paper? Make the jump to watch the video, and see who is left standing.

There are more than a few people who have been quick to jump on Kazunori Yamauchi and his company, Polyphony Digital, for the glacially-slow gestation of Gran Turismo 5, the latest installment in the Playstation-exclusive cash cow franchise. After all, trans-Pacific rival Turn 10 Studios has released a pair of Forza Motorsport titles – numbers 2 and 3 – since GT5 development began in earnest about five years ago. Surely the Tokyo-based developer couldn’t have anything up its sleeve to make its latest product worth all that waiting…right?

Well, at last year’s E3 it was announced that GT5 would feature licensed content from both NASCAR and the World Rally Championship, and this year’s E3 saw confirmation of collaboration with your favorite motoring program and ours, Top Gear, as well as damage rendering that includes rollovers and variable time-of-day. But for those of you who thought Yamauchi and Co. had run out of awesome bombs to drop, guess again. In fact, at this week’s Gamescom expo in Cologne, Germany, they brought enough awesome bombs to lay waste to a city’s worth of naysayers.

The phrase, "I'm going to get the new Boss 302 next year." hasn't been said since 1969. 1970 was the last year the Ford Mustang Boss 302 was sold. It was a lightweight, high-powered car made to compete in Trans Am racing. It was built to take on the Camaro, which had won the series for two years running. The Boss 302 changed that, winning the championship in 1970.

And now it's back. Ford has announced the 2012 Mustang Boss 302. 40 years ago the Boss had its sites trained on the Camaro and the Trans-Am Championship and it conquered both. This time its sights are set a little higher than the latest Camaro. Make the jump to check out the specs, and watch teaser videos.

If you’re driving a truck, Ford’s Raptor 6.2 to be exact, you’re more or less constricted to 411hp. So why not give it a little more oomph? Hennessey Performance, from the Lone Star state of Texas, did just that with their VelociRaptor 600. Hennessey gave the standard 6.2 liter V-8 of the Raptor forced induction. 602hp with 622lb-ft of torque was the result. But, obliging to the Hennessey tradition, beginning with the VelociRaptor 500, the company decided to bolt a twin-turbo system onto the Raptor. Introducing the VelociRaptor 800: A two door truck with 810 American stallions under the hood and 745 lb-ft of torque. Forget towing cattle, with that kind of power you can tow your pet dinosaur with ease!

To put this in perspective, an 18-wheeler, the ones you see towing giant containers of who-knows-what, has about 400 to 500hp. The VelociRaptor 800 is the equivalent to two 18 wheelers in horsepower. The VelociRaptor 800 has more horsepower than the Switzer Performance P800, a Nissan GT-R with 800hp. Of course, we can’t discuss horsepower without torque, and of course an 18 wheeler has more torque. But, the VelociRaptor 800 is equivalent to three Toyota Priuses running on both the electric motor and the gasoline engine together.

After over 20 years of professional racing, Steve Saleen left his life of grid-starts behind to start SMS Supercars. The company works exclusively with the best American muscle on sale today (Mustang, Camaro and Challenger) and takes them to the next level with power, suspension and aesthetic upgrades. The retro designs from the big 3 has done a great job of keeping domestic gear-heads happy, but SMS ' work really makes you drool. Their newest gift is the 2010 SMS 460 Mustang, a modified version of the 2010 Ford Mustang GT.

Before you write it off as another GT with some trim upgrades and loud mufflers, consider this: only 25 will be built. They only made 500 Alfa 8Cs, and I have only seen 1 on the street. So the odds of you seeing another SMS 460 are slimmer than Nicole Ritchie's pinky (think wire coat hanger).

Okay, the above screencap is not really taken from Mr. Block’s latest ode to violence against tires. In fact, that angry sounding Ford Fiesta’s not even real; none of it is. It's actually a still from a video that takes place in the virtual automotive universe of the hit Xbox 360 game Forza Motorsport 3. Sorry to get your hopes up.

However, this video does highlight how much one can do with FM3, be it replicating a famous paintjob (or coming up with your own), customizing things like the wheels and tires, suspension, engine and driveline, and messing around on the relatively vast expanses of the Benchmark High Speed Ring track, which do look quite similar to the former El Toro Marine base and the Port of Los Angeles, the settings for Gymkhana 1 and 2, respectively. So how well does this polygonal tribute stack up to the hit videos? Hit the jump and judge for yourself.

Ford has been riding a wave of good news lately, and part of that is thanks to the warm reception of its SYNC integrated infotainment system co-developed with Microsoft. However, SYNC isn’t without its shortcomings, chief among them the fact that while you can plug a smartphone into the system and run some apps, you can’t do so hands-free. That’s set to change, however, with the introduction of the 2011 Fiesta later this year.

Called SYNC AppLink, the program will allow Blackberry- and Android-powered smartphone owners (iPhone users will have to hurry up and wait.) to control certain apps via SYNC’s voice recognition system. Users will have to install SYNC compatibility software on their phones and, initially at least, only three apps that will be supported: Pandora, Stitcher, and Orangatame’s OpenBeak Twitter program. Loads more apps will likely become compatible as time passes, thanks to the developer channel Ford has set up.

That true performance cars can only be rear-wheel drive (and in some glorious instances all-wheel drive) is taken as the gospel truth by a great many gearheads. Never mind that the majority of the world’s new cars pull rather than push themselves down the road, and that the washcloth of automotive history is quite damp with fun rides derided by some as “wrong-wheel drive.” In fact, we managed to name ten front-drivers that are buckets of fun. Without further ado, and in no particular order, here they are.