In a nation obsessed with the right now, few things have held up over
the past 50 years as well as the Ford Mustang. The first pony car
debuted at the 1964 New York World’s Fair and instantly became a tent
pole of Americana. Before the model officially turns 50 on April 17,
2014, Ford will celebrate its lasting contribution to the postwar-boom
culture with a brand-new, much anticipated Mustang.
Bodywork
While the new Mustang will keep the somewhat hefty proportions of its
predecessor, exterior dimensions will shrink ever so slightly. It will
also cease to have stand-alone styling within Ford’s lineup. A number of
design cues will evoke the familial design language pioneered by the Fusion, and the Mustang’s new front end clearly has been influenced by the brand’s Evos concept from the 2011 Frankfurt show.
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In the final shape, a pair of large vents resides on the front of the
hood, creating the appearance of flared mustang nostrils that hint at
the power lurking beneath. The rear window features a sort of widow’s
peak extending from the roof, à la the SRT Viper,
and the side windows feature a more cohesive shape—as opposed to the
quarter-windows separated by fat B-pillars on the current car—with an
upward kink that resembles the new Corvette’s treatment.
Interior
Retro is not completely dead in the new cockpit, either. Two large,
tubular gauges will continue to sit in front of the driver as they do
today, and circular air vents will reside atop the center stack, flanked
by a rectangular duct at each end. The upper portion of the dashboard
will be canted forward and have dual cowls, another cue from the Mustang
museum.
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Carry-Over Powertrains
At launch, the Mustang will be available with the same engine options
offered by the current Mustang: a naturally aspirated 3.7-liter V-6 and
the “Coyote” 5.0-liter V-8, each with the same power ratings as the
Mustangs on showroom floors today (305 and 420 horsepower,
respectively). Transmissions, too, will carry over at the outset, with
shoppers given a choice of a six-speed manual or a six-speed automatic.
That will change in the two to three years after launch, when the 10-speed auto being jointly developed with GM will replace the six-speed slushbox.
Turbo-Four Cafe Special
Sometime after the new Mustang reaches dealer lots, we will begin to see
interesting underhood options. With European and federal fuel-economy
standards in mind, Ford will introduce the first turbocharged
four-cylinder Mustang since the 1986 SVO model.
And the engine will be the same size, 2.3 liters, as that car’s
four-banger. It’ll generate 310 horsepower with direct injection, and it
will be marketed as an uplevel alternative to the base six. Its premium
should be justified not only by its expected mileage gain but also by
its high, flat torque curve.
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Ford is also considering offering the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 found in the Taurus SHO.
Tuned to churn out 400 horsepower (up from the 365 it makes in the
SHO), this engine could potentially replace the 3.7-liter V-6 and serve
as a natural steppingstone between the turbo four and the Coyote. The
EcoBoost V-6 is unlikely to appear in the Mustang’s engine bay before
the 2017 model year.
A Stable Full of Wild Horses
Ford has many plans for ultra-high-performance Mustangs. The first will be a successor to the Shelby-branded GT500,
and the company will continue to offer Ford’s “Trinity” supercharged
5.8-liter V-8 making 662 horses. Past the new-gen Shelby GT500, Ford has
additional powertrain options for two more hi-po nameplates.
The last high-performance Mustang will be a successor to the Boss 302. What will power it is still not finalized. If all goes according to plan, Ford would like to use a naturally aspirated version of the Voodoo engine. However, initial testing has not yielded the desired results in Dearborn, and it’s possible that a hotted-up version of the 5.0 Coyote could be used—as was the case in the previous Boss.
Chassis
The introduction of an independent rear suspension, not seen in Mustangdom outside of the 1999–2004 SVT Cobra,
will improve handling, ride comfort, and packaging. This should address
some key Mustang criticisms and lend it credibility when taking on its
European contemporaries in markets where the pony-car genre isn’t
sustained by nostalgia and cheap fuel, as it is here. A new
platform—code-named “S550”—will underpin this new Mustang, and through
that architecture, Ford is expecting to shed some 200 pounds from the
current car’s roughly 3500-pound curb weight.Source (with a ton of other pics);
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/2015-ford-mustang-leaked-360-view-and-full-details-news
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