'Boss is back': Ford Mustang Boss 302 unveiled for 2012

USA Today

It didn't take Ford long to come up with the first special edition of its powerful new Mustangs. Today it announced the Boss 302, as throwback to the original of 1968.

The Boss 302 will be a 2012 model, the first one so far unveiled by the Blue Oval. It will be priced somewhere between a Mustang GT and Mustang GT 500 when it goes on sale next spring, says Ford Vice President Jim Farley.

To show off the new Boss, Ford bused a bunch of reporters covering the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance and the other car events around Monterey, Calif., today over to the Mazda Laguna Seca raceway to give them an unveiling and demo. Ford Honchos Mark Fields and Jim Farley roared in and in the third Boss 302 -- Parnelli Jones, who set racing records with the original car 40 years ago.

"The Boss is back," Fields said. "We developed this vehicle to live up to the original."

For power -- and that's really what this is all about -- a Ford team tinkered with the 412 horsepower 5-liter V-8 from the 2011 Mustang GT:

By adding more intake, revising camshafts and tuning the twin independent variable camshaft timing, Ford was about to coax out 440 horsepower and 380 lb.-ft. of torque. Yet it says the Boss offers a smooth idle and low-end torque for comfortable around-town driving.

"The decision to build a modern Boss was not entered into lightly," said Derrick Kuzak, a Ford group vice president. "The entire team at Ford felt the time was right and with the right ingredients, the world-class 2011 Mustang could support a successful, race-bred, worthy successor to the original Boss 302. For us that meant a production Mustang that could top one of the world's best – the 2010 BMW M3 – in lap times at Laguna Seca. We met our expectations."

The new Mustang has a race-inspired clutch with upgraded friction materials transmits power, and a short-throw, close-ratio six-speed manual transmission.

To set Boss apart looks-wise, each car will have either a black or white roof panel, coordinated to the color of a side stripe. The Boss will come in Competition Orange, Performance White, Kona Blue Metallic, Yellow Blaze Tri-Coat Metallic and Race Red.

Other differences, Ford says, are aimed at reducing drag:
 

Up front, a unique fascia and grille are highlighted by the blocked-off fog lamp openings and aggressive lower splitter, a version of the design used – and proven – on the Boss 302R race car. The front splitter is designed to function at high speeds by efficiently managing the air under and around the car. It helps to reduce underbody drag and front end lift while more effectively forcing air through the Boss-specific cooling system. At the rear of the car, the spoiler was chosen to complement the front aero treatment and minimize overall drag.

    As if it weren't exclusive enough, Ford plans to offer some Boss 302 Laguna Seca editions. An edition of an edition. whew.

Ford Motor Wants More MPG From Mustang

Reuters

It's the Ford Mustang against the Chevy Camaro in a race for muscle car sales dominance, and Ford is aiming to take the lead with gas mileage.

Yes, fuel economy.

Ford Motor Co's (F.N) iconic Mustang, revered for powerful race modified models over four decades, has never been known for fuel efficiency, but by 2011 it will get 30 miles per gallon on highways, according to the U.S. automaker.

The Camaro, brought back into production in 2009 after a seven-year absence, has a V-6 engine that gets 29 miles per gallon on the highway and 304 horsepower.

Ford wants to close the performance gap between base models of the Mustang and Camaro with a 2011 model year Mustang, scheduled to begin production early next year, that will have V-6, 305 horsepower engine, six-speed transmission, and get 30 mpg on the highway.

"When you are buying a sports car, you want to have that feel of performance," said Barb Samardzich, Ford's head of powertrain engineering. "At the same time, there is no reason why you should have to compromise on fuel economy."

Ford is "playing a little catch up" with the Mustang fighting for the same piece of the pie as the Camaro, IHS Global Insight analyst Aaron Bragman said.

"The Camaro took them by surprise in terms of the power and fuel efficiency of their V-6," Bragman said. "They are trying to make Mustang more competitive, and they have to ... because the Camaro is eating their lunch in terms of sales."

Through October, Mustang 2009 sales totaled 56,469 in the United States, while Camaro sales totaled 47,233. Camaro U.S. sales began in April, and it has been outselling the Mustang for several months.

"They want to get that sales leadership back," Bragman said of Ford.

The 2011 Mustang will represent a 25 percent highway mileage improvement over the current version using a new 3.7 liter V-6 engine, six-speed automatic transmission, better aerodynamics and other changes.

Ford also added features to the V-6 Mustang that had been found on the more expensive versions of the car, including standard dual exhausts and better brakes. The V-6 accounts for about half of all Mustang sales.

Ford has found that customers have embraced smaller engines in many vehicles, such as the Fusion mid-sized sedan where 80 percent of 2010 model year sales have been in 4-cylinder or hybrid drives.

Ford said it would keep making V-8 versions of the Mustang.

"I think we will see V-8s in Mustangs for a very, very long time," Samardzich said.

Ford has not said how much the 2011 Mustang will cost, but executives said it would remain competitive with current versions.

Flat Rock Mustang Plant Rejects Concessions

from Bloomberg

Ford Motor Co.’s Mustang plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, became the fifth factory to reject contract concessions the automaker is seeking to match those the United Auto Workers granted its U.S. rivals.

The vote at UAW Local 3000 was 73 percent against the concessions, said Tom Spears, the local’s president. The factory has about 2,200 employees, is jointly owned with Mazda Motor Corp. and also builds the Mazda6.

“There are concerns about our plant’s future because we have no product beyond 2011,” Spears, who backed the contract changes, said in an interview. “The membership did not have a warm reception to additional contract modifications. We did this in ‘05, ‘07 and in February and now they’re back at us again.”

Ford, the only major U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy, won support from UAW local leaders Oct. 13 on an agreement to grant concessions similar to those given to General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC. The changes include a six-year ban on some strikes and a freeze on wages of new hires until 2015.

Labor costs at Ford aren’t uncompetitive with its U.S. rivals in the “near term,” Mark Fields, the company’s president of the Americas, said on Bloomberg Television. The automaker is concerned about the longer term, he said.

‘Open’ Relations

Ford’s relations with the UAW “are very open and transparent,” said Fields, who declined to comment on the ratification vote. “We share with them the challenges of the business and we focus the majority of our discussions on keeping Ford competitive.”

Since Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford’s 41,000 U.S. hourly workers began voting Oct. 22, five plants representing about 10,170 workers have turned down the givebacks. An axle factory in Sterling Heights, Michigan, rejected it yesterday by 71 percent, said Brian Pannebecker, a production worker who voted for the revisions.

“People don’t understand the relationship between job security and competition in our labor costs,” Pannebecker said in an interview. “People are starting to want to buy a Ford product because we’re making it on our own without government help. Now we’re turning back the clock and making ourselves less competitive than GM and Chrysler.”

Workers at a Ford Escape factory near Kansas City, Missouri, voted 92 percent against the concessions on Oct. 25. A transmission plant in Livonia, Michigan, and a parts factory in Plymouth, Michigan, also rejected the contract revisions, union officials said. Factories in Cleveland and Wayne, Michigan, representing about 4,770 workers, have approved the changes, union officials said.

Voting concludes Oct. 31.

Bonus Offer

The automaker is offering workers a $1,000 bonus tied to quality and productivity targets and pledges of new production at some factories to help win approval of the deal. The Flat Rock plant was promised continued Mustang production only “through the current life cycle,” which ends in 2011, according to UAW highlights of the agreement.

UAW spokesman Roger Kerson didn’t immediately respond to a telephone call and e-mail seeking comment.

The concessions are the second round of givebacks sought by the automaker this year. In March, 59 percent of production workers and 58 percent of skilled-trades employees approved concessions that included giving up annual bonuses and cost-of- living increases and some layoff benefits.

Ford fell 4 cents to $7.43 at 3:03 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have more than tripled this year.