Ford has done it again. Just when we thought they were all out of surprises. Finally a car I can afford without having to go through those damn greedy banks. I can’t wait to cruise around picking up chicks in my new ride.
Ford VP made a startling announcement today, unveiling their new $650 vehicle of the future. Without further adieu, Ford unveils the ‘93 Ford Taurus.
[via]
Ten years ago, this little bugger known as the 021c concept from Ford was unveiled. Universally despised, the car never made it to production due to the wild, radical design of Marc Newson, a furniture designer who had never worked on a car in his life. Sure, back in 1999, consumers weren’t ready for shit like this. But in today’s carefree world, I’m sure the 021c concept would do Ford some good.
Ford has unveiled its new take on automobile dashboards with what it’s calling the SmartGauge. The LCD gauge will debut in Fords 2010 line of hybrids, the Ford Fusion Hybrid and Mercury Milan Hybrid. The gauge uses an all-digital screen with lively animations to prompt drivers on good driving habits by displaying a heavily stylized greenery for good behavior. It’s almost as bad as the teddy bear backseat driver.
The gauges are fully customizable, able to display whatever real time data the driver wishes to see. From what I’ve seen in the videos, it looks to be one of the most impressive dashboards ever put in an automobile. It also appears to be way too distracting for drivers, most of which have a bad enough attention span as it is.
This past weekend, I spent my Saturday visiting the Philadelphia-based Simeone Foundation Museum, Fred Simeone’s personal collection of historic race cars. The museum is packed with cars from the early 1900s up to 1970 (with a few oddballs thrown in for good measure.) I took over 120 pictures at the museum, highlighting every detail. What a lot of people don’t know is that these cars are mostly one-of-a-kind or extremely rare. For instance, there’s a 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe that Phil Spector used to own. It’s worth about $4 million bucks I hear.
To be honest, you should just click ahead to visit the Simeone Foundation’s website to learn more (there’s just too much to go over) and then visit my Flickr photoset for all the hot photos. Anyone into cars, mechanical engineering, design, racing or history will surely enjoy a magnificent collection of automobiles. After the jump, a taste of my photos and the museum.
Ford’s 2009 Flex has a $760 option to equip your car with a fridge and/or freezer in the backseat. This makes those long hauls upstate more luxurious as you’ll be making less pit-stops for food with one of these equipped in your ride. The compartment isn’t large but it is capable of holding seven 12-ounce cans or even four half-liter bottles. That’s more than enough for a car pooling trip to Mexico. Just don’t neglect to declare what you have in your backseat fridge to the Federales, otherwise you’ll be spending the next few decades behind steel bars.
Don’t go pissing off Ian Taylor anytime soon. The Tredworth native has sawn his car in half with an angle-grinder after law enforcement put a boot on his car. Taylor claims just a small part of his back tire was sticking out of the driveway and was on the sidewalk, which is what prompted police to fine him.
Not happy about getting a $100 crap car booted, Taylor took an angle-grinding tool and cut his Ford Fiesta in half, instantly making him a local hero of sorts. He originally bought the vehicle for his stepson with the intention of fixing it up, but eventually gave up and must have said “Fuck it.” He must have just stopped caring, just like the designers of this monstrosity did.
Since none of us are going to own a really fast car like the Ford GT anytime soon, we might as well settle for something just a tad smaller. This Ford GT R/C car is not only stylish and 1/5th the size of the original; it can also do speeds up to 60 MPH thanks to a 23cc engine that uses an oil-gasoline mixture. If you’re already calling bullshit on the 60 MPH speeds, keep in mind this is a 23cc engine strapped onto a hunk of plastic with wheels. It’s bound to haul ass down your block, regardless of squirrels or toddlers in its way. It’s no NES under the hood, but it’s still juicin’!
Unfortunately, if you’re looking to get your hands on one, you’ll have to wait until May 30th. How the clowns in the above video got one is beyond me, but I think we can all agree that we’re extremely jealous of their new toy.
There has been a metaphorical shit-storm of weird products recently, combining odd branding with some of the most obscure of gadgets. And while dropping a brand name on a box in order to sell a few more products isn’t necessarily rare, some of these branding combos are pretty out of this world. The eight gadgets which follow are not only items which have captured our imaginations, but at times have shocked us, made us laugh, and even drawn a tear of joy or two. Regardless of the oddness of the following, well, oddities, they don’t disappoint in the entertaining compartment. So, pull up an Ikea™ lounge chair and take a swig of your favorite Pepsi-Cola® branded beverage and enjoy the show. (more…)
As far as snazzy advertising goes, Nike had stolen our geeky hearts with their laser engineered ads in Paris. Now Ford has a new gimmick up their sleeves which has stolen our hearts as far as gadgetry goodness goes.
Using parts from a disassembled Ford Focus, the car giant has created fully functional musical instruments for an ad that will run starting February 4th, which will feature an orchestra playing compositions with the new designs. The 31 musical devices feature names like the Door Harp, Clutch Guitar and Fender Bass. The Blue Man Group called and they want their concept back. (more…)
Who knows what Ford was thinking when they decided to design a car based on the old Airstream trailers, but they came out with the Airstream Concept anyways? This car is powered by a plug-in hydrogen fuel cell system call HySeries Drive. What’s ironic, however, is that Ford is actually going to use an electric motor as the main power source, allowing owners to plug their car directly into a wall socket. If you are running on pure electric, you can go 25 miles before it needs recharging from the fuel cell. Once the hydrogen power kicks in, then you can go 280 miles on a single charge. Now while this doesn’t seem like an extravagant distance, you have to take into account the fact that you aren’t paying for gas with this; you’ll just have an outrageous electric bill. The majority of the focus on this car is the engine, but with a look at the exterior… well we won’t go there…with a look at the interior, it has the same kind of feel as the Suzuki Flix, minus the sweet projector. Luckily Ford is looking never to produce the Airstream concept, but hopefully the technology inside the Airstream will get implemented into future cars.
