DRIVING: that's what it's ALL ABOUT! A blog and website for automotive driving enthusiasts, featuring my interests as I see them: news and opinion about manufacturers of interest, significant enthusiast cars, and driving them hard and well.
Mustangs Plus owner Ron Bramlett sits with one of the Mustangs that he provides parts for Tuesday. The Stockton parts store was ordered by Ford Motor Co. lawyers to stop using the sports car name.
Credit: DOUGLAS RIDER/The Record
Ford is filing trademark violation suits against businesses that use the logo or name of the Mustang.
In this particular case, the owner of a small Mustang restoration/parts business that has been in existence for 25 years has been sued. Most of his life has been wrapped up in this business, and of course he cannot possibly take on corporate lawyers. That leaves him on the loosing end of the equation... despite a lifetime contributing to the growth of Ford's trademark. Is this fair? Is this really even in Ford's best interest? Would the value of Ford's trademark be the same if it wasn't for the efforts of people like this
Interesting article in MSNBC http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12874478/ about a Mercedes that alledgedly was owned by Saddam. I originally reported on this car two years ago, an American soldier found it in Iraq and somehow got it shipped back to the US.
The Mercedes has the expected armour plating and bullet-proof glass... and a couple of unusual features including side-firing flame throwers. Just the thing for your admiring citizens.
Now the soldier is in trouble with U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement agents. Seems that "war trophies" are not allowed.
AutoWeek has coverage of the Ford F-150 War Room. Apparently Ford took a bunch of different magazines thru it's F-150 war room over the past few weeks. This is a follow-up post to my earlier post covering the visit of BusinessWeek.
Since you can't have a Lightning anymore, you can always have a Roush Stage 3 F-150.
But the real question is: are you sure you really want this? The engine just has an add-on supercharger... missing are the internals (forged rods and low-comp pistons) that would enable the engine to live under boost and daily use for the longer run. Sure, it has 445 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque - but how long can the stock internals last? Under what circumstances was this engine durability tested?
CONCORD, N.C. - Richard Petty didn't think women belonged on the race track when Janet Guthrie became the first female driver to compete in the Coca-Cola 600 in 1976. Thirty years later, his opinion hasn't changed. "I just don't think it's a sport for women," Petty said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Richard Pertty on Janet Guthrie: "She's no lady. If she was she'd be at home. There's a lot of differences in being a lady and being a woman."
How about a 7-speed dual-clutch (DCT) transmisison that can handle 516 lb-ft of torque and spin 9000 rpm? That's one model of a new family of transverse and longitudinal transmissions coming from Getrag in the 2010 timeframe.
