BOSS 302R, FORD'S NEW Ti-VCT SYSTEM, AND CAR CRAFT FINALLY "ROCKS THE SHOP"

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Today's Truth With Speedzzter is a potpourri of stories that should interest Ford-o-philes:

CELEBRATING THE BOSS 302

[This is where Ford's photo would have gone if Blogger would have loaded it]

Ford's social media outreach program is highlighting Ford Racing's release of the awesome Boss 302R Mustang. Are the 50 track-ready Boss 302Rs a prelude to a future EPA/DOT-legal Boss 302?

Here's a few highlights from the press release:

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Parnelli Jones’ 1970 Trans-Am championship in a Mustang BOSS 302 prepared by Bud Moore Engineering, Ford Racing is introducing the BOSS 302R, a factory-built race car ready for track days and road racing in a number of Grand-Am, SCCA and NASA classes.

Ready to race

The Mustang BOSS 302R is a serialized off-road-only vehicle ready to race. Each base model will come with a 5.0-liter four-valve engine and a six-speed manual transmission with a roll cage, race seats, safety harness, data acquisition and race dampers/springs, and a Brembo brake and tire package, starting at an MSRP of $79,000.

And, with a special Grand-Am Homologation Package (M-FR500-BOSS R1), it will also be ready to compete in the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge series (formerly known as KONI Challenge), starting with the season-opening race in Daytona on Jan. 29, 2010. As of today, five BOSS 302R race cars will be delivered to customers ready to race in Daytona. MSRP of the BOSS 302R1 is $129,000.

The Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge-ready Mustang BOSS 302R will feature a sealed high-output race engine with an upgraded cooling system, a close-ratio six-speed transmission with integral shifter, a seam-welded body, race suspension/KONI dampers and ABS brake tuning, race performance exhaust and a high-speed balance one-piece driveshaft.

A winning track record

The BOSS 302R follows in the very successful footsteps of its most recent road racing predecessor – the Mustang FR500C from Ford Racing. In 2005, when the Mustang FR500C debuted at Daytona, the first car was delivered on Wednesday of that week and won the KONI Challenge race on Friday.

In five years of competition since then, the Mustang FR500C has won three Triple Crown championships of driver, team and manufacturer’s titles in KONI competition including back-to-back (2008 and 2009). The FR500C has also seen success in FIA GT4 competition winning the 2007 and 2008 driver’s championships.

Each Ford Racing factory-built production-based turnkey race car has won its competition debut.

Available through Ford dealers, a total of 50 BOSS 302R Mustangs will be built by Ford Racing. Delivery is anticipated in the third quarter of 2010.

For more information on Ford Racing Performance Parts, please visit www.fordracingparts.com.

FOMOCO EXPLAINS COYOTE V8'S TWIN INDEPENDENT VARIABLE CAMSHAFT TIMING (TI-VCT)

Another smokin' hot social media press release from the Glass House Gang is about the 2011 5.0 liter Coyote V8's not-so-secret weapon: Dual overhead camshafts (DOHC) with independently vairable camshaft timing. Ford calls its new camshaft timing system "Ti-VCT."

Truth With Speedzzter call it "ABOUT TIME!"

While Truth With Speedzzter worries that bore spacing will quell interest in the Coyote as a hot rod 'plant and frets that the Coyote's purported stratospheric compression ratio will make fitting superchargers and other power-adders more costly, Ford's use of DOHC with Ti-VCT means that Ford is now competitive with most state-of-the-art foreign V8s!

That's real progress!

Here's the scoop from the press release:

“Ti-VCT is a win-win-win technology. It helps our new range of engines to deliver high performance with unsurpassed projected highway fuel economy of 25 miles per gallon and reduced emissions.”
– Barb Samardzich, Vice President, Global Powertrain Development

“Ti-VCT technology will continue to proliferate across the Ford powertrain portfolio. By 2013, you can expect to see this advancement available on 90 percent of our nameplates.”
– Barb Samardzich, Vice President, Global Powertrain Development

* * * *

Ti-VCT provides extremely precise variable – yet independent – control of timing for intake and exhaust valves. Drivers of the 2011 Mustang GT will notice abundant torque and class-leading fuel economy. An additional benefit of Ti-VCT is a reduction of emissions, especially in situations when the throttle is partially open.

Independent adjustment of intake and exhaust valve timing allows maximum fuel economy at part-throttle, while delivering optimized power in full-throttle situations. An added benefit is improved drivability and responsiveness across the torque curve.

How Ti-VCT works

The new 5.0-liter V-8 in the 2011 Mustang GT is a double-overhead-camshaft configuration that employs two camshafts per cylinder bank – one camshaft to operate the intake valves and one camshaft to operate the exhaust valves. Ti-VCT rotates the camshafts to advance or retard the cam timing, based on several measures including throttle opening.

An element unique to the Mustang GT 5.0-liter V-8 application is that Ti-VCT is actuated by camshaft torque, with assistance from pressurized oil. Using camshaft torque energy provides faster throttle response and maximizes use of existing energy, to aid fuel economy. Camshaft torque energy Ti-VCT actuation is a Ford innovation, introduced first on the 3.0-liter V-6.

Working like a ratchet, the one-way valves allow precise timing of camshaft events, continually optimizing timing to provide maximum thrust or fuel economy, based on driver input.

Truth With Speedzzter can't wait to test a Coyote-powered 2011 and report on how Ti-VCT works in the "real world."

CAR CRAFT MAGAZINE FINALLY "ROCKS THE SHOP"

Car Craft Magazine is often accused of being "Camaro Craft," "Chevy Craft" or "Chevelle Craft."

Part of that stereotype comes from greybeard Senior Editor Jeff Smith's apparent, undying devotion to Chevrolet and shilling for GM's "Less-V8" (the LS-series V8 engine that replaced the venerated "small block Chevy")

CC's readers regularly complain about CC's lack of balance among the American performance brands.

Source Interlink Media, CC's corporate parent, recently moved out of the Petersen Tower to new offices in what looks in photos like a nondescript low-rise office/warehouse. In an apparent sarcastic reference to the move, CC called its March 2010 issue "The cubicle farm issue."

Maybe Source Interlink should move editorial offices more often.

Why?

Because the March 2010 issue of Car Craft detours from the "LesS-V8" love-fest of the last few issues. (Maybe the GM bankruptcy is finally having a positive effect?) And it's way better than the "Camaro Craft" or "Super Chevy Lite" that CC's often accused of being.

Here's a few highlights:

COVER: All the photos are Chevy (except for a couple of easily-overlooked 302 Windsors) , but the blurbs mention . . . Cadillac (!) . . . "Junkyard 318" (MOPAR!) . . . "450HP 4.6 Mod" (Ford) . . . .

FRONT MAN: A fuzzy photo of a DODGE DART!

READERS' PAGES: '69 Plymouth Baracuda . . . '85 Oldsmobile Cutlass (with a real OLDS ROCKET V8 under the hood!)

"BURNOUT!!"page: '81 Ford F150 . . . 40th Anniversary Edition Shelby GT500 . . . '70 Ford Econoline E-350 Van Ambulance (with the "rollers" lit and turning!)

STRAIGHT SCOOP: "Plum Crazy" SRT-8 Challenger . . . Ford Kent engine . . . Dodge Dakota-look "WaterCar Python" amphibious roadster pickup (okay, that one's a little weird) . . . 2010 Mustang GT drop-top . . . Iacocca Mustang . . . a quotation from Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne . . .

THIS GUY'S GARAGE: A real world, non-million dollar shop (12'x22')owned by an NYC Transit System Maintenance Super (a guy that works for a living) with an in-progress '68 Mustang!

SPEEDSHOP: A wild twin turbo kit (alas on a Chevy) and a Eaton/Magnuson TVS blower kit for 2V Modulars! (NOTE TO CC: BUILD THE 500+ HP ex-cop Crown Victoria! Do it! Do it!)

HORSEPOWER: 1,000 h.p. twin turbo real Cadillac V8 (not a Chevy!)

GARAGE BUILT STROKER: A 347-cube Ford 302!

500HP CHRYSLER FOR $5,000*: A build on a "Junkyard 318!" and a sidebar on a 662 h.p. blown 318! (how 'bout hanging a couple of turbos and intercoolers on it?)

BUY A USED ENGINE: 455 Oldsmobile (with a few token "Less-V8" shots mixed in)

CC QUICKIES: AMC HORNET, '51 Ford Gasser & F100, Ford GT piston oil squirter (and a blurb about more Mod Motor tech next month!)

CAR FEATURES: 460-powered, Thunderbolt-style '64 Fairlane! . . . Paxton-supercharged, Mod Motor in a wicked '92 Crown Victoria! . . . RSE-winning Dodge Viper!

ON THE RACK: Only 2/3 of a page wasted . . . .

JUNKYARD CRAWL: Bullet-riddled 1951 Cadillac POLICE TRUCK!?!

BEHIND THE SCENES: KAASE BOSS! . . . CC/Rambler 401 AMC . . . .44 Magnum!

You'd better buy two, because you'll wear the first one out, pronto!

SPEEDZZTER AT BANGSHIFT.COM -- TOP COLLECTOR FORD PRODUCTS FROM THE LAST DECADE

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Bangshift.com has published a front-page feature column by "Truth With Speedzzter, entitled "Ranking the Top 11 High Performance Fords From the Last Decade That You Have to Own."

Perhaps not so surprisingly the most criticism has come from those who can't see the appeal of Ford's SVT Focus or Mercury Marauder.

JAPAN & SOUTH KOREA: STILL VIRTUALLY CLOSED TO U.S. VEHICLES

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Truth With Speedzzter has long pointed out the predatory nature of Japan's domestic auto market. Japan's decades of unfair restraints on automotive imports combined with its predatory export/invasion practices are generally ignored by both the internationalist Council on Foreign Relations-types and most clueless "Consumer Distorts" appliance motorists.

With the U.S. reeling under 10.5% unemployment, monsterous trade deficits, the loss of a third of U.S. industrial jobs since the 1980s, and Detroit in tatters, the vast unfairness and stupidity of tolerating Japanese protectionism should be obvious.

For skeptics, Gary Hoffman, a correspondent with AOL Autos, fills in some of details in a brilliant column entitled "Why Don't We Sell More Cars In Japan?"

Hoffman writes,

While Korea and Japan no longer directly restrict U.S. imports, they do put up barriers to them, said Chris Vitale, president of a Michigan-based group, FairImage.org, which promotes open trade in the auto industry.

"For all intents and purposes, the Japanese market is closed to everyone," Vitale said. "No one gets a foothold." . . .

Vitale and other U.S. critics of Japan and Korea point to "barriers to entry" -- obstacles that may be more effective than tariffs and quotas. They include inspections, complicated distribution systems and taxation.

The result is a virtual shut-out for American producers in Japan and Korea.

Chevrolet sold one vehicle in Japan for every 1,300 Toyotas sold in the U.S.

Ford sold about 2,500 vehicles in Korea last year, compared to nearly 330,000 Hyundai and Kia vehicles imported to the U.S.

Those are shameful statistics. Every dealer, salesperson, advertising firm, transplant factory worker, race team, politician, and consumer collaborating with the Japanese (and now the protectionist Korean) invasion and occupation of the U.S. auto market ought to be made to answer for their support of a system that permits such an imbalance.