New 4.6L "niche" motor may be on the way for the Mustang
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With Ford readying one or more special-edition Mustangs to slot in between the GT and the Shelby GT500, there is a need for an engine that will bridge the gap between the SOHC 4.6L's 300 HP, and the supercharged DOHC 5.4L's 500 HP. And it's impossible to ignore the fact that the Mustang GT will soon be bringing a knife to the gunfight, with both the Chevy Camaro and Dodge Challenger threatening to hit the streets with over 400 HP.
We've done some speculating in the past, as have others, about what this mid-level V8 Ford might be, and it appeared as if the direction was towards a naturally-aspirated 5.0L or 5.4L DOHC engine. Stangs Unleashed is reporting that it will indeed be a N/A DOHC engine, but with an aluminum-block bottom end providing only 4.6L of displacement. Such an engine would be similar to that which powered the '99 and '01 Mustang Cobras (pictured above), but possibly with the more potent FR500 heads and a new intake manifold. It's reasonable to wonder if this would be enough to take on the competition, as the proposed modifications may not be sufficient to bump the 320 HP of prior DOHC 4.6L engines up to competitive levels.
Apparently, there is also a bit of speculation around what name (or names) will be used on these special pony cars. We've been saying that the Boss name will return, while it sounds as if the Bullitt or Mach1 badges may also be used. And a bit of daydreaming leads one to think that maybe a Shelby GT350 will join the GT500 in Ford showrooms. Whatever it's called, we look forward to turning over the odometer a quarter-mile at a time.
[Source: Stangs Unleashed]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Zac 11:54AM (8/23/2006)
Memo to Detroit:
GAS IS OVER $3.00 A GALLON. YOU COULDN'T MAKE MONEY ON PONY CARS WHEN GAS WAS $1.00 A GALLON.
Car guys love pony cars; they are the absolute tops in bang for the buck. But there is a reason they keep getting cancelled. The new Camaro and the new Challenger are going to be the same old story, no matter how beautiful the sheet metal is. Anyone with brains at Ford is just going to yawn in the face of this "threat" from Chevy and DCX.
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skaz 12:10PM (8/23/2006)
Zac: Are you kidding? The Mustang and Camaro sold extremely well in their hey-day, and Ford and GM are hoping this can be a re-hey-day. The challenger never did phenomenally, but neither did anything by Chrysler. They've always been the smallest of the 'Big 3.'
And sometimes it's not about profit. In the late sixties AMC wanted to revamp their image, they didn't want to be 'Rambler' anymore. So they popped out the Javelin and the AMX -- two very beautiful, very fast cars. There wasn't much profit, but they drew a lot more attention than a Rambler wagon.
And besides, car companies always have to make cool cars, or no one would come see them.
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Christian J 12:12PM (8/23/2006)
Ford has couple of different production N/A DOHC 5.4L's sitting on the shelves. They have the old Lincoln Navi engine and the Ford Falcon FPV engine (~400hp) which is currently in production (in Windsor, ON) for Ford of Australia. This engine was used as long ago as 2000 in the Cobra R.
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naggs 12:13PM (8/23/2006)
how bout an all aluminum dohc 4.6 that revs to 7000 and 350 hp
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igor 12:26PM (8/23/2006)
#3 besides those, Ford has a brand new family of engines coming out in 2008 or 2009 that will offer huge displacement and power options ...
this seems like a stop gap measure, befure the new Hurricane/BOSS Engines are ready.
Igor
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Todd 12:32PM (8/23/2006)
Earth to Zac!
People who drive performance cars don't care about gas prices!!! If you can afford to spend over $30K on a sports car, than gas being 3 bucks or 6 bucks a gallon doesn't make a difference. Not everyone wants to drive an econobox.
Would Mustang owners like it if their cars got better gas milage, sure, but its not important enough to them to give up the performance. You would have to drive a Honda Insight for about 10 years, just to reach the sticker price of a performance Mustang. So these cars aren't even in the same price range.
But back to the article, it'd be nice to see Ford bring back the 5.0, even if it's a totaly different engine than it was. Lets just hope Ford can produce the large variety of Mustangs while keeping incremental costs low. Choices are great, but they still need to keep profitability. I'm still looking for the hardtop convertible.....
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Zac 1:03PM (8/23/2006)
Earth to Todd!
People who drive performance cars don't drive domestic muscle cars.
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Zac 1:06PM (8/23/2006)
People wealthy enough to be unconcerned with gas prices wouldn't be caught dead in a Mustang, Camaro or Challenger.
I'm calling it now. The Camaro and the Challenger will be dead within 24 months of launch. The Mustang will continue to limp along, selling mostly V6's, which is in no way a performance car, and mostly to rental car companies.
Finally, how can you possible cite AMC, a defunct car company, when trying to justify the marketing practice of having a halo vehicle? Ask yourself, does the existence of the Camaro make you want to buy a Cobalt?
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cheezedog420 1:33PM (8/23/2006)
Earth to everyone, Please stop disrupting the center of gravity and pretending your more well grounded then everyone else.
Im not well grounded enought to say yea, or nay.... But I think it be intresting to see some actuall numbers on the sale of Mustangs so far. Obviously GM and Chrysler are taking some risk in doing this, and they letting Ford take first blood to see how much blood they can draw.
So what has ford sold, and how much of it?
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Jay Evans 2:59PM (8/23/2006)
"But I think it be intresting to see some actuall numbers on the sale of Mustangs"
Well the last time I looked:
15,559 units In May.
That's more cars than all of Buick (12,495), or Cadillac (11,190), or Sabb (2,475), or Saturn (8,823) and about 61% of all Pontiac sales (25,490).
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Dr1v3r 3:01PM (8/23/2006)
Hello Mars, Come in Mars. We need backup. They are bickering over boring American muscle cars again.
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naggs 3:34PM (8/23/2006)
i know in 2005, the mustang outsold mercedes benz and subaru in the us
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redd 4:30PM (8/23/2006)
most of you who say that these american muscle cars are boring and not worthit you are most certainly ignorant and the fact that you have never ever driven a mustang gt or infact even a v6 mustang....may be you should actually look at one in person(not following one in traffic) what import brand offers so many different versions of one car for a price less than 50 grand and when was the last time an import sold a high performance car for 20k over the sticker price(shelby GT500). yes they were a crappy company but not anymore there cars are of a good quality and some one might shoot me down in the next comment but dont talk unless you have actually have sat in one and drove one not cuz u read road and tracks every new issue writing bad about these beautiful cars.
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Christian J 4:35PM (8/23/2006)
"7. Earth to Todd! People who drive performance cars don't drive domestic muscle cars."
Wake up. More people drive powerful domestic cars (mustang, camaro, hemi cars, vette, viper) than these other performance cars of which you speak.
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Oshawa forever 4:44PM (8/23/2006)
I would like to ask a question?
What is better buying a old Civic and putting 10000$ worth of MOD's to get a fast car?
Or just purchase a car that will have the speed and feature from the factory?
I for one like the Mustang and I welcome both the Camaro and the Challenger. They will be sweet car that have the looks and the performance from the factory.
The new trend of MOD cars or TUNER car are not for everyone. So let the BIG 3 have some fun and us enjoy them.
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Leon 9:22PM (8/23/2006)
Look, all I ask for is a 2.8L (ok 3.0 is fine, too) V8. Oversquare pistons, please. Redline at 12000rpm. Oh and I wnat a sequential gearbox. that's not asking too much, is it?
I guess you can see where my mind is...
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Chris 1:11AM (8/24/2006)
Why do people that HATE the Mustang and all other muscle/pony cars post on this subject. Mommy must not have hugged them enough!
I agree that gas mileage is not really considered when buying a Mustang GT. I know I didn't. People buy these cars because the look great, are fairly cheap and don't sound like jacked up, over-revving leaf blowers!
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Fabulo 1:22AM (8/24/2006)
That Camaro is threatening the Mustang alright. If suddenly time slips and skips a good 2 to 3 years in the blink of an eye, yup, there'll be lots of threatening.
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