Autoblog

FoMoCo never chromed out the Freestar and sent it to the Town Car division, but a version of Ford's new large wagon crossover called the Flex is reportedly headed to Lincoln. It would seem at first blush to be a better match for Mercury's product mix, but Ford wants Lincoln to become the volume seller under the L-M umbrella. What will power the Lincoln version is not yet known, but a variety of powertrains have been used in variants of the platform. Ford could snatch the 4.4-liter V8 from Volvo, but it's more likely to use some iteration of the new Duratec 3.5 or 3.7. The Lincoln badge is certainly befitting of some extra kick from the engine room for differentiation, and we'd expect a more luxe interior, too.

The Ford Flex will bow first, of course, and be allowed to hold court for about a year. The other version could be held back a full year, allowing Lincoln's seven-passenger alternative to vandom to get a solid footing. We're not sure what to think. A Lincoln version would definitely absorb some production capacity, but will it sell, or will Lincoln have a taste of the R-Class mystique? We think a better way to share the Flex would be to go retro and create a modern-day Volvo 245 GLT. A blacked out egg-crate grille, some different lights, throw in that force-fed V6 and there you go.

[Source: Car and Driver via Winding Road, Photo: Winding Road]

We were excited to announce when Bob Lutz confirmed that GM was working on a higher-performance version of the Corvette. The announcement finally vindicated all those spy shots of a suped-up Corvette test mule, dubbed the "Blue Devil", that was caught undergoing developmental testing for so long. And it gave fans of American muscle something to look forward to in the wake of the new 600-horsepower Dodge Viper.

Now reports are surfacing that the highly-anticipated 600-hp Super-Vette, which is what we called it in the absence of anything more official, will wear the Corvette SS badge. You may recall that after the storied SuperSport badge got diluted with less than SuperSporty products, Chevrolet promised it would only use the name for cars that truly deserved it. We think it's safe to say that the upcoming Corvette SS will be a fitting resurrection of the badge, don't you?

The Corvette SS, which will be known internally as GMX245-SSC (GMX245 is the product code for the C6-generation Corvette), is tipped to make its debut at next year's Detroit show. Some of us here at Autoblog will be cryogenically freezing ourselves until then, we're that stoked.

[Source: Winding Road]