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“A steed for every need.” That’s how Ford described the 11 drivetrain combinations available by the Mustang’s fifth birthday in 1969. By then, more than two million examples of the pioneering pony car had been sold – a landmark it took Land Rover 57 years to reach with the Series Land Rover and Defender. Today, as the right-hand-drive, officially imported sixth-generation model arrives, sales are nearing the 10 million mark. Yet the galloping ’Stang has barely created a tremor in the UK. There have been official imports before – even right-hookers, as we’ll see – but most of us fill the space between the legendary first-gen car and the outgoing model with little more than a fog of vague recollection. Today, we’re joining the dots all the way from 1964 to 2014. We have each of the five generations of Ford Mustang on hand – all privately owned, and all V8s, naturally. Now, there are online tracts dedicated to the minutiae of model years and variants should you wish to explore them. Instead, we’re going to sketch the outline of each car before shading in with first-hand driving impressions. So let the 40-pot cubefest begin… Source: https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/new-ford-mustang-five-generations-americas-pony-car-tested

This is the story of how a simple circuit cost some of the major car manufacturers millions of dollars. An American engineer by the name of Robert Kearns was driving a 1962 Ford Galaxie convertible. This car was equipped with 2 speed wipers, slow and fast. Mr Kearns realised that this system was no good. When there was a light drizzle of rain, he would select the slow speed but the rain was so light that the wipers were dragging across a dry windscreen, making a horrible noise, wearing out the wiper blades and putting unnecessary strain on the wiper mechanism. Windscreen clearing ability aside, the constant tick tock tick tock was distracting drivers and making them fall asleep whilst driving. Mr Kearns realised that the wipers need a dwell period. Where the wiper would sweep the windscreen, rest for a bit, then wipe again. So he set about to devise a solution. This was no problem for Mr Kearns who had previously graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Detroit and went on to earn a masters degree in Engineering Mechanics. When studying for his PhD, he set about working on a new wiper system in the basement of his home. This took a long time as he was concentrating his efforts on his degree but after many prototypes he finally came up with a system he was happy with. Another system with variable wiping speed had previously been developed by a company called Trico. Their system was far from reliable though. It was pneumatically operated and over complicated and had a high failure rate. A few other companies developed similar variable wipe systems but the issue was always reliability. Mr Kearns had perfected it though. His system was so simple and had minimal failure points. One transistor, one capacitor and one potentiometer. All these components worked together to introduce a dwell period where the wipers would stop between sweeps which could be adjusted by the driver. He even envisioned the first early rain sensing system where the wiper speed would be automatically be adjusted by the amount of drag on the wiper blades. This system was so simple, affordable and cheap to manufacture that Mr Kearns saw the gap in the market and decided to start marketing it to the vehicle manufacturers. Mr Kearns had driven Fords his entire life and had massive brand loyalty so Ford was the natural first choice for him to demonstrate his new product. He had installed the system in the aforementioned Galaxie so he brought it along to show. It turned out that Ford had been trying to develop their own system with limited success. Ford put Mr Kearns system through their own testing process and decided to implement it in 1969. As soon as Ford understood and refined the system, they dropped Mr Kearns and told him they had no further interest. Luckily for Mr Kearns, he had the patent for his circuit granted and published in 1967. His rights to his bespoke design were enshrined in law putting him in a profitable position. Mr Kearns was pretty shocked when in 1969, Ford turned around and introduced the first electronic intermittent wiper system. Not long after that, GM jumped aboard along with Chrysler, all using the same system designed by Mr Kearns. A bigger shock came for him in 1976 when he found out his system had crossed the globe and was implemented by Mercedes Benz. He soon lost heart of becoming a major supplier and started a war with Ford. He launched a lawsuit in 1978, seeking 141 million dollars in compensation from Ford but they fought back, claiming the design wasn't original because all the parts were readily available on the market. Mr Kearns fought back justifiably, arguing that it wasn't the components, it was how they were combined and this is what justified his patent. In 1982, he filed a similar case against Chrysler, amongst 26 other companies including, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Honda, Isuzu, Nissan, Peugeot and others. For Mr Kearns, it wasn't about the money, it was about protecting the patent system. If someone invented something, they should own the rights to it. The manufacturers had plenty of time and money on their hands and were prepared to spend it, even if they were in the wrong. By 1990, Ford owed Mr Kearns 325 million dollars. They offered him a settlement of 30 million but he rejected it on the principle that they refused to acknowledge that he designed the system. Eventually in 1990, the courts ruled in Mr Kearns favour, saying that Ford had infringed his patent unintentionally. He got 10.2 million for this and 2 years later, Chrysler were also ordered to pay him 11.3 million. Chrysler tried to appeal but in 1995, the appeal was rejected and they were ordered to pay Mr Kearns 18.7 million plus interest. By this stage, Mr Kearns was so tired of fighting lawsuits that he missed out on filing paperwork to sue many other manufacturers. The rest of the lawsuits were dismissed in 1996 but but by this stage, he had spent all his money on legal fees and countless manufacturers were using his system on tens of millions of cars. The monetary fees weren't the only issue. In the course of all this, Mr Kearns wife left him, all his business partnerships broke down. The fight to be recognised for what he invented had taken everything from him. On February 9th 2005, Mr Kearns died of brain cancer. Until the day he died, he always had a Ford parked outside his his house. Not many people know about Mr Kearns and the life he led but in 2008, there was a movie released called Flash of Genius which would spread his story to the world, widely available on most torrent and streaming sites.

For the first time in UAE I saw a Ford F150 cargo bed covered with a hard top. I have seen so many in the far east, but my first spot of this in UAE.

Hey guys, I've recently moved to the UAE. No doubt, it's an eye feast for the auto enthusiast. I'm from India and was driving a Fiat Punto there. So once here, I've asked around and was getting the stares whenever I mentioned that I wanted to go for a manual license. I'm determined to get it though I've yet to open the file. However while searching for some fun to drive cars, I came across the Focus RS. But it looks like it's not available here. The ST is available though. So how is the Focus to maintain? Please pour in any experiences with maintaining it and any other info that can help. I'm presuming that the ST is a manual. Hope I'm not wrong.

And it's official.. Thats 638bhp n 550lb ft of torque from 3.5L TTC v6. Ford also claims the GT is faster around the track than the 675LT and 458 speciale.. Cant wait to see it in action. http://performance.ford.com/content/dam/fordracing/enthusiasts/Media Room/2017/01/2017_GT_Tech_Specs.pdf

Just seen a post from car and driver blog and seen surprising video of how three US ponies borderline failing to get top safety rating from IIHS. Simply WTF guys, get serious for our life and limbs.

Hi Friends, My 2008 Ford Edge with 139000 km began to show a problem when I press straight down on the accelerator but the Edge would not respond. I tried and change gear but nothing happen. At the same time observed a transmission lagging, dropping, and loud/hard changes while shifting in gear. I called the Ford dealer. They said to switch car off and back again on. After that test out car worked excellent. It began working as if absolutely nothing was wrong. Instantly Again the same has happen yesterday when I was on a road trip where it felt like transmission slipped out of gear and the wrench light came on and off. But this time I also experienced it was in neutral, it wouldn’t accelerate when I pressed the gas. I did the same switch on/off activity and it seemed excellent. I am afraid now about this continuous problem with this car. Guy's please suggest me best garage near Al quos to fix my car soon in affordable prize price. That will be great help.