2005 Ford Crown Victoria P71 Police Interceptor on 2040-cars

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Forza Motorsport 6's new drivable Hot Wheels cars are the best

Each month, Turn 10 Studios releases a new car pack for the latest installment of its Forza Motorsport video game. Sometimes that means less-than-exciting stuff coming to our Xbox Ones – BMW X6M, bleh – but this time our inner seven-year-old is beyond ecstatic. Two of the seven cars are based on actual Hot Wheels models. And. They're. Awesome. First we have the 2011 Hot Wheels Bone Shaker. Yes, there are flames on the side. And yes, there's a giant skull where the grille should be. This one came from the imagination of "Mr. Hot Wheels" Larry Wood, whose design was so popular it inspired an actual real-world creation. Like all good things in this world, it's powered by a small-block Chevy V8. Oh, and it has no roof. This will be a popular one among gamers. The other digitized Hot Wheels creation is a 2005 Ford Mustang. A modest vehicle, sure, but the toy designers have festooned this pony car with a wild paint scheme and the body mods to emphasize it. Originally developed to celebrate the 'Stang's 50th birthday, this Hot Wheels car trades Americana for wild Japanese style. There's just one functioning life-size version of this car in existence as well, but if you look hard, you might be able to find one of the 1:64 scale models that inspired it. Other highlights from this month's car pack include the latest Ford Focus RS – finally time to replace that NASCAR-V8-powered, all-wheel-drive 2009 Focus RS – the 2015 McLaren P1 GTR, the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro SS, the aforementioned X6M, and Alain Prost's 1990 Ferrari 641 F1 car. The Hot Wheels Car Pack is available for download today. Related Video: Featured Gallery Forza Motorsport 6: Hot Wheels Car Pack News Source: Turn 10 Studios via YouTube Toys/Games BMW Chevrolet Ferrari Ford McLaren Racing Vehicles Performance video games Hot Wheels forza motorsport chevy camaro ss forza motorsport 6

Ford pits Cobra Jet versus GRC Fiesta ST, worlds collide

Racing takes on many forms in the automotive world. There are sanctioned events that are as varied and diverse as NASCAR, Formula One, Global Rallycross and drag racing, and to be good enough to win competitively in one discipline, you need to have a specialized vehicle. Or do you?
Ford decided to find out what would happen when its Global Rallycross Fiesta ST, driven by Tanner Foust, lined up against its Mustang Cobra Jet drag racer, driven by Roy Hill. In one lane, Tanner has just 2.0 liters of displacement to work with, while Roy has more than double that, at 5.0 liters. Evening the playing field a bit, Tanner has a massive turbocharger and all-wheel drive; Roy has to filter all his supercharged power through the rear wheels only.
So, who wins? We suggest you see for yourself in the press release and video below. And we're holding out hope that Tanner's challenge at the end results in another video from Ford Racing...

Michigan ponders its automotive future in the connected age

Few people take cars more seriously than Michiganders. I've been to the home of BMW in Germany. I've been to Kia's HQ in Korea. I've seen Honda's goods in Japan. No one, from the factory worker to the executive in her pinstriped suit, is more obsessed with cars than Michigan Inc. That's why it was interesting this week to see the state have a moment of introspection four hours north of the Motor City on a scenic island called Mackinac. Ironically, cars are not allowed here. Normally a tourist trap, it played placed host to the Mackinac Public Policy conference this week. While politics took center stage ( I may be the only person here not considering a run for governor) the evolution of the industry through connectivity and data was a theme of the conference. If you're reading this in New York, Silicon Valley, or one of the automotive heartlands listed above, you do care about this. If Michigan rethinks its approach to the car business – and makes moves to become more competitive – that affects you the consumer and enthusiast. It's jobs. It's technology, and it's a competition to see who's going to be the leader. More than a century after Henry Ford made mass production a thing, more than 70 years after Detroit's Arsenal of Democracy helped win World War II, and nearly a decade after the historic bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler, the car business is on solid footing again and looking to the future. What's next? Michigan is still home to thousands of auto workers, tech centers (including gleaming facilities built by Toyota and Hyundai), and the headquarters of the three American carmakers. Just because the economy is good doesn't mean it's a given connected cars and mobility advancements are going to come from this state. A lot of it's not. Tesla, Uber, Lyft, Faraday Future, and other transportation mediums have spouted up other places. Michigan leaders and Detroit's carmakers understand this reality. Reflecting on the past means admitting the future is not a given, a key undertone this week in Mackinac. It's about using existing resources, like skilled labor, to move forward. "We do have the number of technicians and technical expertise here in this state," says Stephen Polk," conference chair and former CEO of auto data firm R.L. Polk & Co. To that end, Ford is placing increased emphasis on a division called Smart Mobility, which is an in-house unit focusing on autonomy, connectivity, and forward-looking ideas.