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eBay Find Of The Day: 1988 Saleen Ford Mustang General Tire 21R race car

Saleen may be making headlines these days for working on the Tesla Model S, but its history and bread-and-butter is all about the Ford Mustang. The rear-wheel-drive Dearborn pony cars singlehandedly put the company on the map in the '80s. Founder Steve Saleen was already a talented American racing driver when he started the venture, and like many auto industry businesses before him, Saleen went to the track to prove his vehicles' worth. Now, there's a chance to buy one of those early racers on eBay Motors.
Saleen Mustangs raced in the Sports Car Club of America Escort Endurance Championship - a series of multi-hour races meant to challenge man and machine. Ostensibly a showroom stock class, the cars had larger wheels, tuned suspensions and other upgrades that stretched the concept slightly. Saleen found major success though, taking the championship for its class in 1987 and winning the 24 Hours of Mosport consecutively from 1986 through 1988.
According to the seller, Saleen only built eight of these cars, and this one carries the #21R serial number. They all started life as new Mustangs from Ford dealers but were immediately stripped and prepped to go racing. Beyond obvious mods like a roll cage, they featured eight-inch wide wheels in front, an inch of additional track width, stiffer suspension bushings and much more.

Ford to add Android Auto and CarPlay to 2016 SYNC 3 cars via update

Ford is updating a large number of 2016 model year cars equipped with SYNC 3 infotainment software, adding Android Auto and CarPlay to the vehicles with a free, over-the-air update via Wi-Fi, or using either USB or going through their dealer. The upgrade will be available for around 800,000 vehicles in total, giving a huge number of Ford car owners the chance to get big infotainment improvements without having to buy a newer model car. The OTA update option is also a big step for Ford – it's the company's first for software ever, and it's one of the major reasons that Ford recently hired around 400 new mobile smartphone engineers, the company tells me. For CarPlay, users will still also need to upgrade their vehicle's USB hub to make this work (which will also incur a dealer visit and a cost), but for those on Android, all that's required is a simple software installation. The USB install method is also faster, but the Wi-Fi update option is the start of the company's efforts to really increase its OTA update program, which will be used for security improvements as well as infotainment bumps. Even with a dealer visit and hardware upgrade for CarPlay, this sounds like a worthwhile thing for 2016 vehicle owners to do. CarPlay and Android Auto are huge upgrades vs. most in-car software, offering navigation and entertainment options that follow you from your phone to your car. Retroactively offering this kind of thing to car owners is a definite change in tone for carmakers, since they typically use these kinds of things as incentives to get people interested in vehicle model updates. But as data becomes increasingly important to automakers as a business, it makes sense to encourage greater in-car use of devices.Written by Darrell Etherington for TechCrunchRelated Video: Auto News Ford Lincoln Technology Infotainment android

Jurassic Park made a big impact on these Jeep drivers

For a certain cohort of young folks, Jurassic Park is a touchstone film from their childhood. Not only did it play into practically every little boy's love of dinosaurs, the movie included some great action scenes and special effects that still hold up today. In its latest video, The Aficionauto takes a look the Jurassic Park Motor Pool, a California car club with over 40 fans who created replica vehicles from the iconic film.
The club is made up of an interesting cross-section of people. Many of them were Jeep Wrangler fans that already loved off-roading and Jurassic Park, and liked the idea of bringing them together. Like any close-knit club, it ends up being about community and people coming together to share their interests. It's quite a heartwarming video. Also, be sure to stay until the end because The Aficionauto teases a future Jurassic Park-themed vehicle. Scroll down to check out the motor pool.