2005 Ford F-250 Super Duty Fx4 Crew Cab Pickup 4-door 5.4l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

The hottest modern sports cars rendered as rally racers

The modern-day World Rally Championship a monumental amount of fun to watch – I should know, as I recently was lucky enough to head to the UK to watch WRC Wales Rally GB – but even the most monstrous of the current WRC cars are based on fairly pedestrian European hatchbacks. Back in the heyday of rally, the Group B era in the 1980s, much hotter cars were the basis of even more incredible competition machines, for the most part. Take the exotic Ford RS200, or the Lancia Delta S4 with its twin-charged engine. And the hatchback-based Group B cars were bonkers, too. So what would some of our favorite modern cars look like if Group B had never ended? A British site named CarWow hired an artist to reimagine everything from the Rolls-Royce Wraith to the Porsche 911 as a retro-inspired rally car, and they were kind enough to let us share the results in the gallery above. The gallery features an Alfa Romeo Giulia in Martini livery, an Audi TT in classic Ur-Quattro colors, a Fiat 500 Abarth sporting massive flares and a hood blister full of auxiliary lights, a new Ford Mustang in RS200 livery, a Lancia Delta in Alitalia colors, a Porsche 911 in Rothmans livery, a Renault-Alpine in classic blue, a Rolls-Royce Wraith tribute to the Jules cologne Corniche Coupe, and a relatively modern-looking VW Touran. So far, the favorite around the office is the incredible Mercedes-Benz S-Class that is an homage to the wonderful 300 SEL 6.8 AMG "Red Pig" that essentially put AMG on the map. Check out the gallery above and see which one you like the best. Related Video:

Check out Ford's fully automated self-parking car [w/video]

As automakers continue to find uses for autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicle technology, Ford of Europe has announced that it is developing a self-parking system for future use. More advanced than the Active Park Assist already offered in many Ford products, the new Fully Assisted Parking Aid can take full control of the vehicle and can navigate angled and perpendicular parking spots.
While today's Active Park Assist can only parallel park with the driver controlling the gas, brake and gear selection, Fully Assisted Parking Aid can operate steering, gas, brake and gear selection all while making sure the car is properly parked in the intended space. As with APA, the driver pushes a button to make the car look for a proper spot (at speeds of up to 18 miles per hour), and when an adequate space is located, the operator pushes another button (either inside the car or outside via remote control) for the car to park itself - the button must be pressed throughout the whole parking maneuver. Even though Ford says that the car can effect gear selections on its own, the system must still start from Neutral, and the automaker isn't saying whether the car can put itself into Park when done or put itself in Drive when the operator is ready to go.
Ford is also taking the opportunity to announce its new Obstacle Avoidance technology. This automated system is able to detect objects - including pedestrians - in the road, warn drivers of said objects and, if needed, stop and steer automatically to avoid hitting the obstacle. Both systems are still in the prototype phase, so there is no word as to when we could see either on a production vehicle.

Ford spills SEMA all over its Expeditions

If you're going to this year's SEMA Show in Las Vegas, it's going to be tough to miss the Ford booth, simply for its size. The Blue Oval is bringing over a dozen customized examples of the 2015 Mustang and a quintet of modded Transits. The latest announced addition is a trio of upgraded 2015 Expeditions showing different takes on the recently refreshed SUV.
Any vehicle tuned by Dub Magazine needs to ride on massive wheels, and the Expedition (pictured above) that it has for SEMA is no exception. The SUV has 26-inch Dropstars wheels wrapped in Pirelli tires, and, making them look even larger, the suspension is also lowered. The rest of the custom has some mild upgrades like mesh grilles in front, tinted windows, an integrated radar detector and new upholstery inside.
Tijn wants to boost the performance of the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 for its take on the Expedition. The company claims to add 40 horsepower to bring total output to a claimed 405 by upgrading the engine with a charge cooler from Vortech Engineering, a custom side exhaust and a custom tune. To match the extra grunt, the SUV also gets bigger brakes, an Air Lift suspension and 24-inch, copper-colored wheels with custom fender flares.