2011 Ford E250 Cargo on 2040-cars

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2015 Ford Focus

Sitting down at the pre-drive briefing with Ford engineers ahead of sampling the refreshed 2015 Focus, water bottles clinked as we wet our whistles before Q&A. While pouring a glass, we noticed something stamped on the bottle label: "1L." One liter. We were palming the exact displacement of the EcoBoost engine our group was about to drive. This was undoubtedly coincidence (such bottles litter every conference and dinner table in Europe) but it served to drive home just how small the total swept volume of Ford's wunderkind powerplant really is. It's tiny.
Of course, this isn't our first run-in with the little triple - we've sampled its turbocharged charms before in Ford's smaller Fiesta. At that time, we found it had plenty of poke for the subcompact, but the larger C-segment Focus carries around another 450 pounds or so and pushes a wider profile through the air. Would the three-cylinder have the stuffing to make the most of the Focus' athletic chassis, or would it be a letdown? Would it be the same as it was when we tested it in a Euro-spec Focus a couple of years ago? There was nothing left for it but to head out on the bucolic roads surrounding Versailles the day after the Paris Motor Show and find out for ourselves.

Ford 'working very hard' on F-150 hybrid

The lighter, aluminum-bodied 2015 Ford F-150 gets (at best) 26 miles per gallon. That's not bad for a truck that size – and we should always remember that improving gas guzzlers can make a big difference – but what if the popular truck came with a gas-electric hybrid powertrain? How efficient would that be? We heard Ford talking about such a vehicle last year, and now we learn that Ford is still "working very hard" to make a F-150 hybrid happen. You want details? Well, we all want details, but those will not be coming for quite some time. Last year, Ford's global product development chief, Raj Nair, said that the company was planning to have hybrid pickups and hybrid SUVs on sale by 2020. With fuel prices dropping, Nair is now saying that a hybrid F-150 makes more sense, financially, than a diesel, but Ford could make both options available, depending on customer demand. The diesel wouldn't require all that much work, Nair said, since "we've got diesels in the portfolio." To date, the only hybrid F-150s we've seen have been conversions, often PHEVs, like this example from HVET or this one from Quantum. Pickup trucks from other manufacturers haven't been greeted with huge sales numbers. General Motors stopped making its big two-mode hybrids and cancelled the next-gen program.

Second part of Forza Horizon 3 car list revealed early

We previously brought you the first portion of Forza Horizon 3's list of 350 cars last week, and today we're bringing you part two. Apparently Fairfax Media in Australia had the list and images early and published them on The Sydney Morning Herald's website . We say early because the publication's story reveals that Playground Games, the developer of the game, plans to make the official announcement on the Forza website this Wednesday. This set of virtual machinery brings us closer to the full list, which will continue to be revealed over the coming weeks. While this part is smaller than the first one, it still features a number of notable automobiles, including the Bugatti EB110 Super Sport, GMC Syclone and Ferrari Dino 246 GT. This list also adds more vintage Aussie machines, including the very cool 1974 Holden "Sandman" HQ panel truck. Fans of the Mad Max movies may remember Max's Sandman truck from the original film. Check out the list of new cars from The Sydney Morning Herald below and take at look their article for new images and insight on what the developers' goals were for the game. 2007 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione 1970 AMC Rebel "The Machine" 1998 Aston Martin V8 Vantage V600 2011 Audi RS 5 Coupe 2011 BMW X5 M 1981 BMW M1 1992 Bugatti EB110 Super Sport 1970 Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 1966 Chevrolet Nova Super Sport 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR 1969 Ferrari Dino 246 GT 1968 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 2011 Ferrari FF 1978 Ford Mustang II King Cobra 1956 Ford F-100 1991 GMC Syclone 2016 Holden Special Vehicles GTS Maloo 1951 Holden 50-2106 FX Ute 1974 Holden Sandman HQ panel van 2012 Infiniti IPL G Coupe 2015 Jaguar XFR-S 1997 Lamborghini Diablo SV 2014 Lamborghini Urus 2014 Land Rover Range Rover Supercharged 2005 Lotus Elise 111S 2013 Mazda MX-5 1990 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II 2013 Mercedes-Benz E 63 AMG 1999 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI GSR 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X GSR 2000 Nissan Silvia Spec-R 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am 2010 Renault Megane RS 250 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STi Related Video: News Source: The Sydney Morning HeraldImage Credit: Playground Games/Microsoft Auto News Bugatti Ford GMC Holden Technology video games forza motorsport forza horizon 3