1999 Ford Explorer Xl Sport Utility 4-door 4.0l on 2040-cars

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Ford Focus ST checks into Jay Leno's Garage

In a change of pace from the high-end vehicles that often appear in Jay Leno's Garage, Ford sends its hottest hatchback (in the US, at least), the 252-horsepower Focus ST, to be featured on Leno's show. Accompanying the five-door hatch is its chief engineer, Jamal Hameedi.
Riding on stylish 18-inch wheels with summer tires and with a spoiler that doubles as a lunch tray, Hameedi and Leno walk us through the finer points of what makes the ST special, which also includes bigger brakes, torque vectoring, a manual transmission and, of course, 252 hp and 270 pound-feet of torque from the 2.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder engine, which is made possible by 21 psi of turbocharged boost.
Watch the video below to see what Leno thinks of the global Focus ST.

Ford’s Onboard Scales and Smart Hitch win the 2022 Autoblog Technology of the Year award

The 2022 Autoblog Technology of the Year award goes to Ford for the Onboard Scales and Smart Hitch hauling and towing features found in the F-150 lineup. This new technology, as tested in the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning, is a boon to pickup truck owners. Not only will it make observing your truck’s maximum loads easier and more intuitive, but it will also ensure youÂ’re hauling and towing in the safest-possible manner. We began the process with a long list of features to test and whittle down. Technologies like MercedesÂ’ new electric turbocharger, GMÂ’s Super Cruise with added towing capability and many more went through the consideration process, but we finally whittled the field down to just three finalists. They are: the GMC Hummer EV with its flashy CrabWalk four-wheel-steer technology, the Genesis GV60 with its facial recognition/fingerprint start technology, and of course FordÂ’s trucking gear. As is the norm for our Technology of the Year award, three main questions are asked, and editors assign point values based on how well the technologies perform in testing. How significant is this tech? How well does it work? And new for this year: Consider the Wow Factor. With the scores tallied, the Ford tech earned 123 points, topping the Hummer (117 points) and GV60 (108). This is the second straight win for Ford, which won the 2021 TOY Award with its Pro Power Onboard charging feature.  Ford joins Tesla (2014, 2016) as the only two-time winner of our Tech of the Year Award, which dates to 2013. Kia, Cadillac, Tesla, BMW, Chevy, Chrysler and Audi technologies are among the previous winners. 2022 Technology of the Year testing View 16 Photos While systems that tow and haul may not seem to be the latest or most sophisticated tech, they remain essential and Ford uses things like the infotainment system, taillights and the Ford mobile app to create a forward-looking experience Henry Ford would never have dreamed of when the first Model Ts were outfitted with beds for farm and war duty in 1917. Even 10 years ago, integrating tech in this manner would have seemed futuristic, but Ford pulls it off. “FordÂ’s clever towing and hauling features earned our award this year because they are easy to use, easy to understand and simply make your life as a truck owner better,” Autoblog Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore said. “It was a competitive field this year, with HummerÂ’s CrabWalk and GenesisÂ’s Biometrics features both winning strong support.

Ford Fiesta ST gets worked out on the track

We're big fans of the turbocharged Ford Focus ST, and we're plenty excited that the Blue Oval will be offering a similar treatment on the smaller Fiesta here in the United States, too. We first saw the production-ready Fiesta ST five-door at the Los Angeles Auto Show last fall, and Ford has now released this video of a Euro-spec three-door ST being flung around the track.
But not just any track - the challenging Track 7 of Ford's Lommel Proving Grounds in Belgium. The course features 20 turns and plenty of elevation changes along its 2.7-mile loop, and David Put, a vehicle dynamic specialist at Ford, shows just how good the pint-sized Fiesta ST is at handling the lot, even getting the smallest ST up on three wheels every now and then.
It sure does look like a lot of fun, and makes us really eager for our chance to try this ourselves. Scroll down to see the hot little Ford getting busy.