Ford: Fairlane 500xl on 2040-cars

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Mulally will stay close to Ford after he steps down, plans to advise Fields [w/video]

Ford CEO Alan Mulally has less than a week left in his role of leading the Blue Oval before he hands off duties to Mark Fields on July 1. It doesn't look like Mulally is going to be shuffling off into his retirement anytime soon, though. The 68-year-old is being rather secretive about his next move, but he tells Bloomberg in a recent interview that he plans to stay close to Ford. Also, if Fields wants to ask for any advice, Mulally is happy to help.
Mulally took over at Ford in 2006 and led the company through a seriously rough patch in the auto industry. According to Bloomberg, he became famous or his Thursday meetings where executives were forced to deal with any problems before they could leave. Since announcing his retirement from Ford in May, Mulally has been insuring a smooth transition of power by traveling the world to all of company's major locations and saying goodbye to employees and dealers.
In terms of the future at Ford, Mulally doesn't predict any big changes in management style because the rest of the executive team is staying in place. He believes that Fields is going to maintain the processes already in place to keep things going. After all, it seems to be working. The company is predicting a return to profitability in Europe next year and is opening 88 new dealers in China. If the business could get its recalls under control, things could get even better.

Preserving automotive history costs big bucks

$1.8 million is spent each year to maintain GM's fleet of 600 production and concept cars.
When at least two of the Detroit Three were on the verge of death a few years back, one of the tough questions that was asked of Ford, General Motors and Chrysler execs - outside of why execs were still taking private planes to meetings - was why each company maintained huge archives of old production and concept vehicles. GM, for example, had an 1,100-vehicle collection when talk of a federal bailout began.

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...