Ford: Model B High-boy on 2040-cars

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BMW V8-powered Ford Model A is the definition of Hot Rod

Today, hotrodding has a pretty staid definition. Take one classic American car, add one classic American V8, sprinkle with tire smoke and you pretty much have every hot rod to roll out of a shop in the last 40 years. Mike Borroughs knows it wasn't always this way. Once upon a time, getting your bucket to go faster meant grabbing whatever parts were lazing about the yard, bolting them together with a bit of ingenuity and laughing your way down the quarter mile. It's in that spirit that Burroughs built his 1928 Ford Model A.
Rather than turn to the tired flathead or the common Chevrolet small block, Burroughs plucked a 4.0-liter V8 from a 1995 BMW 7 Series. With 300 horsepower and 300 pound-feet of torque, the engine has no trouble shuffling the old A around town. He had to build a custom chassis to get everything to cooperate, but the result is a 1,500-pound heathen that looks built to harass dry lake beds. You can check it out in the video below. Be warned, the soundtrack by Hanni el Khatib may not be safe for work - awesomeness of this caliber rarely is.

Ford to announce Mulally retirement, Fields CEO as early as May 1

Ford CEO Alan Mulally may be about to announce his long-rumored retirement from the Blue Oval, according to a pair of insiders who spoke to Bloomberg. An official statement on the succession could arrive as soon as May 1. Chief Operating Officer Mark Fields is rumored to step up as the new CEO. The company is said to be readying the announcement soon to ensure an orderly transition of power, according to the insiders.
Mulally's retirement from Ford has been a hot topic for a while. He was seriously rumored last year to be leaving the automaker to take over as the CEO of Microsoft. The board even said at one point that it was okay with them if he stepped down early. However, the CEO maintained he would stay with the business through at least the end of 2014. Fields has been rumored as a frontrunner to take over the top spot at the company since he was promoted to COO.
For the moment, Ford isn't officially confirming any of these plans. "We don't comment on speculation. We do have succession plans in place for our key leadership. We take succession planning very seriously," said Susan Krusel, Ford Global News Manager, to Autoblog.

Ford shutters Genk assembly plant in Belgium

Ford has become the latest automaker to close one of its European assembly plants. The facility in question is located in the Belgian city of Genk and has been in operation since the early '60s when it started building the Taunus, Ford's first mass-produced, front-drive model. As part of the plan first announced over two years ago, the Genk Body & Assembly Plant is now closing its doors after half a century in the business and over fourteen million vehicles built. Although the plant itself employed some 5,000 workers, once you take into account the suppliers built up around the plant, the overall impact on employment in the area edges closer to 12,000. Genk Body & Assembly had until recently been tasked with producing the Mondeo sedan (which in its current iteration we know as the Fusion) as well as the S-Max and Galaxy minivans. Production of the Mondeo shifted in 2013 to the company's plant in Valencia, Spain, which also handles the Kuga crossover and Transit Connect cargo van, and will soon take over the minivans from Genk as well. The move follows a similar decision undertaken by General Motors to close the Opelwerk plant in Bochum, Germany. It also reflects a scaling down of automobile production in Belgium specifically: although Audi still manufacturers in Brussels and and Volvo in Ghent, Opel closed its plant in Antwerp in 2000 and Renault ceased production in Vilvoorde back in '97. However Ford still maintains its famous proving ground half an hour to the north in Lommel, Belgium. News Source: AutovisieImage Credit: Kristof Van Accom / AFP / Getty Plants/Manufacturing Ford plant ford s-max ford galaxy