Nick Smither, Ford group vice president and chief information officer, has been presented with a 2011 Heroes of Breast Cancer Leadership Award from the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute. Karmanos’ Heroes of Breast Cancer Awards recognize those who have demonstrated leadership in raising awareness through education, research and the promotion of early detection of breast cancer. As corporate champion of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, Smither has galvanized thousands from the Ford community, and through his example, drives others to help end breast cancer forever. Click here for the full release.

Ford wants to add 10,000 jobs

“Ford, which is the most advanced in its recovery, is a natural for this kind of job creation.” General Motors Co. agreed to add or retain 6,400 jobs in a tentative agreement it reached with the UAW on Sept. 16. GM’s 48,500 hourly workers ratified that contract with 65 percent of production workers and 63 percent of skilled-trades workers voting for it, the union said today. “Two years ago, GM and Chrysler were hanging by a thread when President Obama stepped in and invested federal funds to help turn the companies and the U.S. auto industry around, protecting the auto supplier base and keeping good-paying jobs in America,” King said today in a statement. Ford avoided the bankruptcies and bailouts that befell GM and Chrysler Group LLC. Fusion Production Ford now produces the Fusion at a factory in Hermosillo, Mexico, which employs 3,335 workers, according to the automaker’s website. Sales of the Fusion in the U.S., where it is Ford’s top- selling car, rose 16 percent this year to 168,929 models through August. Last year, Ford sold 219,219 Fusions in the U.S., according to researcher Autodata of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. King met yesterday with John Fleming, Ford’s chief of manufacturing and labor affairs, to discuss new work the automaker may be willing to put into U.S. plants, one of the people said. King shifted to Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford last week after talks faltered with Fiat SpA-controlled Chrysler, which said it extended its contract to Oct. 19. “We have accelerated our talks,” Goddard, the union’s Ford bargaining committee co-chairman, said in a telephone recording late Sept. 26. “We are optimistically hopeful we will have good news for our membership by the end of the week.” UAW Chief ‘Confident’ Marcey Evans, a Ford spokeswoman, declined to comment. “We’re not commenting on the details of talks,” said Michele Martin, a UAW spokeswoman. King is “confident that we are on track to secure an economic package that our membership deserves,” Anderson Robinson, recording secretary of the union’s Ford bargaining committee, said in a recorded message yesterday. He added that King and UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles met “for several hours” with Ford bargainers yesterday. Hiring entry-level workers would help Ford lower its labor costs because they start at about $14 an hour, half what senior employees make, Shaiken said. Ford has said it has fewer than 100 entry-level workers among its hourly workforce, the fewest of the U.S. automakers. “There’s little question that the entry-level workers are accelerating the hiring process,” Shaiken said. “That’s a key part of the UAW strategy. It creates more jobs.” GM Agreement The GM agreement calls for boosting starting pay of entry- level workers to at least $14.78 an hour from $14. That wage rises to as much as $19.28 an hour by 2015 from a previous maximum of $16.23. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/09/28/bloomberg_articlesLS91L56S972C.DTL#ixzz1ZLuJ1tfC

The styling for the next-generation Ford Mustang which is due in 2014 is “being locked down” according to Ford’s design cheif J Mays.  The new redesigned 2014/2015 Mustang is one of the most heavily anticipated designs in recent years with input coming from several of Ford’s design studios around the World.  The new design coincides with the 50th Anniversary of the Ford Mustang and up until this point it has not been made clear what Ford’s plan will be with the vehicle.

During an interview at the Frankfurt Motor Show J Mays was asked if the design will be another variation of the retro 2005 and 2010 design, he says no way, the next generation Mustang will follow a different road.

J Mays went on to say “The challenge or the opportunity for 2014 with a 50th anniversary car is to not just look back over your shoulder, but to try to win all of the Mustang faithful yet bring the brand forward as well,” he says.

“It has to look like a Mustang. But you go down a list of things that might or might not be necessary to make the car look like a Mustang.”

Basically what J Mays is saying is the 2014/2015 Mustang will be unlike any Mustang we have ever seen before.

Source: Rick Kranz @ AutoNews

CFC Ford Mustang Changes Pictures

It’s a German developer – the Design-World – that has the idea to modify the Ford Mustang CFC to change the car completely. For a starter, the machine is now using the V8 5.0 liter engine producing 412 hp. The engine is installed along with air box and air filter, allowing the car to reach about 435 hp. As if it weren’t enough, the Design-World is also deciding to have H&R suspension so that the car will look tougher, more meaning, and also more aggressive. The installation of the new suspension also allows the driver to control and maneuver the car more easily.

CFC Ford Mustang Photo

The CFC Ford Mustang price hasn’t yet been released, but people can expect that there will be price change, especially with carbon fiber materials and finishing paint of metallic orange and black. The interior side is receiving changes as well. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems that not only the 2012 Formula Ford will be stylish, but it’s also going to be very safe. It’s designed with all top notch safety requirements, powerful engine to boost performance, and also FIA standard regulations. The company is sure that the car will appeal both drivers and the racing team, since the overall performance is very great and promising.

Ford Flivver

What makes Ford’s confidence so mystifying is that the mogul had already spearheaded one attempt to put the common man in the sky, and that project had failed miserably. This is the story of that plane, the Ford Flivver.

Image of a Flivver reproduction via WikiMedia uploader FlugKerl2

In 1924, Ford acquired the Stout Metal Airplane Company and began working on various designs for civilian aircraft. Ford’s aircraft division had some successes, like the Ford Tri-Motor transport plane that rolled out in 1926 and earned worldwide acclaim when Admiral Richard Byrd flew it over the South Pole in 1929.

Henry Ford had bigger goals for the division, though. He had already put automobile ownership within the average American’s reach, so why not put a plane in every garage, too? The idea sounds ridiculous now – just as it probably did then – but Ford threw himself into the project. With engineer Otto Koppen at the helm, Ford’s aircraft division went to work building “the Model T of the air.”

Ford knew that successfully marketing a civilian plane would be tricky, so he charged Koppen with designing a small, light craft. (Koppen later said that Ford wanted a plane that would fit in his office.) By the summer of 1926, Koppen had come up with an aircraft that fit the bill. The Ford Flivver was a small single-seat plane that was just over 15 feet long and had a wingspan of just a hair under 23 feet. It ran on a 3-cylinder, 35-horsepower engine made by the Ford company Anzani, and it weighed just 350 pounds when empty.

As unlikely as the task initially sounded, Ford now had a prototype of his everyman’s plane. Now he just needed to work out the kinks, show it to the world, and get every American in his own plane. Ford unveiled the Flivver on his 63rd birthday, July 30, 1926, with the company’s trusty test pilot, Harry J. Brooks, at the controls.

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