The information V-8 follows Ford’s November announcement that the Mustang will receive a more powerful and more efficient 3.7-liter V-6 for 2011. Both new engines seem to have a lock on the Chevrolet Camaro. The Ford’s V-6 out-specs the Chevy 305 hp to 304 hp and 280 lb-ft to 273 lb-ft. The new Ford V-8, however, does yield power and torque to the Camaro SS, rated at 426 hp and 420 lb-ft. The old 4.6-liter V-8 of the 2010 Mustang GT made 315 hp and 325 lb-ft of torque.

In addition to the new 5.0-liter, the GT will receive fresh transmissions, offering six gears in both automatic and manual form. Fuel economy is expected to check in at 17/25 mpg city/highway for the automatic and 16/24 for the manual-equipped GT.

All 2011 Mustangs will have with Ford’s new electric steering setup, commonly referred to as EPAS. For the GT, there has also been mild retuning of spring rates, dampers, and anti-roll bars. A strut brace now crosses the engine compartment and the rear anti-roll bar has been stiffened. An optional Brembo brake package includes larger discs (14 inches in front) and calipers borrowed from the Shelby GT500 and 19-inch wheels covered with summer tires.

Also new for 2011 are blind spot mirrors, illuminated visors, a universal garage door opener, Ford’s programmable MyKey, and three new colors: yellow blaze tri-coat, race red, and ingot silver.

As shipped from the assembly plant, Ford says the engine weighs 430 pounds. The block and head are made of aluminum, while the intake manifold and cam covers are formed from composites. During development, engineers benchmarked the heads from the Shelby GT500, but created their own design. New twin independent cam timing allows the hollow camshafts to be phased separately to maximize performance and efficiency. Ford engineers confirmed that the engine can accommodate direct injection, but a short development time did not allow them to integrate the feature. For now fuel is sprayed into the intake runners. Those runners are virtually vertical as they feed into the cylinders, optimizing geometry to reduce flow losses.

Mustangs with 5.0-liter V-8s have a long history, starting back in 1968. Ford last offered a 5.0-liter in 1995 before the 4.6-liter arrived. But that last 5.0-liter technically displaced 4.9 liters. The new engine is a true 5.0, displacing 4951 cubic centimeters. To critisize the significance of the engine, all GTs receive “5.0″ badges on the front fenders.

But the thing that annoys me most about the GT500 — about the whole 2010 Mustang range, for that matter — is the live rear axle. It’s the wrong technology, done for the wrong reasons; emblematic of the cynical “near enough is good enough” attitude from Motown management that helped drive Detroit’s automakers into a ditch.

At the launch of the S197 Mustang in late 2004, Ford countered criticism of the live rear axle — a setup last considered state of the art by the rest of the world’s automakers back in the 1970s — by claiming an independent rear end would have added thousands of dollars to the cost of the car. That would have been correct had the S197 Mustang shared elements of the heavy and expensive DEW98 platform, which underpinned the Lincoln LS, Ford Thunderbird, and Jaguar S-Type. But it’s not quite the whole story.

The S197 was in fact originally planned to share a lighter, simpler, less expensive independent rear suspension with the Australian-designed BA-series Falcon sedan, which launched in 2002. In fact, the rear half of the S197 platform was to be common between the two cars, with the Falcon eventually picking up the Mustang’s front structure when Ford Australia could afford to replace the Falcon’s ancient 4.0-liter straight six with the 3.5-liter Duratec V-6.

The programs diverged because of the Falcon’s need for three passenger rear seating, and the Mustang team’s insistence on a subframe-mounted rear suspension, which improved isolation but compromised the rear passenger package. With the Falcon due to hit the market two years ahead of the Mustang, the Ford Australia engineers cut to the chase and developed their own independent rear end without a subframe. The Mustang team eventually gave up on a subframe, mainly for cost reasons, and developed a similar, light and low cost independent rear end of their own.

Late in the S197 program, however, product development executive Phil Martens reportedly managed to convince Bill Ford Jr. he could save Ford $100 a car if the Mustang was switched to a live rear axle. The S197 platform was hurriedly torn up and reworked to accommodate the old-tech suspension. Martens was named Ford’s group vice-president, product creation, North America, in October, 2003.

Mustang chief engineer Hau Thai-Tang did a great job with the hand he’d been dealt, and the detail tweaks to the chassis for the 2010 model give the Mustang remarkable poise… for a live rear axle car. And there’s the rub: Good as it is, the 2010 Mustang could have been better.

There are a lot of good reasons why the rest of the world’s automakers stopped using the Mustang’s rear suspension layout decades ago. No matter how well set up, a live rear axle will never deliver the refinement, ride quality, and all-round traction of a well set up independent rear end. Yeah, yeah, I know drag racers like live rear axles, but let’s be honest, how many S197s actually spend their weekends pounding quarter miles? I’d be astonished if it’s more than a tiny fraction of the total number of Mustangs sold.

Now here’s the punchline: My well-placed sources say that once the noise, vibration and harshness, and driveline angle issues were solved, the S197′s live rear axle actually ended up costing Ford $98 per unit MORE than the low cost independent rear end originally developed for the car.

This version comes with a drag-specific wheel along with the tire combination. The previous model was also very popular and got a lot of appreciation from the customers.The previous model was sold in just about only 2 weeks time and 50 cars were sold, it also won a race as well.

After all that, now, Ford Racing announced its plans for the new and latest version of Cobra Jet. The delivery for this model will be made possible in the early 2010. $75,000 is the basic price that is going to be expected for the new model and its production will also be expected limited to about 50 cars for the first set. The new model will be available with the latest quality and with 425 horsepower.

Source: Autoblog