When Team Ford comes to the Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tenn., the drivers are usually behind the wheel of a Ford Fusion NASCAR racer capable of more than 190 mph. But come June 23, it will be the 2011 Ford Mustang V6 lapping the Tennessee track, and the goal won’t be top speed, but distance. The Blue Oval is putting the car’s fuel-efficient powerplant to the test by attempting to complete at least 1,000 circuits of the half-mile racetrack on a single tank of gas.
The key will be the Mustang’s all-new, all-aluminum 3.7-liter V6, which leverages the latest engine technologies to put Ford into the record book: The Mustang coupe is the first car in the industry’s history to top both 300 hp and 30 mpg highway. Specifically, the numbers are 305 hp and 31 mpg highway, with a healthy 280 lb-ft of torque thrown in for good measure.
“We all know how much fun it is to drive a Mustang, but in today’s market it’s also about fuel economy,” said Jamie Allison, director, Ford North America Motorsports. “By going 1,000 laps or more on one of NASCAR’s most popular tracks, we expect to show that when it comes to Mustang, you can be mean and green.”
That also helps explain the relatively impressive fuel economy of the 2011 Mustang GT. Once again packing a big 5.0-liter V8, the new GT pours out 412 horses and 390 lb-ft of torque while putting up a best-in-class highway EPA rating of 25 mpg.
And again, it’s the Blue Oval’s powertrain technology that’s responsible. The GT’s powerplant utilizes features such as four-valve Twin Independent Variable Camshaft Timing (“Ti-VCT”) for optimum operation at all engine speeds, and engineers managed to shave the engine’s weight down to just 430 lbs, making it 20 percent lighter than the last Mustang 5.0-liter.
One more impressive number for the 2011 Mustang family: Nearly 11,000 orders were taken for the new ‘Stangs in just the first month the Ford order bank was open; that’s triple the demand earned by the 2010 model in the comparable period of time.
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