• Ford confirms development plans of an all-new Ford Police Interceptor and affirms continued commitment to the police and municipal vehicle businesses
• New Police Interceptor’s durability, safety and performance will exceed the existing Crown Victoria’s law enforcement vehicle lineup
• Ford is the market leader in the law enforcement vehicle segment, selling 45,000 of the 60,000 police vehicles sold in each year in the U.S.

Dearborn, Mich., Nov. 13, 2009 – Ford Motor Company announced today it will produce an all-new purpose-built Police Interceptor specially designed and engineered to replace the Ford Crown Victoria law enforcement vehicle lineup in 2011.

The new Ford Police Interceptor is being developed in conjunction with Ford’s Police Advisory Board, which provided input during the past 14 months on key vehicle attributes, such as safety, performance, durability, driver convenience and comfort.  The new Police Interceptor will be offered without interruption when production of the Ford Crown Victoria ends in late 2011.

“We have heard the repeated requests from the law enforcement community to continue uninterrupted support of the law enforcement community,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president of The Americas.  “Ford is answering the call with the new Police Interceptor – engineered and built in America.”
Ford – which currently controls approximately 75 percent of the police pursuit vehicle business in the U.S. – has invested significantly in designing the purpose-built new police and municipal vehicles to meet the needs of these crucial customers.

The new Police Interceptor is designed to provide municipalities with reduced ownership costs through improved fuel efficiency, quality and the kind of durability police departments nationwide have come to expect from Ford.

“Ford’s commitment to the law enforcement community produced the Crown Victoria, the benchmark police vehicle,” said Lt. Brian Moran, fleet manager, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and a member of Ford’s Police Advisory Board.  “This commitment has continued, and Ford has been working closely with the Police Advisory Board on developing the new Police Interceptor.   I am confident that the next-generation Ford police vehicle will meet the future needs of the law enforcement community and will set the new standard.”

Ford plans to reveal the new model and provide full vehicle specifications in the first quarter of 2010 – in time for law enforcement agencies, police equipment manufacturers and upfitters to develop a transition plan from the Crown Victoria to the new product.

Each year, Ford sells approximately 45,000 police vehicles, making the Blue Oval the nation’s largest provider of police and municipal vehicles.

“Ford long has supported our public servants with vehicles that work as hard as they do,” said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, Marketing, Sales and Service.  “We intend to build on this legacy with a new generation of municipal and police vehicles that set even higher standards.”

source: http://www.ford.com/about-ford/news-announcements/press-releases/press-releases-detail/pr-ford-announces-development-of-31418

Detroit, Mich. – The Saab Aero X concept car, which made its world debut at the Geneva Auto Show press days on February 28, has been named “Best of Show” by the editors of AutoWeek Magazine. Highly regarded by automotive enthusiasts throughout North America, AutoWeek is published by Detroit-based Crain Communications and is a sister magazine to Automotive News.

“We are extremely pleased by this important recognition from the expert editors of AutoWeek,” said Jay Spenchian, Saab Automobile USA general manager. “The way the Aero X was welcomed by the world’s press and the public in Geneva has exceeded our most optimistic expectations. No other product in Saab’s nearly 60-year history as an auto manufacturer has generated such massive and positive response as the Aero X. If anything, it demonstrates that the Saab brand has tremendous potential for further development in the future.”

The Aero X concept, which will make its North American debut at the New York International Auto Show press days on April 12, harnesses the power of Saab’s aviation and Scandinavian roots to make a unique statement in performance car design. Conceived as a study to explore future design directions, its innovative features preview the development of an enhanced design language that will inspire future Saab products.

As one would expect from Saab, this dynamic two-seat sport coupe breaks with automotive design convention both outside and inside.

First, there are no doors…or windshield pillars. That’s because the Saab Aero X adopts a cockpit canopy, just as you would see on a jet aircraft. It offers the Aero X pilot full 180 degree vision, and also facilitates entry and exit from its low-slung cabin.

Thrust for the all-wheel-drive Saab Aero X also comes from a powerplant with a difference. The 400 bhp, twin-turbo, BioPower V6 engine is fueled entirely by ethanol, a sustainable energy source that is kinder to the environment by cutting fossil CO2 emissions. The “green power” of this advanced engine gives new meaning to the phrase “performance with responsibility.”

Inside, the Saab Aero X’s cockpit also adds a new dimension to clean Scandinavian interior design by completely eliminating conventional dials and buttons. Instead, Saab has applied techniques derived from Swedish glass and precision instrument making, displaying data on glass-like acrylic “clear zones” in graphic 3-D images.

All exterior and interior lighting is by LED (light-emitting diode), which has given the design team new freedom to exploit the compact packaging benefits of a technology that will be featured increasingly in future Saab products.

With weight-saving carbon fiber bodywork, a lightweight powertrain, electronically controlled suspension and all-wheel drive, the Saab Aero X is an exciting driver’s car that promises a level of performance to match its looks. Computer simulations anticipate zero to 60mph/100 kph in just 4.9 seconds and a top speed of 155 mph/250 kph (limited).

Despite being so tightly driver-focused, the Aero X still offers surprising practicality, again, a quality one expects to find in all Saab designs. That dramatically sculpted tail conceals a useful twin storage facility, with a conventional hatch opening and sliding drawer underneath.

“This study shows how the strength of the Saab brand heritage can inspire bold, innovative design,” says Bryan Nesbitt, executive director, GM Design Europe. “As we move forward with new Saab products, we will remain focused on carefully cultivating this brand equity in the context of Scandinavian design values.”

“This concept shows the exciting possibilities that are open to us as we evolve a more progressive design language for the brand,” says Jan Âke Jonsson, Saab Automobile’s Managing Director. “Our designers, engineers and marketers in Sweden are ideally placed to nurture and communicate the unique DNA of the Saab brand. Their work will ensure that future product proposals express core qualities, such as progressive design, sporty performance and emotional functionality, in a way that is specific to Saab.”

The Saab Aero X is the latest in a series of concepts from Saab, each accentuating different brand qualities. These include the “four-dimensional” 9X (IAA Frankfurt 2001), the 9-3X Cross-over Coupe (Detroit 2002) and the 9-3 Sport Hatch (IAA Frankfurt 2003).

Saab Aero X Background

From Aircraft to Automobiles

Saab’s aviation roots go back almost 70 years to 1937, when Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget (Swedish Aircraft Company Limited) was founded in the town of Trollhättan, 45 miles/70 km north of Gothenburg, where Saab cars are still built today on the site of the original aircraft factory.

The company supplied military aircraft to the Swedish Air Force and began diversifying into civil aviation in 1944 and the automotive business in 1947, when its first car, the Saab 92, was unveiled (Saab 91 was a light aircraft used for pilot training). The 92’s streamlined, teardrop-shaped bodywork was clearly the work of aircraft engineers and radical for a small production car of the time, as was the use of wind tunnel testing during its design.

The adoption of front-wheel drive for sure-footed handling, excellent roadholding and efficient space utilization was also unconventional for the time — more than a decade before the layout was to become popular in the rest of the auto industry.

Another innovative design from Saab’s newly-created car division was the Sonett 1, a lightweight sports car for competition use, unveiled exactly 50 years ago this year. Its “monocoque” chassis was made from aviation-specification aluminum panels, instead of the usual arrangement of steel beams and tubes. Although common in aircraft construction, Saab was using this design six years before it was introduced to Grand Prix racing.

Today, more than 4 million cars and 4,000 aircraft later, Saab is one name and two companies. The car business, Saab Automobile AB, is now wholly owned by General Motors, the world’s largest auto maker, and the Saab Group is a global leader in the application of advanced technologies, specializing in aerospace and defense systems.

Over the years, Saab cars have continued to incorporate aircraft-inspired design features, from wrap-around windshields and cockpit-like ergonomics to green instrument illumination and need-to-know information displays. And the innovative spirit of those early aircraft engineers, including their pioneering attention to safety, continues to be reflected in Saab’s unconventional approach to car design.

Saab is a division of General Motors Corp. Saab Automobile USA is the importer and distributor of Saab 9-2X, 9-3, 9-5 cars and the 9-7X SUV for Saab Automobile AB, Sweden

TAKING FORD’S PERFORMANCE CAR FUTURE IN A NEW DIRECTION

The Ford Shelby GR-1 concept springs from a long line of Ford performance project cars and quickly establishes itself as one of the most contemporary and dramatic front-engine, two-seat, fastback supercars. This running prototype reaches closer to reality with a 605-horsepower, 390-cubic-inch all-aluminum V-10 engine, a road-tested version of the Ford GT suspension and a stunning new polished-aluminum body.

Sensuous, perfectly proportioned and wholly modern, this show car builds on the success of the Ford Shelby Cobra concept – the 2004 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) “Best in Show” winner and reinforces Ford’s continued commitment to performance.

The Shelby GR-1 concept’s name pays tribute to both a performance great and “Group Racing.” This uniquely emotional American sports car design represents Ford’s continued desire to include a high-end, limited-production specialist supercar in its lineup. Initially unveiled as a design exercise at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in August, the Ford Shelby GR-1 concept is a sports car salute to “performance art.

“A perfect body with smooth, shimmering aluminum skin, the new Ford Shelby GR-1 concept is a rolling sculpture whose beautiful, flowing lines belie the raw, beastly V-10 wedged under the hood,” says J Mays, group vice president of Design and chief creative officer. “This concept shifts gears and takes Ford’s performance car future into a new direction.”

The Shelby GR-1 concept combines modern sculptured surfaces and a sleek muscular fastback design. All of the sophisticated mechanicals of this extraordinary coupe are wrapped in a sleek aluminum skin left bare and polished bright. The result is a forward-looking supercar with attention-grabbing Ford presence and Carroll Shelby inspiration.

Ford Shelby GR1-Concept

A REALITY-BASED CONCEPT

Much like the original Ford GT and last year’s Shelby Cobra concept vehicles, the Shelby GR-1 was intended to be a fully engineered, production-feasible roadgoing, drivable project vehicle.

“With the Ford GT and Ford Shelby Cobra concept, we have a tremendous amount of experience quickly building high-performance cars, like the Shelby GR-1, with world-class performance,” says Phil Martens, group vice president, Product Creation. “Our goal this time around was not to create the ultimate top-speed, high-performance sports car. Really, we intended to strike a better balance of design, capability and usability that might appeal to someone considering a Ferrari 575M Maranello.”

The Shelby GR-1 starts with a modified version of the aluminum chassis from the rear-engine Ford GT. The bulk of the rear structure is made from slightly modified Ford GT components, including the massive trellis-like, cast-aluminum suspension nodes, the rear rails and bumper beam, a major cross-member and the brackets used to mount the transmission.

The center portion of the spaceframe also borrows liberally from the Ford GT as major aluminum extrusions are based heavily on existing pieces. At the front of the coupe, the team incorporated extruded main rails, a steering rack cross-member, crash-management sections and the bumper beam from the Ford GT.

“Building a concept car with this level of sophistication is much easier when you start with a world-class supercar like the Ford GT,” says Martens. “This commonality and re-use goes hand-in-hand with our speed and cost efficiency, promising the Ford GT’s bang-for-the-buck equation if the Shelby GR-1 goes to production.”

Overall, the Ford Shelby GR-1 concept is more than two feet shorter than the Ford GT, with a wheelbase nearly seven inches shorter. The track width has been reduced by more than an inch. That the concept car and the GT share any parts at all is a testimony to the flexibility of the space frame design and the creativity of the chassis team.

Ford Shelby GR1 Concept

SHAPELY EXTERIOR

The Ford Shelby GR-1 is a sinewy, athletic design with a long hood that blends seamlessly into the teardrop-shaped cabin with a fastback roofline and falling upper fender line. The car looks as if it is in motion, even when it is standing still.

The optimized wheel arches and compact overhangs define the striking stance while the strong shoulder line and smooth, taut surfaces express the car’s graceful yet athletic nature. The polished aluminum body panels further express the highly sculptured surfaces and define the emotional proportions in dramatic fashion.

The front of the Shelby GR-1 concept is dominated by an air-intake aperture and airflow splitter, directing cool air into the engine bay and wheel wells, while air vents on the upper surface of the hood exhaust hot air from the radiator. Additional intakes and vents perforate the body side to ensure cooling throughout.

The front corners of the Shelby GR-1 are dominated by substantial front wheel wells housing 19-inch wheels and tires and trapezoidal High Intensity Solid State (HISS) headlamps that float above the wheel arches. This highly technical lighting package provides powerful illumination in a very compact package, allowing freedom of design without sacrificing nighttime driving visibility.

In the rear, a distinctive Kamm tail tapers to improve wind drag and features integrated transmission cooler outlets and a ground-effects venturi. It is further defined by a strong concave section and bold vertical taillamps.

The Shelby GR-1 concept sits on 19-inch, 12-spoke milled aluminum wheels and features Goodyear 275/40R-19 tires in the front and 345/35R-19 tires in the rear, mated with the unique Tire IQâ„¢ system, which allows the driver to monitor precise tire performance.

Ford Shelby GR-1 Concept

RACING-INSPIRED INTERIOR

The Shelby GR-1 concept's butterfly doors have distinctive teardrop-shaped side-glass graphics that create an elongated appearance, blending seamlessly into integrated door-release handles

The graceful upward glide of the doors leads into the race-inspired interior that features seats with carbon shells and fixed backs. The carbon shells are connected directly to the sill and tunnel via lightweight aluminum spaceframe attachments and can be adjusted fore and aft by way of an accessible pull ring on the seat cushions’ leading edge. The seats incorporate removable Alcantara comfort inserts that are individually tailored to the occupants’ body type.

The interior door panels feature air-vent apertures and integrated “door close” pockets. The door release employs a pull-ring themed design with quick-release slide action and an illuminated door lock/unlock indicator. The exposed rear bulkhead cross-car structure braces to the roll hoop and features a snorkel air-register outlet that controls the ambient cabin climate.

Interior cabin technology focuses on driver comfort, enjoyment and entertainment. The instrument panel sports a full complement of analog gauges, including a combination analog tachometer with floating watch-like elements and digital speedometer. The tachometer housing has integrated air registers and an additional Noise Reduction Technology (NRT) output speaker.

The centrally mounted Tire IQâ„¢ display is a sophisticated driver’s aid designed to inform, warn and even entertain. The Tire IQâ„¢ system provides the driver and passenger with an animation of vital tire temperature and pressure statistics (via sensors in the tire), along with other key vehicle dynamics such as cornering G forces (via an onboard accelerometer).

The center console features integrated toggles that control the fuel pump, ignition, windows, hood and rear-glass release. The race-inspired push-button starter and “baseball grip” gear knob are situated ahead of the parking brake, which has been incorporated into the tunnel armrest. The quick-release steering wheel has integrated headlamp, wiper and direction indicator controls.

Ford Shelby GR-1 Concept

Special attention has been paid to noise reduction on the interior. The rear hatch stowage compartment features a removable MP3/Amp and NRT console, while audio input, output and recording speakers are integrated into the headrest protection wings on each seat. The speakers can provide a combination of the following:

• Noise-reducing sound waves (NRT) for improved highway cruising noise levels
• Play or record (for playback) pace notes
• MP3 Audio
• The MP3/AMP/NRT functions can be interfaced through the Tire IQâ„¢ display through a joystick controller.

Throughout the interior, the leather trim is in slate gray, with color-matched perforated Alcantara leather featured on touch zones such as the gear knob, parking brake, steering wheel, door inserts, and instrument/Tire IQâ„¢ binnacles. Functional zones such as dials, door release and center console switchgear have been finished in a combination of anodized gunmetal finishes.

Ambient cabin lighting is neatly packaged behind the central headlining panel; an indirect blue glow appears around the periphery offset of the panel. The headliner and upper doorframes are trimmed with a woven aluminum-metalized fabric that lightens the interior ambiance and heightens the slate grey tones of the leather and Alcantara trim. The dark gunmetal-gray flooring also is trimmed in the hard-wearing metalized fabric.

PROVEN CHASSIS COMPONENTS

From the outset, the Shelby GR-1 concept team intended the concept to perform at supercar levels but with a more “mature” feel biased a little more toward driver comfort than the Ford GT – widely noted for its balance of dynamics and road manners – and last year’s Ford Shelby Cobra concept.

They started by attaching massive 19-inch wheels and tires using the Ford GT suspension system with a few modifications to accommodate the increased weight of a front-engine setup. The new Ford GT earns praise for its combination of agility, grip and easy-to-drive character, a reflection of its sophisticated suspension design and the expertise of its chassis engineers. The Ford Shelby GR-1 concept applies the best of the GT suspension to a supercar with different performance intentions.

“The biggest difference between the GR-1 concept and our past efforts is the emphasis on overall driver comfort,” says Manfred Rumpel, manager, Ford Advanced Product Creation. “That extends all the way to the compliant yet high-performing capability we built into the suspension.”

DESIGNED-IN SUSPENSION COMPLIANCE

A double-wishbone suspension design with unequal-length aluminum control arms, coil-over monotube shocks and stabilizer bars is used front and rear. The upper control arms are identical at all four wheels and are made with an advanced rheo-cast process that allows the complexity of form associated with casting while retaining the strength of forging. The metal, heated to just below its melting point, is the consistency of butter when it is injected into a mold at high pressure. Pressure is maintained as the part cures, preventing porosity in the final product for exceptional strength.

The steering rack also is borrowed from the Ford GT, with a few modifications. The steering, like the Ford GT’s, draws on Ford’s global driving dynamics DNA introduced with the Ford Focus’ industry-leading steering column featuring light efforts, low friction and high stiffness. Braces between the front shock towers and below the isolated engine mounts improve torsional rigidity and aid steering response.

BIG, POWERFUL BRAKES

With more than 600 horsepower available at the throttle, the brake pedal had to be equally powerful. The team set braking distance targets comparable with today’s best supercars and turned to the Ford GT braking system for suitable components.

Brembo “monoblock” one-piece aluminum brake calipers with four pistons each grab cross-drilled, vented discs at all four wheels. The discs are a massive 14 inches in front and 13.2 inches in the rear, for fade-free stopping power. Brake balance is biased slightly to the front wheels to aid stability.

For packaging reasons, the team devised a novel offset actuation linkage for the brake booster and master cylinder, so the brake pedal can be placed in a normal position even though its hardware is off to the side of the engine bay. The kinematic linkage concept for the remote booster actuation was an idea borrowed from the European Ford Mondeo.

“The unique remote booster had to be just right so you can slow the car in a linear and proportional way,” says Rumpel. “This means the pedal effort and travel are proportional to the vehicle deceleration rate, which is especially important in high-performance sports cars.”

The one-piece, 12-spoke BBS wheels are wrapped by Goodyear Z-rated racing slicks, size 275/40R-19 in front and 345/35R-19 in the rear.

SUPERCAR POWERTRAIN

The heart of any supercar is its engine, and the Ford Shelby GR-1 concept does not disappoint.

Inspired by the biggest, baddest engine of them all – the renowned 427 – Ford engineers created a new aluminum-block V-10 to power last year’s Ford Shelby Cobra concept. This 390 cubic inch, 6.4-liter engine, reprised for service in the Shelby GR-1 concept, is adapted from Ford’s MOD engine family. It delivers the rush of raw power “with 605 horsepower and 501 foot-pounds of torque” associated with that big 1960s V-8 powerplant without the aid of supercharging or turbocharging.

This combination of brute force and thorough engineering has created a rarity in the world of auto shows – a concept car that can actually do, rather than merely promise, 0-60 in under four seconds, and would easily exceed 200 mph if not electronically limited.

“After I drove last year’s Cobra concept, I knew we had a winner in the 6.4-liter V-10,” says Carroll Shelby, renowned race driver and consultant on the Ford Shelby GR-1 concept. “We decided to transplant that engine directly into the GR-1 with practically no changes, right down to the rear-mounted transmission, which really helps the weight distribution.”

For approximately three years, the Ford powertrain team has been working on an all-aluminum V-10 targeted at ultimate, naturally aspirated performance. When they bolted this modern-day big-block into a Mustang chassis for evaluation, it only took one drive to confirm its potential.

“When we found out there was yet another concept car with the Shelby name on it, we knew it begged for this engine,” says Graham Hoare, director, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering. “Although it’s not yet ready for production, we’ve reached a credible engineering level for such a serious concept car – and it has a modern soul that matches the Shelby mission.”

ADVANCED TRANSMISSION

While the Ford Shelby GR-1 concept shares a significant amount of technology with the Ford GT and the Shelby Cobra concept, the team met several unique engineering challenges head-on.

First, the six-speed manual transmission had to be packaged in a way that would not compromise the occupant footwells. “One of the unique solutions we delivered for the GR-1 concept was the design, engineering and development of a torque-tube driveline, which allows placement of the transmission in the rear of the car behind the occupant zones,” says Rumpel.

The rear-mounted six-speed transaxle is identical to the high-performance unit in the Ford GT, with an integral limited-slip differential to drive the rear wheels. Based on the engine’s 7,500-rpm redline and the wide drive ratios, this Ford Shelby GR-1 concept has a theoretical top speed of around 200 mph, although it’s electronically limited – for now.

The transaxle application was necessitated by the desire to fit such a large engine into a compact coupe while leaving enough room for the driver’s legs and feet. With a conventional transmission mated to the back of the engine, the tradeoff between hood length and passenger room often makes for a cramped footwell and dramatically offset pedals.

Mounting the transmission in the rear helped to more evenly distribute the vehicle’s weight and increased the footwell area from 16.5 inches to 21.7 inches, resulting in almost three inches more legroom than in similar performance vehicles.

The legroom-saving torque-tube driveshaft runs at engine speed, considerably faster than typical driveshafts mounted to rear of the transmission. The spinning inner shaft is supported within a stationary outer tube that stabilizes the engine and transmission in bending and in torsion. The inner shaft taps crankshaft torque via a twin-disc, small-diameter clutch mounted at the rear of the engine.

Computer-aided design was essential in helping the first prototype come together smoothly.

“Because they spin so much faster than driveshafts, these torque tubes can be a challenge to execute properly in terms of vibration,” says Rumpel. “Using our electronic tools, we optimized the location of the driveshaft support bearings, and it ran smoothly on the very first try. This type of modern engineering tool gives us a development advantage that pioneers like Carroll Shelby could only dream about.”

Ford Shelby GR-1 Concept

UNIQUE SOLUTIONS

Additional improvements from the Ford Shelby Cobra concept include new, twin fuel fillers exiting the bodywork just aft of each sideview window and mid-way up the rear quarter panel bodywork. These racing-inspired devices feed two individual 10-gallon capacity fuel tanks that reside inside the structural chassis directly behind the passenger compartment.

The battery was also relocated to the rear of the vehicle, deep inside the luggage compartment, further aiding vehicle weight distribution and better shielding the battery package from the intense heat of the engine compartment. A new cooling system, evolved from the Shelby Cobra concept, includes a unique hood with twin portals to feed air into the engine compartment.

Source: http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=19935