After trailing the Chevrolet Camaro in each of the first four months of 2013, the Ford Mustang has battled back – beating the Camaro badly in June sales with a margin of over 2,000 units. More importantly, while the Mustang has only won 2 of the 6 months in 2013, the pummeling handed out by the original Pony car in June has allowed Ford’s Mustang to climb into the top spot in 2013 annual muscle car sales with a lead of almost 800 units.

Last week we reported that Ford might be dropping the Shelby GT500 in favor of the SVT Cobra for the next generation Mustang, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Shelby name will be disappearing from the Ford lineup. According to our sources inside Ford, the company will introduce a Shelby GT350 model for 2016, a year after the next generation Mustang is launched for 2015. The big news is that the car will be an official Ford factory model, similar to the current Shelby GT500, and unlike the current GT350 model that is only a post-title package available directly from Shelby. Details about the 2016 Shelby GT350 are understandably scarce at the moment, but we hear it will be more of a stripped-down performance car just like in 1965, and expect it to be more affordable than the current model, which starts at just over $58,000.

Today, DreamWorks Studios and Ford Motor Company are pleased to announce an exclusive partnership for the feature film “Need for Speed,” which will include significant integration of Ford products, along with extensive media promotion by Ford at the time of the film’s release on March 14, 2014. The announcement coincides with the unveiling of a one-of-a-kind Ford Mustang for the film, during Electronic Arts’ press conference at E3 Expo in Los Angeles later today.

When Ford unleashed the 662-horsepower Shelby GT500 in 2013, it certainly drew some attention to the brand. With the car’s launch, Ford set the new baseline for muscle car horsepower, prompting tire dealers across the country to begin shopping for vacation homes and luxury yachts.

It’s official. The 2015 Mustang will come to the good ‘ol US of A with a four-cylinder Ecoboost option. The kicker? It’s probably not going to be the base model engine.
This confirmation comes from the guys at Road and Track, so we’ll see if they’re actually right later on. But if they are, that means this’ll be the first time the Mustang has been offered with a four banger since the fox-body days. The last time the Mustang came factory with a turbo of any kind was the SVO Cobra.

If you’ve spent any time on the old Ford Mustang customizer site, you know how addictive it can be to build a Mustang to your very own specifications (unless you’re a Chevy guy, in which case it’s probably not addictive at all).

As entertaining as the old Mustang customizer may have been, there was no payoff for designing a Mustang beloved by fans and by your social media contacts. That changes with the launch of a new Mustang customizer website, which will give four lucky contestants the chance to win a 2013 Ford Mustang of their own design.

And by “win,” we really mean “earn,” since creating a popular design will increase the number of entries into the contest, or more specifically, four contests set to kick off at a rate of one per month.

The first step is building your Mustang within the allotted amount of points. Pick the right accessory, you get more points. Promote your car on social media channels and you get even more points. Win battles against other cars, and (you guessed it) you rack up more points. Lose battles, however, and you risk losing points.

For every 1,000 points you accumulate by the end of the monthly contest period, you’ll get a single entry into that month’s Mustang drawing. You can stuff the ballot box, too, by designing and entering multiple Mustangs during each contest period. The more you promote your Mustang design, the better your odds are of winning the car.

At the end of each contest, Ford promises to make every effort to build and award a  Mustang exactly as you’ve configured it, up to and including a custom 2013 Shelby GT500 model.

If your design proves especially popular, Ford may even create a special edition based on your design. In other words, not only do you get a 2013 Ford Mustang, but you get a kind of automotive immortality that few will ever know.

Interested? You’ll find complete rules and entry details on the 2013 Ford Mustang Customizer website. The first contest begins on June 18 and closes on July 15, with subsequent contests running at monthly intervals through the end of the promotion on October 7, 2012.
This story originally appeared at Motor Authori

Article courtesy of MustangsDaily.com, your source for all the latest Ford Mustang news and articles With the debut of the 2015 Ford Mustang coming in the next couple years it was only a matter of time before Ford would begin testing out prototypes. It looks like that time as come, as spy photographers have captured […] More »