Cars & Bikes – 3 |

Not too many cars enjoy a forty-year run, but the Ford Capri is turning forty this year, and that’s something to be celebrated. Sure, it’s not manufactured anymore but that doesn’t mean that it’s not still very popular. People still have them, and they drive them a lot. There are clubs for the Capri, too, and several dealers are having parties and other events to celebrate the car. It was a muscle car, and it had an iconic place in car history, mostly in the seventies.

The sixties and the eighties enjoyed it, too, but it wasn’t as big in those particular decades as it was during the seventies. That’s really the place that it has in the history of the motor car – as a seventies muscle car that big, tough guys liked to drive really fast. It made them cool, apparently, and a lot of them have kept these cars, re-purchased one for a dash of nostalgia, and passed them down to their children. It’s helped to keep the Capri popular, like some other cars that have also enjoyed long-term manufacturing runs and didn’t die out even when the company stopped making them.

Ford Motors is not only creating the most modern hybrid vehicles but they are also working on the best in safety features for those vehicles. There is a new array of “active” crash-avoidance technologies that will be introduced into this year by driving prototypes into large, car-shaped balloons to help customers avoid real accidents. Engineers at the Dearborn Development Center use these balloons to test the company’s new adaptive cruise control and collision warning with brake support technology. The consumer is demanding that some technology be created that can help avoid sudden unexpected hazards due to cruise control failure or brake support failures. This is just a couple of the many new safety features that are being checked and corrected for the consumers.As the world grows, auto makers are going to become more advanced over it’s lifetime. From safety features to make it safer for you to newer features in the car that make it more convenient for you and your family.

The Streetka comes with an upgraded engine to the standard 1.3 litre Duratec found in the rest of the Ka range. The 1.6 litre is obviously more powerful, but at only 94bhp it’s still not earth-shattering by any means – something a 0-60mph time of 12 seconds and a top speed of 108mph evidences.Of course all this doesn’t matter when you’re driving at 30mph through the city with the top down. Unsurprisingly the Streetka is just as competent around town as the standard Ka. Ford say that the Streetka has 12.5% stiffer front springs and a wider track at both front and back compared to the hatchback to improve handling further. This of course will be of 0% interest to the demographic Ford aimed the Streetka at.

When it was launched, Ford said 80% of the buying public would be female, but I can honestly report that since 2003, I have seen exactly no men driving one. It’s certainly not because of the price when they were new. A new Streetka would’ve set you back £12,495 for the base model and a maximum of £13,745 for the luxury version. Combine this price with the Pininfarina styling and driving experience and it’s no wonder the Streetka found favour. Better still it undercut its main rival the Peugeot 206cc by up to £2000.

The Ford Mustang really started something in America. Its modern replica of the 1967 fastback and the convertible sold 165,000 last year and Ford can’t keep up with the demand. No wonder that its rivals are planning the same trick. As Ford introduced the Shelby GT500 versions of the Mustang, with a 475bhp supercharged V8- derived from the engine of the Ford GT, Daimler Chrysler presented the Dodge Challenger, a dead ringer for the 1970 original, and Gm rolled out a new Chevrolet Camaro, picking up the styling theme of the 1969 cars that were so successful in Transam racing. The challenger and Camaro are simply concept cars but both are destined for production. The Dodge is based on the same LX platform as the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger- which means that it uses Mercedes E class components and will feature a 425bhp 6.1 litre Hemi V8. It is likely to be priced somewhere between the $20,000 of the entry level Mustang V6 and the $40,000 GT500.