Featured Foureye - Alejandro Manglano's '79 Mustang Turbo

Automotive restoration is an addiction. Restoring or modifying any car is a time consuming, often heartbreaking process that typically ends up costing too much money and taking too much time. But the appeal is unexplainable, a very rewarding experience indeed. And unlike those who pay to have a car restored, one can take a certain amount of pride in the fact that you can boast that you did all the work yourself.

Such is the case with Alejandro Manglano and his 1979 Mustang. Alejandro and his wife were on a mission to replace his wrecked BMW with a Mustang. They did a lot of looking around until they found a mint 1980 Ghia V6. Alejandro and his wife decided that this would be the one they would purchase.

The very next day, Alejandro was on his way to purchase the '80 with his friend when he spotted a brown '79 coupe that appeared to have seen better days. It sat motionless with a flat tire, no brakes to speak of, a ratted out interior, torn up suspension, and a rather dented up body from an apparent accident.

Alejandro saw past the sad state the fox was in and saw a large amount of potential in the little turbo coupe. He immediately changed his mind and decided to forgo the perfect '80 for the ratty '79. To compound matters further, the little couple wouldn't start or run so he and his friend had to load it up on a trailer and tow it home.

Alejandro arrived home to pretty much the same reaction that we all get at some point and time from his wife. All she wanted to know was "where is that pretty green car we looked at yesterday?" (Editors note: the reaction I got when I drove my '83 home was much worse than this). Alejandro explained to her that the '79 was a great project to begin with, and that it wouldn't take long since it was a solid, rust free car.

The restoration took 5 years. The mangled body was straightened out and covered with layers of tan/gold pearl. The ol' four banger was rebuilt and freshened up for the time being, Alejandro has future plans of completely going through it. Brake were upgraded with escort calipers and disks in the rear. Wheels are 15x7 American Racing Outlaws with Sumitomo tires all around.

The interior was completely restored from dash to console to upholstery. The steering wheel and shifter knob are custom units that have been painted to match the body color.

Now that Alejandro's foxbody is finished, it's being used in a TV show. How's that for having your car work for you? And instead of tooling around in a car that was perfect from the get go, Alejandro has a ride that's both unique and has history. That's what this hobby is all about.

AmericanMuscle.com has all the Mustang Parts you will need to spice up your 'Stang.

You can view the pictures of the restoration here.

2008 Mercedes Brabus Bullit Black Arrow

Just how fast is too fast? Most humans barely ever experience 150 mph in a car, let alone 200 mph. Can anyone really tell the difference between 195 mph and 200 mph? Once you experience speed in this elite range, it can be hard to tell the difference.

"It's not so much the actual experience that counts, but the imagination of what it might be like to do 200, 210, or 220 mph," says a grinning Ulrich Gauffrés, the head honcho of Brabus's R&D department. "With the long axle ratio, the Mercedes Brabus Bullit Black Arrow could theoretically exceed 230 mph. But because of the extreme mix of power, torque, and load, we pull the plug at 350 kph [217 mph]. Incidentally, all our customers so far have opted for the more explosive but ultimately less dramatic shorter final-drive ratio."

Four of these uber sedans have been built to date, none have exceeded 196 mph as of yet. That's fast by any one's standards except for maybe the firm that builds them, Brabus, who has a long history of building fast Mercs. Plant your foot on the gas pedal and general mayhem ensues. Tires spin uncontrollably, the rear tries to take over the front. But when your punishing the rear axle with 974 lb ft of torque, that can be expected. As a matter of fact, the bad Brabus has to be chip restricted to 811 lb ft to somewhat protect the rest of the drivetrain.

Masochists can opt for the total package by opting for the matte black finish for an extra $6200.

Powering this freight train is a 6.2-liter twin-turbo V-12 that musters 720 hp at 5100 rpm and serves up 811 lb-ft of torque from 2100 rpm. Compared with the twin-turbocharged 5.5-liter unit that it's based on (the one that powers Mercedes-Benz's S600, CL600, and SL600 models), the uprated engine features a longer-stroke crankshaft, bigger-bore cylinders, special pistons and connecting rods, high-performance camshafts, and a free-flow exhaust that's brutal enough to crack an egg from a mile away.

The transmission is a five speed automatic, which is reasonable since it's recommended that you keep both hands on the wheel to prevent being embarrassed. Traction and stability control help, too, as do the 285/30YR-19 rear Yokohamas, which are a little fatter than the 265/30YR-19 footwear on the front wheels. Other chassis upgrades include beefier antiroll bars, a wider track, high-performance brakes, and a specially prepared ten-way-adjustable spring and damper setup. Extra money buys carbon-ceramic brake discs, but the standard setup is better-suited for everyday use. Combining twelve-pot fixed calipers and 15.0-inch rotors in the front with six-piston calipers and 14.2-inch discs in the back, the Bullit decelerates with vigor.

the 4079-pound Bullit will accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in 3.9 seconds, according to Brabus. After 10.5 seconds, the Bullit reaches 124 mph. Give it fourteen more seconds, and it will thunder past 186 mph, still gaining momentum. While lesser cars like the Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG or the BMW M5 start to run out of steam at 155 mph, the monster from Brabus keeps charging ahead. To save stress and fuel, fifth gear is summoned relatively early, but there is still so much oomph on tap that this maximum Merc doesn't run into an invisible wall until an indicated 202 mph, which is all the relatively short 2.65:1 axle permits.

Unfortunately, no Bullits will be officially sold in the U.S. For those who are so inclined, the asking price will be around $587,000 and up. But if you're a millionaire looking for an outrageously fun toy, this car's for you.

Ford hits 1 million miles on EcoBoost test engines

Word has recently come out of Dearborn that Ford has racked up over a million test miles on it's soon to be released EcoBoost engines, in combined real world driving and in lab testing.

So far, a group of EcoBoost engines have logged over 12,000 hours on the dyno which represents 500,000 miles of consumer driving, according to Ford. The engines have gone through 20 different tests at maximum loads and speeds to test the reliability during simulated real-world conditions. The engines endured a thousand cold starts and many wide open throttle runs to test their durability, and Ford believes they performed exceptionally well

"EcoBoost is undergoing the durability and reliability tests that we put all Ford engines through, and the performance we are seeing shows that the 3.5L EcoBoost engine is a high-quality, top-performing engine that meets or exceeds all our reliability targets and is deserving of Ford's five-year/60,000-mile powertrain warranty," said Ford's Advanced Engine Design and Development manager Brett Hinds.

Ford engineers have spent a great deal of time using computer models to simulate wear and tear on the engines and components, as well as model the exact operations of the twin turbos and direct injection to maximize efficiency.

"Because the 3.5L EcoBoost employs the latest in injection and turbocharger thermal management technologies, our tests have shown that we have effectively eliminated the legacy concerns sometimes associated with these systems, including high-mileage combustion deposits on the injectors and turbo bearing coking," said Hinds.

Out on the roads of the real world, Ford has been running a fleet of EcoBoosted Flexs and Lincoln MKS' at their Michigan Proving Grounds in Romeo, Michigan, performing on-road tests including towing tests to determine the new power plant's actual in-car performance.

Ford has also run them around at high altitude in Denver, through the Arizona deserts and in the deep south to test the engine's performance in extreme conditions. The test fleet racked up another 500,000 miles of driving, bringing the tests to over one million combined miles.

"With the extensive dynamometer and vehicle-level durability testing we are subjecting this engine to, we are confident that the 3.5L EcoBoost engine is going to further strengthen Ford Motor Company's reputation for delivering reliable, high-quality engines," said Hinds.

It's comforting to hear that Ford is doing it's homework and ensuring that the EcoBoosted engines will not only be powerful and efficient, but reliable as well.

Now let's take one for a test drive already!