This week we have little of the old and new and both mixed together. We shall start with the ever popular and current topic “John Wick” car. The trailer for John Wick 2 has surfaced and has only increased the awareness of this great car as the views for the car our blog has been quite impressive. There is still plenty to do on her yet and so far so good.

Yogi has improved the handling of the car rear end for launching of the line with a pair of traction bars to the axle.

Then with the wheels being rolled from the build shop to the geo workshop Yogi set up the geometry ready for a road test when we get round to it that is once the inside a little more complete. After the road test we will check the settings to make sure everything has settled down correctly then we will put smome more miles on her to check the engine setup and brakes etc.

With that all completed and Yogi heard mutterings of words that would need a translator for us mere mortals to understand, things like “Camber, Caster, Toe, shock travel adjustments, spring rates” etc. We rolled the car out and took a few photo’s of the new preliminary stance set up.

The interior now has the seats in place and Dynamat for the doors. Dash area still needs work as does the trim levels of course.

We are even trying to source a window tag that was seen in the film just to add a little more realism.

movie tag

explanation

We are looking forward to the first road test of this little lady to see how many admiring glances she gets!

Article: Mustang conquers the world

We were sent this information which we hadn’t picked up on all about the new Mustang sales progress so far. We’re not to sure how old it is, but it’s still relevant and only gets better with strong sales everywhere.

A globetrotting hit, from Europe to mideast to Australia

A U.S.-built Mustang is loaded on a freighter headed overseas.

Customers in England and Australia face backlogs of at least six months for a new Ford Mustang. In Germany, the Mustang has attracted more retail buyers this year than the home-country favourites Audi TT and Porsche 911.

And in the U.S., the Mustang is not just beating, but downright pummeling, the redesigned Chevrolet Camaro en route to a second consecutive title as the nation’s top-selling sports car.

Ford Motor Co.’s 2014 overhaul of the Mustang, which included opening sales in 81 more countries to turn it into a global halo for the automaker, is paying off. Demand has been especially heavy for the first-ever right-hand-drive Mustang, which went on sale late last year in 25 markets where the car had been virtually off-limits previously.

Ford said it has sold about 27,000 right-hand- drive Mustangs since production started a year ago.

“Mustang has been a huge success for us,” Colin Massey, general sales manager at Jennings Ford Middlesbrough in northeastern England, said in an email. “We are still seeing a steady demand for the Mustang and are currently averaging between three and four orders per week.”

Ford has a backlog of seven months for the Mustang with a four-cylinder EcoBoost engine and nine months for the V-8 version, Massey said. The wait has been up to 10 months in Australia, where the Mustang is now Ford’s second-biggest seller, behind the Ranger pickup.

“We are always trying to eke out one more right-hand-drive unit if we can,” said Carl Widmann, the Mustang’s chief engineer. “We’ve exceeded expectations overall. We’re getting happy customers across a lot of different regions.”

Ford has sold more than 20,000 Mustangs in Europe, including about 4,400 in the United Kingdom and nearly 6,000 in Germany, since shipments there began nearly a year ago. Ford said it’s the most popular car in the U.K. that’s rated at more than 250 hp. The Mustang is the top-selling sports car this year in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa as well, Ford said.
Ford says it has sold about 27,000 right-hand-drive Mustangs since output began a year ago.
Taking on the Germans

The Mustang is Germany’s top-selling sports car this year among retail buyers, according to government data, and it was the overall sales leader in February and March. About one in three German sales are the convertible, and most buyers there choose the 5.0-liter V-8 engine, Ford said, in contrast to the rising popularity of the car’s V-6 in the U.S. and despite much higher gasoline prices there.

“That unmistakable V-8 warble is a hot commodity outside the U.S.,” Ford sales analyst Erich Merkle said in a statement.

Sales have topped 3,300 in Australia and 3,800 in China, a Ford spokesman said.

Before last year, the Mustang was sold in North America and a few dozen other countries, where sales were minuscule. Getting it anywhere else meant working through private importers and, if necessary, making a costly conversion to right-hand drive.

The latest generation was designed to have more global appeal, with more European styling and an independent rear suspension instead of a live axle, a change that upset some traditionalists.

Today, overseas markets still account for a small fraction of the Mustang’s total sales, with about 80 percent of the cars — all built in Flat Rock, Mich. — staying stateside. But Ford sees the Mustang’s growing presence in more than 100 countries outside North America as a way to evangelize its brand to consumers worldwide.

“The visceral look, sound and performance of Mustang resonates with people, even if they’ve never driven one,” Ford’s global product development chief, Raj Nair, said in 2014, when the car marked its 50th anniversary. “Mustang is definitely more than just a car — it is the heart and soul of Ford.”

Huge lead in U.S.

While the Mustang finds its footing in new markets overseas, it’s blowing away the competition in the U.S. It overtook the Camaro last year for the first time since 2009 and hasn’t looked back, even as Chevy rolled out the sixth generation last fall.

The Mustang’s share of the midsize sports-car segment, which also includes the Dodge Challenger, has surged from 37 percent in 2014 to 46 percent so far this year.

Through August, the Mustang leads the Camaro in the U.S. by nearly 33,000 units, a margin so large it might stand up even if Ford took the rest of the year off. Mustang sales here are down 6.8 percent, to 80,829, mirroring a downturn in car sales overall, but the Camaro’s decline is more than twice as steep.

Incentives are part of that difference; Ford increased Mustang incentives by about $500 this year, to $1,535 through July, while Chevy reduced Camaro discounts by about the same amount, to $2,246, according to Autodata.

In addition, Chevy deliberately moved the Camaro more upmarket with the latest generation, discontinuing the base LS trim. The sticker price for the Camaro now starts at $1,755 more than the base Mustang. Chevy also is selling fewer than 10 percent of the cars to fleet buyers.

“For us, it’s about the right volume,” said Todd Christensen, GM’s marketing manager for the Camaro. “Would we like to be the sales leader? Yes, but not at the detriment of other things.”

DeAgostini Shelby GT500 1:8th Model

A mixture of the old and new now with a new model build of a classic old car. Everything we have built so far for this model can be found on the main heading menu or click here for the hyper link. These issues we see a little more complex build of the front suspension. We will need to retrieve the previously held together front wheels and fit them to the front of the car. Now we have a rolling chassis as it were, but all be it a model 1:8th the size of the real thing.

This post covers issues are forty to forty-four and we are a few issues in front of the official build diary itself.

Part 41:

This centres around the front suspension lower control arms and sway bar. The main part is a large piece and is screwed into place on a number of places. Not a lot of parts, but a little time to fit them all together.

Lower control arms have the press in pins which will need a pair of pliers, we also prefer to press the pin is from each side protecting the frame with a small piece of card torn from the packaging.

The previously built front wheels and steering are used now to screw to the control arms. The chassis will need to be flipped over and back a few times. The only tricky part here is steering ram on the chassis to be connected with the steering on the wheels.

Part 42

This issue centres around the top control arms holding the wheels in place. The parts again need to have the pivoting pin pressed into place with pliers.

The single screw will hold the control arm to the wheel and should now move up and down with the car. Two screws for each side of the frame rails and need to be fitted uniquely for each side.

Part 43

This is the exhausts running from the rear up to the front section now. There are the main pipe and the other half of each muffler to be to be screwed together, they can only fit together one way. We found that the rear pipes that go over the rear axle have a cut out where the exhausts fit into. We noticed that our was a little out of shape and needed a very gentle bend to get the ends to seat correctly. If you do bend be careful not to break or snap them.

The exhausts are held in place by four screws on the inner side of the floor pans.

Part 44

This sees the first part of the interior to be fitted, apart from the door cards that is. The front carpets if you like and the gear shift. This is a single screw from the underside of the carpet. The black section is a superb black made of a velour style material.

This part is not attached to the floor pan itself yet but you can see where it will fit though.

Custom Engine Build

We have had a special request to build a custom “Stroked” engine for a good customer of ours. The valve covers are just there to keep it clean as the proper ones will be going on at a later date.

Only two more week to go now to the SEMA show, we are trying to get things wrapped up as much as we can while we temporarily take a break to see whats new in the world at Las Vegas. We’re not saying we are excited or anything, but we have put a countdown marker on the page too, can you spot it?