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Ford has had a tough few years and is facing more of them in an increasingly competitive automotive arena. But the Mustang is one of the bright flashes of the company. The model, with S197 platform, the current generation, has been a sales success since its launch in 2005 and is approaching its first serious update. The basics remain the same, but the redesign is complete. Still offer the coupe and convertible body with V-6 engines and a variety of V-8.

Our sources tell us that Dearborn planning to launch models are still being finalized, but the current scenario is that the 2009 model year will be an abbreviated, whose cars will be identical to 2008. Then, the 2010 will be launched in the spring of 2009, as it did when Ford introduced the Mustang 1964 - in April this year, which continued to 1965.

The biggest news from the standpoint of design is the addition of an edge just behind the doors open. The doors are equal, and the fixed roof and windows in the form of a triangle on the back side. The new design is intended to recall the one used by the Dodge Charger, but it is more like a fluid. The front and rear fascias will also receive a review. We have not seen the new nose, but do not be surprised if we looked like the Ford Shelby GT500 today. For back, the taillights were changed a bit, and the defense received a rear bevel 45 degrees, adding more detail to the surface lines on the back of a square shape. Expect new colors and designs of wheels, too.

Taking inspiration from the Mustang Giugiaro concept car that appeared in our home a year ago (March 2007), Ford will offer factory option, a large panel of glass in the canopy that will extend the framework of the leading edge of the windshield the rear window. It will not be a whole piece of glass as in the Italian term for reasons of cost and structural rigidity, but the effect is almost equal. The panel of glass, dark stain, stamped replace much of the current sheet metal, creating an airy atmosphere inside. The interior is far from the style of the current car, which took inspiration from the classic Mustang 1967-1968. The new instrument panel will focus more on the driver and leave more space on the panel for a navigation screen and audio equipment bigger. The seat fabrics and colors will also change.

The scene of the train drivers Mustang 2008 remains bleak. Do not expect any changes in the engine 4.0L V-6, as its main objective is to motivate and basic Mustang rental fleets. But the V-8 GT - currently one of 4.6L SOHC and three valves - possibly receive a jolt.

A Ford engineer confirmed that the work done to create the 4.6 engine enhanced edition of the Mustang Bullitt "has a future." That engine, described in our first test story (January 2008), is basically a series of inside, but breathes better due to an open system, cold air intake, revised mufflers, a new regulator for the arm crankshaft (which raises the red line at 250 rpm), and revised fuel mapping of Ford Racing. This engine management programming allows the use of regular gasoline, but changed to a more aggressive time curve when it detects premium fuel. The result is 315 hp, compared with 300 of the current GT. The Bullitt's V-8 is freer and faster than before revolutionizes and it sounds great because the new system of admission. There is no reason to believe that the new power plant next GT not take something from this technology, and therefore, the same tricks. Or it could be the basis of a basic V-8, even more robust, nearly 325 hp. This would be the perfect time for Ford to certify the production of 5.0L DOHC engine with 400 hp, but we have no confirmation of this detail. That is as far as the common patterns of Mustang. What about the Shelby versions?

It was planned that the Ford Shelby GT500 had a life of nearly two years - 2007 and 2008 and these, perhaps reaching 2009 depending on how well it was sold, and production schemes Shelby -. Demand has been strong, and we can confirm that there will be a version Shelby GT500, built, developed and produced by Ford, the model 2010.

Receive all the improvements mentioned, plus its own look, sportier tires and wheels. The question driving the train is still unanswered, but since GM and Chrysler have higher numbers of potential horsepower for the Challenger and Camaro, Ford may have aimed for higher Mustang logo. The next delivery GT500 KR 540 hp, and believe that this could become the engine of power plant serial Shelby. Where can go from there? Nobody knows. A new GT350? It is worth dreaming.

And what about the models (GT, GT-H, Super Snake) that Shelby Automobiles is building its manufacturing plant in Las Vegas? Assuming that Shelby and Ford renew their current contracts, and we are confident that they will wait to continue these models, now based on the platform of the current Mustang, with revisions and variants limited edition on the way.

By mid 2009, the new version of the war against Dodge Chevrolet against Ford will be in full swing, with buyers having a slice of cake which had not been so fresh since 1970. Hemi Challenger will have the power, and GM has a basket full of V-8 small block of six to seven liters to install below the chest Camaro. Both competitors have Mustang independent rear suspension, which is an advantage in terms of leadership and management, but the crowd lover quarter mile still enjoys its axes alive. But Ford has the luck on their side as well as a body that neither convertible Chevrolet and Dodge offer, at least not at launch. Stay with us for more information about the clash of American muscle.

The general director of Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), Yann Le Moen, owner of the Dakar Rally, warned Saturday in the Chilean port of Valparaiso that the company will make no further comment on the death of competition French rider Pascal Terry, although he admitted mistakes in the search string.

"As an investigation is underway, the ASO will make no comment," said Le Moen in a press conference in Valparaiso (110 km west of Santiago), which complies with the rest day of the Dakar Rally to Argentina after 2009 seven stages disputed.

"Clearly, there was an error. We are investigating what could happen and now bringing all the elements," added the head of ASO after his arrival at the port after Chilean personally express his condolences to the family of Terry in Buenos Aires.

Argentine Judge Manuel Alvarez, in charge of Court No. 1 of General Acha in the province of La Pampa (center-south), where he died Terry, said to AFP Friday that Terry died of a heart attack caused by a pulmonary edema , which had its origins in a pre-existing heart disease.

Alvarez said that the coroner had found an enlargement of the heart muscle and found that the conditions in which the pilot was up, speed, effort and the very high temperatures contributed to fatal outcome.

The judge believed that the death of the pilot to open two possibilities: either there was negligence in the care of a competitor in emergency and may have committed a crime, fault, or there was a disastrous Rally not scheduled a series of events and could lead to abandonment of the figure of the person. "

Disappeared during the second stage between the Argentine cities of Santa Rosa de Puerto Madryn and the Pampa (south), Terry, aged 49, was found dead in the early hours of last Wednesday at 02H10 local (05H10 GMT).

In a statement issued the same day, the ASO said that Terry had no more signs of life after last Sunday afternoon.

The ASO on Monday ordered the search of the competitor, which made it difficult for the land and vegetation, found his body until 56 hours after his disappearance.

The Rose Lake, mythical goal of the Dakar rally almost without interruption since the early'80s, the prevailing disappointment and resignation because this year the world's toughest rally has changed in South Africa.



The last stage of the Dakar causing a huge buzz in the place, but today on the shores of the lake water violet whipped by the wind, no camps or fortune, or flags, or any other sign of the arrival of the caravan.

Except for some collectors of salt, the surroundings are deserted. And in the nearby town of artisans, vendors swooped on the few tourists passing by.

"Since the Dakar rally has come to Senegal, is a hard blow for us" because "it brought a lot of money," laments the chairman of the artisans of the village, Assane Kane.

The income of the artisans, who presented their works in a camp "where they ate between 200 and 400 people," then they could reach "the Senegalese 250,000 francs (381 euros) in a single day," she says.

The hotel Aliou Oumar Ndiaye recalls with nostalgia the "atmosphere" of the Dakar when installed for its customers Finnish, Swedish and French "Mauritanian stores. "Economically it was interesting. We could win between 10 and 15 times more than normal in a month," he explains.

The last minute cancellation of terrorist threats by the 2008 edition of the Dakar and his move to Argentina and Chile in 2009 makes grinding teeth of tourism professionals. Have "an impact because we have lost the rally represents a loss of revenue for our hotel," Ndiaye said.

The rally attracted between 200 and 300 people, "the president of the hoteliers Lake Rosa, Idrissa Diop. When he owned a camp of the rally came to win five million francs (7,622 euros) in one day.

Cheikh Ba, installed in the village of artisans from a decade ago, sells musical instruments and traditional paintings, including two paintings depicting the silhouette of two nomads with the legend "Lisbon-Dakar 2008. "I have not sold last year," laments.

But beyond the economic losses in the Lake Rose, professionals fear repercussions on tourism in Senegal.

The rally was "a great event for the promotion of Senegal because in the world, people familiar with the Dakar," said the director general of the National Agency for the Promotion of Tourism, El Hadj Malick Mbaye, although this impact unencrypted .

"The Dakar had achieved over the years a large, measured in number of competitors," he says with bitterness the secretary general of the federation of motor sports, André Mathieu, "disappointed" by the change of destination of the rally .

This year, the Lac Rose is getting a little consolation 11 January a new competition, Race Africa, driven by the Paris-Dakar tricampeón Hubert Auriol. But the Senegalese press has scarcely heeded and there has been almost no publicity surrounding the trial.

That race followed the tracks of the Paris-Dakar through France, Morocco, Mauritania and Senegal, but "in terms of communication has had less impact than the Dakar rally," admits Mamadou Diallo, head of the TUI group, which announces the presence of some fifty riders on arrival. "