While many of the engineering tests focus on how climate extremes affect the performance of the vehicle, the comfort of the driver and passengers in these tough conditions is equally important.

Ford’s climate control test team travels the world to ensure that the car’s electronic automatic temperature control system can handle anything a customer can throw at it. Additionally, the team must fine-tune this system to ensure that it is as comfortable, effective and efficient as possible.

One of the team’s regular testing locations is Antequera in Southern Spain. Known as the crossroads of Andalucia, the medieval town is set on a plain some 2,000 feet above sea level. Outside of summer, it is a rich, fertile area popular with history buffs who flock to the town to see some of Europe’s oldest and most important dolmens, or burial sites.  But in the height of summer, the area around Antequera is one of the hottest places in continental Western Europe, with temperatures regularly rising above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. It is a parched, barren landscape, perfect for putting the next-generation Focus to the test.

Ford systems engineer Klaus Schuermanns was there for two weeks this summer, driving up to 300 miles a day, six days a week.

On this trip, the team was testing two camouflaged vehicles – a four-door version for the North American market and a five-door European-spec Focus. Klaus was at the wheel of the European model, while his colleagues sat in the passenger seat, studying a laptop displaying the findings of more than 200 sensors placed around the car. These sensors record a myriad of data, including ambient temperature, air-conditioning pressures, engine speed and sunlight. Chrome-nickel thermo couples are attached to the windows, the seats, the radio, and all around the drivers and passengers, monitoring the temperature throughout the cabin.

One of the main challenges for the team is that customers in North America have different preferences to their European counterparts, so the two test vehicles have different calibrations. North American customers generally like to feel a strong cooling effect while the European customer preference is for the cabin to be cooled slightly less and to not actually feel the chilled air. This is where the team’s experience in subjectively evaluating the system comes in. The sensors can monitor actual data, but the more subjective, human experience of how the cabin feels as it cools is just as important.

While other test teams have to push the car hard on mountain roads, testing the vehicle to its limits, Klaus and his colleagues have a rather more sedate challenge.

“Highway driving is the best way to test the climate system,” says Klaus. “It is not the most interesting road, and after driving several hundred miles on the same road for days at a time, it can get a bit boring, but we are not testing the driving dynamics of the car; we need a straight road and a constant speed, so we can concentrate on how the climate system is performing.”

After 150 miles of highway driving, the two cars pull over outside a small, deserted roadside café. At this time of year, few locals venture outside in the middle of the day, while tourists wisely flock to the beaches and the cooling sea breezes of the Costa del Sol, 60 miles to the south. Bypassing the shade offered by two large olive trees, the engineers park the vehicles side-by-side in direct sunlight.

“This is the pull down test,” explains Klaus.” It’s very important. The vehicles are soaked in the sun for about an hour, until the temperature in the cabin reaches about 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Then we get inside and we drive 20 miles or so and we see how long it takes to get back down to the chosen comfort point, and we monitor how this process feels inside the car. The first few minutes are really quite uncomfortable, but it’s a great AC system so after just a few minutes it is much more bearable.”

Other tests carried out by the engineers include an altitude test and a control curve, where the team changes the temperature settings in the car and then monitors how it feels as the system copes with the changes. As they drive, Klaus and his colleagues are able to directly make changes to the calibration. They have a debrief every evening to discuss their findings and plan the next day’s testing.

Media from the UK, U.S. and Australia are the drivers of the first leg of the journey, which stretches from Los Angeles to New York city. During this two-month long global expedition, invited journalists will produce feature stories that reflect the more surprising and not-so-well-known elements of each region.

On the itinerary for day one was a stop at Hollywood’s stunt driving school,  a visit to Jay Leno’s garage and an egg cook-off on the sizzling hot Fiesta bodywork in Death Valley where temperatures were over 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

The expedition will cover more than 15,000 road miles on four continents and through 20 countries. It is an acknowledgment of the global nature of the Fiesta, which is sold all around the world and will celebrate its one-millionth sale in September 2010.

Some of the more intriguing stories on the American leg include spending the night with the team that keeps Las Vegas’s neon lights burning, visiting an artist in Texas who creates beautiful works in the dust on the windows of cars and checking out a company in Tennessee that converts old airliners into exclusive private homes.

After finishing the American leg in New York city, the tour will cross the Atlantic to kick off the European leg in Shannon, Ireland. Journalists will pay a visit to the village of Lisdoonvarna, which hosts a 150-year old annual matchmaking festival. They’ll talk to local matchmaker Willie Daley, who claims to have ‘matchmade’ 10,000 couples.

Once the expedition reaches Dublin, it will head across the Irish Sea to Wales. The tour will press on to England and eventually mainland Europe via the Channel Tunnel.

Stories during the expedition’s run through central Europe will include a lap of the legendary Nurburgring – 14 miles of weaving and diving circuit cut through a dark forest. This track is so challenging that Sir Jackie Stewart called it ‘the Green Hell.’

As the expedition heads ever further east, the stories will become ever more exotic, including a visit with a belly dancing cab driver, a race between a sprinting camel and a car and a look at how Saudi women are influencing car buying choices, even though they aren’t allowed to drive.

The next leg of this epic expedition will start in Shenzhen, China, where journalists will experience one of the largest and most eccentric electronic gadgets market. You can find such items as a solar powered vest to recharge your devices or a mobile phone that looks identical to a pack of cigarettes. There’s also the amazing tale of the businessman who had a quarry painted green to improve his feng shui.

The expedition will continue its trek through China and then on to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Stories will reflect the region – monks who bless cars, elephants that paint and, in Singapore, the world’s most educated cab driver who holds a Yale PHD.

The expedition’s final leg will be in Australia, where stories will surround iconic locations such as Darwin, Ayers Rock, Bathurst and finally, Sydney.

To make the most of the Fiesta’s global presence, each leg of the expedition will use locally built cars – on the European leg, journalists will be piloting left-hand drive Fiestas built in Cologne, Germany. Those cars will travel with the expedition until it reaches China, where a new pair of Fiestas will replace them there and again in Thailand. The last swap will happen in Darwin, Australia.

A select group of Ford designers and engineers recently got that opportunity, and the pressure that comes along with it, working on the 2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302. This new model is steeped in performance heritage and is set to become the quickest, best-handling straight-production Mustang ever offered by Ford.

We thought you might find it interesting to hear from some of the people who developed the 2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302 share some of their thoughts on the car and some of the specific stories from creating the car.

Darrel Behmer, Mustang Chief Designer

“We approached this as curators of a legend. We’ve taken design cues from the ’69 Boss street car and the menacing Bud Moore/Parnelli Jones race cars and carefully updated them to give the 2012 the proper bad-boy attitude that is unmistakably a Boss Mustang.”

Dave Pericak, Mustang Chief Engineer

“Boss is a hallowed word around here, and we couldn’t put that name on a new Mustang until we were sure everything was in place to make this car a worthy successor. We were either going to do it right or not do it at all – no one on the team was going to let Boss become a sticker and wheel package.”

“The team at Ford wanted to offer their fellow Mustang enthusiasts something really special – a beautifully balanced factory-built race car that they could drive on the street. The Boss 302 isn’t something a Mustang GT owner can buy all the parts for out of a catalog or that a tuner can get by adding a chip. This is a front-to-back re-engineered Mustang with every system designed to make a good driver great and a great driver even better.”

“What we were after on Boss was reduced overall lift with improved balance. We needed to keep the car glued to the street or the track at high speeds without increasing drag or affecting top speed and fuel usage. The end result is an aero package that uses front, rear and underbody treatments not for show, but for effect – the balance and stability of this car all the way to its 155-mph top speed is just outstanding.”

Mike Harrison, Ford V8 Engine Program Manager

“The effect of the new intake design is dramatic. When I took the prototype car to Mustang Chief Engineer Dave Pericak, he took a short drive, tossed me the keys and said ‘Book it…it’s in the program.’ He knew what we were onto, and that’s really the point where the Boss 302 was born.”

“The core group of engineers on the Boss 302 engine understands and respect the heritage of the name and the history behind the original engine. The first Boss 302 was a specially built, free-breathing, high-revving small V8 that gave it certain desirable characteristics on a race course – and we capture that essence in the new engine.”

“Working with Ford Racing has been invaluable. They were a wealth of information for setting up torque and power curves for road racing and for identifying areas of concern during track runs that we wouldn’t have considered if we were just building a hot street engine. Every Boss 302 owner will benefit from their contributions to the program.”

“Ford had no engine test cells built to run at that kind of sustained speed. Ford Racing had one, but it wasn’t instrumented to do production durability testing. So we had to re-engineer the dyno cell with new balancers and jackshafts so the dyno wouldn’t fly apart running at redline hour after hour.”

Shawn Carney, Mustang NVH Engineer

“With an exhaust system, we have to consider three constraints: legal noise restrictions; backpressure, which can rob power; and ground clearance. Since the 2011 Mustang GT exhaust is already so free-flowing – it came in way under our backpressure targets – we already had excellent performance; we were able to tune the exhaust system for a unique sound. Combined with the rush of the intake, the exhaust system really envelops the driver in V8 sound.”

“We added the attenuation discs to meet legal regulations, but we knew buyers might operate these cars in situations where noise regulations weren’t an issue. The disc is removable and includes a spacer plate sized to match aftermarket exhaust dump valves. If an owner wants to add a set of electric valves, they just undo two bolts on either side; the disc and spacer slide out and the valve will slide right in. And the side pipes are tuned so that drivers can run wide-open and the sound levels are comfortable – very aggressive but livable for an all-day track outing.”

Brent Clark, Supervisor of the Mustang Vehicle Dynamics Team

“This car is wicked fast, so we put a lot of emphasis on giving it comparable stopping power. We started with a race-proven brake system and tuned it specifically for the characteristics of the Boss 302 and its mission. They’re the best brakes ever installed on a Mustang, and they give consistent, repeatable braking performance on the street and the track.”

“We’ve given drivers five settings for their shocks. One is the softest, two is the factory setting and five is the firmest, and we’ve provided a wide range of adjustment. A customer can drive to the track on setting two, crank it up to five for improved response on the track, then dial down to one for a more relaxed ride home. What’s unique is that drivers will find – thanks to the way the suspension works as a complete system – the softest setting isn’t too loose and the firmest setting isn’t too controlled; each step just provides additional levels of control.”

“The shock adjustment is right at the top of the shock tower, built into the rod and easily accessible from under the hood or inside the trunk. You just take a small flat-head screwdriver, turn the adjustment screw between one and five, and head back out onto the track.”

Want to see what she means? In this video, Mark Fields; Executive Vice President, Ford Motor Company, and President, The Americas; and Julie Levine, Explorer Program Manager, give you a walk-around tour of the 2011 Ford Explorer.

The all-new Ford Explorer will offer SUV customers a broad range of trim levels and customer convenience and connectivity technologies that will raise the eyebrows among even luxury SUV owners.

The base Explorer delivers a strong package of customer convenience and technology features, with the following items as standard equipment:

• Hill start assist
• Dual chrome exhaust tips
• Projector-style headlamps
• Power remote sideview mirror
• LED taillamps
• Air filtration system
• Media hub, including an auxiliary input jack
• Four 12-volt power points
• Second- and third-row dome/map lights
• Tilt/telescoping steering column
• Steering wheel-mounted five-way and secondary audio controls
• Cruise control
• Power windows with one-touch driver’s down
• Single CD/MP3-capable six-speaker audio system
• MyKey™ owner control feature
• Keyless entry remote

The base Explorer features cloth seats with first-row adjustable buckets, a 60/40 split fold-flat bench seat in the second row, and a 50/50 third-row split folding bench.

The all-new 2011 Explorer XLT offers all the base model equipment with a higher level of harmonizing chrome and satin-finish accent trim, 18-inch aluminum wheels, unique cloth seating, leather covering for steering wheel and shift knob, SelectShift Automatic™ transmission, SecuriCode™ keyless entry keypad, fog lamps, SIRIUS^® Satellite Radio (including a prepaid six-month subscription in 48 contiguous states), perimeter alarm and reverse sensing system.

SUV buyers seeking luxury with their capability will be impressed with the generous levels of convenience and connectivity technologies offered in the all-new Explorer Limited. From remote start through a 10-way leather-trimmed driver’s seat to adjustable pedals with memory settings, Limited takes Explorer luxury to a higher level.

Explorer Limited includes all of the feature content offered in the XLT, plus:

• Ambient lighting
• Adjustable pedals with memory
• Cargo net
• Dual-zone electronic automatic temperature control
• Leather-trimmed, heated seats
• 10-way power driver’s seat with power lumbar and recline
• Six-way power first-row passenger seat with lumbar and recline
• Second-row 60/40 split bench seat with armrest and dual cupholders
• Electrochromic interior rearview mirror
• Sony^® Audio System with high-definition radio and 12 speakers
• Rear view camera
• Remote start
• 110-volt outlet
• SYNC^® voice-activated communications and entertainment system
• Intelligent Access with push-button start
• Universal garage door opener

The most luxurious Explorer model also comes standard with MyFord Touch™ connect technology. This includes a pair of cluster-mounted driver-configurable displays, an 8-inch LCD color touch screen in the center stack with compass and temperature display, media hub with a pair of USB ports, and an SD card reader and RCA video input jacks. Explorer Limited offers five-way supplemental controls on the steering wheel.

Some might argue that the big news is the new big engine. A 6.2-liter V8 engine is now standard, making it the most powerful and capable Ford Harley-Davidson F-150 ever offered. The engine, which debuted earlier this year on the 2010 F-150 SVT Raptor, delivers 411 horsepower and 434 lb.-ft. of torque. The 2011 Ford Harley-Davidson F-150 also offers an improved maximum trailer towing capacity of 9,300 pounds.

There is plenty of technology options to give customers what they are looking for. Key to helping customers take advantage of all the capability offered by the Harley-Davidson F-150 is a standard 4.2-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) productivity screen. This screen offers menu options, giving the customer important information related to fuel economy and towing performance. The menu is navigated through a five-way button on the steering wheel and is positioned between the tachometer and speedometer.

The exterior of the 2011 Ford Harley-Davidson F-150 offers a bold front fascia and six-bar-shaped billet-style satin chrome grille and boasts Harley-Davidson satin chrome badging. The truck also has a lowered appearance because of a standard, fully integrated deployable running board.

Standard are 22-inch Euroflange forged wheels with a polished center wheel cap and low-profile performance tires. The paint selection is classic Harley-Davidson Tuxedo Black and Ingot Silver.

New graphics on the hood and body side of the truck are executed in an engine-turned finish and feature dimensional satin chrome Harley-Davidson lettering. The graphics are reminiscent of the speed scallops used on hot rods.

Interior trim panels are covered in Tuxedo Black paint, while the door scuff plate and console lid also carry the engine-turned finish. All interior chrome surfaces feature a new satin finish. Premium leather-trimmed seats come with accent color inserts and a unique cloisonné badge.

The 2011 Ford Harley-Davidson F-150 interior is customized to appeal to the truck buyer who appreciates the attention to detail for which both Ford and Harley-Davidson are renowned.

The event runs from 1 PM to 9 PM on Friday and 9 AM to 9 PM on Saturday. Come celebrate West Michigan’s 100-year old automotive love-affair with us!

For more information about this event, stop by the Metro Cruise Website!

Mazda still is teasing us with rumors of the return of the RX-7; rumors that continue to heat up as production of the RX-8 – the Japanese automaker’s only Renesis rotary-powered vehicle in its fleet – winds down this year.

According to the latest reports from Autocar, Mazda has set a target weight of 2,200 pounds for the next MX-5. Weight distribution will also retain the current model’s 50/50 balance. The reduction in weight will also be reflected in the new model’s mileage, combined with Mazda’s new SKY-G gasoline engines. These two factors combined will  yield 15 percent better fuel economy than the current model.

“The original MX-5 had a target weight of 1000kg during development, and Mazda has set itself the same goal for the new model. It is still evaluating engine options, but it’s almost certain to be one of the first models to get the firm’s Sky-G range of petrol motors; 1.6 and 1.8-litre variants are under consideration.”

Mazda also predicts that its next-gen MX-5 could attain as much as 50 miles per gallon. Look out Honda CR-Z.

According to Autocar, Mazda is preparing an all-new small crossover vehicle for sale in late 2011. It’s also expected to boast bold, aggressive design characteristics while delivering class-leading fuel economy.

Like the Kazamai, this new model will reportedly be powered by a new generation of direct-injection gasoline engines mated to new lightweight transmissions. And, just like the new Land Rover Evoque, Mazda may also offer this crossover in both three- and five-door versions.

Mazda is aiming to drastically boost the fuel economy of its lineup with the help of all-new Sky engines, as well as technologies such as i-stop, regenerative braking and by producing lighter vehicles.