Supercar.Superbuild.S01E05.Ford.Mustang
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00:00The machine ushers in a new automotive era.
00:07The name becomes the best-selling vehicle of its day.
00:11For almost five decades, it has roared to life across America.
00:16The Mustang is a very unique car.
00:19There are very few nameplates out there in the car world that have survived a decade,
00:24much less five.
00:31It's a badge that coins a simple phrase.
00:34It's America's pony car.
00:36The current generation has been in production for over a decade.
00:40Technology has advanced.
00:43Competitors are ready to take its place.
00:47Ford needs a new machine.
00:51Mustang is Ford's halo product.
00:53It is the product that shows everyone what the team at Ford is capable of building.
00:59The rush is on to build the most important Mustang ever, a 50th anniversary machine intended
01:06to go global for the very first time.
01:08Anytime you're doing a new Mustang, there's always a very big fear that you're going to
01:12alienate people, that you're going to do something wrong.
01:16This is an inside look as the clock ticks to reinvent the Ford Mustang.
01:43For over a hundred years, the Ford Motor Company has been building motorized vehicles
01:47for the masses.
01:51The story starts with the Model T, the world's first affordable automobile.
01:59Then the F-150 pickup truck, the best-selling vehicle in the United States for the past
02:0437 years.
02:06And finally, the Mustang, the world's very first pony car.
02:11The Mustang is such an iconic car.
02:14It's so connected to people's ideas of the country, you know, or national pride.
02:21Introduced on the 17th of April, 1964 at the New York World's Fair, the first generation
02:26Mustang immediately captivates the audience.
02:31The history of the car itself and what it meant to the country, it really epitomizes
02:35the sort of optimism of the 60s.
02:38The car is an instant sensation, selling 22,000 units the very first day it goes on
02:45sale.
02:46A year and a half later, the one millionth machine rolls off the line, shattering sales
02:53records for the time.
02:55It was clearly the right car for the right time, or it would have never sold in those
02:59numbers.
03:02Today's best-selling cars don't come close to the volume that the Mustang had in its
03:06first year.
03:07It's not even close.
03:08Over the past 50 years, Ford sells just over 8 million Mustangs.
03:15This was a car that a secretary could drive, or an executive could drive, or your mom could
03:19drive.
03:21But the fifth generation of the machine has been in production for nine years, an eternity
03:29in the automotive world.
03:31To keep customers coming back to showroom floors, Ford needs to rejuvenate the Stang.
03:36The Mustang is so tied to the company that messing up that is just as damaging in the
03:42public's eye as screwing up a mainstream model.
03:48Not screwing up the legend falls on the shoulders of just one man, Dave Parasak.
03:54He's probably going to hit me for saying this, but he's a little nuts.
03:57Then there are just the dudes who want to build the car that they wanted to have when
04:00they were 25 years old, doing burnouts in front of the police station to drive everyone
04:04crazy.
04:05That's Dave.
04:07Dave has led Team Mustang since 2008 and is the fifth chief engineer for the Pony Car
04:11Platform.
04:15I think everybody waits for the day that you get the call to be the next guy for Mustang.
04:19It was almost surreal, it was almost something that I didn't believe was happening, but it
04:23was definitely a dream come true.
04:25A dream come true that has a major deadline.
04:33And just 1,460 days to get it done.
04:37Knowing the 50th anniversary was coming up, the planning started, so I've been here since
04:41day one on the planning of the Gen 6 Mustang.
04:45Lots of cars are filled as groundbreaking machines.
04:49The sixth generation actually could be.
04:54It's the first Stang planned to be a global platform.
05:00We decided early on to take it global.
05:03It's a dedication that we were going to make to the brand and to the company.
05:06The world's been ready for us.
05:08They've wanted Mustang for a long time.
05:11The world is watching this car, so just laying awake at night and thinking, you know, did
05:14we get that right?
05:15Do we need to do more of this?
05:16You know, do we have to change this?
05:18Planning the new machine starts with a single team meeting.
05:22The first meeting is realizing what are the goals, what are we trying to achieve with
05:25it?
05:26I want to make sure that everything will be available at the dealership before the cars
05:30Head designer, Morrie Callum, is the man who determines the look and feel of the new machine.
05:35I think we all consensed pretty much that we wanted to do a really special car.
05:40We wanted to do something that people would recognize and people would appreciate.
05:46He's not only a custodian for the Stang, but a guardian for the brand.
05:52It's amazing how much interest there was in the Mustang in terms of where the design was
05:55going and how it would evolve.
05:58If you screw that up, you screw the company up.
06:01With the 50th anniversary celebration less than four years away, the design team doesn't
06:07have a lot of time to nail the look of the new machine.
06:14Imagine if it made the Mustang that everybody hated.
06:16It's a lot of weight for anybody dealing with a car that's been around so long and it means
06:20so much to people.
06:29Mustang is the brand builder for Ford.
06:33This is the car that enthusiasts think of first when they think Ford.
06:37In the automotive world, iconic machines rarely stray from proven identities.
06:42But Ford needs a striking new machine to captivate younger car fans.
06:48Yet the company can't mess up a formula that's worked for 50 years.
06:56Mustang's had its periods of being consistent to its origins and then it sort of drifted
07:01away and come back again.
07:02So then it has really adapted the time.
07:05There's really actually a great deal of variation over the years in what they've looked like
07:11between the 60s, the 70s, the 80s especially, and now the 90s and the 2000s.
07:15One of the keys to the car's longevity has been its ability to transform alongside American
07:22culture.
07:24Like a true democracy, the Mustang morphs over time.
07:28You can kind of identify the decade, the era by the Mustang.
07:32It's changed with American culture.
07:36It's a culture that continues to influence the current Mustang design team.
07:40The good thing about Mustang is you don't need to write a big, long design brief.
07:44You just tell the designers, go and sketch Mustang.
07:46And they come back with some great ideas.
07:50Great ideas often start in the past.
07:54We, you know, look back in the history book.
07:56It really gave us a rich heritage of design cues.
08:01Really beginning with the face of Mustang, what we call a shark bite grill.
08:06So you kind of get this little play on heritage.
08:09Well, one of the things we wanted to really do in this car was bring back the true fastback.
08:14So we really have got a great centerline profile to the car.
08:18However, to continue to be relevant, the world's first pony car needs to evolve.
08:30We wanted to make a cleaner statement and give the design a little more timelessness.
08:35This is a car with a lot of pent up lust for it.
08:38And people want to know what this Mustang is going to look like.
08:40So, quite frankly, you're damned if you do any damned if you don't sometimes.
08:45The studio is pretty tense in here.
08:48That tension comes from having to please two different markets at the same time.
08:53A year before the design process begins, Ford conducts market research on attitudes about Mustang around the world.
09:00U.S. customers want a tougher Stang.
09:02While European consumers want a smoother looking machine.
09:06The solution comes down to basic dimensions.
09:11The team starts putting pen to paper just over 1,200 days before the 50th anniversary deadline.
09:17We've really worked on the proportions. We've pulled the A-pillars back.
09:20We made the hood longer. We made the car wider, enhancing the stance of the car.
09:24It really just helps to give a very hunkered down, assertive,
09:27So, as we begin our design process, we always iterate with numerous design sketches.
09:32This board shows the small fraction of all the design work that we've generated.
09:37This was one of the first sketches that really kind of captured the feel of this very modern front end for Mustang.
09:45It really has this nice tapering quality and a very strong muscular shoulder over the rear wheel.
09:51It kind of really portrays this muscular quality in Mustang.
09:57The muscular personality of the Mustang is what drives the overall design of the car.
10:01We're trying to give the car a very muscular body.
10:04We're trying to give the car a very muscular body.
10:07We're trying to give the car a very muscular body.
10:09We're trying to give the car a very muscular body.
10:13The muscular personality starts to come to life thanks to a classic artistic medium.
10:20The initial step is getting the car down on paper.
10:23You talk to designers, they sketch a Mustang, you get a lot of enthusiasm, you get a lot of different ideas.
10:31Then we go into a scale model phase.
10:33We then do a range of scale models and then these scale models will eventually pick two
10:42or three and go to full size clays.
11:01The full scale clay is no ordinary model, it's handcrafted by a master modeler.
11:19He will spend hours getting a single line just right
11:29and weeks working the clay until it's perfect.
11:37And eventually we'll pick the right car for the next stage and we'll build different types
11:41of models both the interior and the exterior of that.
11:49Once the clay is dry it's time to see how the new machine bends light.
11:56They use a reflective rack to quickly colour the car.
12:12And we go to various hard models like this model here.
12:19And then what we call an inside outside model here and that's really the time where the
12:23big money gets spent and someone signs the cheque and says yeah we're gonna go for it.
12:30Utilising classical artistic mediums it takes the team a year to dial in the final shape.
12:36But with just over 700 days left before the 50th anniversary, Team Mustang needs some
12:42cutting edge tech to hit their deadline.
12:50The pressure to finalise the new 2015 Mustang is mounting for Dave Parasek and his team.
13:01Every second and every computer chip cycle count.
13:07Deep inside the Ford Design Centre in a hidden area there's a brave new world being born
13:13one pixel at a time.
13:15We are in the virtual space of the Ford Immersive Vehicle Environment.
13:19Even though there looks like there's nothing here, there's actually a 2015 Mustang in this room.
13:29The high tech room features motion tracking cameras that connect to a 3D headset which
13:40can interact with a virtual world.
13:49The 3D system allows Ford to bring the new machine to life before a single car is ever built.
14:01We're looking at the vehicle in a bunch of different iterations.
14:07It really brings that spreadsheet to life.
14:09It goes way beyond just looking at PowerPoints.
14:14The digital system gives engineers the ability to look inside a full size machine.
14:20We can cut this vehicle in half and we can actually look at the engineering structure.
14:25There we go.
14:27And I can actually look at the engineering structure with respect to the design.
14:32Construction might start deep inside a computer with ones and zeros, but as the deadline to
14:37the 50th anniversary grows tighter, the only number that matters is the Stang's planned
14:43top speed.
14:45An electronically limited 264 kilometres per hour, while the virtual environment lives
14:51on the bleeding edge.
14:54The most important advance for generation six is actually a rather old technology.
15:04Early on we talked about the fact that it was time to put an independent rear suspension
15:07in this car.
15:08It was something that we circled and said we have to do it.
15:10The Mustang's been a solid rear axle for as long as anyone can remember.
15:16Pretty much since the day it was made.
15:20A solid rear axle is a dependent suspension design, where a set of wheels is connected
15:24laterally by a single beam.
15:27It's a time tested engineering solution that's cost effective because of its simplicity.
15:33When you have a solid rear axle, one wheel goes up, the other one wants to go down, which
15:37means the car doesn't do well in bumps, especially in corners.
15:44An independent rear suspension is a more complicated system that allows each wheel on the same
15:49axle to move freely from the other.
15:51All it means is that the two wheels in the back can move in different directions at the
15:55same time.
15:56One can go up without the other one necessarily going down.
15:59Even considering the change causes commotion in the Mustang community.
16:04In the world of Mustang, there are two camps.
16:06There is a solid rear axle camp and an independent rear suspension camp.
16:14In 1965, the original Mustang team intended to use an independent rear suspension.
16:21But accountants determined that they could save 100 US dollars per car if they chose
16:26a solid axle instead.
16:29To keep the price point of that car where it was, they were going to have to pull money
16:32out somewhere.
16:35Having a solid rear axle has enabled the Mustang to stay inexpensive.
16:39On the track, the solid rear axle helps the machine gain a following on the drag strip.
16:43Burnouts become a way of life for the pony car crowd.
16:47But no matter how much rubber you burn, time doesn't stand still.
16:52Since then, the simple system has become part of the car's ethos.
17:04The Mustang is the last sports car with a solid rear axle setup.
17:09Until now.
17:12Really wanted to make it a legitimate sports car.
17:14We didn't want it to be, you know, seen as a sort of Neanderthal sort of old time muscle
17:18car.
17:20The car can ride a lot better and handle better at the same time.
17:28The drawbacks are a big amount of weight and a big amount of cost.
17:32And for the longest time, it just wasn't worth doing that.
17:42Having the Mustang now sold worldwide, all of a sudden it needed to happen.
17:46It'll be 50 years too late, but it's the right thing.
17:53The decision to modernize the rear suspension on the Gen 6 Mustang comes down to a simple
17:57conversation with one very important man.
18:02Mr. Ford.
18:03Well, you know, when we decide on things like a new front end, ultimately we have to go
18:09to Bill because Bill's a part of the board of directors.
18:12Bill is Bill Ford Jr., the executive chairman of Ford Motor Company and the great grandson
18:20of Henry Ford.
18:22In the automotive world, he's a rarity because he's the last automotive scion whose name
18:27is still on the side of the building.
18:31Bill definitely gets involved.
18:33He loves Mustangs.
18:34He understands what this car means to the company and what it means to his family.
18:38It makes my job a bit easier when I go in there and try to have a discussion about a
18:41new suspension system or a new front end.
18:44They support me.
18:47While the independent suspension helps get around the corner, it also puts Team Mustang
18:53in a bind.
18:58As we put the rear suspension in, we didn't have an intention to change the front suspension
19:02at all.
19:08The first time we took the car out for a ride, it was very obvious that the rear was outperforming
19:11the front and it was noticeable.
19:13I mean, it just wasn't going to keep up.
19:16The 50th anniversary target is less than two years away, but it only takes Team Mustang
19:2210 minutes to confirm their worst fears.
19:25In order to get the new Stang right, they need to hit the brakes hard.
19:30The bosses don't like to hear it.
19:31If this car is important enough, yeah, you can throw a stop in the middle of the whole
19:34thing and say, we need to go back and fix this.
19:36We haven't done it well enough.
19:39As the days pass until the new Mustang's launch, the engineering U-turn causes drastic changes.
19:46We went back to the drawing board and said, okay, now we're doing a new front suspension.
19:49And so the scope of the program started getting pretty big at that point.
19:51Before you knew it, it was a completely white sheet of paper.
19:53We're starting from scratch.
19:54Let's do this thing right.
19:57White paper equals a clean sheet redesign and a very difficult conversation with the
20:03boss.
20:04It's very telling that Dave was able to go back to management and say, okay, I put this
20:08independent rear in and all of a sudden the front's just not good enough.
20:13He told his chassis guys, listen, if this were the last day on earth and you had the
20:18old Mustang Boss 302, which was an amazing car, and the new Mustang to choose from, which
20:27would it be?
20:28And he told them not to stop developing until it was unequivocally the new car.
20:38As the scope of the project increases, the days until the 50th anniversary continue to
20:43count down, and so does the team's funding.
20:49We still have Chrome DLO.
20:51There's not a hard conversations on just how we're going to do it.
20:55Hard conversations around investments, you know, how we're going to fund this.
20:58Remember, we had a birthday party to get to, and the birthday party wasn't moving.
21:08A birthday celebration that's planned for the top of the Empire State Building in New
21:13York City.
21:21The date is set, the plans are made, and now every moment in between matters.
21:33Every Mustang has just under 700 days to bring their newest pony car to the market.
21:40Turning the next corner will take a brand new engine and a little bit of muscle.
21:49The 50th anniversary of the world's first pony car is just a year and a half away.
22:00In 1965, the original Stang took 8.2 seconds to hit 60 miles an hour.
22:06Dave Perisak and his team plan to cut that number in half with the new generation six
22:11machine.
22:12But a launch off the line is hard to see at the moment.
22:15Team Mustang has just hit the reset button on a clean sheet redesign.
22:21While they struggle to solve the new suspension problems, other engineers tackle more muscular
22:27concerns.
22:29One of the first key questions that we had to deal with is, what are we going to do with
22:33the powertrains?
22:34What are we going to do with the engines?
22:36The original Mustang's largest engine made 210 horsepower.
22:41Today, that doesn't get the job done.
22:47We needed an engine lineup that was going to be more powerful, and at the same time
22:54more fuel efficient, so that was definitely on the radar.
22:57The team decides on three power plants.
23:02The first two are enhanced versions of classic Ford engines.
23:06A naturally aspirated 300 horsepower V6, and a flagship 5 liter V8 that pumps out 435 horsepower.
23:19You know, there's this whole sort of obsession about V8s.
23:23Some people still have it, but I think people now appreciate you can get a lot of power
23:26from smaller engines.
23:30But the biggest news is the smallest package.
23:33A secret engine designed at the Beach Daily Technical Center.
23:41It's a rarely seen high-tech laboratory for engines.
23:44We're always having the, I need more power discussion, right?
23:46Well, you can never have too much power with Mustang.
23:54The Beach Daily facility is a sophisticated complex where engineers use sand casting and
24:02rapid prototyping printers to build one-of-a-kind parts for the new Mustang.
24:12Parts on this vehicle that came through this lab and development are a significant number
24:16of the parts of this car.
24:21Almost every single part on the new Mustang can be prototyped inside these walls.
24:31The rapid prototyping has been a huge part of making this machine come to life.
24:35It helps us to get some answers really quick.
24:38The process starts deep inside another computer.
24:42The data is sent to a 3D printer.
24:46The system uses a UV laser to harden liquid resin one layer at a time.
24:51I always take parts from a computer model and we slice them up like a deck of cards
24:55and then we make them one layer at a time additively.
24:59We build parts from this vat of resin.
25:02It's kind of like syrup.
25:06That syrup is so expensive that Ford keeps the exact cost confidential.
25:13While the money spent is obscure, the time required to use it is remarkably short.
25:18The intake manifold, it would take a day and a half to build in this machine.
25:22A 15 centimeter tall part takes up to 30 hours to build.
25:30Once the accuracy of a part is verified, it's time to build a more advanced and robust prototype
25:37part.
25:38This time for a running engine.
25:41This is called selective laser centering.
25:44Next the team uses a high-tech 3D sand printer.
25:47It's just like an inkjet printer, only instead of ink, it uses glue.
25:52This machine takes nylon powder, very fine like talcum powder, and it spreads a layer
25:56of that.
25:58The machine will heat it up and then a laser will come and melt those particles together.
26:11The printer grows components one grain of sand at a time and is accurate down to five
26:16hundredths of a millimeter.
26:18That's roughly six and a half times the length of a single red blood cell.
26:24But sand printing is no day at the beach.
26:29Before you can touch the finished piece, you have to dig it out.
26:36This is a breakout station.
26:39We get to play archaeologists and dig our parts out.
26:54You can print a whole box full of parts in about two days, so we can have a part back
26:57to you in a matter of a couple of weeks.
26:59In the old way, it might have taken four months to get a part.
27:03Just five years ago, turning 3D car data into a functioning engine took up to six months.
27:09Now it takes just ten weeks.
27:12And for Team Mustang, every week matters, as the 50th anniversary deadline approaches.
27:18You build it, you test it, you make sure it fits, and then you go on to the next step.
27:22As you know, as we start to develop the engines, we will do some rapid prototyping.
27:26You might have rapid prototype parts right alongside production parts, and then we will
27:30put it through some testing, so it might go out to our MPG.
27:32MPG stands for the Michigan Proving Ground.
27:37This is where new pony cars are run for the very first time.
27:41To be honest, every manufacturer has their own testing facility.
27:45Ford's handling loop is pretty awesome.
27:47Inside of a top-secret 16-square-kilometre facility that features over 160 kilometres
27:53of roads, it's here where Team Mustang tests new engine parts in an early Generation 6
28:00prototype on a unique high-speed oval capable of sustained 320-kilometre-per-hour speeds.
28:07You know, it'll do some durability runs, and they'll run it through its paces.
28:11Then they'll bring it back into beach days, and they'll tear it down, and they'll say,
28:14how did everything perform?
28:18To test it, the team puts one and a half million kilometres on the new engine,
28:23the equivalent to nearly 74 years of everyday driving.
28:30Some is done very slowly.
28:34Some is done very smoky.
28:38And some hits the edge of the performance envelope.
28:42During the machine's four-year development process, engineers tear down over 120 engines,
28:49scientifically looking at each and every piece, until the design is just right.
28:56If something, in fact, is not durable, or if it is falling a bit short of our target,
29:00then we'll go back and we'll actually re-engineer it,
29:02and we'll go through almost that whole process again.
29:07At the same time, they've got me screaming at them, saying I need more power,
29:09so now they're trying to engineer more power.
29:12It just keeps going round and round.
29:13With just over a year before the new machine's introduction,
29:16the team continues to test the engine on the track.
29:20Meanwhile, new concerns emerge.
29:22You know, just because you go fast, just because you are having fun and driving,
29:25we still want to make sure this car is the safest possible.
29:28To make the Gen 6 machine the safest Mustang ever,
29:31the team focuses on the new US roof-crush standard.
29:35The law mandates that all new machines must hold over three times their weight
29:41should a car flip over in an accident.
29:43We actually are going to achieve four times the weight of the car.
29:47To exceed the government standard,
29:49Team Mustang uses a new cutting-edge technology called hydroforming
29:54to make the machine's roof rails.
30:01The engineering team turns to Schuller,
30:03a German company that first started bending metal in 1839.
30:09Today they produce a variety of cutting-edge stamping solutions.
30:13You want to bring roof lines lower and you want to sleek things out,
30:16you definitely have a bigger challenge to meet things like roof crushing.
30:21Hydroforming is one way to produce an extremely strong, very efficient structure.
30:26Hydroforming is an advanced way to press metal
30:29into extremely lightweight and structurally stiff pieces
30:32using heavy weight and water.
30:36We start out with the round tube.
30:38Then it goes through a bending process.
30:41So the next step would be to put this tube into a hydroforming die.
30:47These here would be the lower die, the upper dies.
30:51Once the tool is completely closed,
30:53that's when we bump up the water pressure to over 20,000 PSI.
31:0020,000 PSI.
31:02In order to form this part using the pressure that's in there,
31:05that requires 3,200 tonnes of force.
31:07So that force is like 1,000 cars stacked up on top of this die
31:11to hold it closed.
31:18The next step is to bend the tube into a round tube.
31:22The round tube has to be as thick as it can be.
31:25It has to be as thick as it can be.
31:27It has to be as thick as it can be.
31:29It has to be as thick as it can be.
31:37When we take this part out of the die,
31:39it wants to go back to its original shape.
31:43What we call a springback.
31:45The stamped tubes spring back to their original shape
31:48by up to five millimetres.
31:50That's roughly 50 times the height of a single strand of human hair.
31:55It doesn't sound like much,
31:57but with just over 365 days until the machine's 50th anniversary...
32:04..the only thing that's more exact
32:06is the margin of error for Team Mustang's birthday celebration.
32:11ENGINE REVS
32:23It's been nearly 1,400 days
32:26since Team Mustang started planning the sixth-generation machine.
32:31Now mass production is just around the corner.
32:34So, just an update on where we are on the programme, guys.
32:37I think everybody knows that we're heading into the TT build
32:40for the convertible and the PP build for the fastback.
32:45A PP build is a pre-prototype version of the machine.
32:50A small batch of 100 cars
32:52to ensure everything is going according to plan.
32:55My job is to make sure that I'm keeping everybody focused and on track.
32:58Me and my office, we go through all the details.
33:00I want to know what the team's plan is to get to line 90.
33:02Don't meet with me on Friday to tell me why you can't get it done.
33:04Meet with me on Friday to tell me what you're doing to get it done
33:06and what help you need.
33:07I am a bit of a football coach in a way, right?
33:09I've got to keep their morale up.
33:10I've got to make sure that even in the hard times
33:12that they understand why we're doing what we're doing.
33:14I just want to make sure, guys,
33:15that we stay on top of that testing that's completing
33:18so that we don't get ourselves into a bind.
33:20That meeting is actually one
33:21where we set the whole pace for the programme.
33:23Where are we at in the programme?
33:24What's coming up next?
33:25What big decisions do we have to make?
33:29Oh, guys.
33:30So that meeting gets a little heated at times
33:32or, you know, we'll call it energised.
33:35I don't want to talk to engineers.
33:36I don't want to sit there and go through the details.
33:38I want to ask why he can't get the work done.
33:42The meetings can be tense.
33:44A lot is on the line for Team Mustang and the company, too.
33:48If the new Mustang failed, Dave would be out of a job.
33:52I don't need to go to an executive director
33:53so that he can tell us that we need to go faster.
33:56Those were the nasty, everyday,
33:58three-and-a-half, four-hour meetings in the studio
34:00where we cycled team after team.
34:03Let's start one at a time.
34:04Chrome DLO.
34:05What are we waiting on?
34:06When you have passion,
34:07it doesn't just happen in one meeting.
34:09It's all day long, right?
34:10Yeah, sometimes the passion is very prevalent.
34:14Do me a favour.
34:15Don't bring this in my Friday discussion
34:16because if it's in the Friday discussion,
34:17it won't be a good discussion.
34:18Every part on this car has been at least debated ten times.
34:22It's going to be a while before the seat guys
34:24and the wiring guys and everybody get there.
34:26There are several parts in this car
34:28where we are running on the ragged edge.
34:31I should say we fought,
34:33but we debated every half a millimetre on this car
34:37to make sure that we are optimising
34:39to the last half a millimetre.
34:41While the engineering team obsesses over millimetres
34:45and the pre-production team focuses on prototypes,
34:49the pressure is palpable.
34:51We really are spending a lot of time
34:52in the prototype stage, in the development stage,
34:55but there's a lot of pressure in the launch phase.
34:57Before the Mustang team can start mass-producing
35:00the Generation 6 machine,
35:14they have to learn how to hand-build it.
35:20The plant's got a big responsibility
35:22in making sure that we can build the unit
35:24the way it's designed.
35:25So we get involved very early on with the design
35:28to make sure it's manufacturing feasible.
35:30Then we get involved with what's called VP Build,
35:34Virtual Production Build.
35:36The Virtual Production Build takes place
35:38across the street from the final assembly hall,
35:41inside a clandestine prototype building
35:43that the public never gets to see,
35:45known only as the Pilot Plant.
35:48We have a team of product specialists
35:50that get involved with the VP Build
35:52up at the Pilot Plant.
35:53This is our build-prove-out facility.
35:59This is where we first get an opportunity
36:02to take the parts and the process
36:04and get our product specialists involved
36:07with doing a static build of a vehicle.
36:11We'll build a batch of cars
36:12and then we'll stop and we'll do some testing,
36:13and then we'll build another batch
36:14and stop and test.
36:18The Pilot Plant is a secure facility
36:20where the pressure mounts
36:21for Team Mustang one bolt at a time.
36:35The perfect place to test-fit parts
36:37on the new Mustang.
36:52If we can learn how to build a vehicle statically,
36:55then we can transfer that knowledge
36:57onto the assembly line.
37:22electric guitar plays
37:42So they're in there
37:43proving out the production processes
37:46and getting their hands on the parts
37:48and the way the vehicle goes together
37:50at a very, very early stage.
38:03Everything is identical
38:04to the final assembly hall,
38:07except for one small detail.
38:10The line never actually moves.
38:14You can see we've got a version
38:16of each one of our conveyors.
38:20And we have all of our tools
38:21right in this building,
38:23so we can prove out the process
38:24right in here
38:25before we have to take it
38:26to the assembly line.
38:51After many months of trial and error,
38:53the Pilot Plant prototypes
38:54are ready to hit the road.
38:58It's time to take a trip back
39:00to the Michigan Proving Grounds,
39:04where Team Mustang
39:05puts the new machine
39:06through a variety of paces,
39:09including testing a brand-new feature
39:11that's not available
39:12on any other machine.
39:16Line Lock,
39:17a factory-enabled burnout control.
39:20Why not, number one,
39:21is why wouldn't you do it?
39:23It's juvenile,
39:24it's moronic,
39:25it's awesome,
39:26and it's one of the reasons
39:27why I love the Mustang's
39:28engineering team.
39:30The Line Lock system
39:31lets weekend warriors
39:32properly warm up their tires
39:33at the drag strip,
39:37something that's not exactly
39:38condoned by the machine's warranty.
39:41But in the battle
39:42for pony car supremacy,
39:43every new feature counts.
39:46Line Lock serves
39:47zero purpose at all
39:48for no reason other than
39:49just to go out
39:50and be a hooligan.
39:54Why is this the ultimate
39:55hooligans car?
39:56Because I think many of us,
39:57we haven't left high school.
40:00Once they first started
40:01putting big engines in them,
40:02they haven't looked back.
40:08Today, that big engine
40:09is the 5-liter V8,
40:12which cranks out 435 horsepower
40:14and 400 foot-pounds of torque.
40:20The 5-liter Mustang
40:21launches from zero
40:22to 100 kilometers per hour
40:24in just 4.5 seconds.
40:28The new Mustang
40:29is shockingly refined.
40:30It can compete on the merits
40:32of quietness and smoothness.
40:35But the ultimate surprise
40:36is the all-new EcoBoost
40:38four-cylinder engine.
40:40It was specifically
40:41designed for Mustang.
40:42You can get V8-type power,
40:44in this case,
40:45with a four-cylinder engine
40:47and produce 33 miles per gallon.
40:48The previous V8
40:49was cranking out 315 horse.
40:50We're going to be doing that
40:51with a four-cylinder now.
40:52The EcoBoost offers V8 power
40:54with four-cylinder fuel economy.
40:57Fuel economy is certainly
40:58a bigger concern in Europe
40:59than it is in the U.S.,
41:01and the Mustang possibly
41:02couldn't be sold in Europe
41:04without that turbo four.
41:05But it's the revamped suspension
41:07that adds a new edge
41:08to the Mustang,
41:10a system that at one point
41:11stopped development.
41:13They've bitten the bullet,
41:14they've spent the money
41:15and designed an all-new rear end
41:16that really is going to make
41:17this car that much more
41:19of a sports car.
41:22It's really going to unlock
41:23a lot of potential in this car.
41:25The new independent rear suspension
41:27helps sling the Stang
41:28around corners
41:30and down straightaways.
41:32Punch the pedal
41:33to the floorboard
41:34and the GT will hit
41:35an electronically limited
41:36top speed of 264 kilometers an hour.
41:41It's taken over four years
41:43of painstaking design,
41:45engineering, and testing.
41:49Team Mustang is ready
41:50to put the all-new
41:51Generation 6 machine
41:53into production.
41:56Each build, we improve upon
41:59our training and our processes,
42:01and then we carry it
42:02all the way up through MP1,
42:03which is mass production.
42:09The orchestration
42:10of the parts coming together
42:12into the process
42:13at the right time,
42:14that's the magic of manufacturing.
42:16Because every part's produced
42:17for a certain serial number
42:19of a vehicle.
42:20So having those parts
42:21arrive to the vehicle
42:22at the right time
42:23just takes a tremendous amount
42:24of really good
42:25integrated systems work
42:27to make that happen.
42:32After more than
42:33four years of hard work,
42:34all of that magic comes together
42:36on the 17th of April, 2014.
42:40The very first
42:41mass-produced
42:42Generation 6 Mustang
42:43finally rolls off the line,
42:47just in time for the machine's
42:4850th anniversary.
42:52A celebration planned
42:53for the top of the
42:54Empire State Building,
42:56where 50 years to the day,
42:59Ford introduced
43:00the 1965 Mustang.
43:04It's a date
43:05Team Mustang couldn't miss
43:07for the newest variant
43:08of a car coined
43:10the phrase Pony Car.
43:14But today is no longer
43:15showcasing merely
43:16American muscle.
43:19Now it's a global
43:20high-performance competitor.
43:24And how it will be received
43:26is up to car fans
43:27around the world.
43:28I'd say what kept me up
43:29at night was
43:30just making sure that
43:31we did it the best
43:32that it could be done.
43:35But it's also
43:36something that you never forget,
43:37that you're going to get
43:38a report card from everybody.
43:41The report card is
43:42from the whole world.