xunker
New Member
Zuhaib said:Anywho, oh to why Ford went with the Live Axle, the only reason i can think is because they wanted to keep the GT from stealing SVT owners.
The best reason is nostalgia. A far as I know, all Mustangs of previous generations were live axle and Ford almost certainly took stylistic caution over engineering because A lot of people that will buy this car are going to want the spirit and look of the old car, and part of that spirit is pulling up behind a 'Stang and seeing a big axle casting connected to a huge diff case.
Ford undoubtablely learned a lesson from when Porsche water-cooled the 911 andactually had some buyers cancel their deposits over it. When you mess with an icon people will get mad.. that goes double for Mustang since Ford is banking on huge sales and don't want to irritate any potential buyers.
I am going to make a prediction, though: The _next_ generation of Mustang (engineering generation, not facelift/looks) at around 2010 will be IRS through all models and in that case people will be more accepting because bu then they won't see it as changing a icon, but instead of taking technology fron the "suped up" Mustang SVT and putting in to the "common" car. Sort of turing the heat up slowly so the frog doesn't jump out of the pot, as it were
I do have one issue, though: In the "cars of the world" episode with the two dustbins they're were getting down on the Mustang for a live axle ("the same as a Morris Marina") and yet right after that they said they wanted a Hummer H2 which, correct me if I'm wrong, has both front *and* rear live axles.. Going on this you must take both Richards and Jermeys options with a bit of salt.