from a report in the Detroit News:
Ford Motor Co. is taking the fight to the Europeans with a new television spot designed to showcase the automaker's new Shelby GT500 sports car.
The 30-second ad opens with German longshoremen unloading a GT500 from a freighter as its proud American owner stands by watching.
"You couldn't find a car you liked in Germany?" asks the foreman in a terse German accent.
The screen instantly cuts to an adrenaline-inducing montage of shots showing the high-end Mustang flying down the Autobahn, passing the Fatherland's finest.
"No," replies the smooth-talking American. "I couldn't find a speed limit I liked in America."
The new ads will make their first appearance Sunday during the NFL season opener on FOX and CBS.
Frivolity, even at Ford
Newly appointed Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally may have been displaying his characteristic candor when he admitted to driving a Lexus 430, but his new boss, Bill Ford Jr. was not about to let that pass without displaying his own characteristic wit.
"That is being keyed as we're sitting here," Bill Ford told Mulally.
Though the changes at the top of Ford are serious business, there was plenty of levity at the Glass House Tuesday afternoon as a visibly relieved Bill Ford introduced his new best friend. At one point, a reporter asked how the news would impact a possible tie-up with the Renault-Nissan alliance.
"We're going to announce something tomorrow," Bill Ford quipped, adding that he might as well since the company seemed to be making major headlines on a daily basis. "We're trying to figure out what we can do for the rest of the week, since we've been at Aston Martin, and our production cuts and now Alan."
Crashing experience
A dozen of Ford's top drivers muscled GT500s and GTs around the automaker's Dearborn test track Thursday morning with precision and speed.
They raced the GTs around a road course at such high speeds that passengers laughed nervously as they emerged from the cars. At another spot on the proving grounds, the drivers deftly pushed the 500-horsepower GT500s through a short obstacle course, tires squealing, rubber burning through every hairpin curve, never grazing an orange cone.
But that afternoon, it was the drivers' turn for nervous laughter. The experts crashed every vehicle in their control: GTs smashed through houses. GT500s piled up against trees, signs and each other. And some Corvettes? Well, they were purposely bumped off the road and sometimes rammed. After all, this was a Ford event.
Then someone would reset the game on their Xbox 360 and everyone would continue playing Test Drive Unlimited. The expert drivers had been on hand to show reporters and members of Atari what it was like behind the wheel of a real car instead of one created by the gaming company with help from Ford.
After one particularly vicious virtual pile up, a Ford executive watching pointed to one of the participants and said: "Man, it's hard to believe that guy is our safety officer."
Ford Motor Co. is taking the fight to the Europeans with a new television spot designed to showcase the automaker's new Shelby GT500 sports car.
The 30-second ad opens with German longshoremen unloading a GT500 from a freighter as its proud American owner stands by watching.
"You couldn't find a car you liked in Germany?" asks the foreman in a terse German accent.
The screen instantly cuts to an adrenaline-inducing montage of shots showing the high-end Mustang flying down the Autobahn, passing the Fatherland's finest.
"No," replies the smooth-talking American. "I couldn't find a speed limit I liked in America."
The new ads will make their first appearance Sunday during the NFL season opener on FOX and CBS.
Frivolity, even at Ford
Newly appointed Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally may have been displaying his characteristic candor when he admitted to driving a Lexus 430, but his new boss, Bill Ford Jr. was not about to let that pass without displaying his own characteristic wit.
"That is being keyed as we're sitting here," Bill Ford told Mulally.
Though the changes at the top of Ford are serious business, there was plenty of levity at the Glass House Tuesday afternoon as a visibly relieved Bill Ford introduced his new best friend. At one point, a reporter asked how the news would impact a possible tie-up with the Renault-Nissan alliance.
"We're going to announce something tomorrow," Bill Ford quipped, adding that he might as well since the company seemed to be making major headlines on a daily basis. "We're trying to figure out what we can do for the rest of the week, since we've been at Aston Martin, and our production cuts and now Alan."
Crashing experience
A dozen of Ford's top drivers muscled GT500s and GTs around the automaker's Dearborn test track Thursday morning with precision and speed.
They raced the GTs around a road course at such high speeds that passengers laughed nervously as they emerged from the cars. At another spot on the proving grounds, the drivers deftly pushed the 500-horsepower GT500s through a short obstacle course, tires squealing, rubber burning through every hairpin curve, never grazing an orange cone.
But that afternoon, it was the drivers' turn for nervous laughter. The experts crashed every vehicle in their control: GTs smashed through houses. GT500s piled up against trees, signs and each other. And some Corvettes? Well, they were purposely bumped off the road and sometimes rammed. After all, this was a Ford event.
Then someone would reset the game on their Xbox 360 and everyone would continue playing Test Drive Unlimited. The expert drivers had been on hand to show reporters and members of Atari what it was like behind the wheel of a real car instead of one created by the gaming company with help from Ford.
After one particularly vicious virtual pile up, a Ford executive watching pointed to one of the participants and said: "Man, it's hard to believe that guy is our safety officer."