The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

WHITBY FREE PRESS, NEW CAR SUPPLEMENT, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1978, PAGE 7 MUSTANG Time and evolution ,,mprove each species, it is said, but nowhere is it more evident than in the 1979 Mustang by Ford. roday, in its fourth gneration, Mustang shows an eager motoring public the benefits of 15 years of proud parentage that have made it a fun-at-heart car for North Americans. It is no easier today than it was 15 years ago to identify what gives Mustang such a tremen- dous appeal. Is it styline? Performance? Options? The answer is that every buyer can create a Mustang to their personal liking. Design and engineering are so closely wed in the 1979 Mustang story that it is hard to know where to look at the car first. Dimensionally, the car is slightly larger than the 1978 version outside, yet boasts a 20 per cent improvement in interior room. The weight has also been reduced - up toi 1 kg. (180 lbs.) -- compared to the 1978 three-door model. Like last year, Mustang comes in two body styles. The two-door coupe and three-door hatchback share the same strong design themes. Conceived in the stylist's studio and shaped in the wind tunnel, the car combines a low belt-line/tall"greenhouse" with the most efficient aerodynamic shape of any car built in North America. Fine changes in detail, a slight wedge shape, a front air spoiler and other changes have resulted in a reduction in Mustang's drag coefficient to .48 - the appearance forecasts technical improvements in the ride and handling areas, and the chassis and suspension are new accordingly. The front suspension is a strut-type design similar to that pioneered on the 1978 Fair- mont and Zephyr, utilizing coil springs located inboard of the stut between the lower control arm and the vehicle structure. A standard front stabilizer bar improves roll-control and cornering stability. The front suspension geometry is such that the "scrub radius" of the front wheel steering axis is nearly zero, providing even greater stability and reduced transmission of road shock to the driver. A four-bar, trailing link rear suspension with coil springs is used on the rear of the new Mustang. Positioning of the springs and shock absorbers helps surpress road noise and absorb road harshness. Because Mustang has such a wide appeal -- from its styling and wide option list - several ride and handling options have been made available. The standard suspension has a number of tires which can be ordered with it, and comes with a special rear stabilizer bar when the optional 5.0-litre engine is ordered. An optional handling suspension can be ordered, turned for improved handling with different spring rates and shock valving, stiffer front and rear bushings, a rear stabilizer bar and radial tires. A special suspension package, featuring Michelin 190-45R 390 TRX tires and 150 TR 390 forged aluminum wheels, is optional. To extract maximum perfornace from this weel/tire combination. package. Of course, performance isn't all handling, and the 1979 Mustang is available with four engines, The standard engine is the proven 2.3-litre overhead- cam inline four cylinder, mated to either a four- speed manual or automatic transmission. There is also an optional 2.8-litre overhead-valve V-6 engine with automatic transmission and 5.0-litre V-8 engine with automatic or four-speed overdrive manual transmission. But the big performance news is an optional turbocharged 2.3-litre overhead-cam four cylinder engine. In early testing, the Mustang three- door equipped with this engine ad four-speed transmission has recorded 0-to-90 kph (55 mph) acceleration times of just over 8 seconds -- V-8 engine performance from a fuel- efficient four cylinder. It is the first Ford Motor Company automobile engine to use the turbo- charging technique. There is still more to Mustang: Rack-and-pinion steering, standard full instrumentation, steering- column-mounted controls for headlight dimmer, horn and windshield wiper/ washer. Even the wind- shield washer is new; a single- fluidic nozzle to spray the entire wind- shield. The option list reflects the new character of Mustang. There is a console with a graphic display panel with illuminated warnings for such things as low fuel or the failure of headlamps or brake lamps. Speed control, tilt steering wheel, rear window wiper/washer new radio selections, power door locks, moon roof options, special graphies and a host of interior trim leyels make FORD LTD Once in a long time, a new car - a completely new car - is born into the autornobile world. The 1979 Ford LTD is such a car. New from the ground up, the 1979 LTD represents an engineering exercise of mammoth proportions. The result of that exercise is a triumph in styling, comfirt and efficiency. Based on the premise that the necd for family transportation still exists in North American, and will continue to exist in the year to come, Ford engineers set out to design a new generation of family- size cars that are spacious enough inside to accommodate a'family and, luggage, yet have signifi- cant reductions in overall size and weight to offer improved fuel efficiency. The 1979 Ford LTD is a testimonial to their work: The two- and four-door sedans offer improved front head, leg, shoulder and hip room over the siinilar 1978 models. It's the same story with rear seat, leg and shoulder roon. Even the tiunk space has been increased. Yet all of these improve- ments have been made while the overall weight has been decreased by more than 272.7 kg. (600 pounds). Comfort, ride and handling are as important to the family-size car buyer as interior space, and again the Ford designers actually made significant improverpients in the car's performance in those areas through the use of a new frame and new chassis component designs. Suspension tells part of the story: A new "A" arm cod spring front suspension and a four-bar trailing-link rear suspension using coil springs -hve been inco-porated in the design. A new steering system configuration (using conventional recirculating ball and nut technology) compliment the excellent ride with precise steering control. A new axle in the rear and new disc brakes in front belie how extensive the design changes have been. The body styling, with its low belt line/high glass area and precise silhouette, is not merely the result of a stylist's fancy. The 1979 LTD grew up in the wind-tunnel. More than 270 hours of wind- tunnel testing helped to produce a new level qf aerodynamic efficiency. And the increased glass area, combined with a raised driver's seating position, significantly improves visibility. In fact, the same driver can see the road seven feet closer to the front of the car in the 1979 LTD than was possible in last year's model. Because "quiet" has been a major LTD design theme for a number of years, full-frame construc- tion with rubb r -body mounts was selectéd as the most efficient vay to isolate noise, vibration and harshness from the passenger compartment. As well, major suspension components are isolated in rubber and sound insula- tion surrounds the passenger compartient. With its reduced weight and size, it is orily natural that the 1979 Ford LTD would be able to utilize a smaller, more fuel- efficient engine to power the car at traditional levels of performance. Ford's 5.0- litre (302 CID) V-8 engine is standard equipment and a 5.8-litre (351 CID) V-8 is optional. Equipped with the larger engine and the heavy-duty towing option, the LTD can still tow trailers weighing up to 2,727 kg. (6,000 pounds). The task of designing a totally new car like the LTD was aided by a number of new computer- based technologies. Structural analysis by computer, used extensively in the development of Fairmont and Zephyr, was used to great effect in thé design of the LTD. Initially, a mathematical model of the vehicle's structural components was assembled in a computer. The model was subjected tg various "loading" conditions to simulate actual driving conditions so that possible weaknesses could be located and eliminated. The resulting model was the basis for Ford's actual 1979-model prototypes. Next a process callecd modal analysis was used to verify results from the computer model. In this procedure, electronic sensors are attached tb various parts of the car as it is subjected to a series 4f high-frequency vibrations. The vehicle's "reactions" are fed into a computer which analyzes the data and displays it on a tele- vision screen as a three- dimensional "stick" model of the vehicle. A comparison of the computer model with modal analysis of tèhe actual vehicle verifies if the vehicle's structutl design integrity has been maintained. The design was further tested in one of the most extensive proto- type-testing programs ever conducted on a Ford MotøYr Company Car.