The cloth dropped from the 2013 Shelby GT500 convertible at the 2012 Chicago Auto Show today, delivering a topless blast of fast that we’ve been eagerly awaiting.

Just like a bottle of Bacardi 151 rum, this car is wickedly strong and gets its job done fast. With that in mind, here’s the lowdown on Ford‘s most potent convertible to date.

“The Shelby GT500 convertible is every bit the performer that the coupe is,” said Kerry Baldori, SVT Global Performance Vehicles chief engineer. “All of the significant changes we made in the program were instrumental in delivering a convertible that could really shine on the track but can still be driven on a daily basis.”

As for year-over-year comparison, Ford says the 2013 model is 3.5 seconds faster around the track than the 2011 or 2012 models.

That said, there isn’t much mechanically different from the coupe, aside from the obvious convertible top, the latest angry muscle car in the 49-year lineage is anything but a disappointment. Expect the same 19-inch alloys in the front and 20′s in the rear, sitting around Brembo brakes.

It delivers on exactly what you want, obnoxious power and ostentatious appeal that’s sure to turn heads anywhere you go. Under the hood, the same 5.8-liter gut-wrencher of a V8 makes 650-horsepower and a neck-snapping 600 lb-ft. of torque.

As per the coupe version of the latest snake-worthy mustang, the same all-new 2013 drivetrain is still in place including cool features like a carbon-fiber drive shaft and an upgraded transmission axle and clutch.

It’s no surprise that the top-of-the line Mustang, meant to keep the Chevrolet Camaro ZR1 on edge, gets some additional weight thanks to Bilstein electronic adjustable dampers available on the performance package and  a newly tuned chassis.

GALLERY: Shelby GT500 Mustang convertible

Watch AutoGuide’s first look video of the Shelby GT500 Convertible below:

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This may seem more like a unicorn than a Mustang, but sure enough before your eyes is a custom 1965 Ford Mustang Station Wagon built by Joe Kamp. It’s also now available for sale for $54,900 and with 93,965 miles on the odometer, it’s clearly been built to be driven.

By using a clean, original Mustang Hardtop as the foundation, the wagon body was created with 100-percent steel and uses as many factory components as possible. The original roof was cut, lengthened, slightly widened, and installed with sections of the original C-pillars out back. From there, the rear tailgate and window were made using the original hardtop pieces and deck lid.

Once all the body work was completed, the Mustang Station Wagon was painted in a brilliant red finish while gold Shelby-style stripes were added to provide some contrast to the aesthetics. Under the hood is a traditional Ford 5.0L V8 powerplant mated to a T5 five-speed manual transmission. A set of original 15-inch Mustang wheels were fitted to the body, wrapped with 215/70/15 BFGoodrich T/A rubber.

And with the station wagon conversion taking place on this Mustang, the interior had to be overhauled to match the unusual style of the body. A bench-style front seat was installed along with a custom center console with a filler in between the seats to give the illusion of a bench, but the comfort of bucket seats. The brown vinyl is traditional ’60s styling while the tan seen on the dash and kick panels gives it a sense of elegance.

Whatever happened to the original Mustang Station Wagon is still a mystery, but this custom Wagon that’s for sale is probably the closest anyone will ever get to the mythical original.

GALLERY: 1965 Ford Mustang Station Wagon

[Source: RK Motors]

With so many videos on the Internet, we try to reserve the word epic for for the ones that are truly unforgettable. Well, that’s this video: Motorcycle vs. Car Drift Battle 2.

Nick “Apex” Brocha and his Empire teammate, Ernie Vigil, jump on top of their Triumph Speed Triples built by Roaring Toyz and start to go sideways. Ever since Icon made their original video, the team has been searching for the ultimate playground for the sequel and the result of the search landed them in the rolling hills of High Plains County.

Minimal traffic, perfect asphalt and endless twisties allowed the video to be produced in relative peace while riders continued to repave the roads with smoking tires. But of course, sooner or later they attracted the attention of the local authorities and here comes Officer Dan Brockett in his 550-hp Ford Mustang Cobra.

A clever use of cameras and toys in order to grab some crazy angles makes this video one of the best ones on YouTube. Don’t believe us? Check it out below.

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At the 2012 Detroit Auto Show, Ford‘s head of product development Derrick Kuzak addressed some of the rumors circulating about their famed Mustang sports car. Though many of Kuzak’s answers are vague and don’t give a real conclusion, some reading in between the lines gives us a hint of things to come.

In terms of independent rear suspension being a possibility for the next-generation Mustang, Kuzak stated that it was a tad early to even speak about it but that recognizing Ford’s commitment to product excellence, “it will probably give you a sense of direction we [Ford] have.” But things got interesting when asked about a four-cylinder Mustang, Kuzak answered with:

Let me put this in context. When we talked about downsizing to six-cylinders in F-series trucks several years ago, people looked at us like we were crazy. You can take the same view about Mustang.”

While Ford’s CEO Alan Mulally said, “This is one of the coolest things about EcoBoost. You get all that torque at the low rpm so you not only get all the bandwidth, but you get a machine that’s even more fun to drive. We didn’t know how everybody was going to accept that, but wow have they ever accepted that.”

Even though it clearly doesn’t state anything – and we never expected Ford to come outright and say a four-cylinder Mustang is in the works – it’s not hard to believe that a Mustang with an EcoBoost four-cylinder is already being developed.

[Source: Automobile Magazine]

Eleanor, the customized 1967 Ford Mustang GT500 that starred alongside Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie in the 2000 remake of “Gone in 60 Seconds,” will be hitting the auction block, and there’s buzz that it could sell for as much as £100,000 (that’s about US$154,000). We guess that with all of Cage’s recent and public financial issues, he won’t be bidding on this famous movie car.

Out of the 12 Eleanors that were made for the film, five didn’t make it through to see the final cut. The one that’s being auctioned is car seven, which was used for driving shots, as well as for dialogue and interior action shots with the actors. Making it even more special, this Eleanor is one of only two original cars in private hands.

Modifications that were made to this movie star Mustang included a 351-cubic inch Ford Racing crate motor that was fitted with a “big” camshaft and 700cfm Holley 4-barrel carburetor. Other upgrades that make this movie car special are a coilover suspension system, Willwood disk brakes, Schmidt 17×8-inch wheels and side exhaust outlets.

And time has been good to Eleanor – she still looks as good today as she did in the movie. Sporting a metallic grey exterior that’s accented with black stripes, the 1967 Mustang interior carpets and seats are spotless and it still has the “go baby go” switch on the gear lever.

This famous movie car will be sold by COYS at the Autosport International show in Birmingham on Saturday, January 14th.

Heading to this year’s Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale, Arizona auction is a one-of-a-kind prototype NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Ford Mustang. A custom-built prototype that never saw any track time at all – it has zero miles – it’ll come with a custom-built Roush Racing engine that only has dyno time on it.

There’s no reserve on this race car that has a Tremec four-speed transmission mated to the custom Roush 351 V8 powerplant. The exterior is a nice dark blue, contrasted by white racing stripes and the entire package looks ready to rock on the track.

GALLERY: 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Ford Mustang

[Source: Barrett-Jackson]

True Mustang lovers could never dream of the iconic muscle car without a GT badge and a burly V8 engine. Sure the V6 might have over 300 hp, but, well… it’s not the V8. So imagine what the legions of die-hard ‘Stang fans would say if Ford rolled out an electric Mustang?

Interestingly enough, reports – or rumors – are surfacing that Ford is doing just that. In fact, one source has confirmed that an electric Mustang prototype already exists.

As wild an idea as it seems, it’s really not that unbelievable. Many automakers are investing in all-electric vehicles, with some being variants of their current popular models. Audi‘s E-Tron and BMW‘s i-Series are great examples that electric vehicles could be stylish and sporty, while Tesla paved the way when it came to building an appealing electric sports car.

[Source: Car Driven]

Even though we recently had the pleasure to review and enjoy Ford’s 2012 Mustang Boss 302, we didn’t lose sight of the classic Boss 302s that put the famed model on the map. Now it’s nice to see a contrasting classic 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302, restored from the frame-up to immaculate form, available for you to purchase.

This classic Boss 302 was originally built in September of 1969 out at Ford’s Dearborn, Michigan plant. Over 40 years later, it got a complete restoration by Daniel’s Hot Rods & Body Shop out in Jarretsville, Maryland. It sports a completely original, rust-free body on every panel except its front fenders. After the previous owner found some small inner-patches on the stock fenders, he tracked down NOS replacements and had them installed to showroom alignment.

Then the vehicle got its statement making paint job in Grabber Blue along with a flat black rear deck lid,  spoiler and expertly-applied Boss side stripes. The result? A classic Boss 302 that could rival a brand new 302 in the looks department bumper to bumper.

Under the hood is a numbers-matching small block 302 V8 Winsor powerplant with 290-hp. The fully restored classic has 52,169-miles on the odometer and has an asking price of $89,900. Combine the immaculate exterior and the perfectly-running engine with the pristine black vinyl interior and you’ve got a near-perfect retro resale.

GALLERY: 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302

[Source: RK Motors]

We’re pretty sure this video is more of a testament to the stupidity of some people rather than the shortcomings of Ford‘s V6 Mustang.

First of all, we hardly believe that this individual had the opportunity of driving his Mustang “on a closed road at high speeds”, especially considering the quick glance of the road from the video proves it’s your run-of-the-mill public street. Secondly, there’s a reason why Ford – who has been manufacturing vehicles for over a century – put a speed limiter of 112-mph on their new Mustang V6. Lastly, what were you thinking filming yourself trying to go towards 140-mph while driving the car?

The original poster of the video, who is also the owner of the vehicle, bashes Ford stating that the drivetrain was not designed to handle the power of the engine. No, the drivetrain wasn’t designed for people to remove the speed limiter and try to take their V6 Mustang to 140-mph. There’s a V8 for that.

According to the owner, the broken driveshaft caused write a bit of havoc (as one could expect) to the Mustang. There was a hole in the metal floorpan, major exhaust system and muffler damage, broken transmission shifter, broken parking brake, broken interior plastic trim, etc.

Thankfully the majority of the people commenting on the video gives us hope that not everyone is this silly in believing this is Ford’s fault.

Check out the video after the break.

[Source: Autoblog]

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Up on eBay is an extremely rare 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429, packing just 2,219-miles on the odometer with a starting bid of $185,000. The ’69 Boss 429 is one of just 858 made during a two-year production run.

Powered by a 429-cubic inch NASCAR motor with 375-hp, this Boss 429 Mustang was made into a 1/4-mile drag car and primarily ran races along the the east coast and was a 10.50-second car with a top speed of 118-mph on the quarter mile. The motor was recently rebuilt and everything on the car is 100-percent matching. And despite Ford rating the motor at 375-hp, it was widely believed it produced a lot closer to 500-hp.

Even more remarkable is the fact that this particular car was once featured in a drag racing magazine back in 1970 – some of us weren’t even born yet.

Now this is a 10-second car worth owning, Dom.

GALLERY: 1969 Boss 429 Ford Mustang

[Source: eBay]