Michiana Monthly

In this Month’s Issue 2010 Events Calendar

Finances: February 2010

Income

50-50 Drawing 33.00 Memberships 40.00 This Month... Total Income $73.00 15 Pat Sauerbeck

Expenses

Pavilion Rental (Picnic) 55.00 ^{20 Kathryn Schmidt} Engraving 25.68 22 Kami Woody

Total Expenses $80.68 Net Income -$7.68

Membership Dues March

Connie Dalrymple

Harold & Loretta Jedrzejewski Rob Killingsworth Robert & Jennie McInerney Robert & Pamela Moore Bob Relos

Happy Anniversary!

None that I’m aware of for this month.

If I missed your birthday or anniversary, please let me know. Thanks!

Membership Anniversaries

New Members!

None this month so far

Welcome to the club. We’re looking forward to getting to know you!

Minutes from Last Month’s Meeting

President Howard Barrett opened the meeting by welcoming all members and thanking them for coming. He also reminded us that there were only 40 days until Spring!

Present were: Scott Anderson and daughter Miranda, Howard Barrett, Guest Jim Boal, Becky & Art Campbell, Connie & Vic Garrison, Bob Goeller, Terry & Lola Gunderman, Rob Killingsworth, Neal Lewis, Rosemary & Helmut McClure, Pete & Marilyn McClure, Brad Milliken & Kim Zink, Charlotte & Ron Newcomer, Phil & Tandy Nicodemus, Arnie & Jackie O’Blenis, Diane & Ken Reed, Robert D. Relos, Ted Sauerbeck, Mark Taelman, Shirley & George Wachs, Alan Wright, and Jane & David Yoder.

Members were given an update on Larry Weaver; he is making steady progress back from his stroke. He now has his speech back and there is improvement on his left side. He is doing regular physical and occupational therapy, and is scheduled to come home on February 17th.

Regional MCA Director Jim Schmidt was absent, thus

no MCA report. The minutes were approved as written and the treasurer's report was approved as read.

Please be sure to get your membership dues in on

time. Event Director Brad Milliken discussed plans for the bowling event this Saturday, with dinner afterwards at DaVinci's, just north of Country Club Lanes.

No date has been announced for the Show and Shine at Eby Ford, but it is expected to be in July during their annual event.

Bob Goeller announced that May 8 was the date for this year’s Spring Show and Shine at Harold Zeigler Ford. This year a $15 entry will be charged per car, to be donated to Riley Hospital in Indianapolis or St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Harold Zeigler Ford will match the entry fees paid by members, and will award trophies based on judging by their staff. Vic Garrison moved to participate in the event. Bob Relos seconded the motion and it was approved by voice vote.

The Bremen Ford Show and Shine will be June 26 at

the dealership. We are entered in the Mishawaka Memorial Day Parade on May 31. Lineup details will be announced when they are available.

George and Shirley Wachs were featured in a article that appeared in the January issue of ’SAAC Action’, the Indiana Shelby American Automobile Club newsletter.

Our annual Track Day at the Tire Rack is scheduled for Saturday, September 4 (Labor Day weekend) pending insurance approval by the MCA. More details as they become available.

Alan Wright won $33.00 in the 50/50 drawing. Others winners were Mark Taelman, Rob Killingsworth, Ron Newcomer and Neal Lewis.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:20. Art Campbell, deputizing for June Schmidt, Secretary

Get Well (update) ...

Larry Weaver is now home and has made great progress; he is now walking with a walker. Larry and Shirley do appreciate all the cards and prayers, but they would still hope that they would have no visitors. Larry is doing well but tires very easily and sleeps quite a bit. The recovery progress does take some time and they know that people will understand. Larry and Shirley send their love to the club. People can call at home after 8:30 p.m. (574) 674-9827.

Notes from the Board Meeting

Officers present: Scott Anderson, Howard Barrett, Bob Goeller, Carl Kindig, Ron Newcomer, and David Yoder.

• The subject of advertising in the newsletter was raised. After discussion it was decided that we would not open the newsletter to outside advertising. Ads will be allowed from our sponsors and club members.

• As a ‘thank you’ for allowing us to use their facilities, Honkers Restaurant has been added to our sponsor list.

• Howard has volunteered to handle t-shirts for this year’s show.

• Diane Reed will again be in charge of registration for the show.

^{Looking back…} Scenes from the Alley

March 1990:

• Our 7^th Annual Car Show is scheduled for August 26^th at Bremen Ford.

March 1995:

• The first meeting is held at Jordan Ford.

• The Michiana Classic Chevy Club invited the club to participate in their club’s dance for Muscular Dystrophy on April 29^th.

• Plans were discussed for the club’s Adopt-A- Highway trash pickup on April 29.

March 2000:

• Club members took a bus ride to Dearborn to tour the Mustang assembly plant and the new “Spirit of Ford’ museum.

• A committee is making progress toward a set of By-Laws for the club. The April deadline was extended to give them more time for completion.

March 2005:

• Neal Decker passed away on March 13. He and his wife Betty were long-time and much loved club members.

• Our show shirts for 2005 feature a P-51 Mustang and a 2005 Mustang.

• Campbell Ford in Niles is working to get a

Pins came down, and gutters were cleaned!

The 2010 Michiana Mustangs bowling tournament is now history. Eleven bowlers and two ‘cheerleaders’ took part in this year’s event.

We were able to get two complete games and part of another before we tripped the time barrier. Kim Zink had the game of the day with a 157. Also bowling were Art and Becky Campbell, Vic Garrison, Hal, Marilyn, and Pete McClure, Brad Milliken, Ken Reed, and George and Shirley Wachs. Rose McClure and Diane Reed seemed to enjoy watching the action.

Dinner followed at DaVinci’s; at the end of the day, all seemed to agree that the day had been well spent.

2011 Ford Shelby GT500 finally gets aluminum engine, loses 120 pounds

by Sam Abuelsamid ( RSS feed ) on Feb 8th 2010 at

1:30PM Ever since Ford introduced the modern Shelby GT500 four years ago, almost no one has complained about the prodigious power levels produced by its supercharged 5.4-liter V8. With as much as 540 horsepower and 510 pound-feet of torque in the 2010 model, there was no shortage of grunt. No, the issue was an excess of mass.

Before the contemporary GT500 was born, Ford had a blown aluminum block 5.4-liter V8 in the short lived GT supercar. However, when the engineers at Ford's Special Vehicle Team developed the GT500, they opted to mount the GT's cylinder heads on the cast iron block used in the big F-Series pickup trucks. After debuting a visual refresh for the Mustang a year ago, Ford has spent the last two months announcing fresh new powertrains for the base and GT models. That process has now come full circle with SVT rolling out a heart transplant for the Shelby GT500. The 2011 model finally has the aluminum powerplant we all wanted when it debuted, and the effect is absolutely en-lightening.

The SVT engineers actually had a reason for going with the iron block in the first place. Mustangs like the GT500 and its Cobra ancestors often end up being heavily modified for use at drag strips and race tracks, and the SVT crew wanted to make sure the standard block could stand up to the rigors of those significantly higher outputs. They chose not to use an aluminum block until they had a chance to develop one with the same strength as the iron version, and that time has now come.

We recently had a chance to sit down with GT500 chief nameplate engineer Jamal Hameedi in his office at SVT's headquarters to learn more about what's new for 2011. Switching to an aluminum block was a bit more complicated than simply digging out the casting molds that were used for the GT. The engine in that 200+ mph supercar used a dry sump lubrication system and featured iron cylinder liners. The new GT500 engine is derived from the structural design of the older block but retains the wet sump system used in other Mustangs. The real magic is something that most owners will likely never actually see.

Last June we learned about an award that several Ford researchers had received for a cylinder bore coating system they developed called the Plasma Transferred Wire Arc (PTWA) process. The Ford press release at the time framed the award in terms of fuel efficiency and gave no real hint about what was about to come. It now turns out that the first production Ford to use the PTWA process will be the

2011 GT500. The heart of the PTWA process involves feeding a steel wire into a device that heats it up to 35,000 degrees Fahrenheit and then sprays it onto the aluminum cylinder bores. Ford is not actually the first company to use a process like this. Similar mechanisms have been used to coat the fan blades in jet engines for a number of years. One of the primary differences is that Ford is using PTWA with a conventional steel alloy rather than some super exotic aerospace material. Ford isn't even the first automaker to use this specific coating process. That honor falls to Nissan, which actually licensed the technology from Ford for use on its V6 engine in the GT-R.

Hameedi believes that Ford has an important advantage over Nissan. Anyone that has ever used a teflon-coated pan is familiar with the problem of the non-stick coating peeling off over time. In the past BMW has also had issues with the nickasil coatings prematurely separating on some of its aluminum blocks. Getting any dissimilar materials to adhere to each other is always a problem, so the initial surface has to be specially prepared in order for the coating to have something to hang on to. Nissan licensed Ford's coating technology but used its own surface preparation process. According to Hameedi, Ford's surface preparation works so well that even after engines have gone through a full durability cycle the bores still look like new.

Using the PTWA process allows the block to have a thinner surface coating – only 150 microns deep – that is just as tough as one with cast or pressed-in iron or steel liners. However, using less material results in lower weight. According to Hameedi, the GT500 block is 8.5 pounds lighter than the sleeved GT version. Overall, the complete engine is 102 pounds lighter than the 2010 cast iron engine. The steel coating has also helped Ford reduce the internal friction of the engine, aiding both efficiency and power production.

Hameedi explained that some drag racers complained of power drop off on humid summer days, which was attributed to reduced heat transfer efficiency. SVT addressed this with a larger intercooler that helps the engine deliver more consistent power over its entire operating range as well as under different environmental conditions. Hameedi tells Autoblog that the new aluminum block engine should be able to survive "at least" as much maximum power in modified form as the iron block equivalent. Also aiding breathing is a larger exhaust system with 2.75

2011 Ford Shelby GT500 (continued)

inch header pipes like those on the new 5.0-liter in the Mustang GT. Out of the box, the new powerplant delivers 10 more horsepower bringing the tally up to 550 hp with the same peak torque of 510 pound-feet. Eighty percent of that torque is available everywhere between 1,750 rpm and 6,250 rpm.

For 2011, Hameedi tells us "We're at the top of the power heap, we're the fastest accelerating vehicle, so this really wasn't about going any faster in a straight line. This was about improving the weight distribution and handling of the vehicle." The new engine contributed to a 120 pound overall weight reduction with most of that coming off the front axle. Most of the rest of the weight loss came from new lighter weight wheels that are part of the SVT Performance Package. The front wheels that come with the Performance Package remain 19 inches in diameter but are 4.7 pounds lighter. The rears grow to 20 inches but are still 2.8 pounds lighter. Cutting unsprung mass is never a bad thing when it comes to both ride quality and handling. Along with the extra rear grip provided by the larger Performance Package wheels and tires, SVT has added a 3.73:1 rear axle ratio.

Like other 2011 Mustangs, the GT500 gets a new electric power assist steering (EPAS) system that Hameedi describes as "extremely precise." At parking lot speeds, he describes the steering effort as Lincoln-like but it rapidly builds up as you drive more aggressively and it supposedly has excellent on-center feel, something that is often tough to achieve with EPAS. We'll have to wait a few more months to find out just how precise that is since we won't get to drive the car until Spring.

Getting any high-powered car to accelerate, stop or turn is highly dependent on the adhesion between the tire and the road surface, especially when it's wet. SVT has adopted the latest generation Goodyear F1 supercar tires for the 2011 GT500, which Hameedi says are "a major step" beyond the previous version in both wet and dry grip. With the reduced mass on the front axle, SVT has also modified the spring and damper rates on both base and Performance Package models. The latter version gets 20.5-percent stiffer front springs and 9.5-percent tighter rears that also bring the front end 11 millimeters closer to the road and the rear 8 mm lower.

One of the main criticisms of the Mustang convertible ever since the S197 debuted for 2005 (actually ever since pretty much forever) is a lack of structural integrity. Because of that flexibility, the 2010 model GT500 convertible was actually considered more of a cruiser model and was thus tuned more for ride comfort than handling. Thus the old convertible was only available with 18-inch wheels. For 2011, SVT took the lead on developing an upgraded body structure for the convertibles that should help keep the corners of the car from moving relative to each other. The effort was successful enough that the changes are being implemented across the board on all 2011 Mustang convertibles. The 2011 GT500 convertible also gets bumped up to the 19-inch wheels and offers handling that is supposedly much closer to the coupe without degrading the ride comfort.

For those who want the sun to shine but still want the extra stiffness of the coupe, the GT500 is now available with the glass roof that has been available on regular Mustangs for the past two years.

Regardless of the roof type, Hameedi tells us that the GT500 has "a very different driving experience driving an '11 from a '10, they're much more nimble, they feel more alive, the steering is quicker." The straight-line acceleration was improved by about 1/10th of second, but overall drivability and handling are said to be vastly improved. The upgrades are far more apparent on a road course than they are at the drag strip. According to SVT spokesman Patrick Hespen, the 2011 GT500 model is three seconds a lap faster than the 2010 around a certain un-named 2.3-mile-long, northern California racetrack that happens to play host to a big historic racing event every August. Closer to home at Grattan raceway in west Michigan, the 2011 GT500 is also about 2.5-3 seconds a lap faster. Given the relatively modest power increase, those are some big numbers.

The Performance Package also gets some modest visual differentiators including narrower racing stripes down the center of the body along with the new wheel design. Inside the car, the shift knob on the Performance Package model lacks the stripes found on the base model.

While most GT500 drivers are unlikely to be too concerned about fuel efficiency, it is a political and commercial reality that Ford does have to deal with. The EPA rated the 2010 GT500 at 14 mpg city and 22 mpg highway and slapped a $1,000 gas guzzler tax on the hood. The addition of EPAS, reduced mass and reduced friction all helped to improve the 2011 GT500's EPA numbers to 15 and 23 mpg and cleared the GT500 of the dreaded guzzler label.

Finally, just like the new 2011 V6 and GT Mustangs, the GT500 will go into production this Spring with an on-sale date before Summer.

GT 500 pictures on page 8

2011 Ford Shelby GT500

Things For Sale!

Looking For...

***

From the Back Seat…

Helping new members…

Think back to when you joined the club. What information about us would have made it easier to feel like you ‘fit in’ sooner?

The latest idea that’s popped into my mind is, for lack of a better term, a New Member guide. Topics might include: • A brief club history

• Descriptions of the various types of shows we have

• Explanations of our awards (Pumper, etc.)

• List of members by model; who has the same car that you have

• List of members by location; who lives near you These are a few ideas; if you have others, let me

know. My thought is to aim this toward someone who has never been in a car club before. I’d especially like to hear from those who have joined

in the last year or so; your memories might be the freshest. I’ll also welcome anyone who would like to help put this together for the club to approve.

A reminder; registration for Indiana SAAC’s ‘Spring Fling’ begins this month. If you’re a Spring Fling veteran, you know the lodge and cabins fill up quickly; don’t wait to return your registration. If you’re planning to get a cabin for the weekend, please coordinate with Diane Reed. She’s hoping to get everyone’s cabin in the same area. If you haven’t done Spring Fling before, you’re missing a fun weekend!

If you don’t get an registration in the mail, stay tuned to www.indianasaac.com.

Have a good month...

Public Service Alert

WARNING: If you receive an e-mail from the Department of Health telling you not to eat tinned pork because of swine flu -- ignore it. It's just spam.

More Words to Live By

• It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.

• For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.

• If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.

• There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.

• Thou shalt not weigh more than thy refrigerator.

• Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear very bright ... until they speak.

• Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world.

• Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.

• Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

• Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

• No man has ever been shot while doing the dishes.

• A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.

• If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you've never tried before. Unless, of course, you really enjoyed the first evil when you tried it, hehehe!

Class Assignment

My niece's class assignment was to interview a senior

citizen. She asked me, "What was the biggest historical event that happened during your life?"

"Easy," I replied. "The moonwalk." She looked disappointed. "That dance was that important to you?"

The fine print...

Michiana Monthly is published monthly by the Michiana Mustangs Club, a regional club of the Mustang Club of America.

Submissions for the newsletter may be made to Michiana Mustangs c/o Art Campbell, 51059 Woodhaven Drive, Elkhart, IN 46514 or e-mail to art51059@aol.com. Your submissions should be received by the 25th of the month to be included in the following month’s newsletter

Michiana Mustangs Sponsors

Revised February 2010