The trickle of information about the 2018 Ford Mustang continues as the company has revealed the facelifted model offers better handling and improved fuel efficiency.
According to the automaker, engineer Mike Del Zio was testing a prototype of the car on a high-speed lap when he discovered the model wasn’t performing as well as wind tunnel data indicated. Since he was at the track with aerodynamics engineer Jonathan Gesek, the duo made a quick modification by adding a strip of duct tape over the lower gap on the grille.
After testing the jerry-rigged solution, Del Zio noticed high speed cornering was improved and this paved the way for the grille to be redesigned. As Del Zio explained, “That little strip of tape made all the difference.”
In total, the engineers spent hundreds of hours trying to improve the Mustang’s aerodynamics and their work has helped to increase fuel economy ratings by up to 5.6 percent. Part of this is due to the active grille shutters which close at high speed to reduce drag.
Thanks to the aerodynamic styling tweaks, the 2018 Mustang EcoBoost has an EPA-estimated fuel economy rating of 21 mpg city / 31 mpg highway / 25 mpg combined with the manual transmission and 21 mpg city / 32 mpg highway / 25 mpg combined with the automatic. The numbers for the Mustang GT largely carryover but the automatic version is slightly more efficient as it gets an additional 1 mpg for its city and combined rating.
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