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Back when I was about 7 years old I ended up with a copy of Ford Simulator

for MS-DOS, specifically the second release from 1990. I made a video talking

about it almost a decade ago here on LGR but my fascination with the series

remains intermittently steadfast, I guess you could say. There's just something odd

about these pieces of software which were distributed freely for about a

decade beginning in 1987, with six of them being released by Ford Motor

Company and the SoftAd Group by the time the series ended. Or so I thought.

Then I happen to see this show up on eBay a while back and I had to grab it!

This is Ford Simulator 7.0 from 1996 which as far as I can tell has never

appeared online before this video. Well it's never been seen in any real depth, at

least. Heck it's even hard to find a reference to this thing anywhere on the internet

at all, other than one lone forum post from 2003 inquiring in vain about its

existence. As well as this scan of a Brazilian shareware catalog which is

actually just an optical character reader's flawed interpretation of "Ford

Simulator 2." So say hello to the Internet, Ford Simulator 7.0! You have a lot of cat

videos to catch up on. And yes that is a Jaguar plopped in there between the Ford,

Lincoln, and Mercury products, being from the era when Ford owned Jaguar Cars.

What makes this notable is that all previous versions of Ford Simulator did

not acknowledge that fact and from what I've seen this is the only release to

have done so. And as with all these Ford Sim releases they originally came

directly from Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan, provided free of

charge if you requested it from a dealership, by mail, over the phone,

whatever worked. And this one has never been opened since it was first shipped

out decades ago, so this is quite the exceptional moment! I mean, I guess it is.

I don't know my opinions on these things are skewed. Once unsealed it folds open

to reveal the program itself on a CD-ROM. A pleasant surprise to me since all

previous versions I've owned have only come on floppy disks. The only other

thing you get inside is a card with a few technical details, which includes

some details of the technical variety. Like the fact that it not only requires

Windows, but also SVGA graphics, 8 megabytes of

RAM, and a 50 megahertz 486 CPU. Pretty hefty specs compared to previous

releases that were only made for DOS and could run on most any PC with a VGA card.

We'll be running this on Windows 95 since well, it came out in 1996 so it

felt appropriate. And without further ado behold" the long lost Ford Simulator 7.0!

Narrator: "Welcome to Ford Simulator 7 and the exciting world of Ford, Lincoln, Mercury,

and Jaguar vehicles. Please select a specific vehicle now!" LGR: eh it's fine.

It's just a virtual product catalog like all the other Ford Sims. But I mean, there's

got to be more to it so let's keep going because I'm sure there's some 90s CD-ROM

goodness in here. Like the pointless and long-winded narration that happens on

every menu when a simple line of text would suffice. Narrator: "To see a list of available

accessories and elec--this screen provides a view of the many features available to

each of Ford's--accessories and electronics options--paint your car by selecting one

of the colors at the bottom of the screen..." LGR: or the bodacious full motion

videos that play for every single vehicle complete with saxophone music

and more of that sultry narrator. Narrator: "the Mercury Grand Marquis offers convenience,

comfort, a powerful 4.6 liter overhead-cam v8 with a 100,000 mile

tune-up, and a body-on-frame construction that helps produce its legendary ride.

With a roomy 6 passenger interior, luxurious upholstery, and convenient

appointments, you'll feel right at home away from home!"

LGR: Ahh, the mid-90s. When CD-ROM was still the new hotness and every program went out

of their way to use all 650+ megabytes whether they needed to or not.

And Ford Simulator 7.0 is a delightful example, functioning more like an

interactive audio-visual encyclopedia than any of the previous releases. You

could slap a Compton's logo in there somewhere and it'd have no problem

fitting in with the rest of the presentation. But yeah beyond the state

of the art 1996 multimedia facade, Ford Sim 7 really is the exact same core

experience as the Ford Simulators that preceded it. That is, it's a computerized

advertisement meant to sell you on a new car.

Look at photos, videos, lists of specifications, accessories, trim levels,

lease options, and even customize the paint! So instead of flipping through a

physical Ford catalog or visiting a Ford showroom,

you can browse an interactive selection of their automotive offerings from the

comfort of your own computer chair. So it not only made sense for someone in the

market for a new car but for those looking for something, anything, to run on

their computer for free. I was definitely one of those people

back then, and at ten years old I still would have been somewhat amused by Ford

Simulator 7. Not just because it was a computer thing, but I just liked

anything with cars at all. But really the biggest thing that drew me to Ford

Simulators was the so-called "simulator" aspect. Choosing the 'Game' mode from the

main menu left behind the confines of manufacturer warranty information and

annual finance rate calculations and provided a welcome reprieve in the form

of a cheap ripoff of the game Test Drive with a little bit of Outrun tossed in.

And the version of Ford Simulator that comes with Ford Simulator 7.0 is

practically identical to the one in 6. And five. And probably 4 and even

3 to a degree... yeah they got lazy with these releases later on it seems.

Oh well, it does differ a bit in that there are fewer features than previous

releases so that's nice... like, right away you can't choose the car to drive like

you could in 6.0. Not that it made a huge difference to the gameplay since the

driving is so basic, but still, why take that away? All you can do here is choose

between automatic and manual transmission and you're given the

objective of reaching Lake Wakatonka as fast as possible, with multiple forks in

the road presenting multiple routes to take. Sounds like a fun race right?

It isn't.

It's not really a race at all since you're not racing anyone or

limited by time. All you need to do is make it to the end of the road in one

piece, which is accomplished by driving slowly, cautiously, and more or less

within the speed limit. Wheeeeeeeee.

Along the way you'll be running into plenty of traffic

though. And I mean it you literally run into them,

complete with Bat-Fight words.

*1960s Batman TV show sound effects play*

And if you drive too fast within view of a police car you'll be pulled over.

Four miles over the speed limit?! Ooh you're such a rebel! But the biggest obstacle

are the roads themselves which are bizarrely tough to stay on. Not sure if

it's a mixture of the controls, the physics, or the fact that

this sucks but the driving in this is atrocious. Even at low speeds you're frequently

but inconsistently being pulled from one side to the other, like a giant but

faulty electromagnet keeps switching off and on to each side of your car, while

the road itself is covered in a mixture of molasses and snot. This is a

confusingly-built advertisement for Ford vehicles seeing how badly the car

handles here, it's infuriating! Then every so often you'll be presented with a gas

station you can stop inside and oh!

Who are y--what the heck is wrong with your face...?

So this guy says after you've paid for gas you only have enough money to buy

one thing, even though you don't actually have money that runs out. Oh well. You've

got three options: buying a map is the most useful item to grab since it

provides you the ability to press F2 to open the map and refer to a map of the map.

Not necessary of course and each route looks 99% identical to all the

others, but still nice to have since it lets you know which fork in the road

leads where. The other two purchase options, soda pop and candy bars, do

absolutely nothing. I thought maybe they might act as a kind of health, removing

one of the hits you took when you collided with something, but nope. All

they do is nothing. Which really about sums up this mode to be honest... a whole

lot of nothing. It's a driving simulator that simulates the most mundane aspects

of driving while providing little more than a test of your patience and

obnoxious PC speaker noise.

*obnoxious PC speaker noise plays, pulsating painfully as the engine revs*

Once you make it to the end 15 or 20 minutes later,

hooray I guess. You get a perplexing animation showing who I presume is the

developer and a logo that is not SoftAd, but Code To Go. Well that's strange. Code To Go

I've talked about in the past since under programmer Dan Duncalf they

developed the Disney game Coaster, as well as the DOS port to Turbo Outrun

among others. This is the first time I've seen a reference to them having

developed the driving portion of Ford Simulator games and considering the

Outrun connection that kind of makes sense. So hey that's something we've

learned together. Fun times. Fnd that's it for Ford Simulator 7.0! This particular

release may have been forgotten by most until now but I can't say I blame anyone.

It's the final release of a debatably memorable series of free computer

software and the most notable thing about it is that it eluded being

properly cataloged on the internet for all these years. There are some

wonderfully cheesy FMV sequences for each vehicle, and that's fun enough I

guess. Especially since the older releases just had static or animated

imagery. But then the quote-unquote "simulator" mode that it comes with is

just as much of a letdown as the previous few Ford Sims. To me though

Ford Simulator 7 is a bit more fascinating for the context in which it

was released rather than the software itself. In the days before widespread

worldwide web access and multimedia-laden websites these kinds of software

packages made a lot more sense for a car company. And Ford Simulator 7 was the

last of its kind for Ford. This was 1996, where you could realistically expect

home users to have a 33.6 kilobits per second dial-up modem connection, if they

had one at all. So embedding full motion video and sound into a website didn't

make much sense. And the game mode, well, even being a freebie it was hardly

very appealing when you had fantastic racing games hitting the PC left and

right by then. Finally, the explosion of internet usage in North America around

1997 meant that it really didn't make much sense to continue releasing Ford

Simulators. All one had to do was log on to www.ford.com and get 95% of the exact same

content and functionality that you would from Ford Simulator.

Yeah maybe you didn't get the hundreds of megabytes of narration, video clips,

and ethereal candy bar-chomping roadtrip gameplay... but the website did the job for

most computer-savvy folks, and it didn't require writing CDs or floppy disks for

physical distribution. Ford Sim Seven existed as it did, when it did, for a list

of reasons that only existed for a small moment in tech history: where the world

of offline and online multimedia were evolving, shifting, and merging in

intriguing and unpredictable ways month-to-month. And I can't help but

smile thinking back to that specific moment in time that

flew by without most of us even noticing.

I just realized that I've been messing with Ford Simulators

for like 27 years and I've never ended up owning a Ford. Heh, yeah not a very

effective piece of adware I guess. But anyway if this video was effective in

providing some enjoyment then perhaps you'd like to see some of these others!

And as always thank you for watching LGR.

For more infomation >> Ford Simulator 7.0 - 1996 Virtual Showroom CD-ROM - Duration: 11:18.

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Ford Mustang (2018) rijtest - Duration: 19:43.

Hello, good morning. These are all pretty Mustangs.

You know it has had a facelift because you watch our motor show videos.

We could grab a 5-liter V8 right away, but we're saving it for last.

The 2.3-liter got updates as well, including the Line Lock function.

I'm having regrets now I hear a V8 fire up, Martijn.

First we're driving the 2.3-liter with Line Lock function and other new things.

It also has a new transmission; a 10-speed automatic.

We'll drive the 5-liter V8 afterwards. First, we're checking this one.

It's pretty in blue. I like the color.

Let's hear it. - Yes. A cold start.

This is... - Maybe that wasn't a good idea.

The cold start of a 2.3-liter wasn't the best of ideas.

10th gear. - It says so on the new 12 inch display.

It has an electronic instrument panel. I think every car will have one in 5 years.

This car has one already. 12.1 inch.

This tells you the car lasts a long time. The first Mustang came in 1964.

It cruises just fine on the highway.

The famous tollgate test. - The famous tollgate test.

Can we go back to the speed we drove quickly and safely?

I have to brake for that truck who thinks he has to be in the left or middle lane.

It's a bit underwhelming.

I miss the high rpm.

It does 5.000 rpm now and it loses power.

It feels like that. It doesn't feel quick.

It's not fast, or is it the acoustic experience?

I think it's a combination of the two. It's not slow, but it doesn't push you in your seat either.

Route Napoléon. We're outside of Grasse in France, near Nice.

The road gets fun from here on. You have to drive Route Napoléon once in your life.

We've done it a couple of times, but never with a Mustang.

There's a first time for everything.

I have to admit, this car comes into its own on these winding roads.

We have to discuss a couple of things. First, the handling.

It's very good. You feel the nose isn't that heavy and it sets well.

Communication is good too. There are sheep on the road.

That happens sometimes. What can you do?

There are a lot.

That one is incognito. It isn't a sheep, it's a dog.

There's another dog. The sheep know who's boss.

Back to the Mustang.

The handling. - Yes, the handling. The nose is light.

It turns in really precise.

The rear has a lot of grip. If you want to drift, you'll have to work hard.

It's a nice handling car. The sound on the highway wasn't a mistake, though. It's a bit lame.

The transmission, a new 10-speed automatic, is fine for daily driving and commuting.

The many gears make for economical driving.

However, it's in too high a gear when hooning on roads like these.

The engine has much torque, but it doesn't invite to do high rpm.

You're shifting gears quickly.

It's in 6th or 7th gear on narrow winding roads.

You have to shift down many gears when braking for a corner.

You have to keep count to make sure you're in the optimal gear for accelerating out of the corner.

You can leave it in automatic mode, but then it's too slow with picking the right gear.

That's a shame. The transmission isn't ideal for these roads.

I think the consumption figures are correct.

The 2.3 has Line Lock now.

I'll repeat it for those who didn't hear. The 2.3 has Line Lock now.

This locks the front wheels to warm the rear tires more easily.

As you can see, this works well.

There was local fog, Casper.

Like I said, with enough space you can cause wheelspin.

We did find that space to demonstrate it's possible to smoke this 2.3-liter EcoBoost's rear tires.

With Line Lock, drifting, and doing donuts.

Still, it's more difficult than it used to be.

Before the world had problems with emissions, this car had no gasoline particulate filter.

It has one now, which means less horsepower.

It went from 310 to 286 hp.

That's a shame, but it's not slower on the 0-100 kph (62 mph) sprint.

With an automatic transmission this is done in 5.8 seconds.

The top speed is more than 230 kph (143 mph).

The golden tip on these roads and it's your first time there, follow a local.

This man in his refrigerated truck is going fast. Look at how he takes this corner.

Nice on the outside.

Its speed in a straight line, like we experienced at the tollgate, was disappointing.

The engine's torque on these winding roads makes it a fun car.

However, I have fond memories of the 5-liter V8.

It was in the pre-facelift car I drove some time ago.

I'm going to grab one at the lunch stop.

That's a better color. - With a bit of sunshine.

With a bit of sunshine. I think the blue... - The sun is shining out of your head now.

Like this? - Yes, this is better.

This is better. The color is better.

The blue is not bad. We had a pretty car yesterday, but this over here makes a difference.

50. - 50, with a dot in between. 5 point 0 V8.

444 hp, 29 more than before the facelift.

We're doing a cold start like at the beginning of the video.

I think this sound is closer to my interests. - Casper big happy?

Did you see? Shifting gears manually. It's easy to choose the gear you want.

There are 6; nice and clear.

This is the better option for me. Before we switched on the camera, Martijn and I talked.

If you have the money to buy a 2.3 EcoBoost base model Mustang and can't buy a V8,

but you want a Mustang, be smart. Don't test drive the V8.

You're going to cry yourself to sleep if you drove the V8 and bought the 2.3-liter engine.

I'll come back to the prices later.

The V8 is as it should be in this car.

It has a nice low growl and torque at lower rpm.

It fits. This is what the Mustang should be.

The 2.3 EcoBoost isn't a bad engine, but this feels so much nicer and we didn't go pedal to the metal yet.

Tunnel!

It's still fun. You have to be childish sometimes.

Approved. - Okay.

We passed a tollgate with 30 kph (19 mph) yesterday,

today we're exiting the corner with 45 kph (30 mph).

We're at the Route Napoléon.

Napoléon lost in Elba in 1814. He escaped and passed through here, returning to Grenoble in 1815.

I don't know how this is relevant for this journey, but the result is a pretty road.

It's a fun road with the new Ford Mustang.

The Mustang has been updated on several fronts.

Speaking of fronts, I'll start at the front. "A nice transition, Casper." Thank you.

You can leave your comments below and give likes.

First, these vents are new.

The hood has a lower profile for less drag.

It has a new grille, different headlights, and this front splitter is new too.

At the side we see wider door sills, making the aerodynamics 3% more efficient.

The taillights and diffuser are new too. The diffuser has integrated exhaust tips.

Those are the external changes.

There's a new system called MagneRide. I'm fetching something to show you how it works.

This car's shock absorbers are controlled magnetically.

That means the shock absorber has reservoirs, like this.

When compressed, more fluid goes to the one or the other reservoir.

The speed at which this happens influences the stiffness of the damping.

The fluid has metal particles that slow down or speed up the fluid using a magnet.

When I place the magnet where the fluid passes through, I can push all I want,

but I can't move it. It's very easy without the magnet.

This varies the stiffness of the damping.

Of course this is less extreme than what I'm showing, but it shows how it works.

The MagneRide system isn't new. A number of cars use it already.

MagneRide is a brand that manufacturers can buy, but it's mainly used in higher segment sports cars.

The Ferrari F12, for example. Cars like that.

Now the Mustang has it too.

A Mustang in the US costs as much as a Golf, so it's expensive technology to have on here.

It costs 2,000 euros when ordering it for your Mustang in the Netherlands.

I can recommend it. On bad roads, such as part of the Route Napoléon, it's nice to have more damping.

When the asphalt is smooth and you want to play with the car's balance, stiffer is nice.

The suspension is different. It's stiffer at the front, which makes for better and lighter steering.

The V8 has more horsepower; 444 instead of 415 hp now.

It sounds good too. I want to hear it myself. Martijn, give me the camera.

You can start it. What is he doing? - I'm going to drive.

Nice.

Rev it.

I have to put it in Race mode? - Yes, in Race mode.

If you think the exhaust is too loud, Ford has the solution.

We know the exhausts with variable valve systems that opens and closes.

Ford has put more thought into it. There are 4 sound modes.

Quiet, a little louder, loud, and earsplitting bang ouch.

The latter is my favorite.

You can set certain times to have it be quiet. I think that's brilliant.

If you leave for work every morning at 7, you want the noise but your neighbors don't.

You tell the car to be quiet between 6:30 and 7:30.

You can leave the street quietly and turn up the volume later.

I think it's brilliant, especially in combination with this engine. It's louder than the 2.3 engine.

The V8 has 444 hp and 529 Nm (390 lb ft) torque,

which means it does 0-100 kph (62 mph) in 4.2 seconds. That's a lot faster than the EcoBoost.

The nose does feel heavier.

When steering fanatically, the 2.3 EcoBoost turns in tighter.

However, this isn't bad.

Of course you want to know what I think about this car.

I was of two minds. The EcoBoost was a lot of fun.

It's not super fast, but it's nice to drive.

The pricing is off-the-charts, though.

I can't blame Ford, but the Dutch government.

In the US this car costs as much as a Golf GTI.

Not this one, but the 2.3 version.

The V8 is a bit more expensive, but only by 5,000 dollar.

It's different in the Netherlands. The 2.3 EcoBoost starts at 69,620 euros.

That's a lot of money. It can buy you an Audi A5 coupe with a 3-liter engine or BMW 4 coupe.

You can buy a better car. The Mustang looks much more special, though.

If you like people pointing at your car, buy a Mustang instead of a boring German car.

Well, not boring, but a German car.

The V8 is a different story. I have different feelings with this one.

It costs a small 120,000 euros in the Netherlands.

It starts at 117,000 euros.

This buys you a car with 444 hp and 529 Nm (390 lb ft) torque,

a car that performs closely to an M4 coupe or C63.

Of course, it's not as fast and the finish isn't as good, but it looks more exotic.

It's a more special car that makes you feel special.

If you like blasting down the Nürburgring, modify the car or maybe don't buy it.

You can order performance upgrades at Ford, such as a supercharger or air intake.

You order it at Ford Performance, install it, and the warranty isn't voided.

Try doing this at BMW or Audi. Putting a sticker on the door sill changes your car, so no warranty.

Ford is a brand for the average Joe. They want to make it possible for you to upgrade your car.

Those upgrades aren't very expensive, so that's cool too.

Conclusion. This 5-liter V8 with a manual transmission is the car you want.

I get that the 2.3 EcoBoost is more attractive economically, but this is the car you want.

You choose this car when you have money for an M3, M4, or RS5, but want something different.

It's not something other wealthy people drive. If you want a cool car, the Mustang is for you.

Just one more tollgate. - Just one more.

Yes, tollgate approved. - Good. Let's hand it back in.

Subtitles - Maru's Text Support