The pony car wars are heating up! The Camaro has been outselling the Mustang recently, but the new 2011 Mustang will be getting a nice engine upgrade from Ford’s Brook Park plant in Ohio.

Ford Motor Co. will make a new 3.7-liter V-6 engine for the popular Mustang sports car at Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 in Brook Park next year, replacing an engine built in Germany.

The new engine, similar to one built in Lima for use in the Lincoln MKS luxury car, should go into production next year to be ready for 2011 Mustang production, said Mark Payne, vice president of the United Auto Workers Local 1250 in Brook Park.

Ford says the new engine will be more fuel-efficient and more powerful than the 4-liter V-6 it replaces. That engine, built in Cologne, Germany, produces 210 horsepower and gets 26 mpg on the highway. The upcoming 3.7-liter engine produces 305 horsepower and should get up to 30 mpg on the highway. Those power numbers are only a little bit shy of the 4.6-liter V-8 now offered in the Mustang.

“Mustang is completely transformed with this new engine,” Ford product development chief Derrick Kuzak said in a news release. “Everything people love about the car is still there, and now under the hood is a V-6 engine that uses premium technology to deliver the power, the feel, the fuel efficiency, even the sound of the best sports coupes in the world.”

Ford will showcase the 2011 Mustang this week at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Ford’s EcoBoost engine will now include a V-6 option.

Ford’s EcoBoosted future has long been known to include a four cylinder option, and now the automaker has finally made some details official during a global product presentation today in Detroit.

Set to hit the market sometime in 2010, the 2.0-liter block will be the first engine in Ford’s EcoBoost lineup to employ a twin-independent variable cam timing system (Ti-VCT). Ford says the engine will deliver 10 to 20 percent better fuel economy than larger displacement V-6s, all while delivering similar power numbers.

The new engine will be produced in Northeast Ohio, and that’s welcome news to a region struggling with the loss of manufacturing jobs, which has only gotten worse with the economic crisis.

After two years of idling, Ford Motor Co.’s Engine Plant No. 1 re-opened Tuesday with the new leaner, cleaner EcoBoost engine.

The cutting edge 3.5-liter engine — which will equip 90 percent of Ford vehicles — is the first V-6 direct-injection, twin-turbocharged engine produced in North America and will be produced exclusively at the Brook Park site.

It’s a welcome sight at a facility that has struggled in recent times.

“This is the engine of the future. We’re really proud that the finest engine makers in the world are right here in Brook Park and the finest engines in the world are right here in Brook Park. With the new designs, there’s a lot of reasons to want to buy a Ford product. It’s a breath of fresh air and in this economy, we need to hear as much good news as possible,” said Mayor Mark Elliott.

Ford is hoping that this will give consumers more options, such as customers who are leaving large, V-8-powered SUVs but need towing capacity, who can now consider the top-level version of the Flex crossover due to the new, more powerful engine.

Ford is getting ready to produce the 2010 Taurus SHO, and the engines will be built in the Cleveland area.

Ford Motor Co. will restart its Cleveland Engine Plant No. 1 in Brook Park this spring, putting its flagship engine into the 58-year-old facility.

“To be part of Ford’s future, we’re thrilled to death,” said Jan Allman, site manager for Ford’s campus in Brook Park.

Engine Plant No. 1, which was idled nearly two years ago, will get the engine that Ford has called a key to its future. However, for the next year or two at least, the engine will go into only a few specialty products. That means low volumes, so Ford won’t need a lot of people to produce it.

When Ford idled Engine Plant No. 1, it employed nearly 600 workers on two shifts. When the plant reopens in the spring, it will require only 250 workers on one shift.

The new SHO made its debut at the Chicago Auto Show.

The reborn SHO–the favorite of enthusiasts everywhere since it first was introduced on the first-generation Taurus–completes the new Taurus lineup with twin turbos, a tuned suspension, and some of the visual flair that made the original hotted-up Taurus a hit when it took its bow in 1989.

Over the course of ten years, Ford sold about 100,000 Taurus SHO sedans, most with a Yamaha-made V-6 engine, some with V-8s built by Yamaha. This time around, Ford’s brought the engine work in-house, with a twin-turbo edition of the 3.5-liter V-6 that’s taking a place in Ford products like the same-sized six over at Nissan. All that power shunts through all-wheel drive and a six-speed, paddle-shifted automatic.

With reasonable confidence, Ford says the new SHO should reignite interest in the big four-door. “The new Taurus SHO delivers on the authentic sleeper sedan formula but adds all-new luxury-appointments, convenience features and technologies to an unsurpassed balance of power and fuel economy,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president of The Americas, in a release. “This new sport derivative answers enthusiasts’ calls for a premium Ford flagship sedan with even more attitude.”

While the 2010 Taurus carries a mid-size price tag of $25,995, the new Taurus SHO checks in at a BMW-like $37,995. How will that go over with Ford fans? We’ll find out this summer when the new SHO goes on sale.

This is a great move for Ford, as the new SHO looks great.