#1512, 05 November 2015, page 82.

AUSSIE DRIVE Roush-tuned Ford Mustang Rare breed

by DAVID MORLEY pics CRISTIAN BRUNELLI

Why wait for the herd to arrive when this right-hooked ’Stang from Mustang Motorsport is ready to be saddled up?

EEMS like everybody is the edge of their seats waiting for the all-new Mustang to hit Aussie showrooms, and even when it does lob, there’s a chance demand will mean S you’ll need to wait your turn to get your mitts on a new Pony. But honcho of Melbourne-based Mustang Motorsport, Craig Dean, isn’t that patient. So his solution has been to import his own Mustang and convert it to right-hand drive himself. Patience may well be a virtue, but sometimes you’ve just gotta act. Obviously, this is doing it the hard way, so why wouldn’t he just wait until local examples arrive, grab one of those and save himself a whole mess of toil moving the tiller across the cabin? Well, it pays to remember that Dean has lots of experience converting cars from left- to right-hook, and his Crossover Car Conversions company has the skills to prototype stuff like the new firewall required for the switch. But there’s more to it than that. “We wanted to be first,” he explains. “And our customers want to be first with the latest.” Dean already has one customer to prove the point. She snapped up the sister car to this one, figuring the extra cash was worth it to be cruising around in a new #1512, 05 November 2015, page 82. eed #1512, 05 November 2015, page 84.

Forget about getting cute in fi rst gear, because it’ll just end in a smoke-fest #1512, 05 November 2015, page 84.

and the blown 5.0-litre blatts into life. This thing is loud, although closing the bi-model flap would shut it Mustang instead of ringing the Ford dealer and asking up. But I’m not here for that, am I? “when?” every few days. The shifter isn’t quite rifle-bolt sharp, but it’s not It’s also true that having a Mustang on the road now far off it. So can somebody please tell me, then, enables Mustang Motorsport to showcase its range how a mob can make a shifter so good and then fit of special bits, some of which have been developed it with a reverse lock-out collar that rattles on every locally, others coming from the hallowed house of shift? Americanos, eh? The clutch itself, though, is TSW ‘Bathurst’ alloys Roush Industries in the US. That ability to showcase extremely light, yet has a positive feel, and it lets you are not only ultra-light, they tough as guts, what’s possible with a new Pony car is even more in on precisely where the friction point lives. This too. Standard Brembo important when you consider that Ford Australia is not an engine you’re going to be stalling first up, calipers clamp locally- has no plans to import the tastier, high-end, hi-po either – it feels like it has plenty of flywheel and it’s made two-piece rotors variants of the ’Stang. This means, of course, that if smooth to boot. you want a nag with more drag, you need to be talking The ratios in the six-speed manual seem to be to people like Mustang Motorsport, or Rob Herrod. relatively short for the first five gears, with a big jump So, how is this car different from the stuff you’ll be to the super-overdriven sixth (100 kliks in top equals able to get over the counter at a Ford dealership? It about 1700rpm). Thanks to those closely stacked first starts with details like the central gauge cluster, the five, fifth gear is viable even in 70km/h traffic and its vented GT bonnet, Recaro chairs and the fact that feel encourages you to shift up early. the line-locker that our nanny-state authorities have Get the thing spinning above about 2000rpm, ruled out for Australia is still functioning (along with however, and you can feel the meat of that 10 or 11 launch control). pounds of boost wading in to the fight. Go further Locally developed gear includes the coil-over ’round the tacho face and the Coyote just gets more suspension, two-piece front rotors (the calipers are and more serious. By the time you’re getting anywhere already Brembo units) and a stiffening kit for the near redline, the thing is going off its nut. Not in a bad rear suspension cradle to dial axle-tramp out of the way, mind, and there’s never any blower-belt whine independent-rear-suspension equation. or other hysterics from under the lid. The Roush gear, meanwhile, starts with the body There is, however, a monumental racket from those kit that leads off with a new grille, front bumper and four exhaust tips. And the DOHC, blown-and-injected splitter. Then there’s the bonnet scoop, guard flutes, wonder has that neat trick of feeling and sounding winglets on the side-, rear spoiler, upper and like all the good bits of an old-school V8. It has the lower quarter-panel scoops and the rear valance. full-fat mid-range, for instance, and, I swear, the noise The headline act from Roush is the supercharger, totally reminds me of an old 351 Cleveland at full chat, a twin-screw unit with 2.3 litres of displacement, including the bass notes and that distinctive thong- a water-to-air intercooler, cold-air intake and an clap racket when you’re poking it with the really sharp axle-back exhaust with a bi-modal valve and four stick. But while it does well torque-wise as you get to tips (which forced the new valance). On the dyno, the combo grunts out 468kW at the crank (hence the R627 tag) and, combined with the Performance Pack GT Mustang’s 3.73:1 Torsen LSD, Getrag six- speed manual and a set of just-released 20-inch TSW ‘Bathurst’ alloys (9.0-inch at the front; 10.0-inch out back) you’ve got yourself a pretty serious piece of hardware. Looks tough, too. My first attempt to slide into the driver’s seat is made a bit more complicated than it should have been thanks to the too-low steering column, a generic Ford thing given my experience with FG Falcons. Turns out that, no, it was set up that way to make the set-up perfect for when this car’s showroom duties are done and the race-seat goes in (Dean is a keen competitor on the tarmac rally scene, and this car will eventually be turned to that task). Yes, the column is adjustable, but even at the top of its travel, it’s too close to my knees. Ah well. Things improve when I give the -button a jab #1512, 05 November 2015, page 86.

The Mustang could be a bit nose-heavy, too, but you’re going to need to take it to a racetrack to really explore that territory. Dynamically, the biggest complaint is driveline shunt. It’s not as bad as some I’ve driven, but I can’t recall a single full-sized, rear-drive Ford product I’ve ever driven with a manual ’box that didn’t snatch and root at low speed, in a low gear, on light throttle. Again, I’ve driven a lot worse than this one, but it still surprises me that it should be so in 2015. The quality of the left-to-right conversion is flawless from what I could see, but it does lead to some elements that, to be fair, have to be called characteristics rather than flaws. For instance, the original driver’s footrest remains in the passenger’s footwell (no point removing it and leaving a big hole in the carpet, Dean says) and the bonnet release is still on the left. That this is not a factory supercharged car is also New Mustang is no ballet around 3500rpm, the engine is also remarkably linear evident from the gauge in the dash which measures dancer – it is a muscle car, after all – but points well and progressive. manifold vacuum and, predictably, goes utterly off enough. Rides well, though What you put in with the right foot is always met the scale when you start making boost. Other oddities with the output at the back wheels you’re expecting. include the bonnet scoop which is non-functional Of course, even with 295mm rear Sport and the plastic covers over the rear three-quarter Maxxes, there are always sufficient newton-metres windows that turn an already big blind-spot into a heading through the driveshafts to unhook them. In monster that makes lane-changing a captain’s call in fact, you can forget about getting cute in first gear, the truest political sense of the term. If this was my because it’ll just end in a smoke-fest. Even rolling off Mustang, Jack Roush would be keeping those covers. in second and jumping on the noise will see the hoops Anyway, none of that stuff would be a deal-breaker melting before 4000rpm has been logged. for most people, and at the core of this thing is a very Happily, though, the braced rear cradle seems to fast, very capable car that suggests the whole Mustang do the job it was designed for and the wheelspin is thing will gain legs in this country. easily managed and doesn’t send the whole car into So you want to get your hands on a Mustang- a juddering spasm of axle tramp. If – and it’s a big if Motorsport enhanced, Roush-blown Mustang, how – you could hook it all up, you’d be looking at a lazy do you get one? Actually, you don’t. There’s simply no low-12-second car here. But you’d want a can of VHT point in converting a left-hooker when you can start with you on the day. Dean reckons the independent with an Australian-delivered car with the steering rear suspension leaves space under the car for a set of wheel already in the right spot. Besides which, this car 305mm rears, and, after the supercharger box, that’d would cost something like $175,000 to replicate, and be the first one I’d be ticking. that just won’t add up for would-be Mustang buyers. This isn’t a one-trick pony, and the sticky tyres and So, this car is one of only two that will ever be made taut chassis play along. The coil-overs were set for our this way. test drive at about the mid-way point for stiffness, The point is, all the bits and pieces that make this and it’s quite remarkable how well the thing rides. one so impressive will work with your locally delivered There’s a hint of dullness through the helm in the ’Stang. And the good news is you can cherry-pick the manner of most modern power-steering systems, parts you want and pass on the ones you don’t. M but the car is relatively pointy without feeling flighty. There’s a toggle-switch that changes the weighting of the steering, but setting it to Sport just seems to add weight, not feel. This made some corners a graceless series of stabs, as the tiller suddenly didn’t want to be moved from where it was pointing at that moment. #1512, 05 November 2015, page 86.

If – and it’s a big if – you could hook it all up, you’d be looking at a lazy low-12-second car

Roush? Who's he? The man behind the lelegendegend BORN in 1942, Jack Roush heads wins over more than four decades. racing and then NASCAR at the up Roush Industries, which now Roush moved to Detroit in 1964 to end of the decade. Roush has also employs 3000 people, mainly in the work for Ford and was immediately supplied engines and pretty much engineering and prototyping side of drawn to the motorsport world, everything else to other super- the transport industry. joining a group of like-minded successful race teams around But the Roush brand is best known individuals called The Fastbacks the world. These days, the focus for its motorsport activities and in about 1966. By 1970, Roush was is on designing and making fully the rap sheet is a corker. It covers running successful drag-racing integrated performance gear using stock-car (NASCAR), sportscar teams and, in 1976, he formed Jack the knowledge gained from nearly and drag racing, and includes 32 Roush Performance Engineering. 50 years on race tracks. Stuff like the championships and more than 400 In the 1980s, it was sportscar blower on this car, for instance.

MUSTANG MOTORSPORT R627

BODY 2-door, 4-seat coupe DRIVE rear -wheel ENGINE 4951cc V8, DOHC, 32v, supercharger BORE/STROKE 92.2 x 92.7mm COMPRESSION 11.0:1 POWER 468kW @ 6800rpm TORQUE 729Nm @ 4500rpm POWER/WEIGHT 278kW/tonne TRANSMISSION 6-speed manual WEIGHT 1681kg (stock GT) SUSPENSION (F) A-arms, coil-overs, anti-roll bar SUSPENSION(R) multi-links, coil-overs, anti-roll bar L/W/H 4784/1916/1381mm WHEELBASE 2720mm TRACKS 1570/1637mm (f/r) STEERING Electrically-assisted rack-and-pinion BRAKES (F) 380mm ventilated discs, 4-piston calipers BRAKES (R) 330mm ventilated discs, single-piston calipers WHEELS 20.0 x 9.0-inch (f); 20 x 10.0-inch (r) TYRE SIZES 265/35 ZR20 (99Y) (f); 295/30 ZR20 (r) TYRE Maxx Race PRICE AS TESTED $175,000 (est) RATING 1111