Sometimes, enough just isn’t enough, especially for performance car enthusiasts. Back in the late 1960s, if someone wanted a Ford Mustang, but wanted something even more powerful and aggressive-looking than the factory offerings, he had a few choices. There were the Shelby Mustangs that were had all the various scoops and spoilers along with engine choices that included a 428-cubic-inch V8. And in 1969, the limited production Boss 429 Mustang thundered onto the street.
Unlike the souped-up Shelby Mustangs, the Boss didn’t come about to offer the public a hotter version of one of its fave cars, but to allow Ford to use its new 429 V8 in so-called stock car racing. A minimum of 500 units had to be built and sold to the public to qualify. A company called Kar Kraft handled the job of squeezing the broad-shouldered 429 into a Mustang Fastback (or Sportsroof, in official Ford lingo) and made just over 1,300 examples of this rare pony between 1969 and early 1970.
More than 30 years later, Mustang fans can still get a horse of a different color, as there are a handful of companies that tweak Mustangs, such as Roush Performance, who recently invited us to its introduction of the Roush Stage 3 Mustang at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix, Ariz. Although Jack Roush is well known in racing circles and among Mustang buffs, most folks, even some car enthusiasts, may not know who he is and why he jumped into the modified Mustang market.
Mr. Roush is an auto enthusiast, entrepreneur and auto racer who enjoys the distinction of being extremely successful in many different racing series. Drag racing, SCCA Trans Am, NASCAR and IRL are all areas of auto racing in which his team has competed and has amassed 238 wins and 28 championships.
Jack also builds up the Mustang GTs and Mustang Cobras used at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, based at Firebird Raceway. The Roush Empire spans far and wide, from doing research and development for the Big Three American car companies to working with electronics and aviation firms.
Having been involved with Ford racing since the early 1970s, Jack developed a fondness for the Mustang. Around 1995, Jack established the Roush Performance division, a group comprised of engineers and designers that had Roush’s considerable resources at their disposal to build high-performance parts for the Mustang. Shortly after this, Roush Performance started building turnkey Roush Mustangs.
For 2001, the company brings out the Stage 3 Mustang, which is based on the Mustang GT and is the top horse in Roush’s Mustang stable. This muscled-up pony joins the Stage 1 and Stage 2 Roush Mustangs, both of which are available on the standard V6 Mustang, as well as the V8 GT. The functional components of the Stage 1 consist of a side-mounted performance exhaust system, 17-inch wheels and tires and a lowered suspension (via new coil springs) that lowers the car’s center of gravity for better handling. Dressing up the car are the obligatory air dam, side skirts and rear wing.
The Stage 2 adds a serious suspension package that includes Bilstein shocks, higher-rate springs, new lower control arms, beefy antiroll bars front and rear and 18-inch alloy wheels (9 inches wide in front and 10 inches wide in back) wrapped in aggressive rubber. The stout BFGoodrich Comp TA doughnuts spec out at 265/35ZR18 at the front and 295/35ZR18 out back and, combined with the suspension upgrade, allow nearly 1.0 g in lateral acceleration, according to Roush. To put that into perspective, consider that this is a level of grip that supercars, such as a Porsche 911 Turbo, exhibit.
Answering the car enthusiasts’ cry for “More Power!” is the Stage 3 Roush Mustang, which pumps up the output of the Mustang GT’s 4.6-liter V8 another 100 horsepower (for a total of 360 horses) by way of an Eaton supercharger set at a boost level of 6 psi. A healthy increase in torque also takes place, jumping from the stock GT’s rating of 302 foot-pounds to a tire-spinning 375 ft-lbs. Far from simply bolting on a supercharger, the Roush folks fortify the engine with their own intake manifold, an air-to-water intercooler, high-output fuel injectors and, on manual transmission cars, a lightweight aluminum flywheel.
Whether a Mustang enthusiast is willing to spend up to a) double the cost of a base Mustang GT, b) $10,000 to $19,000 more than a 320-horsepower Mustang Cobra (which also has an independent rear suspension that the Roush car doesn’t) or c) as much as a new Corvette Z06, remains to be seen.
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