A bit silly?
“FORD OZ WAS TRYING TO CONVINCE US ALL THAT IT STILL HAD ITS MOJO”
I was reading the mag where you mentioned the Mustang drift car that you drove some time ago. Was t hat t he supercharged V10 convertible one built around t he year 2000 ? If that is the same car then my dad has that motor and it will eventua lly (hopefully) be going into an AC Cobra replica which should be a litt le si l ly to drive. If you want any more info then get back to me. Cheers and love your column.
Darryl Staszynski, Email
Marley says...
DARRYL, IT certainly sounds as though we’re talking about the same engine; it was fitted to a Ford-sponsored project car that was largely the work of Steve Hoinville (son of Graham and, along with the Cortina GT500, the car that got us kicked off on the subject of Hoinvilles in general.
I actually got to drive the Mustang drift car around the Ford proving ground back in the day and, I have to say, it was a pretty big handful with those 10 cylinders all trying to peel the tyres off the rims. But then it kind of vanished and although the word at the time was that it was due to debut at that year’s SummerNats in Canberra, I can’t recall if it did and, if it did, whether it managed to impress the notoriously tough SummerNats crowd. Certainly, though, it had the on-paper credentials to be a winner and I recall it was incredible torquey to drive.
These were the days, of course, just after the unloved AU Falcon with its 14-inch steel wheels and no V8 option had been released, and Ford Oz was on the back foot, trying to convince us all that it still had its mojo. Enter a Mustang convertible, a V10 truck engine and Steve Hoinville (not necessarily in that order).
Should I even ask how you dad came to be in possession of such a nuclear warhead as this particular V10? Does North Korea know he’s got it? And further to that, has your dear father had a recent check-up from the neck up? I mean, building an AC Cobra replica is one thing, but powering it with a pinless grenade is another altogether. That said, if he ever gets it on the road, please send us pics and video of the thing and we’ll share it with the UC world. Come to think of it, even if your dad just gets the V10 fired up, I’d love to come and have a look and a listen. From a safe distance, you understand…