THE LION vs THE LION ’N’ HELMET vs TICKFORD MUSTANGS
Tickled ’Stangs take aim at Oz. Goood luck with that
WHO KNEW that comparing apples and oranges could be this much fun? The brief was to gather Tickford’s breathed-on Mustangs and see how they stacked up against more familiar home-grown fare from Holden and HSV. For this fleeting snapshot in time, Aussie buyers can back-to-back blue-collar right-hand drive V8s from opposite sides of the Pacific. It was an opportunity too good to pass up, fruit analogy notwithstanding, and with a combined 1574kw of the good stuff split between them, drawing some sort of conclusion from this melee was never going to be a genteel discussion.
In the blue corner we have a pair of pugnacious ponies that Tickford reckons can land first round knockouts on the lineal champs in red. It divides nicely into a dust-up between two naturally aspirated and two supercharged powerplants and there’s not too much to separate them on price. The 304kw Commodore SS-V Redline’s sales proposition is easy to identify. It’s the cheapest car here and in terms of metal for your money, this is the default pick. If you’re cash strapped, read no further. At $54,490 in this manual guise it’s ceding a fat wodge of grunt to the Tickford Mustang Power Pack 360, which takes the standard GT’S 306kw and adds another 54kw. That seems a hefty amount for an exhaust, cold air intake, throttle body spacer and ECU tweak. Pricing for the engine work alone will set you back $6990 over the standard Mustang GT’S $54,990 list.Upping the ante quite extravagantly is the HSV Clubsport R8 LSA, presented here in 30th Anniversary guise. This sees power creep up 10kw to a thudding 410kw, while torque also eases its belt a little to 691Nm. The only automatic car of the quartet, the Clubbie’s $82,490 price tag reads like a misprint when the same amount can just scrape you into an entry level 140kw 1.8-litre Audi A6.
To keep the Clayton hellion on its toes is Tickford’s supercharged Mustang offering. All 500kw of it. This car is still a development work in progress and fills a void created by Ford Australia’s aim of selling a factory-warranted Roush supercharged car falling foul of Australian Design Rules.
There’s no such worry for Tickford, the company honouring its work for the balance of any existing warranty. Pop the bonnet and the tidily finished Roush-branded blower clamps itself to the top of the Coyote V8 like some sort of belt-driven facehugger. Tack another $19,490 onto the price of the $55K Mustang GT and you’ll find yourself behind the wheel of a car with an almost embarrassing surplus of kilowatts.
THERE’S no lake and not really much of a mountain at Lake Mountain. What there is makes the early start from Melbourne well worth the suburban schlep. With the holiday crowds gone, there’s a snaking road to nowhere, nothing open at the end of it and nobody to object to any perky driving. First to be pointed at the bitumen that’s lazily
draped over the hill folds is the SS-V Redline. There’s a familiarity to slipping into this VFII Commo’ and even with Holden’s focused FE3 sports suspension, there’s a languid flow to its body control that’s immediately endearing.
The chassis is decently tied down in extremis and has just enough reassurance about its pitch and roll axes to let you know exactly how hard it’s working the tyre contact patches.
Almost everything about the Redline speaks of a car that’s enjoyed some decent budget and a clear development path that traces back over a decade to the introduction of the VE generation. Teething issues have been massaged away one by one, leaving a car that feels admirably suited for local conditions. It’s quick too, especially over roads that throw malevolent compressions, cranky cambers and inconsistent surfaces at it. You need to dial 4000rpm onto the clock to really get the 6.2-litre lump into its stride and while the LS3 has never been an inherently musical engine, the in-cabin note is purposeful enough, largely thanks to that cheap but effective Baillie Tip exhaust. The pedals are beautifully positioned for heel and toeing down through the gears and the brake pedal feel and progression is about as good as it gets, in this class at least. What’s not so great is visibility through tighter corners, the big-boned A-pillars capable of hiding an oncoming B-double.
The manual gearbox, while not bad of itself, is at odds with the efforts of the rest of the Redline’s controls. The steering’s more delicate than the car’s macho affectations might suggest, the pedals reward a deft touch and then there’s this hairy-chested throw that feels like you’re trying to smash an 8-ball pool break. What’s more, manual gearboxes with electronic parking brakes as fitted here are a wholly dispiriting combo.
It’s hard to argue with the way the SS-V – a vehicle with a bigger footprint than a millennial BMW 7 Series – demolishes a set of switchbacks, though. The front end is just mighty, the 19-inch Bridgestones doggedly keying into the scabby blacktop, helped by the benign long-travel brake and accelerator affording the rubber every chance to weasel out any residual adhesion. A consequence of that travel is that you need to really commit to big braking, something that can lead to a heart-in-mouth moment if you’ve stepped from something a little more overservoed. Something like a Mustang with the Tickford 360 Power Pack, for example.
Everything is immediately more direct in the Mustang, for better and for worse. On the run to the drag strip at Heathcote, it’s apparent that there are some roads where this car just doesn’t work very well. Anything with sudden and sharp compressions quickly sees the short travel suspension run out of answers. It’s the only car I’ve ever climbed out of with bruised pinky fingers from being repeatedly crashed into the steering wheel spokes. Occasionally it feels as if a combination of heave and pitch sends the longitudinal axis a long