Liberty Walk Ford Mustang
Liberty Walk Ford Mustang c£55,000 WE SAY: HOW TO STANCE YOUR STANG
This is not a regular Ford Mustang. No, this is a Ford Mustang that’s been worked on by a Japanese tuning company called Liberty Walk. Mechanically, it’s pretty much standard: 5.0-litre 416bhp V8, six-speed manual gearbox, rear-drive, etc. What Liberty Walk does is add stance. It started of doing this to Lamborghinis back in 2008, which was... controversial.
The European distributor is the Performance Company. What it does is cut away the arches, ft diferent dampers, wheels, and bolt on perhaps the most outrageous set of body panels ever to be wrought in fbreglass. The work takes 3–4 weeks and the kit costs around £5,500.
The dampers are central to the car’s look. They feature integrated airbags which infate (and defate) via a compressor mounted in the boot and a controller in the cabin. Lower it right down and a good proportion of the wheels disappear inside the arches and the front splitter settles on the ground. Like this, it rides around 170mm lower than the standard Mustang. But you can raise it up by around 240mm, meaning it can be driven around like a regular car with proper ground clearance.
Do so and it’s actually surprisingly drivable. You expect the ride to be harsh and crashy, but the airbags ensure you don’t hit the bumpstops, and there’s much more cushioning than you expect from looking at it. It’s not far of as goodnatured and easy-going as a regular Mustang, just with a little more bump steer under compression.
The biggest issue, then, isn’t the way it drives, which is pretty magnanimous, but the car’s ridiculous width. The rear wheels are pushed out 6.5 inches. On either side. Approaching 2.3 metres wide, the Liberty Walk is getting on for the width of a 44-tonne truck. Which causes issues almost everywhere. The view out the wing mirrors is so full of arch as to be alarming.
But this car isn’t really about driving. I had more fun parked up by the side of a village pond watching its efect on the local populace. As with everything Liberty Walk does, it’s not designed to be a dynamic enhancement, so much as a cultural project. And I rather liked it.