750BHP MUSTANG
Insanely powerful bright red muscle car is sure to get noticed.
When it comes to promoting your business, it pays to stand out from the crowd; it’s the reason that so many tuners build eye-catching demo cars, so they can attract maximum attention. But that doesn’t mean you have to cover your pride and joy in a lairy wrap. Oh no. By choosing wisely, you can have an awesome demo car that gets plenty of attention, but also looks cool too.
For Alan Farmer, boss of Ford tuning specialists Pumabuild, it had to be a Mustang, especially as they’d just arrived in the UK in right-hand drive form.
“It was May 2016 and I was buying a Focus RS Mk3 as a development car from Jo at Bristol Street Ford, but she ended up selling me the Mustang too!” he laughs “At this time it was hard to get hold of Mustangs in UK and this one belonged to the dealer
“The power delivery is so smooth and it only becomes a handful over 5500rpm, where it has the ability to light up the tyres in most gears”
principal, so I was glad I managed to get it.”
The 5.0-litre V8 ticked all the boxes; it’s big, noisy and, at the time, there weren’t many around, let alone modified examples.
“I must admit I was more into the Focus at first,” explains Alan, “but once I’d successfully flashed the RS’s ECU with a tune file, I turned my attention to the Mustang; I just had to have a big, red supercharger.” And so, project BA51ARD was born…
Having initially gone for a Stage 1 set-up, Alan soon realised that Stage 2 was the way to go. “The power delivery is so smooth and it only becomes a handful over 5500rpm, where it has the ability to light up the tyres in most gears.”
The Whipple supercharger was the first to be fitted to a right-hand-drive car, so Alan enlisted the help of William Rollins at Whipple and Jon Lund at Lund Racing who assisted with the tuning and final setting up. This was all done remotely, which shows just how far tuning has come since the days of sending off your ECU to be worked on.
The kit itself is comprehensive and includes every nut, bolt, clip and hose needed for the installation. Aside from the twin-screw supercharger itself, which is good for 750bhp, you get a huge air to water intercooler, high-flow 58lb injectors and you can have it in pretty much any finish you want – Alan, of course, choosing bright red to match his car.
Pumabuild have now done lots of these kits, which will take three to four days to complete, including rolling road tuning. “I asked Chris Johnson, owner of SCT in America, what he thought the best kit to buy was; Roush or Whipple? His words stuck with me: ‘Both kits will produce more power than the tyres can handle’, so I went with Whipple as I prefer the way the air enters the engine and the fact it looks like it’s meant to be there.”
So, what’s this blown, V8 bruiser like to drive? “To be honest it’s just like a regular V8; the power comes in very linear and very smoothly. The more you press the pedal the faster it becomes, but it comes in very smoothly so you don’t really notice it until you see the traction light start to flash at about 5,500rpm in most gears. It’s certainly a machine that demands respect, but that certainly helps to make it entertaining.
Then there’s the sound…
“When I first fitted the charger, the car made this loud raspy noise,” says Alan. However, since the Kooks headers were installed, the sound has been muffled somewhat, which is either good or bad depending on how you like your cars to sound. One thing’s for sure, as Alan’s pal, Gary, does a few drive-bys so I can get some moving shots, it sounds incredible. The 5.0-litre V8 emits a deep, throaty bark, that’s joined by the wail of the supercharger. Echoing off the concrete – we’re underneath the M6 – you’d think someone had just gone past in a NASCAR. It’s a sound that’s not wasted on the many passing cars and vans, who all slow down to take a look at the fiery red beast bellowing under the motorway.
The exterior has been treated to a few Roush additions, including the bonnet with scoop and boot spoiler. Aside from the super-shiny red paintwork (which has just been lovingly minted-up by Luke at The Detailing Spa), it’s the wheels and stance that really set this thing apart. From the factory, even top spec Mustangs can look a little under-wheeled and Ford’s choice of alloys leaves a lot to be desired. So, getting a set of cool wheels fitted together with a decent drop in ride height makes a huge difference. In this case, you’ll find a set of 6GRs, which measure a girthy 11x19in at the rear and 10x19 up front. “I went for 19s as with anything larger the ride quality suffers,” explains Alan. These dark wheels are shod in finest Michelin Pilot Sport rubber –
the rears offering an impressive 305mm footprint. This helps improve the traction issues, but even these fat tyres are no match for the simply incredible 825Nm of torque this thing produces.
Fortunately, the KW Variant 3 coilovers and Eibach ARBs keep this V8 bruiser planted, offering much reduced pitch and body roll. They also allow the wheels to sit much tighter in the arches, yet still provide a forgiving and compliant ride when driving on the road.
Inside, it’s standard Mustang kit, which is all very nice in a big, American kind of way. But those with eagle eyes may spot the bright red starter button from a GT350 R and the later-spec digital dials and TFT screen. “The instrument cluster took me over 40 hours to code as it’s not designed to work on a 2016 car,” says Alan.
So, what’s next for this mighty Mustang? As a promotional tool for Pumabuild, it’s certainly done its job. “Everybody takes photos and stops to talk to you,” says Alan. “It’s by far the most attention grabbing car I’ve owned.” (That cheeky number plate certainly helps). However, with plans for a new project already underway, the time has come for this hard charging ’Stang to find a new home. Until then, Alan intends to enjoy it to the max and who can blame him?