What is the first car that you think of when someone says ‘American muscle car’ out loud? Yes, the Ford Mustang. The Pony car needs no introduction if you are someone who understands the Thrill of Driving. Ford launched the Mustang in the country a couple of years ago and it was well priced. Add a big V8 to the recipe and what you get is a perfect sportscar which is loud and exuberant; just like how the Indians want their cars to be. We have not only driven it at the Buddh International Circuit but also tested its touring potential previously. But Viral Choksi, a Ford Mustang GT owner, felt that the Mustang GT needed more power. So, he handed over his stock car to the guys at Racetech and the result is a Ford Mustang GT that makes a staggering 717bhp! Read on to know all about it.
The real reason behind the existence of the Roush Ford Mustang GT (in the pictures) is because of Viral’s 10-year-old son Rishang, who nudged his dad Viral Choksi into buying the Mustang, convinced him into slapping on the race stripes and body kit and then dragged his dad to Racetech in Bengaluru to make it more exciting.
The guys over at Racetech are great friends of evo India and are one of the leading tuners of sports and supercars, also responsible for the TechArt GT Street R. Racetech are the official Indian distributors of Roush Performance, an independent go-faster shop in the USA but with such strong ties back to Ford that their kits are installed by Ford dealers in the USA, complete with a Ford warranty, and are listed in the official Ford Performance directory. Bringing Roush to India was on the cards right from the day the Mustang was announced for India but it took time because, says Manik Bhardwaj, one of the partners of Racetech, “Roush took time to get all the data on the right-hand drive Mustang to get the mapping perfectly done. And we did not want to rush things and wait until the calibration is perfect. After all we offer a one year unlimited mileage warranty on every Roush installation done in India.”
Now the stock Mustang does have a mighty 5-litre V8 but the performance isn’t, exactly, mind-numbing. Says Manik, “In the initial first and second gears acceleration is fantastic. But as soon as you build to third and fourth gear, the car doesn’t feel like a sports car; it doesn’t feel special”. And that’s when the Roush supercharger kit takes over.
Unlike turbocharging, a supercharger provides instant throttle response and a far more throaty exhaust note. The supercharger kit comes in two forms: Phase 1 and Phase 2, and Viral’s car is fitted with the latter, more powerful one. The kit includes fitment of an all-new high capacity, low-restriction air filter and a new induction system. What you also get is a large fabricated aluminium intercooler with a full-face low-temperature radiator and high capacity de-gas bottle. The injectors are replaced by Roush customs and a large 60mm dual-bore throttle body is added. A preset plug and play fuel pump control module increases fuel flow and sparking duties are handled by NGK hi-performance spark plugs.
The Roush supercharger is a roots-type positive displacement unit that features twin four-lobe rotors twisted 160-degrees as compared to the older three-lobe, 60-degree twist technology. The fourth lobe and the added twist, when combined with newly-redesigned air inlet and outlet ports is claimed to offer greater thermal efficiency, higher volumetric capacity, higher operating speeds, a smoother and more efficient flow of air into the engine, and improved noise and vibration characteristics.
It all adds up to 67 per cent more power and 53 per cent more torque over the stock car. That means a massive bump to 717bhp and 827Nm of maximum torque, over the 396bhp and 515Nm of torque. Roush claims that theirs is the most highly-engineered supercharger system for the current generation Mustang but that claim would be useless without hard numbers. And so we head to the Taneja Aerospace Aerodrome at Hosur on the outskirts of Bengaluru to put it to the test.
For perspective we’ve got a stock Mustang, but one that is slightly tuned with an exhaust and KW suspension to better put the power down. Viral’s car will be getting the suspension and also bigger brakes but for now we are here to test the acceleration and we strap on our VBOX testing gear.
Where the stock car does the 0-100kmph sprint in 6.7 seconds the Roush Mustang drops two whole seconds to now clock it in 4.7 seconds. But the really big number is the 0-200kmph time that has come down from 20.9 to 13.1 seconds! Top speed has increased too, from 222kmph to 258kmph. They say figures don’t lie and this is proof of the pudding.
The other important number: Rs 9.99 lakh is the cost of the kit including all taxes and fitment. You will need to send your Mustang to Bengaluru for the installation and it takes 15 days all in plus you get the one-year warranty. And Manik says that it runs perfectly on 95-octane petrol that is now available in all metros and vouches for the reliability of the kit.
“Now it’s wow, absolutely wow,” say the father-son Choksi duo in unison. After all their Mustang is now a propah muscle car, with all the required muscle it should’ve always packed. Would you still pay more than double the amount for a Shelby?