"Grindintosecond" (Grindintosecond)
10/23/2014 at 11:16 • Filed to: mustang
11
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"Grindintosecond" (Grindintosecond)
10/23/2014 at 11:16 • Filed to: mustang | 11
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IMSA GTP. Add one big drop of Zakspeed Capri from Germany, and add Ford USA trying to make a front engined GTP car. It was ruthless for sure. It had power, and lightness, and it took no prisoners, especially of it's own engineers. Overall, It sucked and the lead engineer said it was the worst project he ever worked on. It wasn't reliable and Zakspeed refused to work with Cosworth to get it to last. Roush wanted to use his own V8's in it but Ford refused, wanting a high tech image but ford didn't give the budget enough zeros.
This was your ultimate Mustang SVO. Carbon fiber Nomex sandwich chassis that weighed just under 100 pounds. It had a huge venturi tunnel out the back, designed to make as much down force as possible. The whole thing was less than 1800 pounds ready to go. They had very high power Zakspeed built Cosworth BDA based turbo engines. 600hp from 2 liters. The heat soaked the cockpit. The car handled like garbage when light on fuel. Undriveable. It was the little things. The project ended after 1984 being too high of a mountain to make it work.
Personally, I love the idea. If NASCAR really wanted to turn heads and make something unusually great in it's whole Daytona Prototype idea, it would have made them front engined GTP cars like this one was and the Panoz later on. That would be GT racing. Putting the GT style car back on top.
Not to be. Not to be. But, here check out the opening of this 1984 riverside race where the excellent guys from Diamond-P sports show us a bit about the car as it took POLE position!...so it was good, briefly. It took off and led the race. the exhaust fire in the braking zone is really nice to see.
AspenRS
> Grindintosecond
10/24/2014 at 10:51 |
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I have a model of this car in my dad's garage. Thanks for reminding me that him and I still need to build it together.
CrymeLord
> Grindintosecond
10/24/2014 at 10:58 |
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Mustang.
See. I can do it too.
revarthurbelling
> Grindintosecond
10/24/2014 at 11:00 |
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Showing my ignorance (again), but was this really called a "Mustang"? Because I don't see a shred of Mustang in that entire car. The cockpit, for instance, looks like a Porsche 911. I iz confuzzled.
Drakkon- Most Glorious and Upright Person of Genius
> Grindintosecond
10/24/2014 at 11:01 |
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I WANT TO EAT YOUR CHILDREN!
TheHondaBro
> revarthurbelling
10/24/2014 at 11:08 |
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Is this really a Celica?
mario19062
> Grindintosecond
10/24/2014 at 11:08 |
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UM I NEED THIS. NOW.
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Drakkon- Most Glorious and Upright Person of Genius
> Grindintosecond
10/24/2014 at 11:08 |
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Crude diffusers big enough to crawl inside.
Eric Sean Delaney
> Grindintosecond
10/24/2014 at 11:09 |
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That car is on display at the Roush Museum in Livonia, Michigan if anyone is local and wondering. The photo above the video is from that museum. It's free too!
flabberboozled
> revarthurbelling
10/24/2014 at 11:12 |
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Is this really a Fusion?
C.A. Martin
> Grindintosecond
10/24/2014 at 11:14 |
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I never knew that the car was such a compromised disaster, but I did know that this and other wide-ranging Ford racing projects (IMSA Mustangs, SCCA Capris, NASCAR T-Birds, Rallying RS200s, the Probe GTP, the partnership with Benetton F1) took Ford from a minimal player in motorsport to a seeming leader in all things fun and fast...and all in just a couple of years. For a kid like me at the time, it was magnificent.
dataPOG
> TheHondaBro
10/24/2014 at 11:17 |
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I remember seeing that announcement...because we all know Celica's are nitro-methane belching V8s of awesome.
My thought then and still is, why?
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revarthurbelling
> TheHondaBro
10/24/2014 at 11:30 |
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No, it really isn't. I'm not talking under the hood, though, but body design. it's stupid to name these frankencars with consumer names. Just call it the Toyota Bad Ass Muthafucka or something; the Ford GTP Burner.
Bring Back Pontiac
> revarthurbelling
10/24/2014 at 11:31 |
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I was also wondering what made this a Mustang. The Celica and Fusion in these replies at least have some visual cues that resemble their respective models, albeit superficial. This "Mustang" doesn't even have that from what I can see.
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revarthurbelling
> flabberboozled
10/24/2014 at 11:31 |
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Not familiar with the styling of a Fusion that much. It looks closer to a consumer body than that monstrosity above.
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TheHondaBro
> dataPOG
10/24/2014 at 11:32 |
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Yeah, total disgrace to the Celica, in my opinion.
EngieKev
> Grindintosecond
10/24/2014 at 11:36 |
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This looked like a great idea on paper. I'm curious what issues they ran into with the engine, the cossie engines were definitely a stout design, though obviously not suited to 600hp without modification.
What other 4 cylinder turbo stangs came out of IMSA? One other that's very interesting is the '91 GTO with an 800+hp 2.5L
superhappyfuntime
> Grindintosecond
10/24/2014 at 11:45 |
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Am I correct in guessing that this is the only part of that car that is part of a Mustang.
Renault R8 Gordini from 1966
> Grindintosecond
10/24/2014 at 11:55 |
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I want to see how they would've mass produced this.
coasterkev
> Grindintosecond
10/24/2014 at 12:01 |
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That was an absolute delight. Very interesting, thank you for posting!
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flabberboozled
> revarthurbelling
10/24/2014 at 12:10 |
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The Fusion is a four door, mid-sized sedan. It looks nothing like the NASCAR body.
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dataPOG
> TheHondaBro
10/24/2014 at 12:20 |
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Which makes it hilarious that they are now using a Camry.
James May is my spirit animal
> flabberboozled
10/24/2014 at 12:27 |
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That ass looks like a Monte Carlo.
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TheHondaBro
> dataPOG
10/24/2014 at 12:56 |
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That really is a "funny" car.
jtso
> Grindintosecond
10/24/2014 at 14:43 |
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One way they rationalized the front engine placement was with aerodynamics because it was able to have huge ground effect tunnels in the rear. Obviously the handling issues overshadowed any benefit.
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Grindintosecond
> jtso
10/24/2014 at 14:58 |
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yep. If they could keep the fuel balance it would have worked much better. I wonder where the tank sat. It had to be behind the driver, that would have a huge weight shift if so as it burned off.
The359
> revarthurbelling
10/24/2014 at 15:11 |
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The Mustang name was pure marketing. Want something even less related to their namesake? The car sitting next to the Mustang GTP in that garage is...
http://gtcarlot.com/news_pictures/…
The Ford Mustang Probe GTP. A mid-engine GTP car with the same turbo-4. Called a Mustang. AND a Probe. Bears no relation to either. This is the car that replaced the Mustang GTP after 1985.
Roush eventually took over the Mustang Probe when it too failed and finally put a proper V8 in it. Renamed it the Mustang Maxum GTP.
Bill-C423
> Grindintosecond
10/24/2014 at 15:49 |
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This car was hampered by a POS engine built in Germany by Zakspeed. Michael Kranefuss was the head of Ford Motorsports at the time. Erich Zachowski was his brother-in-law. That's why this car and later the Ford Probe GTP car (which pre-dated the street probe by a few years) was saddled with such an awful engine.
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CaptainStu
> Grindintosecond
10/24/2014 at 16:53 |
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That race had Mr. Dope Boat himself in P2 http://jalopnik.com/the-man-who-tu…
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Grindintosecond
> Bill-C423
10/24/2014 at 16:58 |
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I knew his engine didn't have endurance car reliability but I didn't know he was the bro-in-law of Kranefuss. that explains the lack of progress.
John The Race Fan
> Grindintosecond
10/25/2014 at 09:25 |
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Wow.
Watching the video reminds me how old I am remember names like Diamond P, American Sports Cavalcade, Brock Yates, Randy Lanier (recently profiled due to his release from prison), Al Holbert (in a Porsche 962!), Hurley Haywood, Bobby Rahal, etc...
Shiyal
> Grindintosecond
10/25/2014 at 09:44 |
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I need this car.
Racing Archivist
> Grindintosecond
10/25/2014 at 18:42 |
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I believe this car one year might have almost won at Watkins Glen with either St. James, or Pruett behind the wheel.
tf3cac
> Grindintosecond
10/26/2014 at 15:26 |
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Kind of wish they had left some of the commercial breaks in the video. Would love to have seen some vintage ads.
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Bill-C423
> Grindintosecond
10/27/2014 at 17:06 |
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Did you know that Bob Riley (Riley & Scott, Riley Technologies, etc) designed the front engined Mustang GTP car? I used to work for him, and he actually gave me the mechanical pencil he used to draw that car!
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Bill-C423
> Racing Archivist
10/27/2014 at 17:09 |
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The 2 cars entered at Road America (Elkhart Lake, WI) finished 1st and 3rd in 1983.
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Grindintosecond
> Bill-C423
10/28/2014 at 00:12 |
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I did not but I just found out he designed AJ Foyt's '77 Indy winning car.