Watch the video of this 1965 Mustang making an easy 8.48-second quarter mile at 158 miles-per-hour, then try to guess what it is hiding under the hood. This thing runs fast and hard and has no trouble burning some serious rubber on the starting line, but this orange Australian hot rod is hiding something really interesting under its hood.
A badass, turbocharged six-cylinder isn’t what you expected to find under the hood of this classic ’Stang.
It turns out the powerplant is a turbocharged 4.0-liter, six-cylinder engine. The Aussies know how to do it when it comes to six-cylinder builds. In this case, Tunnel Vision built this beast up with a 3.8-liter engine that they de-stroked to 4.0 liters with Tunnel Vision billet roller rockers and manifold; a Garrett GTX45R turbo running 42 pounds of boost; Halchet platinum electronic fuel injection; a 4-inch exhaust, and a Preston Powerglide automatic transmission.
With that setup, the car is pumping out an impressive 1,300 horsepower — not bad for a six-cylinder right? Not bad for any amount of cylinders, actually.
It sure makes a different sound than an eight-cylinder car would, and it’s weird to see a six-banger Mustang like that make such impressive runs on the track. However, it just goes to show the potential of an inline six-cylinder design. With a well-built engine, lots of boost, and a drivetrain to match, you can do just about anything. The folks at Tunnel Vision did a spectacular job putting this car together.
If you are interested in checking out more of the company’s builds or seeing more of what Tunnel Vision does, check out its Facebook page here. TV sure does a lot of interesting and unusual stuff. Australia’s musclecar and race scene is alive, well, and much different than its North American counterpart. The Australians love power too, sometimes they just have a different way of getting making it.