American Muscle takes their project 2018 Mustang GT to a very respectable, and naturally aspirated 500 horsepower level with only a few bolt-ons. I gotta admit, kids today are spoiled when it comes to making horsepower. You guys can pick up a brand new Mustang making over 400 hp right off the showroom floor. Back in the day, a 302 making 500 horsepower on pump gas was reserved for the track.
The only 302 engines making anywhere close to that number were the Trans Am Boss 302 Mustangs of the 1969-70 era; and any of you who know anything about those engines, knew that they weren’t ideal for daily street driving. They were extremely loud, used a ton of fuel, and had sky-high compression ratios that required race fuel in order to run properly. Yessiree, we had to WORK for our horsepower back then!
You kids don’t know nuthin’ about dual point distributors and tuning your carburetor by ear and smell, while searching for the right set of squirters so your car wouldn’t bog off the line!
Today, thanks to modern technology, auto manufacturers are producing cars and trucks with powerful yet, efficient power plants that come stock with at least, twice the power their predecessors did back in the ‘70s, but are entirely streetable with excellent manners. In this video, Justin from American Muscle shows us how well the new Mustang responds to a few bolt-ons. They test with pump gas, and then switch to E85 for even higher gains.
The new components consist of JLT Performance’s cold air kit, SCT’s VMP Rev-X Tuner, and a pair of off-road, long tube headers and Xtreme cat-back exhaust from Corsa Performance. The cool thing is that you don’t need to take out a second mortgage on the house for a truckload of parts; all you need are just some basic bolt ons.
Stock, the Mustang made 437hp and 401 lb/ft of torque. With the mods and pump gas, the numbers rose to 474hp and 430 lb/ft of torque. But remember, Justin said at the beginning of the video that they made 500hp to the wheels. So, after a switch to E85 fuel, they went back to the dyno and cranked out 509hp and 451 lb/ft of torque. Not bad for an afternoon of work!
Always packed full of potential, the new Mustang with the latest generation Coyote under the hood never fails to impress!
Living in Richmond, Tx, PJ Rentie has been in the automotive industry for more than 30 years. This former Assistant Editor at Vette Magazine also spent time with companies like NOS, Edelbrock, Hillbank Motorsports, Classic Industries, and was an automotive instructor for Cypress College for ten years. In his spare time, PJ hopes to one day bring his Fox Body Mustang out of the back yard and back onto the street!
