1981, the year that could be considered one of, if not the weakest and lowest year for automotive fun. The GM mid sizes were wheezing forms of their former selves. The F-car twins and the Corvette were under 200hp and heavy. The entire Mopar camp was out of it unless you lived in Mexico. And the Mustang was rolling along, kind of. It still had a V8, but that was the absolutely asthmatic 4.2L V8 that could barely get out of it’s own way. The performance option was the 2.3L four cylinder with a turbo, but when we call it a “performance option” we mean 130hp out of the four cylinder versus the 118hp out of the V8. Yeah, try to not retch, it was sad times indeed.
Out of that miserable information there came the birth of Ford’s Special Vehicle Operations. Surprised? Here’s the story on how that came to be.
Ford had seen the writing on the wall about cars needing to be smaller and to focus on other aspects of performance. They were expecting the death of the V8 and had turned their focus to turbo-four performance. After lifting a ten-year factory racing ban, the SVO team turned their focus to getting the Mustang back up to par. To do this Ford teamed up with McLaren, giving McLaren control over the engine builds. Using the factory 2.3 blocks, the 9.0:1 blocks were polished and de-burred, and the engines were blueprinted. The car used a boost controller that ran from 5psi (at 145hp, just a tick over the factory 2.3 Turbo) but when it was turned up to 11psi, the motor could hit 175hp. It’s rumored that the Motor Trend guys managed to get one turned up to 12psi and got 190hp out of the four-banger.
That wasn’t all, though. The factory bucket seats were replaced with Recaros, the steering wheel was a smaller piece from Racemark, Stewart-Warner gauges replaced the factory cluster and there was supposed to be a roll cage available as an option. A ton of off-the-shelf performance parts, Koni shocks and special struts with a unique spring rate were shoved under the Mustang, along with the V8’s 9” rear. 15×8 BBK wheels were under the production model, while the one IMSA M81 had 15×9 rears. And then there’s the body kit. That’s all steel, even the flares, and the hood heat extractors and brake ducts are functional.
Dark times? You bet. While the idea of promoting the turbo four is a good one, there was one serious problem: the price. These were $25,000 cars in 1981. Originally meant to be a planned run of 250 cars, only eleven were produced, if you count the original prototype as one. But was it a failure? Yes and no. Yes, the car was a fail due to the high price, but the creation of SVO alone was worth the hassle. Plus, it got Ford looking at smaller forced-induction engines and handling, which was sorely needed after a decade of block-long barges that handled like the SS United States.
Interesting, I’ve never heard of those before, only the less expensive follow ups that it seems to have spawned.
I knew McLaren did some Fox body Capri’s and convertible Mustangs, didn’t know about this though. Cool trivia, keep finding stuff like this.
There were a few that were produced. M81 McLarens and Enduro GT’s they do come up for sale once in a blue moon.
I just want to say I like “block-long barges that handled like the SS United States” I bet if Detroit still made a few of those they would sell like hotcakes. Heck the hip hoppers would get one of every color. On the mustang interesting story, They remind me of the Monroe Handler cars, those were cool.
I do remember having the Hotwheels version of this car