The phrase I use to describe stories like the one I put up recently about the possibility of a four-door Ford Mustang is “smacking the hornet’s nest”. It’s not a good idea…you have known this. It’s almost instinctive that you don’t do it, but for some reason there you go, picking up the stick and gearing up for what will inevitably become a quarter-mile wind sprint away from a very pissed-off group of insects armed with stabbing implements on their hind ends. I saw the result of that question before I even finished the writeup: one or two might be intrigued, one might even accept it as it was, but the remainder of comments would more-or-less be a crowd of pitchforks and torches, full of anger and ready to let anyone within earshot know that messing with the Mustang will be a very bad idea.
Ok, how about this compromise, then? What you are looking at is a 2016 Ford Fusion that is in the late stages of a rear-wheel-drive conversion and a Coyote 5.0L V8 swap. Owned and built by Matt Soppa, the Fusion is being pressed into drift car duty. Sporting the rear IRS from an S550 Mustang, the front subframe of an S197 Mustang, and the attitude (and, from American eyes, appearance) that seems to breathe more than a slight hint of Ford Falcon about it. There’s a full build series on YouTube with the car but for the moment, we’re interested in it’s final form: a smart-sized, rear-drive, manual trans four-door sedan. This generation Fusion is a looker and is a decent machine on it’s own accord, and the conversion process doesn’t actually look as bad as some other FWD-to-RWD swaps can be.
What would the interest level be on a Coyote Fusion like this one?
Here’s the first episode of the Fusion build! You can check out the five parts uploaded so far on the channel!
(Thanks to Charles Wickam for the tip!)
I would buy one today!
Well duh! Of course thats a good idea!
It even looks Mustangy from the front, call it MAVERICK, or Falcon
Just sell this in the UK only as it would knock the AMG Mercedes, Audi R types and BMW M series cars off their perches and undercut them in cost – but only after having the steering wheel moved to the proper side. Building such a beautiful machine as this with so much potential only to skid around corners belching out toxic smoke is a waste of brain cells when it could be giving pleasure to thousands of drivers and making money as well!
I was thinking about how nasty this exact build would be on my commute home yesterday.
Ford thinks it has, apparently, forgotten how to build cars. I think it rather pathetic that they are essentially giving up on cars and saying, in effect, that only the Japs and Koreans know how to build cars people want…
Ford needs to start mass producing cars like this, for the US and overseas.
Pretty freakin sweet!
OMG. I\’ve wanted something like this for many years! Could Ford \”convert\” this body for RWD? For years I\’ve been wondering why Ford doesn\’t take the mustang chassis and build a sedan on top of it with both the Ecoboost 4 and Coyote V8 for an absolute slayer in sales and performance. They\’d need to hold back and not muscle it out with stripes and other things only on American muscle cars…they could definitely win a lot of US buyers, but they could easily hijack a new segment… lots of BMW, Audi (those who aren\’t married to AWD), and Lexus and Mercedes buyers if they could give it a more sophisticated interior, too. Sell it in Europe first, and bring it over as an SVO/SVT. or similar I\’m thinking back to tor original SVO mustang and even the SVT Contour (barely). They were \”euro\” vehicles intended to handle better, and were unique compared to the US models. Those things might help pull in the US-\”Euro buyers\”… Watch any Volvo or Audi ad. They cater to the highly educated, likely liberal .com\’er, techie, attorney, architect etc. Guys who would NEVER buy a Mustang or Camaro. The boosted 4 could pull a lot of WRX & BRZ buyers as they grow older/grow up. But come out with something that is a true perfomance machine, clearly unique that handles (new Mustang IRS platform chassis seems like a no brainer) with the existing killer engine options. They could do so much with it. What would kill it? Stripes, Huge badges with goofy names. Clunky interior. Put a special team on the whole project. The pure performance will sell it to lots of us Americans, but don\’t scare off those…dare I say highly educated and sophisticated \”snobs.\” Keep it LIGHT. IMO the Pontiac G8 and Chevy SS with the LS-V8\’s (along with most of the BMW 3, 4, 5 series, newer Lexus IS and GS…have become tanks). Keep it close to the 3,500 lb. mark for the Coyote option and watch performance numbers crush much of the competition. I would have bought a Cadillac ATS but the reliability reviews are terrible. The 2.3L boosted 4 could wipe the floor with the ATS. And the Coyote maybe the ATS-V. Forget the CTS…another tank (think curves!). I think Modern Fords and most US cars in general are in a newer category for reliability, opening minds that used to be closed. I\’ve longed for this car for many ears. A Taurus SHO in rear wheel drive would have been close, but it also became a heavy tank before it\’s early demise. Both of those new Ford motors are incredible, if they could put it in a sedan more in line with an E36 or E46 BMW sedan…lots of female and male buyers, and with the Ford version of the BMW \”M\” cars (AMG for Benz, \”S\” for the Audis)…they could kill it. Make it unique. Don\’t even call a model a GT. And forget any connection to the Mustang. Those who know and care will know all they need to…it\’s built on an awesome chassis/engine combo. The build right here is a great start, hopefully a shot across the bow at Ford that catches the marketers attention, excites the engineers, and doesn\’t spook the bean counters…seems like a slam dunk. Love the build!