My friend Michael sold his crossover SUV and got a sweet-looking Mustang EcoBoost with a six-speed manual. It's got Hurst shifter and he's been playing with the Roush catalog, too, I think.
It seems amazing that the DOHC 2.3L four cylinder with a hairdryer bolted to the exhaust puts out almost a hundred horsepower more than the old pushrod 5.0, but it does. In
Car and Driver's
road test of the '94 GT back when it was new, the 215bhp SN95 put down a 6.1 second 0-60, and the same magazine
wrung a 5.5 second sprint from the 2015 EcoBoost with a manual shifter. In the quarter mile the gap widens to a full second, 14.9 for the V8 and 13.9 for the turbo four. And in contests of handling and cornering, the modern car has it all over the old one with its primitive live-axle rear suspension.
Still, though, the '94 is a hoot to drive and I love it like I've loved few cars I've owned. Plus there's something to be said for the late fuelie small block Windsor's bulletproof reputation. Og from
Neanderpundit has pushed more than one Exploder with basically the same driveline over the quarter million mile mark, IIRC.
