In lower than three weeks, we’ll be back in Las Vegas for the 2024 edition of the annual SEMA Show.
While SEMA is an automotive aftermarket trade show at its heart, it’s also certainly one of the world’s biggest stages for custom and modified automotive debuts. From the bizarre to the truly stunning, we’re guaranteed to see all of it. Ten years ago in Vegas, Dino featured arguably the best brand-new sixth-gen Ford Mustang on the show – Vaughn Gittin Jr.‘s Spec 5 Mustang RTR. Let’s revisit that story for this week’s throwback post.
2014 Feature
In the event you saw my post on the 2015 Spec 2 Mustang RTR, there’s one query you would possibly have been left asking yourself: What in the event you wanted more? The Spec 2 is an awesome and highly-capable street automotive in its own right, but just imagine what you could possibly find yourself with in the event you upped it a couple of notches… Well, you don’t actually should imagine, because Vaughn Gittin Jr. didn’t waste any time putting that automotive together either. Then he spent per week thrashing it outside the Las Vegas Convention Center in the course of the 2014 SEMA Show…
Seeing as how the recent 2015 Mustang created such a buzz throughout the show this 12 months, we just needed to borrow the ‘Spec 5 Mustang RTR’ – our favourite hands down – and immortalise it against an unmistakably-Vegas backdrop. Coming from Japan, where moving a automotive from a show would require you to fax (yes, fax!) countless requests to the event organizers months upfront, and have them countersigned and approved by at the very least 25 people, I’m all the time impressed by how easy it’s to do things like this in america.
Larry got on the phone to Vaughn and told him to drive the automotive out of the Las Vegas C0nvention Center, across the back streets, after which meet us up on the highest floor of an enormous parking structure. Fast forward 10 minutes and that is the view that greeted us.
You have probably gathered that I’m quite a fan of this recent ‘Stang. Ford has managed to create a design with bucketfuls of presence, and one that permits just about anyone with a distant interest in cars to immediately know what it’s. But within the space of a number of months, Vaughn and his crew have taken the base automotive and pumped it stuffed with steroids to create the drift machine you see here.
The automotive was in-built a collaboration between Vaughn’s RTR brand, MA-Motorsports and ASD Motorsports, and was put together with the purpose of getting fun. That said, it not only needed to look tough, but additionally have all the power required to perform each as a grip and drift, a fully-fledged track weapon in the event you will.
On top of the enjoyment that Vaughn had creating this automotive – after which driving the hell out of it at SEMA’s exhibition – this Spec 5 concept can be serving as a development platform.
As you’d expect, the Spec 5’s exterior is way more in your face than the Mustang RTR Spec 2 road automotive. The visual impact begins on the front end, where the RTR signature grille with back-lit ‘nostrils’ is carried over, albeit with green lighting to tie in with the opposite shiny details and the Team Monster motif.
Efficient cooling is super-important in drifting, and to assist direct more air to the radiator is a secondary grille cut into the bumper.
An aggressively-contoured chin spoiler can be fitted, and beneath that a skinny carbon fiber splitter which protrudes further outwards to assist boost front-end downforce.
Each corner of the splitter is connected up with a canard that mounts directly onto the bolt-on over-fenders, and it’s here we discover the primary selling point of the Spec 5 conversion.
The over-fenders fatten up the Mustang by 50mm on the front and 75mm on the rear, and naturally allow loads of room for wide RTR wheels with an aggressive offset to widen the track and permit numerous suspension modifications to be made.
The additional girth actually works wonders for the general stance of the automotive, which is extremely aggressive from all angles.
The rear end is complemented by a diffuser that’s finished in black to offer contrast against the flat silver wrapped body.
Fully adjustable coilovers are fitted at each corner to provide Vaughn the power to positive tune the automotive to any specific course or track, while ASD Motorsports front lower control arms allow for the correct type of steering geometry to balance the large coupé in full-lock slides.
Then in fact there are the huge 20-inch 3-piece RTR wheels made by HRE – 10-inch and 11-inch wide front and rear respectively, and fitted with Nitto NT05 rubber.
You possibly can almost make out the large Brembo stoppers behind the wheels’ spokes – 6-pot calipers up front to make sure there’s no shortage of stopping power.
In my opinion, aftermarket side skirts are a number of the harder aesthetic additions to design, however the RTR Spec 5 items add just the correct amount of continuity between the pumped front and rear fenders.
The automotive oozes presence and it looks prefer it desires to go completely sideways even when sitting still.
I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that the looks have been nailed to perfection here, so it’s over to the remainder of the small print that make up this impressive drift machine.
First up it’s Vaughn’s office. Very like the skin of the automotive, what really makes the inside stand out is the sheer simplicity of all of it. But that doesn’t mean it was easy to attain.
Opening the paper-thin composite doors you’re confronted with an array of details, from the Wilwood pedal box to the custom dashboard and center console where the switch panel is positioned.
Climbing over the rollcage’s door bars will land you in certainly one of two supportive Recaro buckets – constructed from carbon fiber in fact, and equipped with Takata 5-point harnesses. Like in all race cars, the seating positions are shifted barely rearwards to assist with each weight balance/distribution, but additionally to align the seats with the B-pillars for added safety within the event of an impact or crash.
See what I mean when I exploit the word ‘simplicity’? Take a look at the dash – a contoured section of polished carbon fiber that has the job of hiding the bar work, frame and miscellaneous wiring, in addition to providing a perfect mounting point for the Bosch Motorsport DDU 7 digital display unit.
As Vaughn quickly demonstrated, that is one trick little bit of kit that’s in a position to offer some pretty cool and customizable displays. His teammates even added some pictures of necessary moments in his life for a little bit of visual motivation.
All of it comes together to form a fun and really capable recent project automotive for Vaughn to drive, but most significantly of all, develop from.
But in fact, a drift’s automotive true potential all comes all the way down to the power-making bits, and within the RTR Spec 5’s case it’s all hiding under a composite vented bonnet.
Lift it up and your eyes immediately note the Ford Racing logo atop the intake plenum that feeds the V8 beneath it. The Mustang RTR Spec 2 Larry and I drove impressed us for its broad spread of torque mated to a punchy mid and top-end – not to say a pleasant willingness to rev. However the engine fitted to this particular automotive takes those qualities even further…
Appropriately named the ‘5.0L Aluminator V8 XS Crate Engine’, this 500hp-plus motor runs all varieties of top-notch components to boost every aspect of its naturally aspirated character. It reliably revs all of the option to 8,000rpm because of Mahle hard anodized forged pistons with a low friction coating, Manley H-beam connecting rods, and a lighter yet stronger aluminium block with special cross-bolted primary bearing caps. CNC-ported Boss heads and high-lift cams maintain the remainder, making this a strong and impressively responsive setup.
Vaughn’s guys added American Racing headers and a Magnaflow exhaust system, while the engine breathes through a K&N cone filer, Ford Racing intake and the large throttle body you see pictured here.
To benefit from the engine setup, the driveline uses a close-ratio 6-speed Ford Racing transmission running right into a Driveshaft Shop Ford 9-inch diff conversion with 4:56 gears. For extra strength, bulletproof Driveshaft Shop aluminium driveshafts and axles are also fitted.
Once all of the mechanicals were sorted, Revolution Automotive were left to extract copious amounts of power and torque, which they did.
This automotive actually represents what the brand new Mustang is all about – an awesome package that’s begging to be personalised, built up and refined for whatever its end use could also be.
And if that’s drifting, then Vaughn and his team have already shown us the power this automotive has when it comes to tearing up tyres!
Because the sun set over the Vegas Strip I used to be pleased that I had the chance to take an in depth take a look at this RTR concept. I used to be impressed by the general execution and looks, not to say the performance. The Mustang legend is unquestionably here to remain in all its different guises!
To wrap things up, try this clip of Vaughn drifting the Spec 5 (and other machines) at SEMA.
The Speedhunters
Instagram: thespeedhunters
Dino Dalle Carbonare
Instagram: dino_dalle_carbonare
dino@speedhunters.com
Additional Photography by Mike Garrett
Instagram: japanifornia
This Article First Appeared At www.speedhunters.com
