They say to never judge a book by it’s cover, and in automotive terms, that translates to never discounting a race car by it’s mild appearance. This can be a hard lesson to learn, of course, if money is on the line and the mild mannered looking car hands your pride to you, along with a losing time slip.
The “I Tuff 65” 1965 Mustang from down under in Australia is one of those cars that looks like a small pony but has the kick of a big mule, to the tune of 8.67 at 158 mph!
Just like many of its Australian counterparts, this Mustang is packing boost, and it comes from a Garrett GTX45R turbocharger. The 3.8L Ford six-banger is gets a big dose of boost to the tune of 34 PSI with a set of TV Billet Rockers helping to keep things going. The Tunnel Vision-built car uses a Haltech Platinum computer to keep everything under control, and Precision Automatics built the Powerglide transmission that transfers the power to the LMS rear end that spins a pair of Mickey Thompson 275 radial tires. This six-banger combo produces a wicked 742 horsepower to the rear tires.
If all of that wasn’t cool enough, this car is street-driven and runs on E85 straight out of the pump. In the video provided by Full Boost you can see just how much punch this car has. When the driver turns this car loose it absolutely sings and moves out. Building any car that can run single digits is impressive, but doing it with only six cylinders and keeping it street legal is amazing.