The original Mustang was inspired by a mid-engine concept from 1962. The Mustang I did lend its name to the most popular pony car of them all, but the Ford Motor Company couldn’t make a case for a mid-engine design ever since. It’s public knowledge that the Dearborn-based automaker was working on a two-seater mid-engine Mustang in 1966, but being FoMoCo, the front-engine pony made a lot more sense.
Given that Chevrolet made the switch to a midship Corvette for the sports car’s eighth generation, pixel artist Marouane Bembli is much obliged to present us with an S650-based midship Mustang. It’s not real, though, but the product of this man’s Photoshop skills. The design study in the featured clip is unmistakably Mustang up front, although the nose is more aggressively styled than the real deal thanks to the mid-engine makeover.
The side windows have been modified as well, and even the rear end bears resemblance to the front-engine S650. The wider rear wheel arches, huge side intakes, and more rakish roofline make this rendering a strict two-seat affair. Bembli, who is better known as The Sketch Monkey, also imagined a drop-top version of the mid-engine Mustang. It looks even better than the fixed-head coupe, but then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
The basis for both body styles is the 5.0-liter GT, which rocks the fourth-generation Coyote V8. As you already know by now, the biggest difference over the third-generation Coyote V8 in the S550 is the dual throttle body setup. The 2.3-liter EcoBoost continues to be standard issue, although it now comes with a ten-speed automatic right off the bat. On the upside, upgrading to eight cylinders comes with a choice between six-speed manual (Getrag for the GT and Tremec for the Dark Horse) and ten-speed automatic (a Ford-designed tranny shared with General Motors).
The C8, on the other hand, continues to rely on a small block for the Stingray. The performance-oriented Z06 is a bit more special by taking inspiration from the Ferrari 458 Italia for its flat-plane crankshaft V8, the most powerful naturally-aspirated V8 ever fitted to a production car. The Stingray and Z06 both use a Tremec-supplied DCT, although there are significant differences between the Stingray- and Z06-spec transaxles.
Had the Ford Motor Company made the S650 a midship, the C8 wouldn’t even break a sweat, because the Z06 produces a whopping 670 horsepower and 460 pound-feet (624 Nm) of torque. It also revs a little higher than the 5.2-liter Voodoo V8 in the Shelby GT350, topping 8,600 revolutions.
Still, we’re wishful thinking here, because the Ford Motor Company wouldn’t invest billions over billions of dollars in a car that doesn’t sell exactly well nowadays. Last year, the S550 racked up 47,566 deliveries in the United States of America, down 9.2 percent from 2021. The soon-to-be-discontinued Challenger ended 2022 with 55,060 units to its name.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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