Three months ago, Adam LZ watched his Shelby GT350 burn after the oil filter came loose. The “Internet guy playing pretend racecar driver” had two choices to make, but as you already know from the headline, he didn’t replace the track-focused pony for an all-new or second-hand car. Instead of a flat-plane crankshaft V8, the pony has been outfitted with one of the most revered straight-six engines ever made.
Barra is how Ford calls the six-cylinder motor which features a cast-iron block and aluminum head, four valves per cylinder, and 4.0 liters. The final incarnation – codenamed 325T – cranks out 325 kW (436 horsepower) and 576 Nm (425 pound-feet) of torque in the Falcon XR6 Sprint.
This bad boy, however, puts down 870 horsepower and 700 pound-feet of torque at the wheels. The secret to this output is – of course – the oversized turbocharger and the massive amount of air coming through the intake.
Adam sourced his Barra from an FG, which is popular with the tuning community in Australia thanks to the rear oil sump and better flowing head. Of course, this one-of-a-kind engine swap also benefits from software calibration. At one point during the first of the two video at the end of this story, you can clearly hear the owner saying “900 horsepower is getting boring." Right, thanks for the LOLs!
“I've driven a lot of cars,” he added. “And this one, I can't compare to anything.” You can’t even compare it to the Shelby GT350 is used to be, to be frank, more so because the six-speed manual has been swapped for a torque-converter automatic transmission.
A stupidly quick machine, the straight-six turbo ‘Stang still has plenty of bugs left to be sorted, so treat this build as a work in progress. “The car works now enough to rip, dial in, and I’ll eventually take it to the track." If you want to hear more of it, crank up the volume and skip the second video to 10:10.
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
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News