If LS-swapping every vehicle under the sun was annoying, doing the same thing with a Ford Coyote motor instead is bound to be just as irritating. Seriously, it feels like every single engine swap worth talking about these days features one of these two American motors. It's to the point where a Mopar HEMI feels like a palate cleanser. But don't despair; there are still a few DIY gurus out there who are nutty enough to devise engine swaps with eclectic combinations of motor and vehicle.
One such mechanic is the professional stunt car driver and former long-time host of Motor Trend's Hot Rod Garage YouTube series, Tony Angelo. Angelo may have left Hot Rod Garage back in 2021, but it's clear he's been up to quite a bit over the last three years. In an effort to build a Fox body Mustang that isn't a Coyote V8 swap like seemingly everyone else, Tony and his team at the Stay Tuned YouTube channel set about building a restomod Mustang unlike any we've seen before.
Gone is whichever four-pot, V6, or V8 that could've come with this Mustang from the factory. In its place is a 5.9-liter, naturally-aspirated Aston Martin V12 engine that's become a staple of the brand's Grand Tourer and sports car lineups since the late 1990s. Per Tony's own insights, this particular V12 appears to come from its "2001-ish" configuration, which most likely means it comes from an early 2000s V12 Vanquish, or from a similarly-aged Aston Martin DB7.
From the factory, the 2001 DB7 jetted 420 horsepower to the tires. Sure, that might be a few horses down from the 460 or so a bog-standard Coyote V8 cranks out. But come on, Coyote swaps are quite frankly a dime a dozen these days, a build that takes practically zero forethought or ingenuity to devise in your head. Not so with this V12-swapped Fox Body. Say what you will about it being impractical, but there's something to be said about a project that starkly breaks with conventions in order to build something genuinely interesting instead of derivative and drab in its execution.
In order to get everything to fit correctly, Tony and his time needed to painstakingly modify this Mustang's engine bay to accommodate an engine larger than was ever intended to fit under this hood. With a QA1 tubular K-member for support and a set of custom motor mounts fabricated, the end results are an engine seemingly tailor-made for this car. Little do most people know just how much effort and skillful engineering it took to get all the bits and pieces in the state they are now. One thing's for sure, this is bound to be one of the coolest Fox Body restomods we're liable to see in 2024 when it's all finished.
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