Fans hoping for a supercharged Ford Mustang with all the benefits of a factory-backed warranty will have to dry their eyes at some point, but that won’t abate the disappointment of a possible much more powerful V8 option courtesy of a supercharger kit from Roush.
Following local testing at its You Yang proving grounds in Victoria last year, Ford Australia have elected to withdraw from their pursuit to introduce the power upgrade option for the Mustang GT, which would have seen the fitment of a Stage 3 kit to increase power from the naturally aspirated Coyote V8’s standard 306kW to a heady 500kW.
The canning resulted from the discovery that the more powerful engine’s exhaust note and supercharger whine violated noise regulations defined in the Australia Design Rule (ADR). Having said that, Ford Oz is still interested in offering a warranty-backed performance kit to Mustang buyers, keeping the 3-year, 100,000km coverage intact. Albeit, perhaps without that noise-making supercharger.
We were all rather excitedly waiting for this performance package to arrive for local Mustangs, especially after Ford Australia president and CEO Graeme Whickman announced its then-imminent arrival: “We’re working on it and I feel confident that we might have something to talk about in the coming months.”
In the months that followed, there was a worrisome silence and the only recurring comment uttered by Ford would be that a vague ADR issue was holding up the launch. Now, though, we know that Australian drive-by-noise regulations were the hurdle the Roush power kit wasn’t able to overcome.
Mustang GT owners sidelined by this unfortunate outcome can, and probably will have to, turn to aftermarket tuners such as Tickford to boost the V8’s output, though they achieve this without forced induction and thus reaches a lower 360-odd kilowatts.
Herrod Motorsport and others do offer post-purchase supercharger kits that have Ford Australia’s blessing, who will still uphold the standard warranty if installed, but won’t cover faults that arise as a result of the modification.
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