This Eighties Ford Mustang Race Car Might Be the Coolest Car On Sale Right Now
When you think "Ford Mustang race car" you likely think of an original Shelby GT350R dominating SCCA B-Production competition in the Sixties. Or perhaps Ford's new GT3 race car. You should also think about this car, a 1984 Roush Protofab Mustang that competed in both Trans-Am and IMSA GTO to great success. It's up for sale with Canepa right now, and you could argue that it's the coolest car available right now.
For starters, it looks great. Iconic Motorcraft livery, wide bodywork, gold BBS wheels on big Goodyears, what else could you want? Then there's the mechanical components. It's got a steel tube frame chassis and a 5.9-liter Roush-built V-8 that puts out 650 to 800 horsepower depending on its state of tune. That engine is, naturally, pared with a five-speed, H-pattern manual.
So, the car clearly should rip. But maybe even better still is the history. It was originally bodied in 1984 as a Mercury Capri—which shared the same Fox platform as the Mustang—and driven by Willy T. Ribbs in the 1985 Trans-Am season. Ribbs won all but two races that year, and the two he didn't win, he placed second. For 1986, it was turned into a Mustang, and driven in both IMSA GTO and Trans-Am by Scott Pruett. In IMSA, it took four victories and sealed the title for Pruett, and in Trans-Am it won two races and podiumed the rest it entered. Currently, it wears its IMSA GTO livery, and it looks perfect.
The most recent owner of the car was McLaren Racing boss Zak Brown, who ran this car a number of times at the Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca. With any hope, the next owner will exercise the car frequently.
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