Those that regularly follow the Mustang scene have likely seen or heard about the Project Pegasus 1971 Ford Mustang that Goolsby Customs has been hard at working creating since last year for customer Buddy Shores. From the outset, the goal of this classic Mustang was to really raise the bar in custom Mustangs, and with the ’71 Fastback an often less-than-desirable model, Shores and Goolsby decided to step outside the box and breathe some life back into this iconic car.
The heart of Pegasus is the 32V 5.0L Coyote engine found in the 2011-12 Mustang. Underneath, you'll find a completely handmade exhaust system that attractively exists through custom boxes in the rear valance.
Automotive designer Ben Hermance was tapped to design the exterior and interior of Project Pegasus, with the mission of forming a modern concept car look and feel around the ’71 Fastback. In doing so, the front end of the car was shortened 6-inches and the wheelbase an inch, along with a complete redesign of the rear end with a pass-though spoiler, reshaped quarter panels, and laid down rear glass window. The reworked body was then married to the Roaster Shops’ new ’64-70 Fast Track Mustang chassis, which sports a C6 Corvette front spindle and Z06 hub assembly, adjustable AFCO billet coilover shocks, custom fabricated boxed frame rails, custom cross member and mid-brace cross member, a 9-inch Ford housing, triangulated four-link rear suspension, and other high performance features. The chassis rides on a set of 19-inch (front) and 20-inch (rear) Nutek wheels wrapped in Pirelli tires.
The entire body, and especially the rear half, has been reworked. The qurter panels have been modified, the rear glass laid down, and a pass-through spolier formed into the body.
The heart of Project Pegasus is none other than the new 2011 Mustang 5.0L Coyote powerplant mated with a 6-speed automatic transmission from Sean Hyland Motorsports. As was reported in a earlier feature on Project Pegasus on StangTV by Shane McGlaun, Goolsby actually received the 5.0L engine from Hyland months before the release of the 2011 Mustang to the market. And the 6-speed automatic, which Shores was intent on utilizing, required the Goolsby team to graft all of the factory electronics together, as an aftermarket control box for the 32V 5.0L didn’t exist. This necessitated a rework of the PATS system and was considered the toughest part of the entire project.
Among the incredible craftsmanship elements you’ll find in Pegasus are AC and transmission cooler lines inside the frame rails and a handmade exhaust system that ends with two handmade boxes integrated into the cars’ rear valance. Goolsby called upon M&M Interiors for the plush white interior that gives a whole new meaning to cleanliness and minimalism.
How's the M&M Interiors-designed interior in Pegasus look? Breathtaking.