Ford Racing Mustang GT Project Aluminator To Pace Southern 500

mustangpacecarThis coming weekend, Ford Racing‘s “Project Aluminator” 500-horsepower Mustang GT will pace the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina with U.S. Senator Tim Scott behind the wheel as the honorary pace car driver at the beginning of the race, while NASCAR veteran Brett Bodine will pilot the car for the remainder of the event.

The car started life as a 2014 Mustang GT that’s been treated to a host of upgrades from the Ford Racing catalog and now pumps out the aforementioned 500 horsepower, thanks to a mix of parts from the Ford Racing Boss 302S and Cobra Jet programs. Taking advantage of the Ford Racing Parts engineering team’s abilities proved too hard to resist for the Ford Racing team as they look to show this car off to the masses on television.

It’s an anniversary of sorts – the original 1964 1/2 Mustang debuted on April 17th, 1964 at the New York World’s Fair and in Ford showrooms across America, and having the Mustang front-and-center at the Southern 500 will kick off an entire year of celebrating the Mustang’s 50th Anniversary. 

“We can think of no better way to begin Mustang’s 50th anniversary celebration than by having one of our most technologically advanced Mustangs pace one of NASCAR’s most historically significant traditional races,” says Tim Duerr, Ford Racing marketing manager.

Woodward-Mustang-54-AluminatorThe car uses an Aluminator XS crate engine, which features a lightweight aluminum engine block with cross-bolted main bearing caps, and features the CNC-machined four-valve aluminum cylinder heads from the Boss Mustang on top. The Aluminator XS is delivered with an 11.0:1 compression ratio achieved by the use of MAHLE hard-anodized forged pistons and Manley H-beam connecting rods. 

FRPP’s race oil pan has been added along with the Boss oil cooler, a high-performance radiator, and short-throw shifter atop the MT-82 transmission. The GT500 exhaust has been added under the rear of the car to provide some extra rumble at the hit of the loud pedal.

Ford Racing has added a quartet of camshafts, a Cobra Jet intake manifold, throttle body, and 47 pound-per-hour fuel injectors to help the car make the power with a minimum of muss and fuss.

The car has also been upgraded with the complete Ford Racing FR3-MGTAA Handling Package including adjustable shocks and struts, lowering springs, adjustable Panhard bar and adjustable sway bars. The Handling Package provides a 1.25-inch drop and has been engineered to improve handling on both 205-14 Mustang GT’s and 2007-12 Shelby Mustangs.

M-2300-TA six-piston brake kit that originated on the 2013-14 Shelby GT500 is onboard along with SVT’s two-piece front brake rotors to help slow the car down from speed, while in the rear of the car a set of 3.73 gears and differential girdle has been added for motivation off the starting line and out of the turns.

The Ford Racing spherical-bushing-equipped lower control arms have been relocated to aid in curing wheelhop and provide better performance. A full set of split 5-spoke wheels from FRPP is onboard.

To dress up the interior and exterior, the team added the Boss302 splitter to the nose, a GT500 rear fascia, sweet Recaro butt-hugging seats, and the Laguna gauge pack. In addition, a complete graphics package was added to the car.

The Mustang’s 50th anniversary celebrations will begin with concurrent events April 17-20 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Ford Motor Company and its dealers will host other national and local anniversary events throughout 2014.

So you say you want to see the Mustang GT Aluminator XS for yourself? Tune in to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Bojangles’ Southern 500 at 6:30PM Sunday evening on FOX.

And if you’re interested in adding any of these bad-ass parts to your 2005-14 Mustang, just click the links and check them out on the Ford Racing Parts website. 

About the author

Jason Reiss

Jason draws on over 15 years of experience in the automotive publishing industry, and collaborates with many of the industry's movers and shakers to create compelling technical articles and high-quality race coverage.
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