Galpin Auto Sports is celebrating 50 years of the Mustang by putting a 5.0-liter V8 developing 725 horsepower into its SEMA show car.
The 50th anniversary of the debut of the Ford Mustang is in full swing and perhaps no where will be more evident at this year’s SEMA show in Las Vegas as the maker will have a dozen pony cars on display.
While the show is home to best and sometimes most insane custom cars, an event like this is a license to thrill and Ford is certainly trying to give visitors something, or things, to gawk over. Among the 12 ‘Stangs, two custom builders are going all out: Pettys Garage and Galpin Auto Sports.
Petty’s Garage races into the show with a Roush supercharged V8 model wearing Richard Petty’s famous blue paint and a discrete No. 43, Petty’s car number in his NASCAR days. Not only will evoke some NASCAR memories, it’ll also do some good as the car will be auctioned by Barrett-Jackson with proceeds benefiting Victory Junction, which is dedicated to helping chronically ill children attend summer camp.
Galpin Auto Sports, also known as GAS, decided to run with the 50th Anniversary theme: gold. The 2015 GAS Mustang has a restyled front and rear fascia with a gold motif. The front fascia is also designed to match the three strakes found in the factory headlights. New headlights have been created that integrate LED turn signals and turn on in sequence – just like the rear turn signals. A carbon fiber front splitter and rocker panels have been installed, as well as a more aggressive rear diffuser, Galpin notes.
Petty's Garage is bringing its Mustang S550 to the SEMA show in Las Vegas.
The car wears metallic gold-flecked black paint and gold badges, and features interior trim work and special wheel calipers. To top it all off, a gold powder-coated Whipple supercharger helps the 5.0-liter V8 develop 725 horsepower.
“We like the black and gold idea, and really wanted to get the color as close to 24-carat gold as possible,” said Brandon Boeckmann, GAS operations manager.
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The 20-inch wheels, side sills, brake calipers and badging are all finished in gold. On the interior, all of the normally chrome bits have been blacked-out or “given the Midas touch.” The Recaro seats are covered with a fabric finished in black and gold, and the headliner is black microsuede. The exterior is black with a gold flake finish.
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While there will be plenty of V8 power tweaked to the hilt on at Ford’s 20,000 square-foot booth in the city that never sleeps, it plans to use the event to enhance the image of its 2.3-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder engine.
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The gas sipper – relatively speaking – develops 310 hp and 320 lb.-ft. of torque straight out of the box. However, at the show there will plenty of examples of how to punch up the ponies the turbo puts out. It’ll also show how handling can be further improved with the next-generation Mustang’s new independent rear suspension and new multilink front suspension with a bit of tuning from Roush, Steeda and others.