Ever wonder what it would look like if Ford had made the Mustang mid-engined? We hadn’t until recently, but this one-off creation is a pretty good guess.
It’s called the Mach 40, and it’s essentially a mashup between a 1969 Mustang Mach 1 and a first-gen Ford GT. Only it wasn’t built by Ford. This was a private affair.
The Mach 40 project is the brainchild of one Terry Lipscomb, an engineer whose curiosity and passion do not appear to have wained as he transitioned to retirement.
He hired Mike Miernik to design the car, Eckert’s Rod & Custom to perform the modifications, and Hardison Metal Shaping to craft the bodywork.
The low-slung vehicle measures just 43 inches (109 cm) tall, which is a little higher than the original GT40 that inspired its creation. But that’s still marginally lower than the heights of the newer Ford GTs. It’s a feat made possible only by moving the engine to the back.
Lift that glass hatch though and you won’t find the 5.8-liter V8 from the original Mach 1, as it would have been too difficult to turn it around. Instead they fitted the 5.4-liter supercharged V8 from a 2006 Ford GT. And they didn’t leave it in stock form, either: giving it up to 850 horsepower, with flex-fuel capability to let it burn ethanol where it’s available.
That all makes for one very interesting set of wheels. No wonder the programmers at Sony and Polyphony Digital saw fit to include it in the latest update to Gran Turismo Sport. And a good thing, too, because with only one example ever made, that’s about as close as any of us will ever get to driving this unique machine.
