It’s a street car
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MotorTranscript
00:00 We're here today at Sonoma Raceway and I have a question for you.
00:27 This is the brand new Shelby GT350R and this is a slightly modified 1966 Mustang Coupe.
00:35 We're here to find out which one's faster.
00:40 The guy in the helmet is Philip Trojanek, the owner of the 1966 Mustang, aptly named
00:46 Execution.
00:49 It's been in his family for almost 50 years and he began working on it at the tender age
00:53 of 14.
00:55 Little did he know that his love for this little coupe would set the stage for his entire
00:59 adult career.
01:06 As you look at the car, you can tell it's a '66 Mustang, but it's had a lot of work
01:11 done to it.
01:14 The obvious things, which is all the aero on the car, front splitter, the rear wing,
01:20 the vented hood, the big fender flares for the large tires.
01:25 There's nothing on this car that doesn't need to be there.
01:29 Because I hate it when people imply that the wing is for show.
01:43 You know, you take a look at the outside of this car and then you put it up on the lift
01:47 and on top it's still '66 Mustang, kind of.
01:54 But underneath, I don't recognize anything that's '66 Mustang.
01:57 I mean, how much of this did you actually fabricate?
02:01 I really just stayed with the unibody and that's the only thing that's factory.
02:05 Like the suspension, the steering, drivetrain, that has all been removed.
02:10 Why did you stick with the basic unibody structure of this car as opposed to going ... Because
02:15 you look at the car and you're like, "Oh, it's going to have a full tube chassis and
02:18 everything else," but it doesn't.
02:19 It's still a unibody.
02:21 I've never been in a tube frame car that didn't feel like an all-around race car.
02:25 And I really wanted to keep the feel of an original Mustang, even with the cage.
02:30 So we did the cage that goes through, snakes through the unibody and triangulates the rear
02:35 suspension all the way to the front completely.
02:37 So it has the torsional stiffness needed for a good handling car.
02:45 This car has been many things over the years.
02:48 It was my mom's daily driver in the '60s and '70s.
02:51 She would take us to kindergarten in the car, to elementary school, and it was just always
02:56 around.
02:57 It was my grandpa's car.
02:58 It was my mom's car again.
03:00 And my mom wasn't driving it daily at the time.
03:03 And I'm like, "Hey, mom, you don't really drive it that much.
03:07 What do you think about if I just saved up and we did kind of a resto on the car?"
03:12 So it took me about a year.
03:14 It had a V8, so I knew it could sound good.
03:16 So the first thing I did, I kept the stock wheels, but I went and got a little wider
03:21 version, some radials that weren't whitewall, because it did have whitewalls on it originally.
03:26 That was not going to work out.
03:29 Working on this car, I knew that I wanted to do something technical for a living.
03:34 The thing that I most focused on was engineering.
03:36 I like mechanical stuff.
03:38 I like to see the parts and feel the parts and just think about geometries and how things
03:43 move, like mechanisms and things.
03:46 And specifically, it is very mechanical engineering oriented.
03:52 I started Cortex because people wanted the stuff that I had.
03:57 The things that I had been developing, people would see them on my car and want to buy them.
04:03 And also, I was not able to find the parts that I wanted for my car.
04:08 So Cortex's customers are everything from track day enthusiasts up to professional race
04:13 teams.
04:14 For example, we provide parts to Ford Performance for their factory race cars.
04:23 So if somebody looks at this stuff, give me the top five things that make this like a
04:29 Cortex style car.
04:31 So we've got the Watts link here.
04:33 We've got our torque arm.
04:35 We've got rear coilovers instead of the factory leaf springs.
04:38 And then we've got the cambered rear axle.
04:41 And then in the front, we've got our own independent front suspension with our own spindles and
04:46 all of the geometry of modern rack and pinion steering.
04:50 Performance-wise, I've always held my own against modern supercars.
04:54 So we're not talking like Porsche Cayman.
04:56 We're talking supercars.
04:57 Yeah, like higher horsepower, mid-engine supercars.
05:01 It's generally a lot quicker than other cars that are considered in its class.
05:07 Although it does compare to those, it's just not really a fair fight.
05:10 It's like bringing a knife to a gunfight.
05:14 Probably the most controversial piece of the car is the power plant.
05:18 Dude, you got an LS7 in this thing.
05:24 Yeah.
05:25 What the hell?
05:26 This is a Ford.
05:27 You're gonna blow up the internet.
05:29 Yeah, it was the best motor at the time for my application.
05:33 And I'm an engineer, so I'm not brand loyal.
05:38 So what's the deal?
05:39 You're gonna keep the LS7 or you're gonna go something else?
05:40 So this has been in here since about 2006.
05:44 And I'm currently moving back to a Ford motor.
05:48 The motor is being built.
05:49 Okay.
05:50 Is it like Coyote-based or what?
05:51 Yes.
05:52 It's like based on a 5.2, but better.
05:56 That's gonna be cool.
05:57 Sweet.
05:58 I can't wait to see that evolution.
06:01 So can Philips Homebrewed 66 Hammer take on the best factory production Mustang Fords
06:06 ever made?
06:07 There's only one way to find out.
06:17 Having previously driven the Shelby GT350R, I knew it was good.
06:28 In fact, it's the first factory Mustang that's ever ventured into and at times exceeded the
06:33 performance levels of cars like the Porsche 911 and cars with an M or an AMG badge.
06:47 This is the first time that I ever really got it on track to really play with it and
06:59 see what it can do.
07:00 And for a factory production car, it is unbelievably impressive.
07:04 The fact that you could rev it out to eight grand, that extra RPM just let you pull and
07:07 pull and pull.
07:08 The brakes are good.
07:09 I mean, everything is just...
07:12 It's really...
07:13 It's a nice package.
07:14 It's a great...
07:15 I'm very curious because I don't know how hard you were working, but I was working pretty
07:19 hard.
07:20 The car felt fantastic.
07:21 I definitely had more in the car.
07:23 That thing's gonna have to be ridiculous.
07:25 Well, let me tell you, I was kind of babying the thing.
07:31 I was probably only at about six tenths.
07:33 Really?
07:34 Six tenths?
07:35 Yeah.
07:36 I was not at six tenths.
07:39 My first encounter with this car was watching it hunt down a Ferrari on a racetrack.
07:45 It was smooth and composed with a soundtrack that would shake heavens.
07:55 It was also still very much a Mustang, and that's why when I finally had a chance to
08:00 slide behind the wheel, my jaw dropped.
08:08 Because I felt how good this little red coupe really was.
08:24 What'd you think?
08:42 You totally lied to me.
08:43 Dude, it's unbelievable.
08:46 It's absolutely unbelievable.
08:47 Where that thing is like...
08:50 It's great for a production car, and it's very impressive.
08:53 This is on a whole other level.
08:56 This is like trying to cut a steak with a butter knife.
08:58 This is like cutting a steak with a razor blade.
09:03 So here's the deal.
09:05 That right there is the car.
09:06 I've driven hundreds of cars, hundreds of fast cars, hundreds of exotic cars.
09:11 That's the car.
09:12 Right there, mark my words.
09:15 Okay, as surprising as it might seem, the 66 wins on the track with no question.
09:23 But how does it work on the street?
09:42 Now here in the wonderful state of California, anything that is pre-1975 doesn't need smog,
09:50 right?
09:51 You can take it down to your local dealer, your local smog shop, and they'll be like,
09:55 go out, go away, you don't need to smog this car.
09:58 So here in this state, we can get away with having cars like this labeled as street cars.
10:06 Another little difference between this and the GT350R as far as comfort goes.
10:11 I don't know if you can tell, but I am almost sitting in the back seat.
10:16 Now mechanically driving this thing on the street is kind of a pain in the neck.
10:20 So as noisy and uncomfortable as the Cortex 66 is on the road, the fact that it has a
10:25 license plate at all, considering its blistering track performance, is amazing.
10:31 I know I've already said that it's faster than the hallowed Shelby GT350R, but you're
10:37 probably still wondering, how much faster?
10:39 Well, let me answer that for you.
10:42 It's not three or five or six seconds a lap faster.
10:45 You see, the 66 was over 10 seconds a lap faster around Sonoma Raceway than the best
10:53 2017 Mustang Ford has to offer.
11:01 If that's not impressive, I don't know what is.
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