Friday, March 7, 2008
First Mustang FR500S delivered
Ford announced that the first 19 Mustang FR500S unveiled last year at the SEMA Show will be delivered at the inaugural Ford Mustang Challenge for the Miller Cup racing series. The FR500S will be priced at $75,000.
The FR500S will be powered by a 4.6-liter 3-valve V-8 found in the Mustang GT, producing about 325 hp. Changes to the car include a new cold air intake, a modified exhaust system, performance tuning by Roush, a stripped down interior to remove excess weight, the addition of a rear wing and a roll cage.
The FR500S was co-developed by Ford Racing Technology and Miller Motorsports Park and is the newest addition to the Mustang FR500 racing family. A total of 77 cars were manufactured at AutoAlliance International in Flat Rock, MI, with additional race-prep fabrication at Watson Engineering (Taylor, MI) and final race prep at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, UT, the FR500S is the first race car built by Ford Motor Company at a production facility intended for sale to the public.
Press release
The inaugural Ford Mustang Challenge for the Miller Cup racing series held its first official event this past weekend with 19 entrants taking delivery of their new Mustang FR500S race cars in a special program at Miller Motorsports Park.
Participants also had the opportunity to attend the Ford Racing High Performance Driving School, meet series officials, receive technical information from Ford Racing engineers and shake down their new race cars for the first time during the open track sessions on both Saturday and Sunday.
“The Mustang was a dominant showroom-based race car during the glory days of American road racing in the mid-1960’s and ‘70’s and this car certainly continues that proud tradition,” said Jamie Allison, manager of the Ford Performance Group. “Our intent was to develop a fun-to-drive reliable race car that delivers on what people have come to expect from a Mustang – V8 power and rear-wheel drive performance at an affordable price, and I think we’ve accomplished that with the FR500S.
“In the short time since the creation of the Mustang Challenge was announced at SEMA, the interest in the both the FR500S and the series has exceeded our expectations,” Allison continued. “We have a terrific mix of participants that bring experience from various forms of racing, including the Grand Am KONI Challenge Series, which should produce exciting, fender-to-fender racing.”
The FR500S was co-developed by Ford Racing Technology and Miller Motorsports Park and is the newest addition to the Mustang FR500 racing family. A total of 77 cars were manufactured at AutoAlliance International in Flat Rock, MI, with additional race-prep fabrication at Watson Engineering (Taylor, MI) and final race prep at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, UT, the FR500S is the first race car built by Ford Motor Company at a production facility intended for sale to the public.
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