The 2001 Roush Stage 3 Mustang is a supercharged Mustang that can run with a Corvette Z06. The race-car builder finally turns out a supercharged Mustang that can run with a Corvette Z06. You will need to bring money. From the June 2001 issue of Car and Driver.
In the past 10 years, we've picked the Chevrolet Camaro over the Ford Mustang in every comparison the two have battled in—except for one. That solo Mustang victory came in a comparison of the pony cars equipped with V-6 engines. Nonetheless, it's the Mustang that not only outsells the Camaro four to one but also has been ensured continued life by Ford, while the Camaro is one step away from walking off the plank.
Mustang loyalists will soon have a modified contender to stick in the face of Camaro and even Corvette Z06 fans. Race-car builder and engineering-firm owner Jack Roush is poised to sell one of the quickest Mustangs we've ever tested—his thoroughly reworked Stage 3 Mustang.
View Price on AmazonAstute readers will recall that we featured a Roush Stage 3 Mustang in November 1999. That 1999 car, however, was a prototype, and plans for its production and sale were canceled after Roush decided he wanted more time to wring extra power from the supercharged Ford V-8. Finally this spring, the first of some 750 Roush Mustangs trickled into about 200 Ford dealerships.
We say dealers because the Stage 3 is not a tuner car. Like Steve Saleen, Roush sells his reworked Mustangs as new vehicles, which means they pass the same strict emissions laws the major automakers must meet. Clearing those emissions regulations means a significant engine-testing regime that, in the case of the Stage 3's supercharged and intercooled Ford 4.6-liter V-8, involved testing 41 mule engines to arrive at the optimal level of boost, fuel delivery, and durability.
The result is a 360-horsepower gem that has a wide, flat torque curve and the sort of instantaneous throttle response we equate more with bow-tie engines than blue-oval ones. With the blown engine strapped to the stock Mustang five-speed manual gearbox (an automatic transmission is available) and a 3.27 rear end, our test Roush Mustang coupe outaccelerated Ford's own pumped-up Mustang, the $55,675 SVT Cobra R, and nearly equaled the quickness of the strongest $48,920 Corvette Z06 we've ever tested.
Sixty mph arrives in a raucous 4.3 seconds (4.5 seconds for the Cobra R, 4.3 for the Z06); 100 takes just 10.1 seconds (Cobra R, 10.7; Z06, 10.0); and the quarter-mile flashes by in 12.9 seconds at 111 mph (Cobra R, 13.0 at 111 mph; Z06, 12.7 at 113 mph). The Stage 3's top speed of 164 mph is 4 mph less than the Z06 flat out and 13 less than the Cobra.
Roush's coupe version starts at $40,704, and the convertible opens for $4255 more. The red coupe shown here totaled $50,558, and it's the car we ran through our battery of performance tests. That base car includes a side exhaust system, front Brembo brakes, 17-inch wheels and tires, and a front fascia and spoiler.
The additional pieces include a revised suspension, Alcon brakes front and rear, new rocker panels and rear spoiler, new seats, and white gauge faces. Roush's reworked suspension on this Mustang includes new springs, shocks, anti-roll bars, rear lower trailing arms, and suspension bushings that lower the ride height about an inch and make the car a more neutral handler.
Source: caranddriver.com
