Garrett Ford Mustang GT Car Makes Its Debut
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Commerce (GA) – The drag racing fans who packed the stands at the annual 18th Annual Peach State Fun Ford Weekend may have thought that they were seeing double as they passed the Garrett Turbochargers/Bothwell Motorsports pit area. There, amidst the race slicks, wrenches and black-shirted mechanics was not one, but two Mustangs dressed in the nearly identical red and blue Garrett graphics.
The only scare came during a run on Saturday. Ron Townsend reported hearing an engine miss that could potentially be big trouble for the engine. Junior was driven to a nearby gas station to see if it just needed some fuel. The owner’s manual states that the Mustang GT has a 16 gallon gas tank; we put in 16.9 gallons. Junior ran fine the rest of the weekend. |
While the Garrett GT Mustang racecar was laying down monster times on the 1/8th mile (more on that in a moment), the test mule for the Garrett GT Ford Mustang Turbocharger Kit was showing off what a nearly stock Mustang GT could do with a little extra motivation. Affectionately named “Junior,” the Mustang GT is a 2005 with the stock 4.6L V8 that now features a pair of 
Junior has had a few modifications that allow for him to take on his new job of bracket racing with more reliability. The stock 5-speed transmission has been replaced with a 2 speed Autoglide with a line-lock. The rear tires are drag radials for better grip. The mufflers have been replaced with Corsa units, but the stock exhaust piping and catalytic converters remain in place. The suspension is stock, the engine is stock and no panels were replaced nor have interior pieces been removed. Junior features the Garrett boost gauge, Garrett speed sensors and a lot Racepak data acquisition software so we can fine tune the car.
A factory Shelby Mustang racing in the same bracket with a few owner-confessed tweaks for extra power came over to examine our twin turbo beast. He was impressed with the power and a little jealous since his was running 12’s.The development kit will be available from Garrett Performance Distributors soon with complete kits to follow.
Junior’s big brother, the 10.5″ Outlaw Garrett GT Mustang racecar, was busy putting down impressive times of its own. With Ron Lummus once again at the wheel, the name of the game was once again consistency. The track was reduced to an 1/8th mile for the pros, so the top cars in the country had only 4.5 seconds to show what they could do. Joining Ron in the 4.5 second club were national record holder Grant McCrary, Tim Lynch, Jimmy Blackmon and Bryan Markiewicz.
Temperatures that hovered just above 100 degrees all Saturday put teams to the endurance test. As Lummus took the line in the first round, many bemoaned that the 380 c.i. engine with twin Garrett GT4718R turbos wouldn’t be enough to stand against the top teams in the country. They immediately took notice as Lummus ripped an amazing 4.52 second run to advance. Another round and another 4.5 second pass showed that the car was not only fast, but reliable and consistent.
Round three brought the Garrett/Bothwell team toe to toe with arguably the top team in the country for 10.5 racing; Grant McCrary. This was the most anticipated matchup of the weekend, pairing the top dog with the newcomer. Both teams were ready. Lummus launched well, but tire shake followed shortly. Wrestling with the car, Lummus got it under control, but the shortened track and some fine driving by McCrary took the win by inches. Regardless, the Garrett Mustang GT was tailored with a great deal of pride and some excellent data that may allow the Bothwell team to start turning up the wick on the car.
