Makin' Somethin' Outa Nuthin.... [PIC]

In 1974, Ford released the Mustang everyone loves to hate: the Mustang ll. It was just a rebodied Pinto and in '74 was only offered with the 4 cylinder engine, and consumers were fuming. The following year, they added a severely de-tuned 302 V8 choked down to a pathetic 140 HP. All this poor little car was doing was keeping the Mustang nameplate alive until the Fox body Mustang would revive it in 1979. The savior of the Mustang ll came with the 2.3 OHC 4 cylinder developed by the German Ford Division. It was a strong engine capable of working well under pressure... a turbocharger! Trying to overcome the generally bad reputation (unless you were a tree-hugger), Ford worked with Bruce McLaren, whose reputation as an F1 winner, to build a race version to compete with Porsche and BMW. The stock turbo produced 132 HP which was pretty close to the 140 HP of the cast iron 302. The project would be collaboration between Ford Motorcraft, Firestone and British McLaren. The McLaren Mustang, code M81, resulted in the 2.3 receiving forged pistons and connecting rods, bolted to a 5 speed manual and crowned with a variable boost Garret T-3 turbocharger. At full boost, it produced a very competitive 190 HP. Koni shocks all-around with race spec 4 wheel discs worked with heavy duty sway bars and springs. Body mods were done by Creative Car Craft also fitted with Recaro racing seats and BBS alloy wheels shod with Firestones. About 10,000 were sold with street legal cars offering AC. This potent turbo 4 survived into the early '80s Fox body cars but was killed off by Ford's SVO who wanted no credit for it and pushed to concentrate on the 5.0. The only race history on the McLaren Mustang I could find was a 21th finish at Daytona in 1981 which was a Fox body car.

This rather ancient Bburago was a kit build I did probably 30 years ago. It's not spectacularly accurate, but it's kinda cute.