56 wheelsmag.com.au
HO KNEW that comparing
apples and oranges
could be this much fun?
The brief was to gather
Tickford’s breathed-on
Mustangs and see how
they stacked up against
more familiar home-grown
fare from Holden and
HSV. For this fleeting
snapshot in time, Aussie
buyers can back-to-back
blue-collar right-hand
drive V8s from opposite
sides of the Pacific. It was an opportunity too good
to pass up, fruit analogy notwithstanding, and with
a combined 1574kW of the good stuff split between
them, drawing some sort of conclusion from this melee
was never going to be a genteel discussion.
In the blue corner we have a pair of pugnacious
ponies that Tickford reckons can land first round
knockouts on the lineal champs in red. It divides nicely
into a dust-up between two naturally aspirated and two
supercharged powerplants and there’s not too much to
separate them on price. The 304kW Commodore SS-V
Redline’s sales proposition is easy to identify. It’s the
cheapest car here and in terms of metal for your money,
this is the default pick. If you’re cash strapped, read no
further. At $54,490 in this manual guise it’s ceding a fat
wodge of grunt to the Tickford Mustang Power Pack 360,
which takes the standard GT’s 306kW and adds another
54kW. That seems a hefty amount for an exhaust, cold
air intake, throttle body spacer and ECU tweak. Pricing
for the engine work alone will set you back $6990 over
the standard Mustang GT’s $54,990 list.Upping the ante quite extravagantly is the HSV
Clubsport R8 LSA, presented here in 30th Anniversary
guise. This sees power creep up 10kW to a thudding
410kW, while torque also eases its belt a little to
691Nm. The only automatic car of the quartet, the
Clubbie’s $82,490 price tag reads like a misprint when
the same amount can just scrape you into an entry
level 140kW 1.8-litre Audi A6.
To keep the Clayton hellion on its toes is Tickford’s
supercharged Mustang offering. All 500kW of it. This
car is still a development work in progress and fills a
void created by Ford Australia’s aim of selling a factory-
warranted Roush supercharged car falling foul of
Australian Design Rules.
There’s no such worry for Tickford, the company
honouring its work for the balance of any existing
warranty. Pop the bonnet and the tidily finished Roush-
branded blower clamps itself to the top of the Coyote
V8 like some sort of belt-driven facehugger. Tack
another $19,490 onto the price of the $55K Mustang GT
and you’ll find yourself behind the wheel of a car with
an almost embarrassing surplus of kilowatts.THERE’S no lake and not really much of a mountain
at Lake Mountain. What there is makes the early start
from Melbourne well worth the suburban schlep. With
the holiday crowds gone, there’s a snaking road to
nowhere, nothing open at the end of it and nobody
to object to any perky driving. First to be
pointed at the bitumen
that’s lazily