Ford Fan Stuffs a Coyote V8 Underneath the Hood of His Fusion

Forget the Fusion V6 Sport. This garage-built drifting machine has a tuned Gen 2 5.0 Coyote, straight-piped exhaust and rear-wheel drive.

The Crown Victoria was the last V8-powered, rear-wheel-drive sedan Ford sold here in the United States. Sure, it offered the Taurus SHO and the Fusion V6 Sport with their turbocharged EcoBoost V6s and all-wheel drive, but those lacked that old-school layout and that all-important sound. Not this Fusion, though. It has a Coyote V8 caged under its hood and plenty of other go-fast goodies.

In this Hoonigan Daily Transmission video, Hoonigans Corey Hosford and Hertrech Eugene Jr. meet the owner of this awesome one-off, Matt Soppa. He found a wrecked 2016 Fusion at an auction and placed the winning bid. He then began turning it into what he has appropriately named “a four-door Mustang.”

After cutting the firewall to make some extra room, Soppa installed a “gen II, like out of a ’15 to ’17 Ford Mustang [GT]” 5.0 under the hood. He hasn’t had it dynoed, but he expects it generates around 450 horsepower. Surprisingly, Soppa was able to put it on factory motor mounts. The brackets for the “S197 subframe from an ’05 to ’14 Ford  Mustang” were a different story; Soppa had to custom-make those. He also had to do a little tinkering to make sure his headers fit around the steering shaft.

The rear end of Soppa’s Fusion is all Ford Mustang. By using the right parts and a lot of elbow grease, he was able to bolt in a Mustang subframe in a week. Instead of a regular gas tank, his crazy custom uses a fuel cell filled with 91 octane.

There’s not much original Fusion left on the inside, either. Soppa gutted the interior, welded in a cage, replaced the front seats with racing buckets and harnesses, and tossed out the rear bench. And he connected the Mustang engine to a Mustang gearbox. But not just any Mustang – a Shelby. Soppa swapped in the TR-6060 from an ’07 GT500. That huge e-brake handle? That’s exactly what you think it’s for.

But before Soppa can go drift the tires off of this beast, he has to start it up. It’s so loud it even shocks Eugene and Hosford. It goes beyond sound and straight to sonic assault. That’s because the Coyote roars through a three-inch straight-pipe exhaust without any mufflers to soften the blow of its devastating decibels.

Out on the Hoonigan drift course, the Fusion is a rabid beast flailing about in full auditory rage, burning its own tires as it slides and lurches about. It even attacks Hosford, who jumps up just in time to avoid being knocked off of his filming platform. There was no way he could forget a car like this in the first place, but now he’ll definitely remember it. We know we will.

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Derek Shiekhi

Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.

After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.

While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.

Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.

In addition to writing for a variety of Internet Brands sites, including JK Forum, H-D Forums, The Mustang Source, Mustang Forums, LS1Tech, HondaTech, Jaguar Forums, YotaTech, and Ford Truck Enthusiasts. Derek also started There Will Be Cars on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.