So I went down to Sebring on Friday afternoon for a DE that weekend, and when I got there I saw a lone silver 2013+ bodied Mustang alone running the long course (3.7 mile full track used in the 12 Hour race).

The car itself was silver, had the Boss 302 front grille, black tape around the car, for what appeared to be sensors and such, and then what I found to be the most odd was the gas tank area protruded from the normal body lines of the car, significantly enough that I could see it as it was going around the track at full speed. The wheels were also much wider than stock, and stuck out of the wheel wells a significant amount.

The car was EXTREMELY quiet; there was zero blower whine, and it was significantly quieter than the ZL1 and 911 Carrera S they were testing as well (more on that in a second).

So I went over to the hot pits and found a black dual car trailer with a black F series dually, neither had any markings on it, and there was a black pop-up tent next to the trailer in the hot pits. This appeared to be the same setup that was down here at Sebring when they were testing the 2013 GT500 last October. I saw some guys with laptops next to the tents, and then two test drivers in white fire suits with giant "SVT" logos in blue on the back of the fire suits. In front of the tent, they had what appeared to be a stock black Camaro ZL1 and the new 911 Carrera S, that also appeared to be stock, and was silver.

I got a few lap times on the silver Mustang and the Carrera S, but I did not get one on the ZL1:

Mustang best lap time: 2:27
Carrera S best lap time: 2:24

That is 3 seconds off one of the best driver's cars out there, on one of the roughest tracks in the country.

Here is a video (sorry for the poor quality, had to snap it with my Iphone):


I am wondering what this is; possibly an Ecoboost next generation Mustang mule?

 

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing!

 

Mods, I say you move this to the 2015+ section. There clearly won't be another stang for the current generation, so this is likely a mule for the next.

Thanks for sharing man. That's awesome. Did you try to talk to SVT folk at all?

 

Nope, wish I could have. The paddock area was closed off b/c it was private testing, so I couldn't get to the area that they were staged at.

 

Blast.

Have you seen some of the '15 mules with their protruding "gas tank areas"? Sounds like it was very similar to that

 

Whats with the dryer vent look around the gas tank area?

 

Wow, did not know that. I googled 2015 Mustang Mule and found these pictures; this is EXACTLY what the gas tank looked like:

 

Maybe we can have the mods edit the title to say 2015 Mule testing at Sebring and move to the 2015 section? That's definitely it.

 

Exactly what I was thinking. Great find man

 

Possibly ecoboost with that exhaust note.

 

Nice catch, Scott. I think that's our first video footage of a '15 mule

 

+1 that thing is quiet too quiet.

 

For now.

I doubt they were testing the muffler system there.

 

Sehr Interasant.

 

If that was the EcoBoost 4, then this is pretty impressive!

Mustang best lap time: 2:27
Carrera S best lap time: 2:24

 

If that was SVT, then this is probably not an EcoBoost 4!

 

Let's just interrogate Shaun using water torture techniques

 

Could they not be involved in the testing, even if its not an "official" SVT engine?

Whatever works

 

So clearly whatever engine they've decided to go with fits in the current gen body. I doubt eco boost is involved at this point.

 

Lol!

And good question TT. Is SVT completely seperate from Team Mustang? Could they help w/ tuning "regular" mustangs?