RTR Mustang GT ‘Sleeper’ Wakes Up YouTuber with 1,000 Horsepower
Lebanon Ford Performance combined RTR styling with a concealed twin-turbo kit to create an eye-openingly powerful 2019 Mustang GT.
It’s easy to be jaded about horsepower these days. In 2003, 390 horsepower was the pinnacle of Mustang Cobra output. A couple of years later, BMW stunned the automotive world by introducing a new M5 super sedan with a V10 engine that produced 500 horsepower. It’s only been less than half a decade since Dodge made 707 horsepower relatively affordable with its Hellcat engine. For 2019, it topped the regular Challenger Hellcat by introducing a Redeye model with 797 supercharged horses under its hood. So, you might think 1,000 horsepower is not that big of a deal any more. As this review of a modified RTR 2019 Ford Mustang GT shows, you shouldn’t.
The car that popular YouTuber Matt Maran drives in the video belongs to a performance enthusiast named Jimmy Alvarez. All in, including the original Mustang, it stickers for approximately $75,000.
Alvarez had Lebanon Ford Performance (LFP) of Lebanon, Ohio turn his regular 2019 Mustang GT into a sleek sleeper. They added an RTR Spec 2 kit, which includes a new grille with RTR’s distinctive LED lighting; lowering springs; adjustable sway bars, shocks, and struts; and a set of 20-inch RTR Tech 7 wheels wrapped in 275/35R20 Nitto NT555 G2 tires.
Alvarez’s modded Mustang has plenty of go to match its show. LFP installed Hellion Power Systems’ Street Sleeper twin-turbo setup, which includes a pair of 62-mm turbos, 4-to-1 headers, half shafts, and variable boost, which can be set 10 or roughly 12 psi. LFP also converted the engine to run on E85. All of those upgrades give the Coyote V8 1,000 crank horsepower. According to Maran, “It does, right now, 860 horsepower to the wheels, but it’s on its way to 950.” Not that you can tell right away by looking under the hood. The turbos are mounted low, only making their presence known when the throttle gets mashed.
Maran’s shotgun-seat passenger, LFP’s performance manager Josh Hipp, tells him, “If it’s on 93 [octane], we’re seeing high 10s – you know, 10.7, 10.8 range. If it’s on E85, we’re seeing guys jump right into the 9s.”
On public roads, Maran can’t go flat out to try to replicate those times, but he does his best to get some good pulls in. It’s not that easy. The 275s at all four corners limit the RTR’s ability to put its massive power to the road. The traction control is also a little too good at doing its job, cutting power at the first hint of wheel spin. Hipp makes the ultimate understatement when he calls the pumped-up pony “a pretty rowdy car.”
Luckily for Maran and Hipp (and us), both guys are able to apply just the right amount of throttle and open up the hellfire horse. After putting the Mustang into its 12-psi boost mode and deactivating the traction control, Hipp gets on the loud pedal – with both hands on the wheel and his eyes constantly checking the gauges.
Hipp’s around these kinds of mechanical monsters all the time, but it’s clear that even he is not completely immune to the simultaneous thrill and terror that comes with letting a 1,000-horsepower car loose. Hipp tells Maran, “It’s still … overwhelmingly exciting … when it all comes on and you’re just pinned back.”
Join The Mustang Source forums now!
