That perennial automotive dress-up doll, the Ford Mustang, has received its latest round of styling and horsepower tweaks from Jack Roush and his crew at Roush Performance.
Stage 1 primarily is an exterior appearance package, featuring the sixth-generation Roush “R6” aerobody package. Employing a high-flow lower grille, corner fascia aero pockets with driving lamps, a front chin splitter, and a custom hood scoop, the look from the front is definitely aggressive. Revised rocker panels, rear fascia side splitters and a three-piece rear decklid spoiler continue the “R6” effect to the tail, where a rear aero valance with race-inspired diffusers resides. Dual chambered, chrome exhaust tips finish the look.
To ensure the public at large knows your pony is no mail-order boulevard queen, Roush credentials are omnipresent: R fender badges adorn the sides, Stage 1 badging is present front and rear, and the R-badged faux gas cap is finished with Jack Roush’s signature graphic. Inside, embroidered floor mats, a Roush center console button, a Stage 1 dash medallion, and a graphic of Jack Roush’s signature on the dash serve as constant reminders of what you paid for. Did we mention the windshield banner?
For Stage 2, Roush’s team reached deep into its magic bag of Mustang components and came up with an assortment of suspension pieces aimed at elevating the pony car’s handling to a level befitting that of the aggressive exterior mods. Twin-tube shocks with unique valve rates; a larger, stiffer front anti-roll bar; and increased spring rates all conspire to improve the Stang’s handling prowess. Roush says its chassis engineers spent thousands of hours in development and testing: particular attention was paid to the suspension bushings, which are optimized for more compliance over low-speed bumps; the jounce bumpers are designed to act as a spring assist.
Finally, the Stage 2 handling package includes a set of 18- by 10-inch cast aluminum, five-spoke wheels shod with Cooper RS3 ultra-high-performance summer tires that were co-developed by Cooper Tire and Performance.
Stage 3 puts a supercharged 5.0-liter V-8 rated for 565 hp and 505 lb-ft of torque under the hood. The forced induction comes courtesy of an R2300 supercharger featuring Eaton’s TVS (Twin Vortices Series) patented technology.
Standard components inside the Stage 3 consist of a custom gauge cluster, a Stage 3 dash medallion and Jack Roush’s signature graphic on the dash. A serialized Stage 3 plaque and a chassis build plaque reside under the hood.
Stage 3 options include two 20-inch wheels choices (chrome or hyper black), four different brake packages (red two-piston sport, red four-piston performance, black four-piston performance, or six-piston competition), a trunk-mounted tool kit, Roush laser cut hood struts, and a Roush dual-chamber “off-road” exhaust system.
Although the tuner market for Mustangs will be around at least as long as Ford’s pony remains in production, one wonders what effect factory models like the brilliant Boss 302 will have on their bottom line. Not to mention the Shelby GT500, which beats Roush on horsepower, if not on the sheer amount of namesake emblems and badging.
All 2013 Roush Stage Mustangs are available for coupe and convertible models and both manual and automatic transmissions. They also are all 50-state legal and covered by Roush’s 3-year/36,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty. The 2013 Roush Mustangs are expected to start showing up on dealer lots by late April 2012, but pricing has not been announced.
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