Options are few on this nearly $60,000 car, but our tester had four out of the five available. Most important, we'd say, is the $700 adjustable carbon-fiber wing, which Roush calls a spoiler. It's said to provide some downforce, and at the speeds we got it up to on the Fontana speedway banking-135 mph-it no doubt does.
The other options are all Victoria's Secret stuff: nice, but you'd still perform without. Best of the bunch are likely the white-faced, electroluminescent instruments in the main gauge cluster at $390. Their bright faces aid readability of the unfortunately deep-set S197 steam gauges. On the other hand, that means the MyColor instrument lighting from Ford is lost-hardly a major setback-along with the trip computer, which was definitely more useful.
Our car also featured the $350 carbon-fiber Dash Trim Kit, quarter-window louvers for $315, and $57 Roush doorsill plates. The one missing option was the $295 trunk-mounted toolkit.
Our first impression of the Trak Pak was as a street car. With its dark wheels, wing, and more aggressive body kit, just seeing it in the real world tells you this is a Mustang with attitude. Climbing in is easy-Roush opted for stock seat shapes to keep daily life with the Trak Pak manageable. The cockpit feels instantly familiar but with a purposeful edge. The big, tall shifter is stout in the hand, and the gauge pod evokes the minimalist instrumentation of a sedan racer. On the other hand, without a rollbar or an unused five-point harness hanging and clanging, the Trak Pak is salon-like compared to the knuckle-dragging track machine.
Fire it up, and the aggression steps up two notches as the supercharger growls and the exhaust rumbles. The auditory insistence only increases underway as our tester's rear axle whined and the tires rumbled and hissed across the pavement. Such boisterousness is naturally double-edged; when you're feeling sporty, the Trak Pak is a brother in arms. If you're trying to hear the radio, you'll have to turn it up. Knobby pavement is a pain in the ears as well.
Once you get moving, the real joy of the Trak Pak-chassis precision-shines immediately. This is one Mustang with enough spring, shock, bar, and tire to grab the pavement and let you know about it. The steering is light and considerably more responsive than stock, and the turn-in and grip rank are in the top tier of S197 hot rods. This is the Trak Pak's overriding characteristic, and it comes through loud and clear, from the easiest street cruise all the way to the track.
Next up is the ample power. The torque is a joy, warping the Trak Pak off the line with ease and lobbing the car down-street almost effortlessly. Rev it more and the power simply ramps up. You'd have to be drunk on turbo-boost to think there wasn't enough. Coupled with the light clutch effort and precise-but-beefy shifter, the blower power forms the basis for easy speed or rip-and-tear action as you want it. Way cool.
Definitely track-oriented, the Trak Pak suspension is polite on the street, with the front end working exceptionally well. Smooth roads are a joy, of course, but the rear suspension was too stiff on our car. Sharp-edged pavement heaved the rear skyward, our lower backs wincing with each bridge transition or ride over broken pavement. We didn't fiddle with the shock's rebound adjustment, but it couldn't have made that much difference: The rear is definitely stiff on this one.
There's also a tacked-together feel from the Trak Pak. You can't help but notice the large, wavering gap where the gauge pod was glued atop the dash, and the fire extinguisher in the passenger foot well is a rattling, calve-biting nuisance, but it's required by many open-track associations. The hot-rod tone from the blower gears and freer-flowing exhaust contributes as well, so despite the Trak Pak being a taut new car, it has just enough project-car feel to make driving excitement every time you strap it on or rattle-trap to the distaff side. It also draws attention thanks to the extroverted graphics, scoop, fascia, and wing. Expect approving stares from the in-crowd but nothing polite from PTA minivans or the law.
To get what the Trak Pak is about, you must enter it in an open-track. To put the street/track concept to the full test, we drove it an hour and a half to the Fontana superspeedway, entered a Speed Ventures open-track, put a borrowed lug wrench on the wheels to make sure a nut wasn't coming loose, zip-tied a timing transponder to the fuel-pump bracket, taped on some numbers, and put on a helmet. There was no support vehicle, no toolbox, no gas cans, no spare tires, no extra brake pads, and no friends tagging along to help. It was just us, the car, and a couple of understanding participants, who gave us tie wraps and cutters when we realized we had traveled too lightly.
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