State of Xecution: 1966 CorteX Mustang

MotorTrend

10/4/2023

It’s a street car

Transcript

00:00 We're here today at Sonoma Raceway and I have a question for you.

00:27 This is the brand new Shelby GT350R and this is a slightly modified 1966 Mustang Coupe.

00:35 We're here to find out which one's faster.

00:40 The guy in the helmet is Philip Trojanek, the owner of the 1966 Mustang, aptly named

00:46 Execution.

00:49 It's been in his family for almost 50 years and he began working on it at the tender age

00:53 of 14.

00:55 Little did he know that his love for this little coupe would set the stage for his entire

00:59 adult career.

01:06 As you look at the car, you can tell it's a '66 Mustang, but it's had a lot of work

01:11 done to it.

01:14 The obvious things, which is all the aero on the car, front splitter, the rear wing,

01:20 the vented hood, the big fender flares for the large tires.

01:25 There's nothing on this car that doesn't need to be there.

01:29 Because I hate it when people imply that the wing is for show.

01:43 You know, you take a look at the outside of this car and then you put it up on the lift

01:47 and on top it's still '66 Mustang, kind of.

01:54 But underneath, I don't recognize anything that's '66 Mustang.

01:57 I mean, how much of this did you actually fabricate?

02:01 I really just stayed with the unibody and that's the only thing that's factory.

02:05 Like the suspension, the steering, drivetrain, that has all been removed.

02:10 Why did you stick with the basic unibody structure of this car as opposed to going ... Because

02:15 you look at the car and you're like, "Oh, it's going to have a full tube chassis and

02:18 everything else," but it doesn't.

02:19 It's still a unibody.

02:21 I've never been in a tube frame car that didn't feel like an all-around race car.

02:25 And I really wanted to keep the feel of an original Mustang, even with the cage.

02:30 So we did the cage that goes through, snakes through the unibody and triangulates the rear

02:35 suspension all the way to the front completely.

02:37 So it has the torsional stiffness needed for a good handling car.

02:45 This car has been many things over the years.

02:48 It was my mom's daily driver in the '60s and '70s.

02:51 She would take us to kindergarten in the car, to elementary school, and it was just always

02:56 around.

02:57 It was my grandpa's car.

02:58 It was my mom's car again.

03:00 And my mom wasn't driving it daily at the time.

03:03 And I'm like, "Hey, mom, you don't really drive it that much.

03:07 What do you think about if I just saved up and we did kind of a resto on the car?"

03:12 So it took me about a year.

03:14 It had a V8, so I knew it could sound good.

03:16 So the first thing I did, I kept the stock wheels, but I went and got a little wider

03:21 version, some radials that weren't whitewall, because it did have whitewalls on it originally.

03:26 That was not going to work out.

03:29 Working on this car, I knew that I wanted to do something technical for a living.

03:34 The thing that I most focused on was engineering.

03:36 I like mechanical stuff.

03:38 I like to see the parts and feel the parts and just think about geometries and how things

03:43 move, like mechanisms and things.

03:46 And specifically, it is very mechanical engineering oriented.

03:52 I started Cortex because people wanted the stuff that I had.

03:57 The things that I had been developing, people would see them on my car and want to buy them.

04:03 And also, I was not able to find the parts that I wanted for my car.

04:08 So Cortex's customers are everything from track day enthusiasts up to professional race

04:13 teams.

04:14 For example, we provide parts to Ford Performance for their factory race cars.

04:23 So if somebody looks at this stuff, give me the top five things that make this like a

04:29 Cortex style car.

04:31 So we've got the Watts link here.

04:33 We've got our torque arm.

04:35 We've got rear coilovers instead of the factory leaf springs.

04:38 And then we've got the cambered rear axle.

04:41 And then in the front, we've got our own independent front suspension with our own spindles and

04:46 all of the geometry of modern rack and pinion steering.

04:50 Performance-wise, I've always held my own against modern supercars.

04:54 So we're not talking like Porsche Cayman.

04:56 We're talking supercars.

04:57 Yeah, like higher horsepower, mid-engine supercars.

05:01 It's generally a lot quicker than other cars that are considered in its class.

05:07 Although it does compare to those, it's just not really a fair fight.

05:10 It's like bringing a knife to a gunfight.

05:14 Probably the most controversial piece of the car is the power plant.

05:18 Dude, you got an LS7 in this thing.

05:24 Yeah.

05:25 What the hell?

05:26 This is a Ford.

05:27 You're gonna blow up the internet.

05:29 Yeah, it was the best motor at the time for my application.

05:33 And I'm an engineer, so I'm not brand loyal.

05:38 So what's the deal?

05:39 You're gonna keep the LS7 or you're gonna go something else?

05:40 So this has been in here since about 2006.

05:44 And I'm currently moving back to a Ford motor.

05:48 The motor is being built.

05:49 Okay.

05:50 Is it like Coyote-based or what?

05:51 Yes.

05:52 It's like based on a 5.2, but better.

05:56 That's gonna be cool.

05:57 Sweet.

05:58 I can't wait to see that evolution.

06:01 So can Philips Homebrewed 66 Hammer take on the best factory production Mustang Fords

06:06 ever made?

06:07 There's only one way to find out.

06:17 Having previously driven the Shelby GT350R, I knew it was good.

06:28 In fact, it's the first factory Mustang that's ever ventured into and at times exceeded the

06:33 performance levels of cars like the Porsche 911 and cars with an M or an AMG badge.

06:47 This is the first time that I ever really got it on track to really play with it and

06:59 see what it can do.

07:00 And for a factory production car, it is unbelievably impressive.

07:04 The fact that you could rev it out to eight grand, that extra RPM just let you pull and

07:07 pull and pull.

07:08 The brakes are good.

07:09 I mean, everything is just...

07:12 It's really...

07:13 It's a nice package.

07:14 It's a great...

07:15 I'm very curious because I don't know how hard you were working, but I was working pretty

07:19 hard.

07:20 The car felt fantastic.

07:21 I definitely had more in the car.

07:23 That thing's gonna have to be ridiculous.

07:25 Well, let me tell you, I was kind of babying the thing.

07:31 I was probably only at about six tenths.

07:33 Really?

07:34 Six tenths?

07:35 Yeah.

07:36 I was not at six tenths.

07:39 My first encounter with this car was watching it hunt down a Ferrari on a racetrack.

07:45 It was smooth and composed with a soundtrack that would shake heavens.

07:55 It was also still very much a Mustang, and that's why when I finally had a chance to

08:00 slide behind the wheel, my jaw dropped.

08:08 Because I felt how good this little red coupe really was.

08:24 What'd you think?

08:42 You totally lied to me.

08:43 Dude, it's unbelievable.

08:46 It's absolutely unbelievable.

08:47 Where that thing is like...

08:50 It's great for a production car, and it's very impressive.

08:53 This is on a whole other level.

08:56 This is like trying to cut a steak with a butter knife.

08:58 This is like cutting a steak with a razor blade.

09:03 So here's the deal.

09:05 That right there is the car.

09:06 I've driven hundreds of cars, hundreds of fast cars, hundreds of exotic cars.

09:11 That's the car.

09:12 Right there, mark my words.

09:15 Okay, as surprising as it might seem, the 66 wins on the track with no question.

09:23 But how does it work on the street?

09:42 Now here in the wonderful state of California, anything that is pre-1975 doesn't need smog,

09:50 right?

09:51 You can take it down to your local dealer, your local smog shop, and they'll be like,

09:55 go out, go away, you don't need to smog this car.

09:58 So here in this state, we can get away with having cars like this labeled as street cars.

10:06 Another little difference between this and the GT350R as far as comfort goes.

10:11 I don't know if you can tell, but I am almost sitting in the back seat.

10:16 Now mechanically driving this thing on the street is kind of a pain in the neck.

10:20 So as noisy and uncomfortable as the Cortex 66 is on the road, the fact that it has a

10:25 license plate at all, considering its blistering track performance, is amazing.

10:31 I know I've already said that it's faster than the hallowed Shelby GT350R, but you're

10:37 probably still wondering, how much faster?

10:39 Well, let me answer that for you.

10:42 It's not three or five or six seconds a lap faster.

10:45 You see, the 66 was over 10 seconds a lap faster around Sonoma Raceway than the best

10:53 2017 Mustang Ford has to offer.

11:01 If that's not impressive, I don't know what is.

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State of Xecution: 1966 CorteX Mustang

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