DRIVEN: 2015 Ford Mustang Ecoboost

This 2015 Mustang is a limited edition “50th Anniversary Edition” car, with special badging and a few unique styling touches like the chrome front grill and taillight surround.

Like the GT, the Ecoboost’s reverse light is centrally mounted and low to the ground, which I find to be a pretty cool styling feature.

CONCLUSION

Due to its great handling chassis, 2.3L turbocharged engine, and huge engine bay (which makes it really easy to work on and modify the car), I see the Ecoboost as an excellent platform whether you do track days, are from the Mustang hot-rodding world, or from the import-tuning world. I really enjoy hot-hatches which are very convenient, but for me the allure of rear-wheel drive powerslides weighs heavily in my decision for a car. I really enjoy cars like the S2000 and BRZ/FRS for their hardcore, bare-bones nature but that makes them less convenient and tiresome as a daily driver, plus it’s difficult to get more power out of them. Maybe it’s because I’m not looking for a racecar for the street (which I’m sure many will do to their Ecoboosts) but for me, a greatly improved ride quality and comfort in a daily driver is worth a weight penalty and slower lap times, especially if it has sufficient power and long enough wheelbase that make drifting easy. Since I don’t live in the snow or on a dirt road, the all-wheel-drive advantage of the WRX becomes irrelevant so for me, I think the Ecoboost makes a lot of sense.

I will reiterate my recommendation for the GT: If you have any interest in driving in a spirited nature, GET THE PERFORMANCE PACKAGE. The $1,995 premium is well worth the time and labor it would take to upgrade each component that is improved in this package. The standard 3.15 final drive is a bit sluggish and feels like you are missing 30 horsepower when compared to the 3.55 final drive in the Performance Package which gives you near-Supra acceleration. The larger radiator will be crucial on a hot track day and the GT-sized brakes will completely eliminate the need for spending a couple grand on a big brake kit for track use (but you will need track oriented pads). While the suspension will most likely be replaced anyway for those who are all about handling, every other improvement in the performance package is worth it.

Now if turbocharged all-wheel-drive cars are your cup of tea; Ford just announced the brand new 2015 Focus RS powered by a similar 2.3L Ecoboost engine making 320hp+ with a proper all-wheel-drive that sends up to 70% of the engine’s torque to the rear wheels and up to 100% to the outer rear wheel for torque vectoring, combined with brake torque vectoring and a drift mode. While probably priced well above the Focus ST or Mustang Ecoboost, if you need AWD, this is going to turn out to be an impressive STI/EVO killer.