We’re not sure whether the debate has ever been completely settled.
Was the Mustang named after the free-ranging western equine, or the long-range fighter aircraft that helped turn the tide in WWII We’re guessing Jack Roush would cast his vote for the latter-the famed North American P-51 Mustang. Indeed, he owns two examples of the aesthetically perfect WWII war bird-one is a “D” model that he straps into and flies whenever his chaotic schedule permits, and the second is a “B” model that’s currently being restored to flying status. So it comes as no surprise that the Cat in the Hat should honor the most powerful Roush Mustang ever with the P-51A moniker. The “A” was the first of the P-51 aircraft variants, which of course begs the question: Will there be follow-up versions of the Roush P-51 Limited to only 151 serial-numbered copies, the supercharged P-51A is armed with no less than 510 hp and an equal amount of torque. It’s the first Roush Mustang to receive internal engine modifications to withstand the rigors of its generous amounts of boost. It comes in only one fighterish color combo: Vapor Metallic with an olive-green stripe down the hood. It wears badges in the red-and-yellow checkered colors of the 357th Fighter Group, the most successful in air-to-air combat victories of any P-51 group in the Eighth Air Force. Like all of Roush’s special-edition Mustangs, the limited run of P-51As was built at the company’s Plymouth Road Technical Center in Livonia, Michigan. What really happened is that late last winter, a bunch of virtually identical, new ’08 GTs (some with the Sirius satellite option, some without) were disassembled practically down to their unibodies, then hand-rebuilt in P-51A form. All work was performed under the Technical Center roof in three major separate areas: the main production line where the cars were torn down and reassembled a dedicated trim department where the GT seats were rebuilt and reskinned and a third area where the 4.6L cammers were stripped to their bare blocks, fortified with upgraded cranks, rods, and pistons, and topped with an upsized Roushcharger intercooled blower.
Those are the basics, but we thought you might be interested in seeing more details on just how an ’08 Mustang GT becomes a Roush P-51A.