2019 Hennessy Heritage Ford Musstang

The Ford Mustang. Arguably America's most iconic, beloved, and well-known muscle car. If you asked someone in another country what the most iconic American car ever made was, they would probably respond with "The Mustang of course!" Or something to that effect. But that raises questions. Why is it the most well-known muscle car? It certainly isn't the base speed. When it comes to speed, the 2019 Mustang GT  tops out at around 175 mph. This is the slowest of any top model muscle cars from the big three brands, Ford, Dodge, or Chevy. Chevy's new Camaro LE can reach speeds of up to 194mph and the latest version of Dodge's Challenger Hellcat, the Red Eye, can break the 200 mark with a blazing top speed of 203mph. It isn't the 0-60 time either. The 2019 Mustang GT posts a highly respectable 0-60 time, coming in at four seconds flat. But that is once again smashed by both Chevy and Dodge, with the 2019 Camaro LE boasting a 0-60 time of 3.7 seconds and Dodge blowing everyone else away with a 3.3 second mark.

Now you could easily argue that it all comes down to how the car actually looks. In my opinion, a muscle car has to look sleek while still looking menacing and powerful. Dodge certainly has the menacing and powerful part down but is about as sleek as a brick covered in razor blades. Chevy on the other hand... I don't really even want to get into the absolute mess that is the Camaro’s design.

But when you look past all of these specs and statistics, you find what makes the Ford Mustang such a truly special car. That’s right, I’m talking about the numerous companies, both large and small, that have made customized versions of the car over the years. Shelby, Roche, and Saleen, to name just a few of the heavy hitters. And there is Hennessy. Hennessy, a name synonymous with speed and style. If you have been living inside a camper van at the bottom of a lake for the last twenty-eight years, allow me to fill you in.

Hennessey Performance Engineering is a car building and tuning company based in Texas. They are known for taking already powerful vehicles and turning them into rockets on wheels. Some of their most notable cars include the 1,244bhp monster known as the Hennessey Venom GT, the VelociRaptor Truck, the Hennessey Venom V5, and of course, the Hennessy Heritage Ford Mustang GT. Point being, they are some of the best tuners on the planet for making fast cars go even faster.

Now, let’s get to what you have all been waiting for, the 2019 Hennessy Heritage Ford Mustang GT.

First of all, if you have any dreams of obtaining this glorious tarmac-melting machine, you’ll need to be ready to pay anywhere between $90,000 to $100,000. Now I will wait while you wipe that “Ooooh shit! A $100,000 Mustang?” look off your face. Surprise over? Good, let’s move on.

Let’s talk about the Mustang’s fuel consumption. There isn’t an easy way to say this. It’s a thirsty car. Average highway mpg is a whopping 6 miles per gallon. Hey, what did you expect from an over-the-top muscle car? If you wanted fuel efficiency you would have joined the people of San Francisco and bought a Prius now, wouldn’t you? Anyway, now I’ve gotten rid of the Ecoboost Mustang loving morons, we can get to the real fun.

Every car lover loves a great big engine, and this car certainly has one, a tuned up 5.0 liter Coyote V8 to be exact, with a 3.0-liter supercharger thrown in for good measure. All this produces a jaw-dropping 808 horsepower and 677 pound-feet of torque, still nowhere near the amount produced by Hennessy’s other muscle car, the Camaro Exorcist, but it doesn’t need to be. That is because, in the Camaro Exorcist, all Hennessy did was tune up the already powerful engine. The Mustang however, got the full Hennessy treatment.

They added an option for an All-Wheel-Drive setup instead of the standard two-wheel drivetrain. This allows the powerful beast of a car to actually corner, something Mustangs are notoriously bad at.

Hennessey also details, both in and outside the car, to help its performance. A specialized air-to-water intercooler and big injectors were added to help out the V8. All these modifications allow the car to put out more overall power than Dodge’s top off the line Hellcat, the Challenger Redeye. For ease of access to all forms of Mustang lovers, two different gearbox setups are available, either a six-speed manual gearbox or a 10-speed automatic, no paddle-shifters in sight. The 2019 version is also the quickest road-legal Mustang ever made, hitting the magic number of 60 miles per hour in just 3.2 seconds.

Unlike what Hennessy did with the Camaro Exorcist, the Heritage Mustang has new brakes that are meant to handle the explosive power of the Coyote V8. The new braking systems in the Mustang, just like all of Hennessey’s parts, were built entirely in-house. This is because having the same people who built the thing that makes the car go also make the thing that makes the car stop leaves a much smaller risk of error.  Special tires have also been made for the car, making sure it can maintain good grip at high speeds.

Speaking of high speeds, I haven't even mentioned how fast this beast really is. That’s because, as of right now, it is the fastest muscle car on the planet. Just as a little reference point, both of Dodge’s fastest vehicles, the Challenger Hellcat Redeye and the Demon, top out somewhere between 203 and 205mph. Now, those are fast cars, but the 2019 Hennessey Mustang leaves them in the dust by topping out around 220mph. That is faster than most Lamborghinis and Ferraris.

Earlier on I mentioned that this Mustang is priced at around $100,000. That’s a surprisingly low amount of cash for a car that is this fast. But there is a catch, and it comes in the form of the number being made. Hennessey has never made more than 60 units of any of there vehicles. So it should come as no surprise to anybody that, on Hennessey’s official web page they have announced that only 19 units of the 2019 Mustang will ever be made.

With that being said however, this isn’t just another fast car. Unlike what they did
with the Camaro Exorcist, Hennessey has completely reworked the car’s body as well. The generation six Ford Mustang has always been criticized for looking safe and boring, so the people over at Hennessey decided to change that.

The result is one of the greatest looking modern Mustangs ever created
. They kept many of the normal Mustang’s smooth curves but added flared wheel arches to make the car a few inches wider. They increased the ride height in the rear end of the car, giving it the look of a powerful animal, poised to strike. Hennessey also saw the chance to add a small spoiler to the back of the car, along with a new defuser to match. And then of course, you have the retro style paint job. The 1980’s racing paint job shown above is the only one you can get as standard when you buy the vehicle. Sure, you could always respray it later, but why would you? The paint job is a call back to the racing heritage of the ford mustang, an attempt to capture the years of racing history in just a single paint job, and they did it perfectly. All these design choices combine to give the car the aggressive but refined look it was once known for.

So keep your Challengers and Demons, your Corvettes and Camaros, because the king of all muscle cars is back, and ready to kick some serious muscle car ass.