1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 Fitted With Ford GT Engine Upped To 850 HP

The audacious project took 11,000 man hours to build.

Combining a classic muscle car with a modern, retro-inspired supercar sounds like a fun Photoshop project. But these guys did it for real. Restoration and street machine fabrication shop Eckert’s Rod & Custom spent three years and 11,000-man hours creating this unique mash-up of a vintage Mustang and first-generation GT. The resulting Frankenstein creation is called the Mach 40, and it looks a lot better than you would imagine.

Based on a beaten-up 1969 Mustang Mach 1, the team created a new, extended chassis to create enough room behind the driver to fit a 5.4-liter supercharged V8 from a totaled 2006 Ford GT. Unsurprisingly, the Mach 40 required extensive fabrication. A clamshell rear deck had to be created along with a new suspension setup to accommodate the mid-mounted engine.

Adequate cooling also needed to be installed for the new powerplant. To give the engine more grunt, the restorer has also replaced the GT’s stock 2.4-liter supercharger with a 4.0-liter unit from Whipple. A dyno run at the end of the video shows the Mach 40 producing 660 horsepower and 580 lb-ft of torque at the wheels. Using a dial in the cabin to tweak the ECU to boost, that output will increase to 850 hp. Inside, the cabin looks decidedly retro thanks to the dished steering wheel and circular guage pods. There’s no modern infotainment system, the radio is hidden, and the upholstery is finished in a mix of red and black leather. This is probably the closest we’re going to get to a mid-engined Mustang.