Ford Mustang R-Spec sold out even before the rollout

Ford has announced that the Mustang R-Spec has been sold out even before the first assembly line version rolls out from the Falcon plant in Broadmeadows. The Mustang R-Spec will be available only in Australia.

The company said that every single unit of the R-Spec was booked within 60 days of the 2019 Bathurst 1000 announcement.  The 2019 edition of the 1,000-km annual Bathurst 1000 touring car race was held from 10-13 October.

Despite the rather high asking price of A$100,000, the Mustang R-Spec was sold out, probably because it’s the last Australian-built V8 car to be made. Production will be limited to 500 units only.

The first R-Spec rolled out from the workshop earlier this week. The rollout was delayed by two weeks since the shipment of some of the parts from the US was held up because of a stink bug outbreak. The US version of the supercharged Mustang is not a right-hand-drive vehicle. That aside, the car didn’t meet the Australian ‘drive-by’ noise levels.

While Ford has not officially disclosed the performance numbers for the Mustang R-Spec, the engine is expected to produce 522 kW and 830 Nm peak torque. The standard Mustang with a 5.0-liter V8 motor produces 339kW and 556Nm peak torque.

The R-Spec is currently available with a 6-speed manual gearbox. A 10-speed automatic transmission (AT) will require extra cooling. Whether Ford will go ahead with the AT is yet to be known. It is understood that the company may introduce it at a later stage depending on market demand.

Although Ford Performance and Ford Australia joined hands to produce the car, the Mustang R-Spec would be manufactured by Herrod Performance since the Dearborn-headquartered company is no longer a registered automobile manufacturer in the country.

One of the biggest Ford Mustang dealers, on condition of anonymity, told the media that he had sent an email to customers when the S-Spec was revealed. The next morning he woke up to find all the allotted numbers booked.

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