Horse Sense: To get you started on improving your six life, CDC offers a V-6 Sport Package, consisting of a matte-black chin spoiler, a billet overlay for the upper and lower grille openings, a ducktail rear spoiler, and a Dynamite Stick sequential taillight system.
As we scribble this, the price of crude oil has topped the $73 per barrel mark (how can anything "crude" be worth so much?), and the cost of gas is rocketing skyward similar to a cruise missile on squeeze. With any luck, the situation is temporary, but for those Ford dealers who might find themselves having to discount V-6 Mustangs, there may be a bright lining in this expensive cloud. We predict the base Mustang is about to become even more popular. We've already testified how all-around competent and responsive the S197 V-6 model feels-especially in comparison to its markedly underwhelming Fox/Fox-4 equivalents. Admittedly, most base models do look wimpy in an under-tired way when they roll out of the Flat Rock factory door; they just advertise their six-cylinderness. For this reason, the crew at Classic Design Concepts took it upon themselves to prove that an S197 V-6 need not lack visual and, ultimately, functional testosterone.
Meet the creatively named 6ix, CDC's dispeller of six-cylinder wimpdom. Like most of CDC's project cars, this one was screwed together for SEMA, so you can rest assured it boasts a virtual armada of interesting hardware-in-house and otherwise. Little, if any, of this stuff is six-cylinder specific and might just as easily be found embellishing a GT-meaning no one needs to know your S197 houses a fuel- and insurance-efficient V-6.
Since this is CDC's gig, the exterior of the 6ix brandishes much of the Michigan company's OEM-quality S197-styling hardware, including a Boss 429-style hoodscoop, louvered C-pillar scoops, black taillight filler panel with "6ix" emblem, sequential taillights, wraparound ducktail rear spoiler, matte black V-6 chin spoiler, and the Stars & Stripes grille pony. Perhaps the most obvious addition is CDC's Glassback roof panel that lets the sunshine in without the heat, which is now exclusively distributed through Webasto's network of sunroof installers.
The skirt below the rear fascia is a prototype CDC piece that may or may not see production. It blends so well with the matte-black chin spoiler and factory V-6 rockers that the car's JBA dual-exhaust conversion looks right at home. Call and tell 'em if you want to see it produced. Thoroughly banishing the wussy factory wheel/tire combo is a set of Goodyear Eagle F1 rubber wrapped around Rota D2 rims in size 19x8. Visible through the D2's six spokes are SSBC brakes at all four corners.
Looking deeper, we find an interior brightened by silver accents on both the door panels and seat skins, with upholstery by Classic Automotive Interiors that's personalized by red "Glassback" embroidery front and rear. The factory instrument cluster has been refaced by Simco to match the silver dials on the trio of gauges housed in CDC's dash-top pod. The flotilla of in-car entertainment is exclusively from Rockford Fosgate.
Let's see-we've talked about the muscular exterior and the gorgeous high-tech interior, so that leaves the engine bay, which, as photographed, sports only JBA headers. But help-or should we say boost-came in the form of a brand-new centrifugal supercharger called Rotrex; the S197 V-6 kit was engineered by Wheel to Wheel Powertrain. With a prototype kit installed on CDC's 6ix before it rolled out on this summer's Hot Rod Power Tour, the air-to-air intercooled Rotrex unit was manufactured in Denmark and uses a belt-driven planetary roller system with a whopping 9.48:1 step-up ratio, resulting in impeller speeds of up to 100,000 rpm. Said to be extremely compact, adiabatically efficient, and near-silent in operation.
If you come across CDC's 6ix, be sure to check out what's going on underhood. If the 6ix represents the future of V-6 ownership, count us in.
This is not your mother's V-6 Mustang. Or maybe it is if she has been shopping from Classic Design Concepts' online catalog. As far as the insurance company is concerned, it's just another six-cylinder Mustang.
JBA headers, an MRT cold-air system, and a Paul's High Performance tune-up were the car's first mods. In this shot, however, a new power-adder system based around the European Rotrex centrifugal supercharger added a boost.
A cool interior without going overboard-except maybe on the Rockford Fosgate entertainment system that rocks the house. The nicely reskinned seats are pointing out that the roof overhead is entirely made of glass, with a heat-reflecting membrane laminated in between two layers. The CDC Glassback, which completely replaces the roof sheetmetal, is now sold and installed through Webasto, the sunroof people.