When I was a little boy growing up in Minnesota, my dad bought a cherry red 67 Fastback with white go fast stripes. I never got to ride in it much. It didn’t run often, but god damn it was pretty. And in my mind it was the most amazing machine on the face of the Earth. From the time it first showed up, to the day it left us after we moved to Texas, I was in love with that car.
Ever since it left, however, I have had trouble falling in love with any of the new mustangs that followed. The SN95 was ugly and half hearted. The S197 was better, but still felt lost about what it wanted to really be. When the latest generation finally arrived it stirred something inside me. It was more European, more daring, and more suited to a modern world. And when you introduce the Ecoboost version of the car to the lovely folks at COBB Tuning, it becomes something you can absolutely get excited about driving.

When I first took custody of the big orange beast, I noticed how refined the base car has become. No longer does anything feel crude or built to budget. This is a nice car inside. You can tell immediately that Ford knew it could no longer sell a strong drivetrain paired with a flimsy car. The touch points are good, everything is intuitive, and it’s all nice to use. The turbocharged model that I had been given to test was a 2015 car, which was chosen by the COBB gang to be its development platform for an Ecoboost line of tuning parts. COBB has been around for a long time now, and has specialized mostly in turbocharged models offered up by folks ranging from Subaru to Ford and, most recently, Porsche.

COBB recently has hit their stride with the Ford Ecoboost family of engines. The team there uses new parts, clever programing, and other technical wizardry to extract glorious amounts of power and torque out of already fairly impressive motors. The base Ecoboost Mustang makes 255 horsepower and nearly 300 lb-ft of torque. What you’ll get from the $3,225 you’re going to want to give to COBB though, is a bump all the way to 356 hp and 378 lb-ft of torque. Oh, did I mention that’s to the wheels?

The first thing you notice when you start the car is the amazing note of the exhaust and the lovely rasp that the new turbo-back setup provides. Additionally, the COBB kit adds an intake and intercooler up front. You’ll also find blowoff noise and plenty of spooling coming through loud and clear. This car doesn’t hide the fact that it’s turbocharged. It embraces it and announces it loudly and proudly. When you get on the throttle in full boost mode you get several things; the whistle of the turbo, the push to the back of the seat, and then the feeling of the back stepping out through two gears. It wants you to thrash it. This COBB-tuned Mustang is a dopey orange puppy that just wants to never stop playing. It’s hilarious, engaging, and, with the six speed, the most fun I’ve had in a car on the street.

Still, you don’t have to have the car at full boost all the time. Using the AcessPort handheld tuner, you can flash the ECU, read codes, and get amazing data about what is going on with the charge temp, boost pressure, and the like. Beyond that, COBB has worked its magic with a few neat tricks. Using the cruise control button you can switch between five maps within the larger tune. Hitting plus and minus on the cruise control swaps maps up and down, using the rev counter to show numerically which map you are on. Within the AccessPort there are a few more toys, my favorite of which, is the ability to flat foot shift the car if you are at a certain throttle position. Everything in your being says that you can’t do it, and it actually took me a while to try it. But once you do, you feel like a hero. Maybe even a racing god… briefly.

When you do thrash it, you figure out just how capable a sports car the Mustang has become. It welcomes the extra power of the COBB tune, and feels like it could handle even more if you were to really push the limits. The full boost tune isn’t too much for the street, but it will make sure you are awake and fully focused. When I took the car out to my favorite road, swapped it into sport, and turned off the first layer of traction control I was almost taken aback at how the car attacked the tight winding road. Since the motor over the front axle is lighter than the V8, it turns in sharply and without a hint of understeer. The COBB knob in your right hand selects gears with perfect crispness of movement. When you get everything right and drive the Mustang hard, you get rewarded with amazing speed. The ass comes out when the torque hits, you boost all the way to redline, and flat foot shifting all the way until the braking point. It’s intoxicating, addictive, and I was just drawn back to the road again and again.

I’m reminded again of that ’67 Fastback. This was a car that bewitched me. It always got my attention, and wouldn’t let it go until it was done with me. Now I’m having the same reaction courtesy of the COBB Mustang. After COBB woke up the sleepy EcoBoost motor it gave the car renewed character and even more soul. This is the Mustang that I will try to share with any children I might have. This four-cylander beast will be the car that saves the Mustang for the common man. I see no reason why you would buy a base GT when you could have the same street experience for far less. COBB tuning has worked Mustang magic, and I will highly recommend this car to anyone looking to adopt a big, daft, orange dog.
[Disclaimer: COBB provided the vehicle for review.]