Spotted: ROUSH Propane-Fueled Mustang Dragster

I've seen quite a few amazing rides this week. Yesterday I spotted one of Jack Roush's new propane-fueled ROUSH Mustang drag cars in the Cruisin' Legends area of the SEMA show. Roush says the drag cars are an offshoot of the kits that ROUSH Performance uses to convert gasoline-powered Ford pickups and vans to run on clean-burning propane.

The Mustang uses an all-aluminum 5.4L V8 Ford engine that was originally designed for the Ford GT supercar. It was converted to be naturally-aspirated. Then the compression ratio was altered to 12.5:1. In order to run on liquid propane, the company had to make other changes including CNC ported cylinder heads, high performance camshaft and valvetrain, and a wet sump lubrication system. The end result? Roush says the engine can generate more than 600 horsepower.

This model, the 2005 ROUSH Stage 3 Mustang, will be driven by Donnie Bowles and is set for testing in mid-November. The car will compete for the NMRA championship next season. The ROUSH engineering team is also building a 2010 ROUSH Stage 3 Mustang for Susan Roush-McClenaghan which should debut in February.

Photo © Jonathan P. Lamas