{"id":36746,"date":"2026-10-02T20:53:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T00:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=36746"},"modified":"2026-10-02T20:53:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T00:53:59","slug":"the-mustang-rtr-is-affordable-rip-roaring-fun-payne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/the-mustang-rtr-is-affordable-rip-roaring-fun-payne","title":{"rendered":"The Mustang RTR is affordable, rip-roaring fun | Payne"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

The 2026 Ford Mustang RTR is nimble with 51\/49 weight balance due to its turbo-4 engine and rear-wheel-drive.<\/em><\/div>\n

Henry Payne, The Detroit News<\/em><\/p>\n

NAPA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA \u2014 Before it ditched cars for a lineup of engaging SUVs and trucks like F-150 Raptors, Bronco Sport Sasquatches and Maverick Lobos, Ford made affordable hellions like the Focus RS<\/a> that you could take big game-hunting with 300-plus turbo-4 horsepower, nimble handling, and drift mode. The Focus RS exited the market in 2018.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been reincarnated in the 2027 Ford Mustang RTR.<\/p>\n

Delivered by Formula Drift Racing legend Vaughn Gittin Jr. and his Ready to Rock team, Mustang RTR is the love child of the Focus RS and a Mustang GT. It is a tantalizing, teething, tempestuous, tail-wagging terror.<\/p>\n

Over the heaving, 2.0-mile twists-and-turns of Thunderhill West race track (a desert version of Grattan Raceway near Grand Rapids), RTR was, to use Gittin\u2019s favorite term, a fun-haver. In TRACK mode, I crested blind Turn 6 at 90 mph \u2014 managing throttle while the turbo stayed spooled up using anti-lag technology from the Ford GT (yeah, that<\/em> 2016 GT). I stomped the Brembo brakes and flung RTR into Turn 7, a hard, 30-degree hairpin.<\/p>\n

Read full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2026 Ford Mustang RTR is nimble with 51\/49 weight balance due to its turbo-4 engine and rear-wheel-drive. Henry Payne, The Detroit News NAPA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA \u2014 Before it ditched cars for a lineup of engaging SUVs and trucks like F-150 Raptors, Bronco Sport Sasquatches and Maverick Lobos, Ford made affordable hellions like the Focus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36747,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36746\/revisions\/36747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}