Harrop-blown pro touring 1965 Mustang fastback (2025)

Built to dominate SCCA and Trans-Am racing in the mid-60s, Carroll Shelby’s fearsome GT350 Mustangs were capable of shredding European exotics on the track and muscle cars on the street. Packing angry small-block Ford power and bulk handling upgrades, these original 1965-’66 Shelby Mustangs have become the most sought-after ’Stangs ever made. Even a GT350 replica will command enormous prices today.

First published in the March 2025 issue of Street Machine

Ross Gangemi’s ’65 fastback may not have started off as a Shelby, but it uses plenty of that DNA to become something far wilder – and way quicker – than the original.

Packing a world’s-first Harrop 2650-blown, Dandy Engines-built 363ci small-block Windsor, this 870rwhp brute also features hot pro touring hardware like carbonfibre Ringbrothers components, HRE wheels, coil-over suspension, and big brakes. But as with many street machines, Ross’s Mustang had far more humble origins.

“I bought the car in March 2015 from a guy in Vermont, Melbourne,” says Ross. “It had already been converted to right-hand drive but had a tired 289, auto and stock leaf-sprung rear. I did mods over a five-year period such as fitting a four-link rearend, nine-inch diff, and a Dandy Engines-built 347ci stroker, but in 2022, I decided to do a big build on the car.”

To that end, Ross engaged Aidan Donald from Aidan’s Design & Illustration to help him conceptualise and design the build. “I wanted to do this car properly from start to finish,” he says. “I found every trade always wants to direct the vision and direction of the project, but having a clear design meant we could remain on track.”

And then Ross got a call that would change the build’s trajectory. “Lou Iudica from Dandy Engines told me about a new Windsor engine program they had been developing with Harrop,” he says. “I’ve had a few engines built by the team at Dandy, so I asked Lou to keep an eye out for the next engine for the Mustang.”

While Dandy’s Frank Marchese reckons the small-block in Ross’s car isn’t a radical combo for a Windsor, it’s still plenty stout. Based off an 8.2in-deck-height Ford Racing 302 Windsor block, it’s stroked to 363 cubes with a Scat crank, Callies Compstar H-beam rods, and 10:1-compression JE slugs. The hydraulic-roller camshaft measures around 230 degrees at 0.050in lift and works Johnson lifters. Crow pushrods and beehive PAC valve springs round out the valvetrain in the CNC-ported DRP alloy heads.

Up top, a billet inlet mounts the Harrop TVS2650 blower; controlled through the FuelTech FT550 ECU, it has doubled the output of this Windsor-based combo compared to similar aspirated engines the Dandy crew have run on their dyno. This engine represents the first-ever Harrop TVS-blown small-block Ford, and given it made 870hp on just 11psi while running E85 and turning 6700rpm, we can expect to see plenty more of them.

In keeping with the Shelby GT350 theme, a Tremec T56 six-speed manual lives behind the screaming SBF, and a custom four-link rearend houses the stout nine-inch diff. With Bilstein coil-over struts and Wilwood disc brakes all ’round, it provides a stable base for an epic, corner-carving pro tourer that would have made ol’ Shel’ proud.

The build was kicking along nicely at this point, but it would soon turn into a massive thrash once Ross found an epic deadline to aim for. “I saw in Street Machine that Ringbrothers would be at MotorEx, so, with all the Ringbrothers parts on the car and the Harrop/Dandy Engines Windsor, I thought it would be perfect to get the car there!”

Building a car to be unveiled at Australia’s premier indoor car show is daunting enough, but with the doors to MotorEx 2024 due to swing open in just six months, Ross was suddenly facing a huge time crunch, especially as he hadn’t found a panel shop to finish the Mustang’s bodywork and paint. Fortunately, Lou Iudica once again pointed him in the right direction.

“Lou recommended Rob and Jeremy from Automotive Creations to paint the car, so I spoke with Rob and he had availability to take on the work,” Ross says. “The car was in epoxy primer, and we thought it only needed to be painted and assembled, but Rob took it back to bare metal, and that was when we saw the extent of the bad work that had been done prior: it was full of rust, filler, and very bad metal repairs.”

Repairing the poor-quality work and finishing the car to match Aidan’s concept rendering made Ross’s tight deadline even more pressurised, but he has nothing but praise for Automotive Creations’ efforts. “The team did an amazing job pushing through the huge amount of work and being flexible with schedules, such as when I needed to send the shell in primer to MPW Performance to get fabrication work done,” he says.

The end result speaks for itself. Under the eye-belting Ford Race Red is a custom steel bonnet, custom tail and cowl panels, fat wheel tubs, and a host of parts from Ringbrothers, including a carbonfibre front bumper and quarter-window inserts, bonnet pins, mirrors, tail-lights and door handles. “Every panel on the car was replaced apart from the roof and both front guards,” Ross says.

“The body was delivered to Melbourne’s TruTrack Suspension for first-stage assembly, and in 10 days, we had the car rolling out with brakes, suspension, and driveline all installed,” he continues. “The Mustang then went through final assembly at Automotive Creations and made it to MotorEx in early May ’24, where it won entry to Superstars and placed third in Design & Execution, which was just amazing.”

After the fastback got some dyno time and a few tweaks, it fronted at Street Machine Summernats 37, where it made the Top 20 and scored 3rd Top Coupe and a Magnificent 7 spot in the Grand Champion stakes.

And while Ross is undoubtedly stoked with how the Mustang turned out, he’s now addicted to these high-end builds, with a couple more already on the cards: a blue Ferrari 308 concept he designed with Aidan, and a ’67 Alfa Romeo GTV chockers with Alfaholics pro touring updates. Once they’re both done, Ross is going to have one heck of a choice on his hands picking which awesome machine to take out!

ROSS GANGEMI
1965 FORD MUSTANG FASTBACK

THANKS
Automotive Creations; Dandy Engines; MPW Performance; TruTrack Suspension; The Trim Shop; HRE; Aidan’s Design & Illustration; my friends and family.

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