Plymouth Township, Michigan - On the face of it, JackHammer (as in ‘shakes like a’) is not a very complimentary name for a modified Mustang.
But in this case, it’s Jack Roush Jr’s tribute to his father, Roush Performance founder Jack Roush Sr, who started supplying go-fast goodies for Ford Mustangs, Focuses and F-150s, as well as complete vehicles modified to his specifications, way back in 1995 - and is now officially a manufacturer in his own right.
So this, then, is not a Ford Mustang - it’s a limited-edition, one-of-only-200, 2018 Roush JackHammer, with Roush adjustable coilover suspension, a new lower grille and chin spoiler, extra grille vent slots, rear-window air scoops, new Continental ExtremeContact Sport tyres on gloss black wheels and the signature Roush ‘hockey stick’ stripe down each side.
You can even ask for an extra matte-black racing stripe down the middle of the car.
Stop sniggering.
The JackHammer also comes from your local Roush-authorised Ford dealer with a supercharger preparation package already installed. All the brackets, components and connections are already fitted and the front engine cover has been machined to accept a Roush TVS 2650 supercharger kit.
Bolt that on - which only takes a few hours - and the standard five-litre Mustang V8 gets boosted from 343kW and 569Nm to 529kW and a tar-wrinkling 827Nm. If Reeves Callaway hadn’t appropriated it for his twin-turbo ‘Vette, maybe SledgeHammer would have been a better name.
Roush doesn’t quote any performance figures, but it will build the JackHammer only on a Fastback base car (in either six-speed manual or 10-speed automatic configuration), not a convertible, which tells you something about the extra stresses this conversion imposes on the bodyshell.
You had to ask
The limited-edition JackHammer is left-hand drive only, so isn’t available in South Africa, but
in SA offer a full Roush Stage 3 conversion, which includes everything the JackHammer has, other than the serial number and the special black wheels, for R680 000 on top of the price of the base car ( R872 200 for the manual, R893 200 for automatic).