Tested: 1967 Revology Shelby Mustang GT500 Makes the Old New Again

The restomod movement—grafting modern mechanicals into decades-old cars—is an attempt to evoke warm memories by making old crocks (the cars, not us) feel young and fun to drive again. If your automotive hero worship runs to mid-1960s Mustangs, Revology might have the restomod medicine you’re looking for. Of course, you don’t need to be a person of a certain age to lust after one of their reimagined, new-old Mustangs, but you will need scads of disposable income to put one in your garage.

Revology specializes in 1965–1968 Mustang restomods. The Orlando, Florida-based company was founded in 2014 by Tom Scarpello, a gonzo enthusiast who previously held sales-and-marketing positions at Nissan, Infiniti, Jaguar, and Ford—including head of operations for the latter’s SVT performance group. Scarpello chucked the corporate life to pursue the quixotic quest of building cars, but he brought a mass-market mindset to Revology’s business plan.

The company isn’t so much a custom shop as it is a mini-manufacturer. In a twist to the traditional restomod formula, Revology doesn’t restore and modify existing old cars; it builds vintage Ford Mustangs from the ground up with entirely new bodies and then fits them with modern running gear. The end result is closer to what Singer does with Porsches than what a hot-rod shop or private owner might build on a one-off basis.

The process starts with welding up new, period-correct, body and chassis stampings to create an all-new shell. After that it’s like a This Old House project: Keep the footprint and update the innards. Revology strengthens the structure with the more robust floorpan and reinforcement plates from the late-60’s convertibles, as well as an x-brace subframe connector; enlarges the transmission tunnel to accept a Tremec T56 Magnum XL six-speed manual or a Ford 10-speed automatic transmission; and reconfigures the engine bay to swallow either of two Ford 32-valve, 5.0-liter Coyote V-8s: a standard 460-hp, 420-lb-ft naturally aspirated version or a Roush-built supercharged mill putting out a claimed 710 horsepower and 610-pound feet of torque. A new coil-over suspension—control arms up front and two longitudinal links, a torque arm, and a Panhard rod in the rear—is then wedged into place.

Like large-scale carmakers, Revology has an online configurator where a potential customer—or those just dreaming of becoming one—can try out combinations of paint color, interior trim, and options. Revology’s lineup includes a convertible and two fastback versions of the 1965–1966 Mustang and five variants of the 1967–1968 Stang fastback. They are not bespoke automobiles, though; the company will accommodate a request for a custom paint color or a special shade of leather, but that’s it. Otherwise, you choose from the menu of available options. Revology even backs its work with an unlimited-mileage, one-year bumper-to-bumper warranty and two years for the powertrain, another big-company touch.

Judging by the Shelby GT500 test car that Revology handed us, its production process turns out gorgeous automobiles. Build quality was up to Pebble Beach Concours standards; flawless paint, laser-straight body panels, doors that open and close like a modern Mustang thanks to a painstaking process to incorporate latching mechanisms from the current sixth-generation car, and a beautifully assembled interior speak to meticulous craftsmanship bordering on art. Even the car’s underside is sanitary.

Still, these are hand-built cars, which means this level of perfection is stunningly expensive. The least costly car in the Revology lineup, the 1968 Mustang 2+2 fastback, has a base price of $248,345. Shelby GT500s, Revology’s top model, start at $320,600. Our six-speed manual test example had a full nappa leather interior ($10,475), painted Wimbledon White LeMans stripes ($6575), an Alcantara headliner ($1125), Dark Blue Metallic paint ($975), front-seat headrests ($950), and flush-mount hood latches ($635), bringing its sticker to $341,335.

Yes, that’s Ferrari money, and you could pick up a well-restored original Shelby GT500 for about half that—so why wouldn’t you? Because, as Scarpello points out, “you’d be driving a 56-year-old car.” That’s the point of restomods: evoking the warm nostalgia of the past blended with a modern driving experience. We get why 167 people have so far been seduced into purchasing a Revology Mustang—33 of them popping for the GT500. It does exactly what it’s supposed to.

The GT500’s standard Roush supercharged V-8 lights off via a push-button start—a 7.0-inch Pioneer infotainment screen incorporating Apple CarPlay and a backup camera is another modern interior feature—and comes to life with an ominous thunderclap through its catalytic-converter-less Borla exhaust. Its booming V-8 bass note rises to a brazen roar when you pin the throttle, an event that never lasts long given how quickly the GT500 hurls itself down the tarmac. The sound of this engine is enough to cause the brain’s clock to flip back to the muscle-car era of the late 1960s, when Mustangs battled Chevy Camaros and AMC Javelins in Trans-Am competition and fought it out in impromptu street races across America.

We shy away from putting specialty cars through our track-testing decathlon because experience has shown us that almost none survive it. The first Revology GT500 we drove, equipped with a 10-speed automatic, also had issues. The front of the GT500 is filled with the same radiators and intercoolers you’d find in today’s sixth-gen Mustang equipped with the same powertrain. The modern Mustang flows significantly more air through its nose than the cars from the ’60s. During acceleration runs to 150 mph, the intercooler circuit cooked itself and eventually, the modern electronics would pull power. With our findings, a determined Scarpello vowed to make it right. Three additional cooling fans now move air across the exchanger, and there’s an additional oil cooler, as well as a 3-D-printed ram air boot so cleanly integrated into the radiator core you’d think it was originally engineered that way. Scarpello prevailed upon us to give Revology a second chance with this six-speed manual model, and it emerged unscathed. The numbers it produced confirm what our backsides had already told us: It’s bloody fast, ear-piercingly loud, and does its best work in a straight line—much like the original Shelby GT500.

Back in 1967, we tested a Shelby GT500 equipped with a three-speed automatic. Powered by a 7.0-liter, 355-hp V-8, it was quick for the time, turning in a 60-mph sprint of 6.5 seconds and a quarter-mile run of 15.0 seconds at 95 mph. That’s almost exactly what a Honda Odyssey minivan will do today. So much for fond memories.

The Revology GT500 is quick for this era, with a 3.7-second 60-mph dash and a quarter-mile blast of 11.7 seconds at 124 mph—virtually identical numbers to those turned in by our 668-hp, six-speed manual long-term Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing. And that ungodly full-throttle roar? It peaks at 98 decibels, according to our sound-level meter, roughly the same as a Corvette Z06 at full wail—and it seems even louder.

The original GT500 was a more refined follow-up to Shelby American’s rough-edged GT350s. We summed it up then as “a grown-up sports car for smooth touring.” Across 56 years, the Revology GT500 also has a similar softer side balancing its wild-child powertrain.

Revology’s remake is pleasant around town, with light clutch and shifter efforts and progressive brakes. It’s also comfortable threading its way down two-lanes at a brisk touring pace, but despite its modern running gear, it doesn’t have the steering feel, seat-of-the-pants connection, or sheer grip that encourages attacking sweepers and hairpins as confidently as you would in a current Mustang GT. Rolling on 245/45ZR-17 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, the GT500 corners at 0.88 g on the skidpad, certainly far better than what we would’ve seen back in ’67 but about what we saw from the latest Honda Accord, proving there are limitations to a chassis developed some 60 years ago. A modern, 3847-pound curb weight, nearly 500 pounds heavier than a 1967 original, also doesn’t help. Stopping power comes from Wilwood brakes—six-piston calipers clamping 13.1-inch rotors in front and four-pot calipers pinching 12.9-inch rotors in the back—and without the help of anti-lock brakes, stops from 70 mph happen in 179 feet.

Point the Revology GT500 down a highway, though, and it’s a happy cruiser, with a supple, well-judged ride and unflappable straight-line stability. It’ll lope along comfortably at extra-legal speeds, its standard air conditioning keeping the cabin cool in summer. It settles down to 79 decibels at 70 mph, plenty loud but not so annoying that it would keep us from taking it on jaunts to Cars & Coffee gatherings or even on longer drives.

With but 33 Revology Shelby GT500s in existence, the chances of you catching a glimpse of one are about the same as bumping into Taylor Swift at your local Costco. Oh, well. Scarpello says his customers “have an emotional connection to old Mustangs.” They might have wanted one when they were kids or owned one and wished they hadn’t sold it, and now they have the money to reward themselves with a new-old one. Lucky them.

We’re just happy these rare beasts exist. The Revology GT500 overflows with throwback charm sweetly updated to the present, thanks to vintage looks, show-car build quality, and a large dose of adrenaline. Or, to put it in ’60s parlance, it’s a cool car, man. Real cool.

Source: Reviews - aranddriver.com