eBay Find: Race-Ready 2005 Ford Mustang FR500C

Rare race-ready model put S197 platform on top of American road-racing series.

Ford launched the S197 Mustang in 2005, and to put their product in the spotlight, the Blue Oval hired Multimatic to build road-racing S197s. The Canadian racing shop took body-in-white Mustangs and turned them into potent Grand-Am Cup cars called the FR500C. Not only did the FR500C win the 2005 Grand-Am Koni Challenge series, it also pulled it off again in 2008. While this FR500C for sale on eBay doesn’t appear to be one of the Grand-Am cars, it is one of just 28 FR500Cs built in 2005.

The centerpiece of the FR500C remains the engine, although the listing includes a discrepancy here. Multimatic built the cars around the 5.0-liter Cammer R50 with flat-top pistons. They added wild intake plenum with intake trumpets to the original race car engine. The eBay listing says the engine is an SOHC 4.6-liter with three valves per cylinder, although the valve cover says “32 VALVES” in the ad’s photos.

Whatever the engine, Grand-Am targeted for the FR500C about 420 horsepower. That sounds unimpressive with a modern Coyote producing 435 in stock trim, perhaps. However, that jumped well up from the 320 horsepower of the contemporary Cobra engine. Multimatic installed a T56 transmission to withstand the increased power and rigors of racing better than the standard 5-speed.

CHECK OUT: What Forum Members Are Saying About This FR500C

Naturally, the track-only design of the FR500C makes it more suited for racing than a standard 2017 Mustang GT. Multimatic installed rollcages and seam-welded the entire unibody to improve structural rigidity. While the car retained the live rear axle, the FR500C comes with adjustable dampers and anti-roll bars front and back. The front brakes are 4-piston Brembos with single-piston brakes borrowed from the Lincoln LS in the rear.

This deserves to be one heck of a track-day toy or club race car. For the quality of build and parts list, you will struggle to build your own similarly equipped S197 for the $49,980 asking price. These cars sold for $125,000 when new, and while it is a 12-year-old race car, it’s still a race car.