The Real Details on the Ford Mustang from Tokyo Drift

Mustang is powered by a Nissan RB26 engine with around 350 rear-wheel horsepower.

A classic Ford Mustang fastback was the star of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, but it is one of the least-loved Mustang movie cars of all time. That is because this classic pony car was powered by a Nissan Skyline engine. In the movie, an American gearhead living in Japan has a classic Mustang without an engine and he has a built Nissan RB26 engine from an S15. He puts the two together and creates an infamous car from a relatively unpopular movie.

There is a ton of bad information online about these Ford Mustangs, so Craig Lieberman spoke with the man who helped make this Skyline-powered pony car come to life. The two also talk about the other Mustangs from Tokyo Drift, all of which were powered by proper V8 crate engines.

Lieberman and Morris

Before we get into the details on the classic Ford Mustang from Tokyo Drift, a quick look at the two men in the video above.

Craig Lieberman was a technical advisor for the original The Fast and the Furious movie, providing several of his own cars while providing input on the others. He is the host of his YouTube channel series where he takes a close look at all of the key cars from the movie series.

Sean Morris is a Nissan GT-R guru and American importer of rare Japanese vehicles and parts. More importantly here, he was the man tapped by the movie studio to help bring the Nissan-powered Mustang to life.

The Hero 1 Mustang

Sean Morris first got involved with this Ford Mustang project when he was contacted by John Wiser. Wiser is an automotive expert in the movie world, aiding in the creation and upkeep of cars for filming. For Tokyo Drift, Wiser needed an RB26 expert, so he turns to Morris.

When Morris first saw the Tokyo Drift Mustang, it was at a shop called Tri-C Engineering. When he got there, they had pulled the RB26 engine from a Nissan Skyline and were trying to make it fit in the classic pony car. Morris pointed out that it needed a single turbo setup, but before moving forward, he told the Tri-C team to put that engine back in the Skyline. Rather than tearing apart a good Skyline, Morris provided a spare engine for the build.

Once the proper engine was in the Hero 1 Mustang for Tokyo Drift, he helped with the single turbo, the oil pan, and the transmission, which came from an R25 Nissan Skyline. For the actual turbocharger, Morris contacted Turbonetics, who provided a 60-1 turbocharger and an intercooler. The turbo manifold was modified to situate the turbo further forward and upward in the engine bay. This made it look bigger than it really is. Once he added an AEM engine management system, the RB26-powered Mustang came to life. With a conservative tune and light boost, it made around 350 rear-wheel horsepower.

This movie car was tested by Edmunds and ran a 13.3 at 109 miles per hour in the quarter-mile. That was with the drift-tuned setup and basic street tires. With better tires, it would have been in the 12s, but this car wasn’t made to perform well. The Hero 1 car was only used for close-ups and situations where the car had to look its best. Whenever we see the Tokyo Drift car up close in the movie with the RB26 engine, it is Hero 1. That car never got driven hard in the movie.

However, Morris points out that it was a great build, calling it a “fun, silly car”.

Many Stunt Cars

Lieberman and Morris weren’t sure exactly how many stunt cars were made. They believe that there were five or six of them. These were the cars driven hard and beaten up during the movie. All of them were powered by small-block Ford V8 crate engines. In testing, the V8 stunt cars ran the quarter-mile in the low 14s.

When you see a classic Mustang fastback in Tokyo Drift slamming into a Nissan 350Z, it is powered by a proper V8. Several of those cars have been sold overseas while some have turned up in private collections in the United States. One was in the Volo Museum for some time.

Due to the fact that the movie wasn’t popular, there wasn’t much demand for the Mustang movie cars. That was why most of them were seemingly sold to buyers outside of North America. That is also why the exact number of cars from the movie is unknown.

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Patrick Rall

"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.

"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.

"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.

"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.

"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.

"Being based on Detroit," says Rall, "I never miss the North American International Auto Show, the Woodward Dream Cruise and Roadkill Nights, along with spending plenty of time raising hell on Detroit's Woodward Avenue with the best muscle car crowd in the world.

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