Auto Review: The Mustang RTR is affordable, rip-roaring fun

NAPA VALLEY, California — Before it ditched cars for a lineup of engaging SUVs and trucks like F-150 Raptors, Bronco Sport Sasquatches and Maverick Lobos, Ford made affordable hellions like the Focus RS that you could take big game-hunting with 300-plus turbo-4 horsepower, nimble handling, and drift mode. The Focus RS exited the market in 2018. It s been reincarnated in the 2027 Ford Mustang RTR. Delivered by Formula Drift Racing legend Vaughn Gittin Jr. and his Ready to Rock team, Mustang RTR is the love child of the Focus RS and a Mustang GT. It is a tantalizing, teething, tempestuous, tail-wagging terror. Over the heaving, 2.0-mile twists-and-turns of Thunderhill West race track (a desert version of Grattan Raceway near Grand Rapids), RTR was, to use Gittin s favorite term, a fun-haver. In TRACK mode, I crested blind Turn 6 at 90 mph — managing throttle while the turbo stayed spooled up using anti-lag technology from the Ford GT (yeah, that 2016 GT). I stomped the Bre