The stupidest ideas usually have the most entertainment value, and this clearly applies to a classic 1965 Ford Mustang body that’s been forced to rest on the chassis of 1996 Honda Civic. It’s everything people love to hate in one package called the “Masutangu”, which is the Japanese pronunciation for Mustang… apparently.
Tom’s Refurb is a young gun with a small YouTube channel of about 19k followers that’s suddenly found itself in the middle of a content storm. The Honda-Stang is technically not a novel idea, but videos of its “fabrication” process have already racked up over a million views. It’s the very definition of car content going viral.
What are we talking about, has anybody ever made a Mustang-Honda hybrid? While these exact two cars haven’t been matched before, this bears an extreme resemblance to B Is for Build’s work. In 2020, their body-swapped modern Mustang with 1968 GT500 was seized over the problematic “Eleanor” trademark. More recently, they had more success with the R69, combining the classic R34 Skyline GT-R with the more advanced R35 chassis.
Of course, there are other obvious parallels, the Tokyo Drift Ford Mustang being an obvious one. In the movie, they say it’s powered by the famous RB26 engine, but most of the stunt cars are actually small-block V8s. A YouTuber recently made the real thing happen with some very impressive dyno results yearling 500 hp.
Tom’s Refurb build started in November 2021, when he and his buddies created a Civic “go-kart”. The old economy car was stripped of all its bodywork and fitted with a turbocharged B Series VTEC engine which they said made about 400 horsepower.
Since the Civic no longer had any bodywork, the team decided to drop some rusty pony bodywork on top. This is some of the sorriest 1965 Ford Mustang metal you’ve ever seen, rusty from one end to the other.
But it’s still interesting to see it matched to the front-wheel-drive platform. And look on the bright side: the pony is probably faster than it’s ever been, since that 65 body looks like it belonged to a basic 6-cylinder.
The young team is also getting creative with the bodywork. They’ve made a new front end for the Mustang with an air scoop at the bottom, probably meant to replicate the most famous 1965 Mustang of all, the GT350R. And the hood got dual scoops, looking a bit like a 1968 GT500KR. But let’s be honest here: nobody is ever going to confuse this for either of those rarities, especially not with the VTEC turned on.
