MUSTANG and V8 are two words that go together like ham and cheese, so the thought of a Mustang with anything other than a thunderous bent-eight tends to provoke incredulous laughter.

Yet, for the current-gen 2020 S550 Mustang, Ford has two offerings for us Aussies: the burly, full-steroid Mustang GT with 5.0 litres of aspirated Coyote V8 power, and a humble 2.3L four-cylinder EcoBoost version. You read that right: a Mustang with only four cylinders.

The 2.3L four-banger is the same one offered in the current Ford Focus ST, and is loosely the same donk found in the previous-generation Focus RS. Despite being a runt on paper compared to its V8 brother, the $50K EcoBoost Muzzy actually has a fair bit of chop considering the handicap.

Ford quotes the High Performance variant of the Mustang’s EcoBoost at 236kW at the flywheel, but we wanted to throw our test car on a dyno and see it for ourselves.

Zane from Maxx Performance got the job of running the Muzzy up, the orange machine eventually laying down 180rwkW through the 10-speed auto.

Seeing the way that the tune restricts power means we’re super keen to throw some solid laptop time behind one of these, and that, combined with some E85, could turn this into a seriously cool budget sports car – given the V8 GT is at least $13K dearer.

Let us know what you’d think of an EcoBoost Mustang in the Carnage stable. We’ve already started scheming ways to throw more power at one of these, so who knows – the baby brother may just prove to be the pick of the litter.