During the 1980’s and 1990’s, Ford’s was among the many companies that experimented with engine “downsizing.” This led to the development of cars like the Mustang SVO, with turbocharged 4-cylinder engines. Alas, these cars never caught on, and

turbochargers disappeared from Ford’s lineup. But the Blue Oval still offered a few four-cylinder cars, some with “high performance” versions like the Ford Escort GT.

Of course, it is still just a Ford Escort, right? It couldn’t possibly beat a Mustang from the same era, could it? And you’re right…if the Escort is stock. But as this next video shows, with just a few minor modifications, an Escort GT can beat a 5.0 Mustang quite convincingly.

The video is apparently a race between brothers, one rocking a Fox-body Mustang GT convertible. The other brother is driving the aforementioned 1995 Ford Escort GT with modifications including a 70 shot of ntirous, an electronic exhaust cutout, a cold air intake, and a few other “bolt-on” modifications to the 1.8 liter Mazda-sourced DOHC 4-banger.

As you can see from the race, the Mustang’s superior torque gets the Escort off the line.. But from there the little compact-that-could pulls away from the Mustang, thanks in part to a 7,000 RPM redline, forged crank, and other performance features you might not expect in such a small engine. It is almost unbelievable, and almost makes us want to run out and get an Escort GT of our own to do up. Does this video change your mind about old school Escorts? Or would you still rather have the Mustang?