We are taking a massive trip back to the late '80s—but we're bringing 715 horsepower and a six-figure budget with us.If you grew up around the American street racing scene, you already know the reputation of the Fox Body Mustang. It was cheap, it was light, and ambitious gearheads stuffed massive V8s into them with absolutely zero regard for structural integrity. But the artisan builders over at Velocity Restorations just completely flipped the script, engineering a jaw-dropping, $300,000 resto-mod that finally gives this '80s icon the high-end respect it deserves.In a recent deep-dive review, Top Gear took the new Velocity Fox Body out to a track in New Orleans, immediately noting that "this is perhaps the most unlikely of restomods; it's a Ford Mustang Fox Body by Velocity Restorations and it's hit me right in the nostalgia".The original factory Fox Bodies were famous for their massive speed-to-budget ratio, but they were also notoriously flimsy. The host brutally summarized the factory build quality, explaining that "the uni-body design might have been light, but that's because it was made almost entirely of hopes and dreams that meant you can make the chassis twist like a pretzel".AdvertisementAdvertisementIf you tried to take a corner too hard in the original, "they had the suspension kinematics of a Greyhound on a polished wooden floor".The Ultimate Coyote Heart TransplantVelocity Restorations solved the "pretzel" problem by essentially giving the car a completely new, rock-solid skeleton. Instead of relying on the flimsy factory frame, "this car essentially has two chassis; there's the original unibody to which Velocity then bolts a Roadster Shop spec chassis". With an independent front suspension, a multi-link rear, and modern six-piston disc brakes, the Fox Body can finally handle aggressive track driving.And it needs all the structural help it can get, because the powertrain is absolutely lethal. Velocity stuffed a modern "Ford Coyote V8 at 5 L capacity driving the rear wheels through a 10-speed automatic transmission" directly under the hood.While the base model pushes out an impressive 500 horsepower, buyers who really want to terrorize the track can opt for a massive Whipple supercharger that "delivers 715 brake horsepower and in a car this light that is not insignificant".Instead of stripping out the soul of the '80s car and replacing it with a sterile, hyper-modern iPad interior, Velocity painstakingly recreated the era's gritty aesthetic. The interior plastics line up perfectly, the heated Ricaro bucket seats feature retro '80s fabric, and the air conditioning is cleverly designed by Vintage Air to look entirely old school.AdvertisementAdvertisementIt is the absolute perfect blend of retro attitude and modern performance—but that precision will definitely cost you. A custom build from Velocity takes about 14 weeks on their artisan assembly line and will run you roughly $260,000 to nearly $300,000 depending on your spec sheet.