Roush-Yates joins Aeromotive in developing turbo technology

Words and photos by Ian Tocher

If not for an injury to his Achilles tendon, Aeromotive founder and president Steve Matusek might never have embarked on a unique relationship with NASCAR powerhouse Roush-Yates to develop a twin-turbocharged variation of the new Ford NHRA Pro Stock engine.

Originally, interest came from Roush-Yates late in the summer of 2009 about Matusek’s Ford modular motor program in NHRA Comp Eliminator as it might relate to rally car applications. Matusek recalls being all set to visit Roush-Yates headquarters to discuss a mod motor partnership, when the injury came just a week prior and put all plans on hold. Then, by the time he’d healed up and was back in the Aeromotive Mustang at the Las Vegas NHRA event in October that year, rumors were flying that NHRA was about to make Pro Modified a legitimate professional class.

Coincidentally, Ford had shipped a brand-new 2010 Mustang body to Aeromotive a few months earlier.

“We had been thinking about just reskinning the old car, but came to realize that wasn’t going to work because of the way the chassis was, so we had this brand-new body and didn’t really know what to do with it,” Matusek says. “Roush-Yates wanted to work with us, but we were kind of backing out of the mod motor program because that no longer seemed to be the latest and greatest. And then Pro Mod was announced as a real series, and it’s only a ten race series, so for a business owner like myself a ten race series is a lot more palatable than trying to race 22 or 23 events a year.