SIX ON THE FLOOR LIKE YOU'VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE

A Modern Overdrive Transmission Swap for Ford Fans

- Michael Galimi

The modern Ford automatic transmission market has always been a step behind its competition from the General. The Fox-body Mustang fanatics suffered through the lethargic AOD era, followed by the AOD-E, which was marginally better. The 4R70W, which debuted in the Lincoln Mark VIII and was carried over to the Modular generation of Mustangs, had been a step in the right direction, but only when the aftermarket got involved in a complete rebuild. Sure, Ford produced the robust 4R100 that was found in heavy-duty trucks and the Gen 2 Lightning, but its strength came with girth, making it less than ideal to swap into most cars.

The Ford world rejoiced in 2005, however, with the introduction of the 5R55S, an automatic transmission that changed the landscape and made an auto-equipped Mustang a worthy purchase. But as good as the 5R55S was, lurking in the wings was the 6R80 that first appeared in Ford SUV and truck models in 2009 and made its way into the Mustang line-up in 2011 as they shifted to the Coyote 5.0 powerplant.

The 6R80 is a six-speed automatic, and, nearly a decade after its introduction, the transmission was a gamechanger off-the-showroom floor as well as the swap world. It offers lockup capabilities in any of the forward gears and features a tow/haul mode to help with towing and engine braking for truck applications. In the Mustang, a 6R80-equipped 2011-2017 Mustang GT will typically outperform a manual transmission-equipped Mustang of the same years on the drag strip.