Collaborations are always a bit of a mixed bag. When Kirsty MacColl randomly decided to team up with lovable toothless drunks The Pogues, they somehow created the best Christmas song ever. New Order roping in John Barnes for ‘World in Motion’ was a bizarre masterstroke too. Apple teaming up with Bono to force everyone who bought an iPod to have the new U2 album – not quite such a great idea. But it’s safe to say that when such legendary names as Mountune and FIFTEEN52 partner up, the results can only be brilliant.
Mountune was founded in Essex by David Mountain back in 1980. Mountain had won the Junior Autocross Championship at he age of 15 Back in 1973, behind the wheel of a 105E Anglia and has had petrol coursing through his veins ever since; mountune initially focused on developing the British Leyland A-Series engine for motorsport, before refocusing on Ford tuning with the advent of the YB engine. A mountune-powered Sierra RS500 won the BTCC in 1990, opening the floodgates to a global market supplying race engines. Mountain’s work with the YB continued in Touring Cars and the WRC, and when the Duratec engine arrived in 2000, mountune were at the forefront of tuners ready to develop the new platform… and again with the EcoBoost in 2014. This is a company that knows Ford tuning arguably better than anyone, although they’ve always been keen to work with other brands – the company built the Subaru BTCC engines from 2016, and they have extensive experience with Audi engines in Formula 2 racing.
Mountune also worked with VW USA, Tanner Foust And wheel brand FIFTEEN52 on a Golf GTi for SEMA 2017, the mountune X Foust Edition GTi Concept, and that’s ultimately what’s led to this new-for-2019 collaboration: the new brand, the m52 launches with induction systems, mapping, lowering springs and (of course ) wheels for the Mk7/7.5 Golf GTi and Golf R With many more developments for VAG platforms in the works. There’ll also be merch, and as part of the launch you can get 5-percent off online orders by using the code ‘m52’ at the checkout. Check out www.mountune52.com for more.
