Alright...I've mentioned this car in enough other threads, and information has been asked. Well, today I talked more with my engine builder, and I am excited. We are still many weeks from completion, and the Power Tour is coming. Oh, I'm also going to be moving my GTO over to a new Aussie Twin Turbo setup [http://ls1turbo.com.au/ttspecs.htm and that will take priority as well.
But that's okay...there is time.
History: In the fall of 1965 [actually, it was my birthday!] my dad took delivery on a new 1966 Mustang. Springtime yellow. The car was so cool...and that was the car I later learned to drive in. Three days after my 16th birthday, I managed to roll it over on a dirt road while cutting school with my girlfriend. Oops.
1979: I was working as an engineer prior to starting medical school, and I wanted a car. A rational man would have bought an inexpensive, reliable car. I wanted a Mustang. 1966. A convertible. I found one.
Even getting the car home was an adventure, as I rode a bus 3.5 hrs to Atlanta where I was picking it up...ended up partying with friends...picked up the car...and drove home in the middle of the night.
IT WAS MINE!!!
I wanted a performance car, so I bought a cam, and an Edelbrock manifold, and a four barrel, and headers. I bought a book, and learned how to install all of that. Drove it. Put in new springs, shocks, and sway bars. The front springs were too tall, the leafs too low. Car had a funny, backwards tilt. Made handling scary...especially with the engine mods. Just the thing for a first year med student.
Found rust in the floor. Put fiberglass ON TOP of the rust [smart young guy, I was!]. Drove the car.
I was getting married, and what better to go on a honeymoon in, than a Mustang convertible??? So, my bride-to-be and I loaded the 'vert up, headed to Atlanta for the wedding...
...and made it 45 miles down the road when it overheated! Seems that I didn't know enough to have fixed-up the cooling system! So, I got my Dad to tow us back home, and we took her '74 Camaro to the wedding, and on the honeymoon. God smiled on us. I managed to T-bone some old clunker on the honeymoon, doing major damage to the Camaro. It deserved it...that was the slowest 350 cu in car on the planet! It was traded for a Honda Civic. And yes, I was truly grateful that God had seen fit to have the 'vert overheat and NOT be the wrecked car.
Time passed, the car got towed from home-to-home. My wife tried to sell it more than once [just an "innocent" mention to someone, and offers came out of nowhere!] Sat in a mini-warehouse.
May 3, 2003: I manage to go over a guard rail off of a mountain in a bicycle race at about 45 mph. Break C1, C5, C6, & C7[vertebrae in the neck, for the medically uninformed!]. Spend time in a halo, then surgery/fusion, rehab. WIFE suggests it's time to rehab the 'vert...and we have a very talented friend and mechanic. And so it begins.
In 1979 it was not of interest [to anyone besides me, it seemed] to build a performance classic. The term "restomod" hadn't been coined. But it is different these days. So, in 2003, we begin work.
First order of business: donor car. We figure a Fox body car w/ a good engine and tranny will work. So I buy one with a fully rebuilt and hopped-up engine. But I want boost. Look at everything on the market, and buy a Kenne Bell 2.2.
Then I hear about blowing apart 5.0 blocks...can you imagine, splitting them down the middle! That won't do. So I find a Sportsman block 331 stroker w/ really nice parts, blower cam...in a wrecked car. Order AFR heads. Now we're cooking.
Then you tell me that the Sportsman block really is just about like the old Mexican block. Good for ~500 hp or so. In the meantime I've built up a turbocharged LS2 GTO and drive 500 rwhp on a daily basis. Nah...the 'vert needs to be faster!
So it's time to look at SERIOUS engines and engine builders. Enter Tracy McAllister[ http://www.mcallisterbrothersracing.com ] Really sharp guy...who has been quietly building some of the fastest Ford engines on the East Coast. We discuss maximal power in a classic car. No computer, minimal wiring. Maximal thrust. Turns out he's building some 950-1000 hp blown 408 strokers THAT USE A BLOW THROUGH CARB! Hmmm...
Briefly: Tracy is building me a 408W stroker; usually he uses a Dart or Ford Racing block, but because this is not a dedicated race car, he is doing this on a '69 Windsor block, converted to 4 bolt caps. Forged stroker, H beams, etc. CNC'd heads [Chinese castings based on a Victor Jr head; but CNC'd so they actually work]. MSD ignition & distributor...ready to bolt in. I will work out the plumbing to and from the intercooler, and use the ridiculously oversized intercooler I bought.
Today he told me that we may need to pulley down...seems that we may be over 800 hp, and that might actually be too much!
800 hp + convertible = pretzel car, right?
This leads us into the pics I've already posted around here:
In order to hook this to the ground [and actually, this construction started when we were looking at ~400 hp!], my fabricator [and best friend!] has done this rear subframe out of rectangular steel tubing. We have located the leaf springs inward enough to allow for >12" of wheel/tire under stock sheet metal:
The car currently is having new quarter skins welded in, as the body lines had been lost in bondo prior to my purchase.
A close up of the Boyd Coddington Smoothies:
Okay...so where do we stuff this MONSTER MOTOR???
But we need an intercooler, right?
More to follow....
But that's okay...there is time.
History: In the fall of 1965 [actually, it was my birthday!] my dad took delivery on a new 1966 Mustang. Springtime yellow. The car was so cool...and that was the car I later learned to drive in. Three days after my 16th birthday, I managed to roll it over on a dirt road while cutting school with my girlfriend. Oops.
1979: I was working as an engineer prior to starting medical school, and I wanted a car. A rational man would have bought an inexpensive, reliable car. I wanted a Mustang. 1966. A convertible. I found one.
Even getting the car home was an adventure, as I rode a bus 3.5 hrs to Atlanta where I was picking it up...ended up partying with friends...picked up the car...and drove home in the middle of the night.
IT WAS MINE!!!
I wanted a performance car, so I bought a cam, and an Edelbrock manifold, and a four barrel, and headers. I bought a book, and learned how to install all of that. Drove it. Put in new springs, shocks, and sway bars. The front springs were too tall, the leafs too low. Car had a funny, backwards tilt. Made handling scary...especially with the engine mods. Just the thing for a first year med student.
Found rust in the floor. Put fiberglass ON TOP of the rust [smart young guy, I was!]. Drove the car.
I was getting married, and what better to go on a honeymoon in, than a Mustang convertible??? So, my bride-to-be and I loaded the 'vert up, headed to Atlanta for the wedding...
...and made it 45 miles down the road when it overheated! Seems that I didn't know enough to have fixed-up the cooling system! So, I got my Dad to tow us back home, and we took her '74 Camaro to the wedding, and on the honeymoon. God smiled on us. I managed to T-bone some old clunker on the honeymoon, doing major damage to the Camaro. It deserved it...that was the slowest 350 cu in car on the planet! It was traded for a Honda Civic. And yes, I was truly grateful that God had seen fit to have the 'vert overheat and NOT be the wrecked car.
Time passed, the car got towed from home-to-home. My wife tried to sell it more than once [just an "innocent" mention to someone, and offers came out of nowhere!] Sat in a mini-warehouse.
May 3, 2003: I manage to go over a guard rail off of a mountain in a bicycle race at about 45 mph. Break C1, C5, C6, & C7[vertebrae in the neck, for the medically uninformed!]. Spend time in a halo, then surgery/fusion, rehab. WIFE suggests it's time to rehab the 'vert...and we have a very talented friend and mechanic. And so it begins.
In 1979 it was not of interest [to anyone besides me, it seemed] to build a performance classic. The term "restomod" hadn't been coined. But it is different these days. So, in 2003, we begin work.
First order of business: donor car. We figure a Fox body car w/ a good engine and tranny will work. So I buy one with a fully rebuilt and hopped-up engine. But I want boost. Look at everything on the market, and buy a Kenne Bell 2.2.
Then I hear about blowing apart 5.0 blocks...can you imagine, splitting them down the middle! That won't do. So I find a Sportsman block 331 stroker w/ really nice parts, blower cam...in a wrecked car. Order AFR heads. Now we're cooking.
Then you tell me that the Sportsman block really is just about like the old Mexican block. Good for ~500 hp or so. In the meantime I've built up a turbocharged LS2 GTO and drive 500 rwhp on a daily basis. Nah...the 'vert needs to be faster!
So it's time to look at SERIOUS engines and engine builders. Enter Tracy McAllister[ http://www.mcallisterbrothersracing.com ] Really sharp guy...who has been quietly building some of the fastest Ford engines on the East Coast. We discuss maximal power in a classic car. No computer, minimal wiring. Maximal thrust. Turns out he's building some 950-1000 hp blown 408 strokers THAT USE A BLOW THROUGH CARB! Hmmm...
Briefly: Tracy is building me a 408W stroker; usually he uses a Dart or Ford Racing block, but because this is not a dedicated race car, he is doing this on a '69 Windsor block, converted to 4 bolt caps. Forged stroker, H beams, etc. CNC'd heads [Chinese castings based on a Victor Jr head; but CNC'd so they actually work]. MSD ignition & distributor...ready to bolt in. I will work out the plumbing to and from the intercooler, and use the ridiculously oversized intercooler I bought.
Today he told me that we may need to pulley down...seems that we may be over 800 hp, and that might actually be too much!
800 hp + convertible = pretzel car, right?
This leads us into the pics I've already posted around here:
In order to hook this to the ground [and actually, this construction started when we were looking at ~400 hp!], my fabricator [and best friend!] has done this rear subframe out of rectangular steel tubing. We have located the leaf springs inward enough to allow for >12" of wheel/tire under stock sheet metal:
The car currently is having new quarter skins welded in, as the body lines had been lost in bondo prior to my purchase.
A close up of the Boyd Coddington Smoothies:
Okay...so where do we stuff this MONSTER MOTOR???
But we need an intercooler, right?
More to follow....
