Where Is Your Stang Going?

well when i graduate, im thinking of keeping it street, but to transfer to EFI and supercharge it, it would be expensive, yes but i figured i would love to drive it a lot more and taking it out would be more of an occasion

My car is to the point where i like it, its fast enough to keep the rice at bay, and sexy enough to keep me excited. Its to the point where it will stay for years and years, I would recommend another project if you want to race it, these cars are getting to valuable to chop and muff around with. I say buy yourself a little fox body and run that they are cheap and fun. Just my opinion feel free to take it with a grain of salt.

Jimmy,

I had that decision early in building the Cobra. Since the car was going to see the tracks as much as possible, I built the car with racing in mind, but kept it just barely streetable.

I like the racing look myself, though I wonder how many of the Pro-Tourers actually see track duty.

Dan

I think lots of car projects get out of hand or off course for a variety of reasons. I should know, because I've made every mistake in the book over the years. My last Mustang was a perfect example. I "thought" I wanted a badass street car. I was wrong. After 4 years of ownership, I had gone through several motors and all of my money. In it's final form, it had too wild a motor to run on pump gas, too low of gears to drive on the freeway, too stiff of a clutch, the wide tires hit the fenders all the way around, the headers and scattersheild drug, even though the car was not lowered, it was too loud, the brakes sucked, and the interior looked like dogs lived in it. I took a nice '65 fastback and made it a car I couldn't do what I wanted with. The worst part is, after I sold it (for less than half of what I had in it) the next owner fixed everything I had done and made it a great car. It made me sick to see what it could have been. With my present GT 350 clone, before I ever even bought the car, I laid out some mental plans, kind of a road map to where I wnated the car to end up. I mean, who in their right mind heads out to a new destination without a map? Same with my car, I had to be honest with myself about my goals, my budget and above all, be realistic about what I really NEEDED out of the car. Since I had a tough time finding a fastback, I had lots of time to check the price and availablity of parts. I wrote everything down that I needed, then added in what I felt I could afford for a car, then added 50% for a fudge factor, then asked myself if I was prepared to spend that much. That helped me set a budget.
As far as performance, I set some realistic goals of having my car perform as well as my '88 Mustang GT. Maybe that seems tame to you, but keep in mind I'm not after big drag strip numbers. In fact, about the only time the car will see any sprints will very, very likely be on freeway on ramps. Sure, it may only run in the 14's, but that's more than enough to put a grin on my face on the street. I also run 2 four barrel Holleys on an original Shelby intake, but since they are 390 vacuum secondary carbs, it starts easily, doesn't load up, and gets acceptable mileage, even with non-progressive linkage. I've been down the big cam/stiff valve springs/high compression/big carb/wicked motor road before, and it's not as much fun as I thought it would be.
As for appearance, my last car only needed paint and interior to be perfect when I bought it, and when I sold it, it still needed paint and interior. For me, it's not as much fun working on a car that doesn't please my eyes. For this car, I stuck to basics and budget. Rather than heap on beautiful but spendy billet stuff, and chrome everything else, my budget dictated stock. I know it sounds boring, but at so far this summer, out of two shows I entered, I got a People's Choice award, and a second place in a large, '64-'69 modified class against several pro-built cars. For me, the idea of a white, 100% homebuilt car made up of other people's cast-offs beating pro-built cars in a car show is unreal.
Even though I met lots of nice people during the shows and was thrilled to win both times, driving is what I built it for and driving is what it does best. Yes, it's low, but nothing hits, it rides great, and for a 40-year old car, it handels very well. It starts, stops, steers and looks better than I ever hoped, even if it did take 6 friggin' years to finish. I think that may be the key, when you have more time than money, you have time to think every detail to death. Will this work, what if I did this, and can I afford that is cheaper than doing it twice and more rewarding in the end.

hey Jimmy are you going to the big mustang show next weekend? it's on saturday the 16th at the new Wayand Baptist campus up on Quaker and the North Loop. i'll be there, you should come out too

here's a link to the mustang club site and info on the show is in the lower right corner

http://lubbockmustangclub.com/

there's also another big show in Levelland the next saturday which is the 23rd, i'm going to try to make it to that one but not sure yet