My Killer Canary Mustang Page

Hi my name is Paul Riva. I'm a medical sales representative from Altoona, PA. I've been in love with mustangs since I can remember my dad telling me all about his Mach 1 he had when he was younger. When I was 16 my parents bought me a '91 mustang LX 2.3 4 cyl. It was a beautiful car but SLOW! I did my best to make it faster and look better with the addition of 16' Pony wheels, a K&N filter, and a dynomax ultraflow muffler. The summer after my sophmore year in college I traded it on a 95 Canary Yellow GT convertible. It was my dream car, except for one thing- it was an automatic! Going from the 2.3 to this was a big step, but one that was short lived. By december I found myself filling out the paper work on my present car. It too is a 95 Canary Yellow GT convertible, but this time around I got it with a 5 speed and a host of other stuff the other one didn't have, plus my monthly payment was cheaper.

I based lined my car with a 1/4 mile time of 15.2 at 90 mph. I then added the 3.73's and ran a 15.4!!! On the way home I realized I smoked the clutch. So next I went and installed a new heavy duty clutch and bassani X pipe. After this I ran a 15.02. I was disappointed because I thought I'd have been in the 14's by now. So I bumped the timing and ran three 14.96's at 91.5mph. I then installed the ASP underdrive pullies and ran a 14.62 at 94.89mph, and a 14.52 at 94.76 with a 2.13 60' powershifting 3rd and 4th, that was the last time I ever powershifted the car. I must admit, I wasn't to thrilled with its performance at that point. I then added the intake, T-body, headers, and driveshaft. I then ran a 14.53 at 97.23mph with a horrible 2.3 60' at Raceway Park in NJ on March 31st, 2000. I know the 60' were bad, but the track seriously intimidated me, it made mine look like a paved nature trail. I eventually got it to solid 14.3's at 96-97mph on street tires with 2.09-2.1 60's.

After adding the Nitto drag radials and homemade inlet tube between the MAF and T-body, I brought my times to consistent 13.8's at 98.3-98.5mph with 1.91 60's. Now with the AFR heads, FTI cam, MAF, and fuel upgrades I have run 12.59 at 108.8mph in my nearly 3700lb convertible!!!

I recently added a set of AFR 165cc/60cc pedestal mount heads, an EEC Tuner, a Pro-M 75mm MAF, 24lb injectors, a 190lph fuel pump, 1.6 pedestal mount roller rockers, ultra thin head gaskets from FTI, and a FTIcam. I also just swapped out the 3.73's for 4.10's per Ed Curtis' recommendation. I was hoping that with the addition of these parts, the edelbrock performer intake, headers, X pipe, flowmasters, pulleys, and 4.10's that I would hit a trap speed of at least 105mph and turn a low 13 second pass. Well I think its safe to say that I BLEW those times out of the water... So far my best pass has been a 12.5 at 108.8mph!!! I know there is still more left, check out my video's section of my site to see the run and you'll agree!

UPDATE: On July 5th 2001 I made my first pass down the 1/4 with the new setup. I babied the car due to tranny problems to a 13.6 at 103.3mph. I went back to the track with more timing and fuel and managed a 13.5 at 104mph. Then on July 19th, I hit my original goal! I ran two passes at 105mph, I did this by shifting it at 6000rpm's on the stock tach, and adding even more fuel and timing. I ran a 13.3 at 105.17 on the first pass and a 13.27 at 105.09 on the second. Then I added an EEC Tuner and with it on a 93* day with 100% humidity I ran a 13.1 at 106.03mph. On saturday, August 25th, I broke the 12 second barrier! I managed a 12.92 at 106.85mph with a 1.85 60'! Since then the best pass I've made was a