I bought this car in December of 2001 about a month after selling my 1987 Buick T Type Turbo, sort as a Christmas present to myself. It had about 85000 miles on it at the time and was completely stock except for a Dyno Max cat back exhaust, underdrive pulleys, K&N panel filter and Weld wheels [big n little]. I did get it to the track the following spring in "as bought" tune, and it ran high 13s best being a 13.85 @ 100 MPH on street tires... Not bad for a stocker!!! BUT, it's also a no option lightweight, and had 3.08 gears instead of the common 2.73s, so I sort of expected them times from it too..... Since then its been constant change, some broken parts [2 T5s], and lots of fun too.
Below is a picture of it:
MODIFICATIONS:
SHORTBLOCK: The shortblock is the original stock one, along with the original stock camshaft, all of it with about 110000 miles racked up so far.
HEAD/ROCKERS/VALVETRAIN: Heads, are Air Flow Reasearch [AFR] 165cc pedestal mount, emissions legal. They have 1.90" intake and 1.60" exhaust valves and a 61cc combustion chamber. Crane Energizer 1.7:1 ratio roller rockers and stock [original] pushrods.
EXHAUST: MAC equal length shorty headers, Pacesetter off road X pipe, and Cat Back exhaust consists of: 2 1/2" Dyno Max piping and stainless tails, and Magnaflow "Wide Open" mufflers [a straight thru type muffler].
FUEL SYSTEM: Ford Racing Performance Products 155 L/hr intank high flow fuel pump, BBK billet adjustable fuel pressure regulator and Auto Meter guage, Ford Racing Performance Products 24 lb/hr fuel injectors.
INTAKE/THROTTLE BODY/MAF/AIR FILTER: Edelbrock Performer upper and lower intake with some port work done on the lower intake. Ford Racing Performance Products 65mm throttle body, Pro-M chrome 75mm 'bullet' mass air meter, K&N cone filter.
IGNITION: MSD 6AL, Ford Racing 9mm Red wires, Ford Motorcraft cap and rotor, Autolite 24 sparkplugs gapped @ .055", base timing set at 17*.
SUSPENSION & BRAKES: Front sway bar removed, stock front and rear coil springs, stock replacement rear shocks and Lakewood Industries 90/10 front drag struts. Pro 3 Industries "Street/Race" lower trailing arms, with spherical bearing on the axle side, and 3 piece polyurethane bushings on the chassis side, as well as weight jackers for adjusting vehicle ride height. Upper control arms are a kit I bought from Kevin Slaby, at BaselineSuspensions.com The kit replaces the stock uppers, and the new control arms are fully adjustable, of tubular construction, using heim ends. As well, instant center is also able to be dialied in. Brakes are 100% stock.
REAR END: Stock 8.8" with Ford Racing 3.73 gears and Amsoil fluid. .
TRANSMISSION / CLUTCH / DRIVESHAFT: Transmission is a Ford Racing heavy Duty T5-Z, Hurst shifter, with a Ford racing clutch, and a Ford Racing aliminum driveshaft.
WHEELS & TIRES: Centerline Convo Pro rims. Not sure of the offsets, but front are the skinny 3.5" or whatever. I bought the rims and tires used. Rear tires are Walmart specials.. 255 60 15s. At the track I always use Mickey Thompson 26 x 8.5" ET Drag slicks.
ECM/CHIPS: Stock A9L.
MISCELLANEOUS: A pillar mount Auto Meter oil & water guages, Energy Suspension motor and trans mounts, Kenny Brown subframe connectors, lower torque box supports by Rick Hawver [HIGHLY RECOMMEND THESE - NICE KIT!] and stock upper torque boxes welded.
TRACK TIMES: .Got to the track on Sunday November 7th. Got 4 good clean passes in... But they werent recording 1/8th mile which sucked.. 1st pass - 60 foot - 1.886, 1/4 - 12.64 @ 110.64 MPH. 2nd pass - 60 foot - 1.797, 1/4 - 12.51 @ 109.51 MPH. 3rd pass - 60 foot - 1.745, 1/4 - 12.30 @ 111.05 MPH. <-- New best over the previous 12.54 @ 109 MPH on Sept 18th.. was happy when I saw that, as that's what I was after as far as MPH too. 4th pass - 60 foot - 1.742, 1/4 - 12.44 @ 109.80 MPH. Tried short shifting 3-4 @ 5400 on this one and it hurt me up top. Have the car on video pulling the driverside front wheel on a few passes.. pretty cool.
FUTURE PLANS: Eventually, I would like to try and get the car into the 11.90s with the stock shortblock and camshaft. Over the winter I want to buy a Flaming River manual steering rack [saves about 30 Lbs], a tubular front K member [saves another 70 Lbs], and have the rear end rebuilt with 31 spline axles, a Powertrax posi unit, and step up the gear to a set of 4.10s, along with using a 26 x 10" wide slick, and lastly a 70 mm throttle body.. I guess that's about it for now. .
Below are a few more pics of the car:
