Mustang of the Week 12/21/01
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VMF Name: GT350Clone
The car was purchased locally in 1995. After a couple of months of pleasure driving, work began in September of 1995 after my then 7 year old daughter stepped thru the rear floorbard at 30 MPH!!! The car required full length floors on both sides, passenger firewall extension, rear 1/4's, framerails, trunk floor, taillight panel, fenders, valances, 1 complete door, and 1 door skin. In other words, I started with a good roof and trunk lid!!! I did all the panel replacement myself.
The car is painted a very bright 1994 Ford Performance White, and the Lemans stripes are a custom blue that we color matched to the side tape stripes. The Wheels are Vintage Wheel Works Vintage 45's in a 16x8. Tires are 225/55-16 & 205/55-16, with Wilwood 12" front discs, and a Lincoln Versailles 9" Disc brake rear sporting a 3.25 4-pinion Traction-Loc. The front suspension is comprised of Global West tubular and lower a-arms, Cure-Ride shocks, Baer bumpsteer tierods, 480# springs, and a 1" swaybar, with HD 4-leafs in the rear with Magna shocks.
The engine is a Ford Racing "Cobra" shortblock, E303 roller cam, GT40 aluminum heads, roller rockers, windage tray, Pertronix Ignitor II, Nickel plated Tri-Y headers, Performer RPM intake, and Autolite 4100 4V carb. It's good for 320 HP, with excellent drivability. The TCI Street Fighter C4 transmission gets it's power thru a "Saturday Night Special" stall convertor. Repro hoses & belts, tall Cobra-style valvecovers and an oval Cobra aircleaner give the vintage look, with numerous chrome goodies sprinkled around for some added "flash".
The interior is mostly vintage black vinyl, with an Autopower 4-point street rollbar providing a mounting point for 5-way RJS racing harnesses. A Lecarra wood steering wheels frames the white-face gauges, including the 65 Shelby center pod. A rarely used Custom Autosound AM-FM cassette provides an alternate "music" source.
The car was built to be driven, and never fits "neatly" into any show class. It was not built to be an exact Shelby replica. My 105lb wife can drive it with ease, and relative comfort. It runs high 13's in the 1/4 mile, gets 18 mpg, can be Autocrossed, and shows "very" well. It's a fun car that our entire family enjoys, as we drive around 5000 miles per year. I performed ALL of the work myself with the exception of squirting the paint. Planned future upgrades include late model leather seating, a "different" exhaust setup, and possibly fuel injection and/or a Paxton blower.