Well, there's a new pony in the stable...

I've sold off my old 89 Ford Probe GT in favor of a 1986 Mustang GT.  Somehow having 2 Mustangs seems more logical and practical than a 'stang and a Probe.

Neither of these is my first Mustang.  Back in high school, I had a '79 Mustang "Ghia" (LX equivalent) with the 5.0 and a 2bbl carb.  I soon blew the motor, though luckily I worked at a gas station/garage so it was easy to go out and find a wrecked 1985 GT with the 5.0 "High Output" 4bbl carb'd motor, and put that in the '79.   

Later, I added a shift kit to the C4 automatic transmission, and had a friend at Meineke Muffler hang a true straight-back (this was before X/H pipes were popular) dual exhaust.  (No cats...)

Turned out to be quite the sleeper, at least in terms of what it looked like.  However it really wasn't a very fast car - I never raced back then, but I'd doubt it had much more than 200 horsepower at the crank.

That car later had a run-in with a fire hydrant and that was it for me and Mustangs for the next 11 years.  ;)

(Of course, you can read all my many embarrassing 'car stories' on this page.)

This is my 2000 Mustang GT 'vert that I bought brand new in June, 2000.  This was my first ever new car, and the car I always wanted, so that worked out nicely, eh?

This car still only has 14000 miles on it, and that's actually over the true mileage due to the rear gear ratio change.  

The 2000's total "mods" so far are:

• 3.73 rear end gears.   MAJOR performance increase here.  Wow.  Highly recommended "first mod."   Driveability/gas mileage didn't change noticeably, but the acceleration sure did!

• Bassani X pipe (w/cats) and cat-back exhaust.  Excellent.  Sound ... more wow.  Make that WOW.

To hear some sound files of the Bassani in action, you can check out my FTP site in the folder, "Bassani Sound Files."

While at the drag track for the first time in May '01, I got a LOT of complements from all kinds of car owners as to the sound of the Bassani.

• Nitto 555DR drag radials.  At first, I had posted here, "Not quite what I expected."  This was because I had them put on in March, when the roads were still cold and damp most of the time.   Traction wasn't much to get excited about.  But now that I've put some miles on them and broken them in, and I'm only driving the car on nice, dry days...woohoo!  In fact, the days leading up to my "first time at the track" I was practicing launching and burnouts on back roads in the area and I was confused as I couldn't seem to spin the tires.  Not that that's a bad thing, but I couldn't practice burnouts on dry road because the tires just wouldn't spin, even on a clutch dump from 3k in 1st gear with the 3.73's...I'd spin for about 10 feet and hook up.

I pretty much credit these tires for the halfway decent 60' times I cranked out on my first ever track runs.  (No, I'm not saying 2.0's are great.  I'm saying, for my first time on the track...they aren't bad.  On street tires, I'd probably have been cutting 2.5's or worse)

One thing - my best runs were on tire pressure of about 20psi.  Some people have told me that for the Nitto DR's 14-16 is better but I saw my times go UP .4 seconds when I lowered the tire pressure...maybe it's too soon to tell, me being a newbie and all, but my next runs will stay at 20psi until I get very consistent again and then I'll try dropping it...

• Steeda Tri-Ax shifter.  Nice shifter, you can throw it around as hard as you want, the only thing you'll hurt is your hand.   But, it doesn't overcome the little "notchy" shift from 1-2 that my car (and from what I hear, most 2k cars) has.   And don't speedshift into 3rd until your tranny is WELL warmed up or you'll grind.   Bigtime.

• K&N air filter.  I didn't notice much difference when I added this to the stock motor.  I bet with the better exhaust flow now, though, it is helping more than the stock paper would.

• Abbot ERA speedometer compensator.   Haven't actually gotten around to putting this in.  Lazy.

• KB Subframe Connecters.  Haven't found a place to get these welded in yet either.  So that's two "garage mods" I guess.

In 2001, I finally got out to a drag strip for the first time - Island Dragway in Great Meadows, NJ.  

My first run ever - and then my best run of the evening:

(my ego does make me mention, since this was test n' tune night, I was NOT worried about R/T's.  I have since gotten that down into the slightly more respectable .600's)

I am actually pretty happy with these numbers for a first-time out at the track.  The mods must be helping (I never did a baseline stock, I was in too much of a hurry to MOD THAT PUPPY...) because the stock #'s for a 2000 'vert are about 14.5 and 96.5 mph...so even with my inept newbie drivng skills, these mods are giving me 4/10ths and 2mph...

I did hit a peak of 98.23 on one of the other runs, the 14.096 was my best ET however.  In fact, I went to the track twice more in '01 and never beat that run, even after I removed my air silencer.   We'll see what happens in '02.

The 2nd Mustang, a 1986 GT, was added to the stable in August, 2002:

Click on any picture for the full size image...and no, I'm not thrilled the neighbor's laundry is in the picture, either.

It's in decent condition - the paint is faded and gone, leading to some surface rust spots where it's worn through to the bare metal.  But aside from a tiny ding or two, the body is straight, the underbody is 100% solid, and the interior is in fair condition as well.

The only "mods" are tubular subframe connectors welded in by a previous owner, and Dynoflow cat-back exhaust... but that's a great starting foundation...

The '86 has a few liabilities:

Speed Density metered air for the fuel injection system, instead of the better Mass Air Flow style, which limits the mod potential.  But my plan for this car is to restore the exterior/suspension over the next year or two and then drop a new crate motor in and call it good.  

It also has the AOD transmission which I do NOT plan to replace with a standard, because it will be a dedicated drag race car in the future.

It's also perfectly practical right now, because as a 2nd car, since my wife Ellen has no interest in learning to drive stick (I've tried...) so this way, she can follow me out to the track and race it with me.  :)

So, the 1986 will be the daily driver, the 'vert will stay pretty much as it is now in terms of mods to be the weekend cruise car, and Ellen's Focus will be the "Family Truckster."

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