Nitto Tire 2006 King Of The Street - Royal Rumble

Fifth Place - Dan Schoneck

Easily the wildest KOTS combination ever, Dan Schoneck's '84 1/2 GT350 convertible embodies the personality of its owner. Dan runs an Outlaw-style, seven-second Mustang.

It takes a crazy person to run sevens on a true 10.5-inch slick, and Dan has that personality trait covered in spades. He hails from Minnesota and makes use of his area's corn crops every day-his '84 1/2 runs on E85, and corn is the primary material for ethanol-fuel production. E85 has an octane rating of 105, so you can see the benefit compared to pump gas. Besides, it's cheaper in Dan's neck of the woods, and it's relatively easy to find. Because of his fuel choice, Dan and his buddies earned the nickname Children of the Korn. Dan wanted us to spell corn that way, and that should be a hint at his out-there personality.

At the same time, Dan has a zest for building fast cars, and his GT350 embodies that spirit. Thanks to his racing endeavors, he has a good relationship with the folks at ProCharger. To that end, his GT350 boasts an F-1R supercharger to make the car sound as though an F-18 is coming right at you. The blow-off valve is obnoxiously loud, but it befits the car's personality. In our notes after the Ride and Drive, we wrote that Dan's GT350 was a "truly brutal street car!" If there has ever been a Mustang that screamed brutal speed, this car does it. It makes no apologies for being an in-your-face sledgehammer.

But the car also blew the fuel-pump fuse during the Ride and Drive, which didn't help his score. "Thank goodness for the 85-year-old man," Dan says. The 85-year-old man let him borrow a pair of channel locks so the blown fuse could be extracted. Fortunately, Dan had a spare fuse-doesn't every Mustang owner have those?-so we were on our way five minutes later. It would've been a major scoring detriment if we had to walk. When the car was fully operational, we noted the brakes were first-class and provided great feel, as well as the ability to bring the car back to legal speeds at an unbelievable rate. Another drawback, as well as a necessity, the Clutchmaster unit was stiffer than many other KOTS cars. Dan has been through his share of clutches, and the unit proved necessary.

Also due to his personality, we gave Dan the name Cornholio, which was Beavis' alter-ego from the show Beavis and Butt-Head. When Beavis consumed too much sugar or other stimulants, The Great Cornholio would emerge, which would entail Beavis pulling his T-shirt over his head, random marching, and a loud and boisterous personality. It's entertainment at it's finest [Trust us, kids. -Ed.], which is exactly what Dan was at the KOTS.

This car can reach illegal speeds in a few scant seconds. With the aforementioned ProCharger F-1R, a wicked little beast of a 306 with a Boss 302 block, a T56 trans-mission, and 3.73 gears, this GT350 moves immediately. We knew it was going to be a screamer from the Ride and Drive, but when DiabloSport's Willie Figueroa strapped Dan's car, the controversy began. DiabloSport's mobile Dynojet is rated for 1,000 hp, and on both of the initial dyno pulls for Dan's car, it stopped recording power output. Willie said that only happens when the dyno is pegged. Does that mean the GT350 made 1,000 hp? We don't know for sure. Dan put a larger pulley on the F-1R so we could get a reading and it made 713 hp, landing him a score of nine in the Dyno Numbers column.

Because of the E85 ingenuity, Editor Turner gave Dan a 10 in the engineering category. The car scored a seven in the Fit and Finish category, with a five in the Popular Vote category. Evidently, there weren't many Children of the Korn fans at Bowling Green.

Here's an overview of Dan's score: