Nitto Tire 2006 King Of The Street - Royal Rumble

Third Place: Tie - Jason Kelly

We didn't plan on having Jason Kelly's Fox LX at KOTS, but thanks to a last-minute dropout, the House of Boost boys brought it instead of the car they originally entered. Dorian Comeau called to let us know the original entrant wouldn't be competing as he had a case of cold feet. But Dorian's fellow HOB representative Erik Andre called Jason, told him his car was needed for the weekend, and headed to Bowling Green. Of course, the HOB duo had to find a truck and trailer, but that was accomplished with a couple more phone calls. With everything lined up, Dorian and Erik made the all-nighter to join the fellow KOTS competitors at Beech Bend.

We featured Jason's LX hatch a couple years back ("Cammer Commuter," Feb. '05, p. 94), but this was yours truly's first glimpse of the car. As is most often the case, pictures didn't do this car justice. The red pops, and even though most '91 Mustangs now have their moldings painted the same color as the body, the fact that those on Jason's car were still black didn't offend us at all. They match the car's smoked headlights and add contrast to what Jason refers to as "the stuff that looks red." He's talking about the paint, but the interior is also red, which spells "ugly" for most Mustang aficionados. But his car runs so well and is so well-balanced that it renders the interior color a nonissue.

Jason drives his LX as much as possible and says the car handles well in Wal-Mart parking lots, something we can vouch for. The car's top also held our Wendy's Biggie Cokes while other cars were being dyno'd. In our notes, we wrote that it was a blast to drive. What's better than a Fox car with a ProCharger F-1A-supercharged Four-Valve underhood? We saw 25 pounds of boost on our test loop, and the ProCharger is capable of 32 pounds. We didn't rev it high enough on the street, but we also didn't want to blow it up before the Dyno and Drag Race segments. Combine a centrifugal supercharger with a high-rpm engine, and it's pure adrenaline all the way to redline.

We were impressed with the street capabilities of Jason's LX, so much so we gave it a nine for the Ride and Drive portion. We didn't have to climb over a cage, and the car featured a nice Kenwood-powered stereo system. These are all traits of a House of Boost-built ride. HOB was well-represented last year by Erik Andre's Cobra, and many of the same characteristics of his car are implemented into Jason's LX. The clean exterior, the industrial underhood personality, the linear power delivery, and the civilized street manners were all traits carried over into Jason's LX. Its ride wasn't as good as Erik's, but that's the difference between a Fox and an SN-95 Mustang. During the Ride and Drive, we got the sense we could drive the car to California and beat up on some expensive machinery on the way.

As a matter of fact, that's exactly what Jason and Erik did during the recent Buffalo Run (www.kcrally.com), a 350-mile rally spanning Kansas and Missouri. It attracts high-end import and European performance cars, but Jason's LX represented the Mustang well. There are several European performance enthusiasts who competed that will never look at a Mustang the same because of the performance of Jason's LX. Thanks for the ride.

Here's how it scored: