Super 'Stang Fest 2007 - Sea Horses

The crew from Granatelli Motorsports made the trip from California to SSF, and they did it in style by renting a Shelby GT-H. Driving on the beach doesn't happen in California, so the beach cruise was one to remember for the boys.

To make it easier for Mustang owners to take their precious rides on the beach, a sponsored car wash allowed them to clean off their cars before heading to Ocean Deck for the bikini contest.

After a hard-fought competition, the lovely winner took home the big bikini contest cash put up by Blow-by Racing (www.blowbyracing.com) main man Chris Douglas.

The Full Throttle Kustomz (www.ftkustomz.com) bright orange, twin-turbo S197 was a a magnet at every step of SSF. Ray McClelland of FTK says the car lays down 1,200 hp at the tires, but they're still working on the tuning.

The car was a magnet for magazine guys, too, so you can look forward to seeing more of it on these pages.

Flying the Shelby flag high on the midway at Daytona International Speedway was Tampa Bay Shelby (www.tampabayshelby.com), an authorized Shelby dealer from Pinellas Park, Florida. Its Grabber Orange offer really caught our eye, but beyond the color the car was sporting a Paxton supercharger, several Shelby stylings, and those drop-dead-gorgeous CS69s from Carroll Shelby wheels. Did we mention how much we love these wheels on the new Mustang?

VMP Tuning (www.vmptuning.com), home of 5.0&SF Babe of the Year Rebecca Starkey, was on hand with its portable Dynojet. There's nothing quite like the sound of a car screaming on the dyno to liven up a car show. We're fairly sure several people had "that can't be right" moments with the dyno numbers, as the oppressive Florida midday heat and humidity can tame even the most powerful combination.

Squaring off like rivals in West Side Story, the contingents from the Black Mustang Club (www.bmcforums.com) and the Yellow Mustang Registry (www.yellowmustangregistry.com) had strong showings inside the speedway.

We have to give the edge to BMC for this round of the competition, as they brought a club-logo'd trailer. We're sure the battle isn't over yet.

We had to keep from drooling on Fox Mustang Restoration (www.foxmustangrestoration.com) main man Matt Highley's drop-dead-stock '85 Mustang GT with T-tops. Sure the wheels aren't stock, but Matt says he's getting the stock wheels and tires from the car's previous owner. Describing this clean hatch as his dream car, Matt is out there fighting the good fight to get more Foxes back into shape through his business.

Speaking of clean Foxes, we really dug Chris Crescenzo's '93 GT. While the car still has the stock engine, Chris proudly told us he added all the bolt-ons himself. They include a Cobra intake, Paxton supercharger, Cobra brakes, Hotchkis control arms, Dugan/Trick 1 sway bars, and Koni dampers. Chris' speed hobby of choice is road racing, and the Georgia resident gets his kicks taking this sweet Fox to 130 mph on the big straight at Road Atlanta.