2009 Mustang Week - Marque Week

Carrying off the convincing visage of a GT500KR, Robert Orzescu's '06 GT looked sweet in red with the black Saleen-style wheels. The hood was down, so we assume Robert's car sports a stock or mildly modified drivetrain, but his appearance mods are slick.

I don't have the patience to maintain a black car, but they sure look great when they are clean. Brad Wilson's '91 LX coupe turns heads with the contrast of chrome GT500-style wheels against an all-black background. The 5.0 engine is augmented with a Trick Flow Street intake and a Paxton Novi 2000 supercharger.

IPut a Sharpie in Steve Saleen's hand, sit him behind a table at a Mustang show, and a long line will form. Such was the case at Mustang Week, where Steve was on hand to promote SMS Supercars, including the company's new supercharger system for S197 Mustangs.

I first spotted Tarren Row's '03 Cobra at the Planet Hollywood Meet 'N' Greet. It was the sweet two-tone paint scheme that caught my eye. The paint obviously grabbed the attention of Mustang Week judges, as they presented Tarren with the Best Paint trophy. Not just a pretty face, however, Tarren's Terminator puts down 463 hp and 513 lb-ft of torque to the feet thanks to an array of mods, including a 2.76-inch blower pulley, JLT cold-air intake, a Magnaflow after-cat, and an SCT tune. It must handle well too, as it wears quite the complement of Maximum Motorsports suspension gear.

Cruise-In
For Fox Mustang fans, a highlight of Mustang Week was the pre-cruise-in cruise put together by the Southeastern Fox Bodies (southeasternfoxbodies.com) website/club. More than 96 '79-'93 Mustangs met up at Planet Hollywood and after a short get-together, they lined up and cruised over to the Colonial Mall for the official Cruise-In. Just seeing that many Foxes in one place made my day, but seeing them all rolling down the road was mind-blowing.

5.0 Showcase alum Robby Miller's '91 LX coupe looked especially sweet rolling down the road on 17-inch Pro Star XPs. He made sure to note that KJ's coupe wasn't the only Fox rolling on these rare hoops. Robby was one of many friendly Mustang fans who read 5.0&SF and made us feel welcome all week long. Thanks to Robby and all the nice folks that I spoke to in Myrtle Beach!

Co-founder and site administrator of Southeastern Fox Bodies, C. Scott "Bones" Willbanks was my friendly host for the Fox Cruise. I rode in Bones' T-top GT and snapped shots of the cruise. (Sorry for standing on your seat!) Bones and his crew were enjoying every minute of Mustang Week, and really embodied the spirit of the event. Thanks for the hospitality, Bones. I can't wait to see how many Foxes show up next year.

Though it was largely the same group that attended the car show, Saturday's Cruise-In was open to everyone, so it was more freeform and huge. According to the Mustang Week crew, more than 2,000 cars and nearly 7,500 people packed into the mall parking lots. One car that stood out amongst the fray at the Cruise-In was this Level 1 Pre-Production Prototype. It's essentially a '95 Cobra R that Ford retrofit with a Four-Valve modular drivetrain and suspension from the then-forthcoming '96 Cobra for testing purposes. These prototypes are supposed to be destroyed, but somehow this one made it out of captivity.

As I was walking by, Mike Sistare's '07 Holman-Moody GT jumped out because of its Three-Valve engine. At first I thought it was a nice vintage Mustang with a modular engine swap. Instead it was a nice S197 with a vintage Mustang nose job. Built as a Holman-Moody tribute car, the supercharged stallion was tuned up by our friends over at Car FX in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mike's car also took home an Award of Excellence.