Fast Times at Pete and Billy's
So you want to get your Mustang in a car magazine? Just how far would you go? How about from Syracuse, New York, to Cincinnati, Ohio? That's what it took for one pair of 5.0&SF fanatics to make the cut. Pete Latham (left) and Billy Cole have been into 5.0 Mustangs for years. But when Pete's 11-second street GT had grown long in the tooth, Billy suggested he try out the new modular Mustangs. Pete liked the car so much, he ordered one in the rare Sonic Blue color. Both guys have been begging us for years to shoot their cars for features, but when Pete offered up his new ride for a drag test, we just had to go for it. The only stipulation was the car had to remain 100 percent stock, or the results would be fudged. And they had to bring it to your author's hometown of Cincinnati for the pictures and test session. Drag-testing someone else's GT-can you blame us? And, for the record, Billy's 10-second street bomb will be featured in a later issue.
The following day, we regrouped at Paul's Automotive Engineering. Shop owner Paul Faessler greeted our out-of-town guests with some chassis dyno pulls on the in-house Dynojet. The bottom line was 238 hp and almost 280 lb-ft of torque at the back tires. More importantly, we realized the car didn't make these numbers, or really start pulling, until almost 3,500 rpm. This helped us understand why the launch is so critical in this car, since you need to have the engine up in the powerband to get forward motion, and hopefully not spin the tires.
We returned to the track on Saturday prepared to do what it took to get better numbers with this car. We began by pulling the entire air-filter housing and intake silencer to allow some more air to the motor. We stripped the trunk of the spare tire and jack to decrease weight. The air pressure in the front tires was bumped to 46 psi to decrease rolling resistance. And the front sway bar was loosened to help the chassis gain some movement, which would hopefully get us off the starting line like we meant business.
At Paul's Automotive Engineering...
At Paul's Automotive Engineering [(513) 791-1087] in Cincinnati, we strapped the new GT down to the rollers for a quick chassis dyno pass. The car peaked at 238.3 rwhp and a surprising 279.2 lb-ft of torque. It's that torque that gives the car the seat-of-the-pants power you'll love.
The first pass in this trim, riding the clutch out at 3,500 rpm, produced a bog off the line and a surprisingly much-improved 2.054-second short time. The car finished with a 13.96-second elapsed time at a better 99.02 mph. Now we were getting somewhere! There was time for one more pass. After icing the intake and mass air for an hour, it had to be a good one. Leaving the line harder at 4,000 rpm, the car left smoothly with a 2.011-second short time and walked down track to a 13.721 second pass at 101.8 mph.
Our time with the borrowed GT had run out, but the little Mustang had entertained us for two days. We can't stress enough how solid these newest GTs feel. The structure adds weight, but that can be quickly offset with a few well-chosen bolt-ons. Above all, this installment of the timeless Mustang GT is a fun car to drive. Who could ask for more than that?