Xtreme Street'Stangs
Remember when you learned to diversify your investment portfolio in economics class (at least on the day you didn't skip)? It meant spreading your investments around dif-ferent money-making avenues to keep from losing it all on just one stock, mutual fund, or certificate of deposit. Invest in a variety of stocks or mutual funds and you have a better chance at making money, instead of watching it tank. There are quick money-making ventures, such as a pharmaceutical company about to make the latest and greatest cure-all drug, and there are slow money-making avenues, such as a mutual fund or a 401K. Either way, having your hand in a variety of financial pots provides more opportunities to earn big returns.
Ed Van Every of Wau-kesha, Wisconsin, has followed the logic of diversity throughout his life, and his '00 GT convertible is no different. Born in Long Island and growing up in Kings Park, New York, Ed spent most of his summers on Prince Edward Island in Canada. He attended the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) and traveled the world as a midshipman. He then moved to Washington, D.C., to be a marine engineer for Advanced Marine Enterprises. Later, he worked with the U.S. Maritime Administration as a systems manager for computing resources. Then a move took him to Morgantown, West Virginia, to the National Energy Technology Laboratory where he worked as a network administrator and network application developer for the Department of Energy. Next up was a stint as a computer crime specialist for the National White Collar Crime Center. Currently, Ed is CEO, software developer, and co-owner of Digital Intelligence, which designs and develops state-of-the-art computer forensic hardware and software.
Not surprisingly, Ed applied that same diversity to his GT. He purchased the car in April 2000 and went right to work tinting the windows and updating the Mach 460 stereo system with a Sony CDX-MP70 MP3/CD player combination head unit and a Delphi SkyFi XM radio unit. The interior boasts a Classic Design Concepts light bar, a Valentine 1 radar detector, a Garmin Street Pilot III navigation system, a PNI electronic compass/altimeter/ temperature gauge, a full set of Auto Meter gauges, and a plethora of billet goodies to spruce up the insides.
To bring the car's exterior up to its interior standards, Ed added a Pro-Fit fuel door, ATS sequential turn signals, and HID lighting to the headlights and driving lights. The big visual treatment comes with the addition of Eibach springs, a Cervini's Stalker hood, and SSR GT-3 18x9 three-piece wheels wrapped in Bridgestone S-03 Pole Position shoes. Of course, Zaino freaks will be happy to know Ed applied the six-step show-car polish to the car as well.
Now let's move on to the most important part-the go. Ed started out on the right foot by adding a Bassani X-pipe and after-cat exhaust, but the big boost came when he dropped in a Vortech S-Trim with MaxFlow Power Cooler. "I did the install between Christmas 2001 and New Year's," Ed says. Consequently, when he ran into problems, he couldn't get anyone on the phone, except for Tony Beake at Need-4-Speed in Clearwater, Florida. "Much thanks to Tony for calling me back-even though his shop was closed-to diagnose a problem computer chip."