Liverpool, New York's Tim Bronchetti bought his last two Mustangs on eBay, the popular auction Web site. After purchasing a '93 convertible with an AOD, he decided he wanted another manual-trans car, so he searched and won the auction for the '92 black GT he brought to the KOTS competition. He passed the '93 on to his wife and promptly went to work on the '92. After many calls, he settled on DaSilva Racing in Canada and sent the car in completely stock form to Joe DaSilva to wave his magic wand over. When Tim got his GT back, it was sporting a 306 stuffed with Keith Craft internals, a Ford Racing Performance Parts B303 cam, and Edelbrock Performer RPM heads. Another fan of supercharging, Tim enhanced his GT with 16 pounds of Vortech S-Trim boost passing through a Vortech intercooler.
The red interior in the '92 is not the most desirable hue, and with more than 500 hp on tap, the stock brakes poking through the four-lug Cobra R wheels made us rethink how we would spend our seat time in the car (we hammered on it, anyway). Tim drives it every day, and he claims that for street use, the brakes suit him fine-for now. The car had a slight vibration at idle, but other than swapping out the red interior, we would leave Tim's car as is if it was our own. (Did you hear that, Tim? Please-no automatic.) With 512 hp, 524 lb-ft of torque, and a quarter-mile time of 10.47 at 129 mph (on slicks), we're sure Tim surprises his fair share of wanna-be conquerors in his neck of the woods.
Beginning with an original, 14-second, '95 Cobra, Meadowview, Virginia's Nick Yarber (cousin of Baron Yarber) decided he wanted to go faster after getting the racing bug from his family. The Cobra soon saw cylinder heads, cam, and a 150-shot of the jug to put it solidly into the 12s. But it wasn't enough for Nick. He wanted 11s, which was made pos-sible with a blower and blower grind cam. Then he wanted 10s. Are you getting the picture here?
After a 347 and the aforemen-tioned blower, Nick dropped a 400-inch Windsor with a Vortech YS-Trim supercharger between the framerails, resulting in 725 hp to the wheels. But tranny and blower malfunctions kept Nick from realizing his 9-second street-car dream. Nowadays, an NOS Big Shot-assisted 424ci Windsor, sucking through an 825-cfm Race Demon carb, a Victor Junior intake, Trick Flow heads, and a positively monstrous solid-roller cam get the job done to the tune of 686 hp (Nick won the Year One Dyno Shootout). With this kind of power, the chassis is more at home at the dragstrip.
We found the Hurst Quarter Stick shifter a breeze to use, but big and littles, an adjustable suspension, manual brakes and steering, and a jungle-gym rollcage don't make for the best street manners and comfort. Is it fast? Of course. Is it loud? Sure is. Would we want to drive it every day? Probably not. Then again, Nick is 24, and we're all over 30 (with Houlahan being the old man at 35). But that's just what Nick does-he drives it just about every day and takes it to the track weekly.
We've known Fred Mills for many years. He's one of the smiling faces we look forward to seeing whenever we visit Steeda Autosports. Fred-as does just about every Steeda employee-has a serious Mustang that makes lots of power.While the car has been used for Steeda product testing (he says he stumbled on some major parts deals to build the car), it is not sponsored or sanctioned by Steeda.
True to the nature of Steeda cars, though, Fred's Mustang "walks softly but carries a big stick." One look at the Mustang at a stop light and you might see the huge Brembo brakes or notice the blower whine or even the Aeromotive fuel tank hanging down, but you would never expect this unassuming white hatch to pound out 641 hp! That's only 45 horses less than our top power maker, yet Fred's Mustang maintains a killer stereo, a full interior, and A/C.