The car's racy interior and lack of creature comforts would have hurt Dewayne's scores in our driving impression evaluation (though he is run-ning a sweet Lentech AOD), but after squeezing another set of gaskets on the Werx dyno during our testing, Dewayne had to sit the rest of the weekend on the sidelines. He took everything in stride and still had a good time cutting up with us and the KOTS contestants. He says he'll try again next year, and we can't wait for his submission. For the record, Dewayne's coupe will go down as the first KOTS casualty.
The Violet '96 GT owned by Ken Higgins of Butler, Pennsylvania, ran like a stocker on the road. It looked great thanks to its Roush wheels and Roush/ FRPP/Steeda body parts. The GT's 338 rear-wheel horsepower made for a fun ride without a lot of the headaches often seen in higher-horsepower Mustangs. The horses come courtesy of a PI-headed, Two-Valve swap from a complete '00 GT 4.6 engine, to which Ken added a Vortech S-Trim. At 67 years young, retired Ken enjoys pushing his purple powerhouse with his favorite hobby- road racing. He has been to Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio, Nelson Ledges, and Beaver Run road courses with his machine. After seeing the list of suspension mods, we thought Ken's GT would be a rough ride, but with an IRS in place we were pleasantly rewarded with a supple ride along the test route. We can see why he drives the GT regularly, and a trip to a challenging road course would likely be a royal blast. With his car having the least power of the bunch, Ken wasn't quite at home on the dragstrip, but he did have a lot of fun.
How would you like to tool around every day in a Viper Red '93 hatch that's powered by a 331 stroker and force-fed via a Vortech supercharger pullied for 10 pounds of boost? Yeah, us too. Joe Pierrel is the person you should be jealous of. Joe's hatch started off as a wrecking-yard special on which he built a custom rollcage. He then stuffed the engine compartment with a stout stroker sporting an Eagle 4340 crank, a Steeda No. 18 cam, and Edelbrock cylinder heads (2.02/1.60). It's all topped off with a Cobra intake, Hooker headers, and the aforementioned Vortech.
Joe is a bodyman by trade, and if those bumper covers and ground effects don't look familiar, don't sweat it. Joe built them by grafting together three different body kits and then shooting the PPG Viper Red himself. Being a close friend and neighbor to Ken Higgins, Joe also enjoys turning left and right on a road course, and he drives his '93 on as many nice days as he can. He even converted the car to tilt wheel and has all the accessories for comfortable street driving in place. With 393 hp and 412 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheels, and a whisper-quiet interior, Joe's hatch is one sweet ride.
Among the KOTS cars were six-speed transmissions, five-speed transmissions, four-speed transmissions, and even a three-speed. But Meadowview, Virginia's Baron Yarber got the award for the least number of gears with his Powerglide, which is a GM two-speed transmission commonly used in drag racing. Baron's reasoning for the 'Glide was that he had trouble shifting his old Tremec 3550 with straight-cut gears. We guess he never heard of the Ford C4 or AOD, but to each his own.
Another supercharged entry, Baron's Mustang sports a 347 stroker dressed to kill with Canfield heads, an Anderson Ford Motorsport B-41 cam, a Holley SysteMAX II intake, and a Vortech T-Trim. It seems his 3,500-stall converter was more like a 5,000-stall unit, so a tighter converter was on the list of future mods to dial in the combination. To his credit, however, Baron made the swap shortly before the KOTS competition, so to have the car running as well as it did was a great accomplishment. More race car than daily driver, Baron's Mustang features a business-only interior and drag-race-specific suspension slowed down by stock brakes. It's not a Lincoln LS, but it gets the job done.