1982 Ford Mustang GT - Open Track

The glory days couldn't last forever. During an open-track event at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas, Bill noticed the oil pressure was way down. He limped home and tore down the motor to discover the block was split right down the middle. Instead of just fixing it, Bill went in another all-new direction. He went with an aluminum RDI/Ford Racing Performance Parts block, stroked it to 347 ci, and added a set of Total Engine Airflow Stage-3-ported Trick Flow Twisted Wedge aluminum heads. He ditched the Cobra intake for an Edelbrock Victor Jr. four-barrel manifold modified by Induction Research for multi-point fuel injection. While in Bowling Green, Bill made some friends at Holley and they fixed him up with a new Commander 950 race fuel-injection system topped off by a 1,000-cfm billet throttle body. He also found himself with a set of custom Jet-Hot-coated Hooker Super Comp headers, a matching X-pipe, and a set of Flowmaster three-chamber mufflers. The new setup put down nearly 400 hp and 400 lb-ft of torque, and Bill can tune the whole thing on his laptop!

After adding the silver you see on the car, which is color matched to the wheels, Bill decided he needed more brakes to go with the new power. Stillen Motorsports was working on adapting some Brembo rotors and calipers to the SN-95 spindles. Of course, Bill agreed to help test and assess the new brakes on the track. The results were great, and Bill finally had enough brakes for those longer tracks.

The modifications have slowed, as Bill found a combo that suits his needs. He is now back in Minnesota, attending track days, cruise nights, and car club events. As of 2005, this '82 GT had 56,000 miles. I wonder how many of them were run with the throttle wide open or the brakes glowing red.