Shelby Mustang GT500 - Sickingly Venomous Track Attack - Shoot Out!

4th Place
Mike Bavaro
Colts Neck, NJ
10.811/130.83
By his own admission, Mike Bavaro is not a drag racer, as he makes his living running Body Motion, a shop that specializes in European and road-race cars. Mike decided to grab a GT500 and see what kind of sick horsepower he could make with a supercharged, American-made Mustang, albeit one with a road-race suspension.

Not having any experience in ripping down the quarter-mile, Mike enlisted the help of MM&FF's hot shoe, Revvin' Evan Smith. After taking a few easy laps at first, Evan finally opened her up, left hard, and got the Kenne Bell-equipped Shelby nearly into the 10-second zone with an 11-flat. After icing down the blower, Evan lined the GT500 up, dropped the hammer, ripped off a 1.55 short time, and rowed the gears to a stout 10.81 at 133 mph.

"I'm used to setting cars up for the road course, which means getting the front end hunkered down and kept down for front downforce," mike says. "one of the guys who was watching the car leave and travel down track saw that the front end stayed glued to the track, even upon launch. The weight wasn't shifting rearward. If i could have gotten the car to work chassis-wise, it probably would have run a tad bit better."