Aeromotivation

Steve Matusek designed his multipurpose Mustang as a company showcase as well as NHRA competition

Ask any racer and he'll tell you that there's no better way for a manufacturer to showcase its products then to mix it up in head-to-head competition. All new hardware takes shape with behind-the-scenes engineering, but racers only care about how the parts will do in the harsh racing environment. Real-world R&D almost always produces the best parts and can give a company credibility with its peers and customer base. Steve Matusek, president of Aeromotive, knows this quite well. His company builds fuel systems and flogs them in competition as often as it can.

Aeromotive is one of the leading manufacturers of EFI and carbureted fuel system components, and Matusek, along with Director of Business Development Kyle Fickler, can be found at any number of venues, with their three drag cars. Matusek has competed for over a decade, first in a Super Gas Maverick and now with his new Mustang roadster, while Fickler pulls double duty in the Super Comp dragster and the S/G Maverick.

"I grew up in racing," says Matusek, "My dad ran A/Altered back in the '60s with a 427 Ford FE and then with a Cammer. He also ran a Hemi in A/Dragster. He built the Maverick we still race, and he builds our race engines."

The younger Matusek got his wheels turning, in 1998, behind the wheel of the 9-second Maverick. "I drove it in brackets and in NHRA Super Gas from about 1998 up to 2001. It was one of the first Super Gas cars to use electronic fuel injection," Matusek stated. "That car was actually built by my dad in 1979, and it uses the Speed-Pro [now F.A.S.T.] fuel-injection system that was installed on the car in the late-'90s.

"I enjoyed driving the Maverick, but it was time to step things up so we decided to build the new Mustang," he added. "We like to go after new things that are rare and make them work. And we like customers relating us to reliability, and I think we do it well."

The new machine was built by Jim Pulliam. It uses a tubular chassis and a fiberglass body from Suncoast Race Cars in Homosassa, Florida, and includes a four-link rear suspension with a Strange rearend housing and brakes but with unconventional flat-mounted shocks.

"Our car has a cantilever rear suspension with the shocks mounted flat on the top. This gives us more space for tires and easier access to both of the shock adjusters, which can be adjusted from the top of the car." The front suspension also uses Strange components, but the track was widened to help the car go straight and to fill the big wheelwells on the Mustang body.

Matusek sits in the roadster surrounded by a dragster cage and with RCI belts protecting him. The cockpit is fitted with the latest electronic hardware and software, which helps consistency whether he's running flat-out 7-second times, or if he's using the Dedenbear throttle stop to hit the 9.90 mark in NHRA Super Gas.

The exterior of the Stang is a work of art, but the most impressive component sits calmly under the 'glass hood. That, of course, is the 588ci Shotgun Ford engine that wears Kinsler stacked electronic fuel injection and makes over 1,000 horsepower.

Steve's father, John, prepared the Boss hemi using a custom block that was fabricated by Carroll Carter of C&C Automotive in Manassass, Virginia. The block is aluminum with sleeves and is bored to measure 4.560 inches. It sports a tall 10.3-inch deck height, has 4.9-inch bore spacing and four-bolt main caps. A SCAT crank was fitted with a 4.500-inch stroke to swing the MGP Performance aluminum rods and custom JE pistons. Compression ratio is 14:1.

The mighty big-block is topped with C&C Automotive billet heads that were machined by Carter and ported by Bret Clow of Aeromotive. According to Matusek, they flow like gangbusters, peaking at 480 cfm at .800-inch lift. To achieve those numbers the heads feature 2.5- and 1.90-inch titanium valves, Comp Cams valvesprings, and Jesel rockers.

"When it came time to pick a cam we turned to Tim Cole of Comp Cams," said Matusek. "We needed a cam that could provide a broad range of power because the engine is operated at a low rpm when it is on the throttle stop, and we rev it as high as 7,200 rpm, even though it can go much higher." To fit the combination, Cole selected a grind with a wide lobe separation and .813-inch lift, and then John Matusek slipped it into place.

As if the near 600-inch big-block isn't impressive enough, Matusek completed the package with eight custom-tuned velocity stacks from Kinsler Fuel Injection. "We worked with Kinsler, and they designed the system to match the flow of the heads," explained Matusek. "Our engine has eight 3-inch diameter throttle bodies with custom stacks over each one, and they let the engine rev really quick, plus, with the stacks, we can tune each cylinder individually. We're running EGT meters on each cylinder so we can tune properly. We can manipulate the program in the F.A.S.T. system or the length of the stacks."

A supply of 76 race fuel is contained in the RCI 5-gallon cell until it's pumped through the -10 line to the Aeromotive Pro Series filter and to the Billet Belt Drive pump. The high-flow pump flows 400 gallons per hour at 100 psi; it's the same one used by Chuck Samuel, Joe DaSilva, and John Gullett on their 6-second, 200-mph Pro 5.0 Mustangs. "The pump was designed to work on many high-horsepower applications," stated Matusek. "We have it plumbed so the pump feeds a Y-block, which flows fuel to each of the rails and also to the 83-pound injectors. You want fuel to flow through each rail in any high-horsepower application and let the outlets go to the regulator. You don't want the system to "dead-head" from rail to rail. We're using our new 13113 regulator designed to be used with our variable-speed pumps. This unit gets rid of pulsation and prevents aeration in the system. That's a tech tip for anyone using 36-psi (or higher) injectors."

Once the internals were torqued into place, John Matusek fitted the engine with a sheetmetal oil pan and valve covers from Moroso, along with a CSI water pump and starter. Lubrication comes from Valvoline products and fuel is 114 octane from 76. "We got close to running the car, but we had no headers to put on. I called Billy Glidden, and he said, 'let me see if dad has anything in the barn.' He actually had a set of headers, which we believe are from the Probe. We modified the flange and put on merged collectors from Dynatech and they worked perfectly," Matusek added.

Finally, the Boss was slipped between the rails and connected a 5,200-rpm Hughes Performance converter and a Powerglide transmission that has a Dedenbear case and Hughes internal components. The rear is a Strange 9-inch with a strange spool, 40-spline axles, and 4.10:1 gears.

As expected, the 588-inch Boss provided plenty of power, enough to propel Matusek and his Mustang to a best e.t. of 7.68 at 176 mph. In the process, the Mustang produces 1.09 60-foot times and pulls 3g's during launch. Running 7s with an e.t. bracket doorslammer is impressive, but in order to gain national recognition, Matusek actually dials back the beast to run in NHRA Super Gas. Super Gas is a class where racers use a heads-up pro-Tree start and try to run on the pre-set 9.90 index. Matusek knows the Super Gas game well and had two outstanding performances in 2002, making it to the fifth round at the coveted U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis and then later in the year in Dallas. In addition, the car won Best Engineered at the NHRA O'Reilly nationals in Topeka, Kansas.

"We built it to be a multiclass car to test fuel systems and get exposure for the company, and now we'd like to move up to Competition Eliminator with it. We're lobbying with NHRA to allow us the opportunity to run a centrifugal supercharger and compete with the Roots-style blower cars in AA/Altered (AA/A)." Currently, the AA/A index is 7.45 and the national record is 6.98. "We've been working with ATI on this and, down the road, if we go with a blower we'll make a box plenum for the top of the injector stacks," says Matusek. This should produce 6-second times, which will be great for Matusek, but it'll be harder to see the big "A" on side of the Stang.