Off The Wagon

This female Mustang owner isn't afraid to work on her car and she can bang gears with the best of them.

Being at the forefront of the Mustang hobby, we see more than our share of Mustangs. We also know that most of these enthusiasts drive them hard. While we occasionally come across some female Mustang owners, they aren't usually as aggressive as their male counterparts when it comes to piloting their Ponies.

Leave it to MM&FF, however, to find the gutsy ones who aren't afraid to work on their cars, and who can bang gears with the best of them. Such is the case with Pennsylvania's Nicole Volpe.

We were on the search for some feature material for the 2005 MM&FF Ladies Edition, when Chris Winter of Crazy Horse Racing in South Amboy, New Jersey, mentioned he had a female friend/customer who might fit the bill. In addition to owning a clean, bottle-fed '94 GT, she wasn't afraid of entertaining the occasional stoplight grand prix and was more than happy to show her taillights to whomever tried. Next thing you know, we had rented a studio and were performing indoor burnouts.

While Nicole's Mustang doesn't have scissor doors or a chromed-out engine compartment, it has what counts, namely the engine internals. Having purchased the Pony only a year after it rolled off the assembly line, Nicole kicked up the stock power output a bit. She had Outrageous Mustangs in Freehold, New Jersey, install Edelbrock's Performer RPM aluminum cylinder heads, a Cobra intake manifold, a Ford Racing Performance Parts E303 camshaft, and an NOS nitrous kit on the stock 302.

A while later, Nicole married her boyfriend, Matt, who happens to be a gearhead as well. Matt owned an '89 LX 5.0 and was no stranger to the Blue Oval, so when it came time to decide what to do with the money they had saved for their honeymoon, both of them decided that a new motor would be a far better investment than some trip to a tropical island. "It's the gift that keeps on giving," Matt says.

Crazy Horse Racing handled the installation of a 317ci stroker short-block, which was fortified with a forged Eagle crankshaft and connecting rods. The previously mentioned Edelbrock induction pieces were reused, and a Nitrous Express system, Pro-Flow 75mm Bullet air meter and a BBK 65mm throttle body were now employed.

This combination yielded 300 hp and 340 lb-ft of torque at the wheels naturally aspirated, and 404 hp and 532 lb-ft on a 100 shot of nitrous oxide. An MSD ignition lights the fuel supplied by the 255-lph in-tank pump.

Ford Racing 3.73 gears were the Mustang's first mod, and their installation was scheduled the same day the car was picked up from the dealer. Flowmaster two-chamber mufflers, BBK headers, and a MAC off-road pipe followed the gearset.

In 2004, Nicole purchased front and rear Cobra bumper covers, which let people know this isn't your average GT. Crazy Horse Racing rebuilt the stock T5 transmission this past year and installed a Centerforce Stage II clutch assembly. More recently, '01 Cobra 13-inch rotors and PBR calipers were installed.

Since we told you how much horsepower this Pony makes and how its owner loves to race, we should also mention the car has run a best of 12.76 at 110 mph on the motor alone. Nicole says there have been many nitrous passes, but none were on a timed dragstrip. We would guess 11.80s wouldn't be hard to hit--especially with a bottle offering that kind of kick.