The GT's Parchment interior...
The GT's Parchment interior has received a bevy of Auto Meter white-faced gauges, along with a Steeda Tri-Ax shifter to stir the gears in the T56 transmission. Tasteful aluminum accents were the car's first mods.
Once you start making good power with your Pony, its weaker points begin to show, and often the suspension is one of the first areas to reveal that it's not up to the task. To that end, Tony installed Steeda Sport Springs with Tokico Illumina struts and shocks, and a pair of Steeda antisway bars works with their upper and lower rear control arms. Making sure the front-end geometry is optimized is a Steeda bumpsteer kit with X2 ball joints.
As you might have noticed, Tony is going for the stealthy, undercover look, which may have something to do with him being employed by the Toronto Police Service. The Mustang's slick, black color has bled onto the Wheel Replica FR500 wheels, which measure 17x9 inches up front and a wide 10.5 inches out back. While the front rubber consists of 245/45/17 Firestone SZ50s, the rear tires are BFGoodrich KD meats sized 315/35/17. "With the 10.5-inch wheel, they fit real well, and I probably have plenty of room for a 335," Tony says.
With the exception of the...
With the exception of the wheel lips, all of the polished pieces on the Mustang's exterior will be retouched in a black chrome to aid in the sinister appeal.
Having enjoyed his Mustang's most improved acceleration characteristics, Tony decided to upgrade the short-block, despite the stock engine's tip-top running condition. VT Engines in Lansing, Michigan, beefed the GT's iron block with a forged-steel crankshaft, Manley connecting rods, and CP forged-aluminum pistons. When combined with the stock cylinder heads, it produces a 9.5:1 compression ratio.
On a chassis dyno, the GT turned the rollers to 435 hp and 478 lb-ft of torque, but the duty cycle of the injectors was maxed out. Tony informed us that he recently upgraded the fuel system with a Cobra twin-pump arrangement that feeds a -8 braided stainless feed line and UPR billet-aluminum fuel rails. Now that the system has volume, Tony plans to revisit the dyno to see if he will need to swap out the 42-lb/hr injectors for something a tad larger.
Steeda's spoiler was added...
Steeda's spoiler was added out back, and Tony and a friend made their own polished-aluminum end plates for it.
As a member of the Greater Toronto Area Mustang Club, Tony takes his GT to many car show events with his wife, Jane, and their daughter, Sarah, who owns an '05 Mustang. He also races it quite a bit at St. Thomas Dragway. To date, the GT has run a best of 12.18 seconds at 109 mph while wearing sticky Mickey Thompson ET Drag tires. Tony estimates the new fuel system should allow the engine to produce closer to 500 hp at the rear wheels when all is said and done.
While it looks as if Tony's Mustang has it all, projects are never finished, and he's looking into water/methanol injection and possibly some cylinder-head port work and a pair of mild supercharger cams. But the Brampton Bruiser isn't short on torque by any means, and any future modifications will only improve upon its bully status.