Honorable Mentions
There are always those few Mustangs that don't quite have enough to get into the Top 10, but are just over the top when compared to the others. With that in mind, here are some Mustangs that wholeheartedly deserve honorable mentions.
Matt Hamby - '91 Mustang
"Standing out in a crowd of nearly 80 True Street cars is a hard thing to do." That was the opening line of the feature on Matt Hamby's '91 LX in the September '06 issue, but his car stood out enough to draw our votes as an honorable mention to the Top 10 list.
Powered by a saucy 358 Windsor, the Stang earned the nickname Carbon Flyer for two reasons: First, it went 9.35/144 in True Street at Atlanta while on Mickey Thompson drag radials, and second, the paint job is absolutely killer, resembling a carbon-fiber finish. Stiles Paint Works sprayed the upper half of the car a black and dark-gray weave, giving the flanks of the Fox-body a carbon-fiber image. Set off by a red-painted lower portion, the Stang looks just as good as it runs. Well done, Matt.
Ford Racing -FR500C Mustang
Imagine going racing in a factory-built car. Sounds ridiculous, right? Not if you plunk down the cash for an FR500C Mustang. The factory road racer is put together by Ford for competition in the Grand Am Cup racing series, and it was a winner right out of the gate, besting Porches, Cadillacs, and other marques in its first outing at Daytona. It has since won more events and proves to be a true winner.
Powered by a 5.0 "cammer" motor, the Mustang is prepped by Ford for road-course duty. Being able to write "factory race car" and mean it, is something that hasn't been done since the early days of NHRA Super Stock and Pro Stock racing. Kudos to Ford for creating a car worthy of bringing back the "factory race car" moniker. We welcome the FR500C to the honorable-mention list.
Don Walsh Jr. -'01 Mustang
Don Walsh Jr. has a Stang so sweet, we couldn't resist putting it on the honorable mention list. His '01 Pony receives motivation from a 400ci small-block sporting Yates heads and a ProCharger F3R huffer. Backed by a Lenco/Bruno automatic tranny, the Skinny Kid Race Car's built rocket ran an astounding 6.43 at 216 mph at the Atlanta FFW event. The run made Walsh the driver of the world's quickest and fastest centrifugal supercharged car. He's also a pretty good racer as he is a three-time NMRA Pro 5.0 champ. Put a good driver and a fast car together and you have an entry worthy of honorable mention in the MM&FF Top 10 list.