The time came to break out the paint gun, and Dakota spared no expense. After completely undercoating the underside, he and David Silva of Dave's Designs spent a mere four weeks in the paint shop. After sanding the car, the pair shot it with PPG primer. With the base solidified, the Standox three-stage custom paint was mixed up and sprayed on the Mustang. Showcasing lime green paint with a 90-percent pearl offset by a House of Kolors Tru Blue pearl flame job, the finished product was covered with six coats of PPG clear. As an added touch, a 6.0-liter fender badge was painted on for aesthetic appeal, along with the installation of H.I.D. headlights from a Lexus IS300 and Boyd Coddington 18-inch rims. The shiny wheels are shod in Falken rubbers sized 225/40/18 up front and 315/35/18 Pirelli P-Zero shoes out back. The result is a retina-searing scheme that leaves a blind man begging for a second look.
This Pony wasn't meant to be all show and no go, however. "When I first bought the car, the original plan was just to have a fun street car," Dakota says. "Well, the motor didn't last long, nor did the T5 transmission. What had started out as a small project quickly developed into a full-blown overhaul."
Out came the expired 302 and in went a small-block with bigger biceps. Dakota had Eddie Conrad at Conrad Racing in Houston build a short-block that could take a lickin' and keep on tickin'. Eddie started with a Ford Racing Performance Parts block. He then prepped the block by honing, hot-tanking, and pressure testing it after he made sure it was OK for use by Magnafluxing it. Once the bullet was deemed acceptable, he punched out all eight cylinder bores to 4.00 inches. Combined with the 3.90-inch stroke of the FRPP billet crank, the final cubic-inch number settled on 393. Fly-cut Ross forged pistons ride up and down the cylinder walls, while Eagle H-beam rods swing on the crank thanks to Clevite 77 bearings. Sealing up the cylinders are Speed-Pro rings, and keeping the balanced rotating assembly in place is a Probe Industries main girdle. A Melling high-volume oil pump lubricates the moving parts, and a Canton windage tray and 7-quart pan make sure the oil is contained and not meeting the crank in high-rpm situations. Rounding out the go-power is a bunch of high-performance goodies. A Comp cams hydraulic roller bumpstick, featuring 0.565/0.574 intake and exhaust lift with 232/240 degrees of duration and a 112 lobe separation, moves the lifters and pushrods that are linked up to Comp 1.6 roller rockers. The rockers tickle the 2.10 intake and 1.60 exhaust valves in the extensively ported and polished Trick Flow aluminum heads. Topping things off is a Trick Flow intake manifold.
An Aeromotive A1000 fuel pump supplies the fuel to the 42-pound Bosch injectors, while a 75mm BBK throttle body and an Anderson Ford Motorsport Power Pipe get the air into the cylinders. When the air and fuel is mixed up and compressed to 11.5:1, a full-on MSD ignition system receives the signal from the Accel Gen 7 fuel-injection system to light the ends of the NGK plugs. Emptying the combustion chambers of burnt-gasses is a job handed down to a pair of Hooker 131/44-inch long-tube headers that link up to a custom x pipe system and 3-inch exhaust system complete with Flowmaster mufflers. The engine combo provides honest-to-goodness 456 rwhp and 451 rwtq.