Matt is obviously no stranger to racing. He first got behind the wheel at the age of seven. "I had a few Jr. Dragsters, and Dad taught me how to drive a stick when I was 10 years old in his '00 Mustang," Matt says. "I learned how to powershift in my Ford Festiva. I always wanted the '86 since I grew up with it."
To see if Matt had the stuff race drivers are made of, Joe assembled a supercharged, 306ci combo with a Vortech S-Trim, Edelbrock cylinder heads, and a Tremec five-speed. In 2005 at just 16 years of age, Matt sidestepped the clutch and went 10.60 at 133 mph at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Bradenton, Florida. The father/son team hit a few more events throughout the year, getting valuable experience under the young driver's five-point harness.
In the winter of 2006, Joe and Matt decided to step up the powerplant and lower the elapsed times a bit. Since this effort was more centered on driver development than championship-winning performance, Joe sought out a used but proven engine combination for the little red coupe.
"The motor is a 359-inch Windsor that came out of Manny Buginga's Outlaw car," Joe says. Keep in mind this is the same motor that propelled Buginga's Fox body Mustang to 200 mph in the quarter-mile.
The Windsor-based Dart block was gone through by Pande Televski of Pande's Per-formance in Detroit, Michigan, and features JE pistons, Crower connecting rods, and a Scat crankshaft. Combined with the Trick Flow aluminum high-port cylinder heads, the engine provides a boost-friendly 8:1 compression ratio, which is good, since a Turbonetics T-88 turbo-charger is the power adder of choice for this Pony.
An Accel Gen VII DFI system is used to manage the Wilson Manifolds'-modified Edel-brock intake, and a water-to-air intercooler is used to chill the 22 psi of boost that the engine ingests a quarter-mile at the time.
The Tremec five-speed was replaced with a Performance Automatic, two-speed Powerglide transmission and a Neil Chance torque converter with a 4,200-stall speed. Power is transmitted through the venerable ladder-bar rear suspension and Wolfe Race Craft antiroll bar to a Ford 9-inch rear axle that houses a 3.55:1 ring-and-pinion, Strange axle shafts, and spool. Up front, the four-eyed filly has been updated with a UPR tubular K-member and control arms, Koni front shocks and UPR coil springs.
The updates continued to the interior, where Joe had LG Chassis in Mississauga, Ontario, install a Funny Car-style rollcage. Aside from the new AMS-1000 digital boost controller and intercooler that ride shotgun, the interior is mostly as Joe left it back in the day. It even still has the factory dashboard.
"We wanted to build a mild combination to get him into the nines," Joe says. "We wanted to take small steps and started off with low boost to go through the nines and eventually get him into the eights. In 2006 at 17 years of age, Matt got his NHRA competition license in Bradenton during a Pro Stock test session. Brandon Switzer, another old-school 5.0 racer from back in the day was testing with an IHRA Pro Stock team, and he and Joe signed the license.