2007 Ford Mustang GT - The Monster Bash

Model: Melanie H. Tillbrook

Halloween is fun. Little kids dress up in their favorite superhero or ghoulish costume and raid the neighborhood homes for chocolate and other treats or tricks. But time passes and things change. While as adults many of us may still get dressed up for Halloween, the costumes are usually more extravagant.

The same can be said about the '07 Mustang GT that was given a full-on, Halloween-type transformation by Bash Performance. What started out as a motorized version of a kid in a Superman costume turned into a rolling example of Frankenstein. The Clearwater, Florida, performance shop took the '07 and, six weeks later, had it breathing fire from all corners of the S197 chassis.

"Our main vehicle focus when we first started was the new '05 Mustang," says Brett Bash, son of Bash Performance founder Stephen Bash. "Our first designed body kit and complete car was the Monaceros, which looked like a certain '67 Shelby GT500."

The shop's first body kit looked like a movie car from 1999 (you can figure it out), the boys at Bash wanted to create a car that would stop everyone in their tracks. That's when the drawing board was pulled out and the styling for the GTSR Mustang began.

"We wanted a body kit that would simulate the racing look of the GT-R Mustang concept," Brett explains. "The first GTSR debuted at the '06 SEMA show in Vegas, and we are now building turnkey cars as well as body components and parts."

The body kit and ensuing mechanical work done to this particular Mustang are nothing short of spectacular. The racy lines of the kit give the Mustang an illusion of going fast while standing still. The side-exit exhaust is reminiscent of NASCAR Nextel Cup cars, while the 20-inch rims give it that low-slung look. Add in the extraordinary power supplied by the blown mod motor, and you can see just where the inspiration for this car lies.

Let us digress for a moment, however. Like Dr. Frankenstein looked around different places for parts and pieces to create his own human being, Brett and the crew at Bash Performance did the same thing, though most of their parts gathering was accomplished by raiding their own parts bin. The stock Three-Valve was pulled out, stripped down, and poked and stroked to a new displacement of 5.0 liters. Internally, the stock rotating assembly was replaced with a forged crank and H-beam rods, followed by blower-friendly 8.6:1 slugs. Before the Three-Valve heads were slapped back on the short-block, they were treated to a port-and-polish job prior to being stocked with oversized valves and a set of custom camshafts. The detailing on the engine didn't stop with the components, though. A Moroso oil pan was powdercoated Candy Apple Red, as were the Bash Performance valve covers. The trifecta of colorful parts added looks to the top and bottom of the modular engine.

Once the long-block was back between the framerails, a ProCharger D1SC centrifugal blower was slung in. Pushing 20 psi of boost, the inlet air can get hot, but the charge is lowered to a manageable temperature thanks to a three-core intercooler. Adding even more flash to the engine compartment is the carbon-fiber radiator and intake manifold covers, as well as the blower inlet tubes, which were powdercoated (you guessed it) Candy Apple Red. Twin GT500 fuel pumps force the go juice to the 60-pound injectors via Aeromotive fuel lines and rails, while an MSD ignition system handles the chore of electrifying the spark plugs. When the combus-tion process is cycled around to the exhaust stroke, a pair of Bassani ceramic-coated long-tube headers dump the exhaust gasses away from the cylinders and into an oh-so-cool Bash Performance 2 1/2-inch side-exit exhaust system.