2007 Mustang Of The Year!Last year, the MM&FF staff began what we hope will become a yearly tradition-picking the Top 10 Mustangs of the year. To accom-plish such a task, we scoured the biggest Mustang races and the vast street scene across the United States to make the list complete. We even scrolled through lots of Internet sites. After much debate, the list came down to a mix of sick street machines combined with some of the coolest race cars.
For 2007, we're back at it again, and our Top 10 Mustangs list includes the absolute sickest cars we've encountered in the 12 issues of MM&FF bearing an '07 cover date.
In our previous Top 10 list, we didn't rank the cars in any particular order. This year, we have, and we've also included two additional choices as honorable mentions. Fights erupted and arguments ensued among the MM&FF staff as to who should make the short list. We emerged from the meeting with minor cuts, bruises, and ultimately the final list of 10 cars that really rocked our world. It wasn't easy due to the outstanding machines that have been photographed by our staff, but we think the owners listed here built outstanding Mustangs.
You can bet we're already on the lookout for those who will grace the '08 list, so bust out the wrenches, paint gun, and buffing wheel. Can you make the Top 10? Only time will tell.
Honorable mentionsSutton High Performance, '05 Mustang GTCompiling a Top 10 list is extremely difficult-you, the readers, have built some incredible Mustangs. The Sutton High Performance crew deserves to be recognized for their efforts in late-model Mustang performance. They built an in-house test mule to be the first 9-second Three-Valve modular-powered S197 car in 2005. In 2006, they came out swinging in the NMRA EFI Renegade ranks with a Four-Valve modular engine under the hood, and they set the e.t. record in their first year in a class full of veteran racers. Their best time in competition has been an 8.56 at 161 mph. The team is currently in contention for the '07 NMRA title, and despite rule adjustments last winter, they're in the forefront of the category's performance benchmarks.
The team ditched the Three-Valve engine because at the time of the Renegade conversion, technology wasn't able to provide suitable com-ponents to run mid-8s. They turned to a Four-Valve Cobra engine and have never looked back. This year the team runs a Ford Racing Performance Parts Boss modular iron block to shed some 60 pounds off the nose. Inside the new block are a steel crankshaft, GRP rods, and CP pistons. FR500 cylinder heads direct the air that comes in via a Vortech YSi-Trim blower and '99 Cobra intake (with custom spacer). Fast Forward Race Cars installed the cage and performs all of the chassis modifi-cations, including keeping the Steeda suspension tuned up properly. A Dynamic Racing C4 trans-mission keeps all of the horses in order and transmits them to the Chris Alston 9-inch rearend.
Joe Cermin, '05 Ford GTTechnically, we couldn't include Joe Cermin's Ford GT on our list because we named it the Top 10 Mustangs of 2007, and his car is, well, a Ford GT. We had to break the rules and get him in this story, so here's one of the sickest street cars we've ever laid eyes on. Cermin had HP Performance build him an insane twin-turbocharged Ford GT that would destroy anything that lined up next to it. As you can expect, money is no concern with this project. The car owner caught the speed bug once Tony Gonyon and HP Performance added a shot of nitrous, exhaust, and upped the boost on the stock car. It got out of control from there. We featured the car when it was making 1,012 rwhp from a virtually stock engine with a custom intake and a pair of turbochargers.