'85 Mustang - Punishing The Competition

"We were in Georgia at South Georgia Motorsports Park," Kenny says. "We didn't realize that the track operator and the Chevy guy were friends, so when he told Tony that the track was loose at the 1,000-foot mark, Tony erred on the side of caution and left the second stage of nitrous off." The Chevy pulled about two car lengths on the coupe at the end of the track.

"I was on the phone with Voss Racing Engines (VRE) ordering a new motor before we even rolled out of the track gate," Kenny says. The 514, which was based on a Super Cobra Jet block, was getting old, and since more horsepower was in the new recipe, Tony showed Kenny a Ford Racing Performance Parts A460 block that he had planned to put into the coupe. VRE in Live Oak, Florida, already had a rotating assembly to slide in the big-block anchor, and it consisted of a Sonny Bryant crankshaft, GRP aluminum connecting rods, and Venolia pistons. Bore size was milled to 4.610 inches, while the stroke swings 4.500 inches for a total of 605 ci.

The VRE-built cylinder heads are A460 aluminum pieces that feature titanium 2.35-inch intake and 1.90-inch exhaust valves. Conducting the valvetrain symphony is a custom-designed, solid-roller camshaft whittled out by Comp Cams. After consulting with the folks at www.bigblockfox.com, Tony was directed to Lem Evans who frequented the www.460ford.com message boards. Lem and Charlie Evans are well known for being big-block gurus, and they picked the cam based on the engine size and goals that the owner and tuner had in mind. The cam specs, however, remain shrouded in mystery, as the spec boxes on our tech sheet were filled in with "Big" and "Big" under the duration and lift categories.

The induction setup for this engine was run in two configurations on the engine dyno. First, a tunnel ram with a pair of four-barrels twisted up the dyno to 1,086 hp. Then, the single Pro Systems 1250 carburetor and Trick Flow intake manifold were bolted up and produced an equally stout 1,040 hp-and we haven't even cracked open the nitrous bottle yet. Kenny decided to stick with the single four to keep things under the composite hood.

The Trick Flow intake necessitated a change in the nitrous-plate system on the car, as the new, taller intake manifold would no longer clear the hood. After consulting with Edelbrock's Director of Motorsports Steve Johnson, a new Edelbrock E3 fogger system was plumbed in to join the E2 fogger that they already had. Currently, both nitrous stages are utilized and jetted for a total of 350 hp, at least until the car is fully sorted out. Edelbrock's 71900 progressive nitrous controller is used to ease in the onslaught of N2O, while an MSD 7531 keeps the engine's endless supply of torque from spinning the wheels.

One of the requirements of the No Bull races was that the car needed to be muffled. Bullet-style mufflers barely do anything with regard to sound attenuation, so Tony started with a set of D and D Automotive headers and fabricated a 3.5-inch x style crossover pipe that feeds a pair of DynoMax welded Ultra Flo mufflers. The car is so quiet that some have mistaken it for a turbocharged Pony. Yes, you can have relative peace and quiet in addition to blistering quarter-mile power.

While the engine was being built, Kenny took the opportunity to give the car a makeover. The hot-pink notchback was easily associated with Tony and HP Performance, so Kenny was eager to make it his own.

"I'm not a big four-eyed headlight kind of guy, so we converted the car to the later-model bodywork," Kenny says. All of the '85 window and body trim were switched to the smoother '87-'93 parts, as were the headlights and taillights. Orange Park, Florida's Visual FX was put in charge of the makeover, which included a complete color change. As it turned out, Kenny had bought a customized golf cart from Visual FX proprietor Paul Holman before buying the coupe. The cart was lathered in a custom DuPont Hot Hues shade of copper/orange pearl that bears a striking resemblance to Saleen's Beryllium hue.