1986 Mustang GT - Master Of Arms

In the United States Navy, the Master of Arms is responsible for the police work on a naval vessel. He or she handles the small arms complement, as well as all of the policing and protection of the ship from within. While Perry Santini isn't in the Navy, he is involved in protecting people. As the president of Master Security in Miramar, California, Perry spends his days making sure people are protected. On the weekend, he protects the reputation of the modular engine with his turbocharged '86 Mustang GT.

Perry protects the modular name simply by being the only one brave enough to sling a mod motor into his NMRA Super Street Outlaw car (as of this writing). "I went this route for two reasons," Perry explains. "First, I wanted to be different. As of now, there are no mod motor/turbo combinations in Super Street Outlaw. Second, I did it for the weight break afforded to that combination, though trying to get this car down to the 2,700-pound minimum is almost impossible."

Ironically, the whole project started out with a compromise. "I originally wanted an '87-or-newer car, but I got a great deal on my '86 from a local cop," Perry comments. "Certainly, a coupe would be a heck of a lot lighter, but it is also more difficult to work on. Now that I have the car, I love it. There aren't too many four-eyed cars out there."

After picking up the Fox-body, Santini began to street race it locally before realizing that a safer venue was a much better proposition. "I was still street racing when I bought the car, and since then, things have changed drastically," Perry muses. "If you're caught street racing now, the car is impounded and you don't get it back. I didn't want to take the chance, and I liked what I saw in Super Street Outlaw. The car can run in Drag Radial, but Super Street Outlaw is more of an upscale class, although not when it comes to cost."

Knowing that to be competitive, low 8-second quarter-mile times (at the least) would be needed, Perry embarked on making as much power with a modular engine as he could. He ravaged a '99 Cobra for its 4.6L Four-Valve powerplant, and promptly took it home to his garage and dismantled it. The factory block was taken to Boss 330 Racing, where head honcho Al Papitto punched each cylinder out, bringing displacement up to 283 ci. While the stock Cobra crank remained, a set of JE slugs were pinned to a set of Manley connecting rods. A billet oil pump works in tandem with a stud girdle and a Milodon oil pan complete with a windage tray to control the lubricant and free up a couple of ponies.

Surprisingly enough, the rest of the powerplant is made up of stock components. The stock Four-Valve heads were machined at Boss 330 Racing, and were promptly laid down atop the short-block and finished off with stock '99 Cobra cams and cam followers. The heads feature the stock valve sizes, leaving the added power to come in the form of a turbocharger.

With the powerplant lowered and secured in the engine bay, Perry fabricated a custom upper plenum to work with the 90mm Accufab throttle body and Sullivan lower intake. Blowing in 30-plus psi of boosted air is a Precision 91mm hair dryer that has its intake charge chilled down by a custom Bell intercooler. Supplying the correct amount of go juice is a Weldon 2035 fuel pump and regulator that trims the fuel pressure to 40 psi. The fossil fuel is injected into the engine via 160-pound injectors, where it is met with the spark provided by a Big Stuff 3 ignition system, MSD wires, and NGK plugs. Perry did all of the tuning himself, and the powerplant, which exhales through a top-secret set of headers and a custom 5-inch exhaust system, pounds out 1,000-plus horsepower.