Six years ago, Dwayne Sanchez moved his family to Las Vegas from Colorado to start his own powdercoating business.
Though his brother had a '99 SVT Cobra, Dwayne thought he would never have a Mustang of his own. "Growing up, my friends had Mustangs in high school, and my wife's dream car still to this day is a '65 Mustang," says Dwayne.
Then, when he wrecked his daily driven Honda, the door was open for Dwayne to join his brother by entering the Mustang stable himself. "It [the Honda] was totaled," recalls Dwayne. "So I had to hurry up and find a new vehicle to get to work in." That's when his parents bought him the '00 GT seen on these pages. Though it started as a stock daily driver, that didn't last long.
"Going into the purchase of my Mustang, I didn't know about the modifications that can be done to these vehicles," says Dwayne. Through the process of repairing the quarter-panel that was damaged when he bought the car, Dwayne met Danny Tinker of Devious Designs of Las Vegas. Tinker not only repaired the damage, but he talked Dwayne into letting him repaint the entire car House of Kolors Candy Apple Red and add the running horse murals on the doors. Dwayne was hooked.
Not long after driving around and getting lots of looks from passersby, Dwayne realized he had to give his new Pony the classic growl to match the masculine new paint scheme. So he had a Bassani exhaust system installed by Mark Cole at Performance Muffler, and Dwayne was back on the streets, not knowing that even bigger changes were in store.
Remember Dwayne's brother, the one with the '99 Cobra? Well, he found himself and his Cobra cleanly in Dwayne's crosshairs as he searched for more power. Dwayne found himself at Performance Motorsports, face-to-face with owner Randy Cothran. The two decided on minor bolt-ons like a C&L intake manifold plenum and BBK throttle body and cold-air intake. Cothran also added Maximum Motorsports caster/camber plates, a lowering kit from Eibach, and wheel spacers from B&M.
"Now my monster Mustang was looking the part and sounding the part, but it still lacked the horsepower I wanted. So we decided to add the Kenne Bell 2.1L supercharger with intercooler," says Dwayne. Tuned by Jay Johnson at J. Johnson Motorsports with Diablosport software, Dwayne's Two-Valve pumped out 415 rwhp on 9 pounds of boost.
Since Dwayne owns and operates his own powdercoating business, State of the Art Powder Coating, he applied his skills and resources to take his GT from an airbrushed GT with a blower to an all-out, one-of-a-kind showpiece. "My Mustang went from everything chrome to satin black," says Dwayne. He coated his wheels, grilles, emblems, and every other metal piece on the car.
Chosen as a display at SEMA 2010 as part of the Mustangs and Classic Fords of Las Vegas car club, Dwayne went back to work on his GT. He added a hoodscoop, front and rear sidescoops, quarter-window scoops, and a chin spoiler, and had Nick Lee of Air Fusion Designs add the airbrushed flames. Lee also added the underhood and deck-lid murals. Dwayne added his own powdercoating touch to the nitrous bottles, and a sick sound system by Alpine, MTX, and Pioneer.
His experience at SEMA was "awesome" and he looks forward to another chance to make an appearance at the automotive aftermarket's largest event.
Dwayne would like to thank all of his sponsors, but most of all his parents for buying him cars even though he's a grown man, and his wife for supporting him and not leaving.