We recently broke ground on our latest project, Hypersilver. Built to commemorate our 25th Anniversary, this over-the-top Fox will be unveiled at the SEMA show this year, and will be unlike any other Mustang we've ever built. It started as a bare shell on a rotisserie, and we're going to bring you every step as it progresses.

As you may know by now, MM&FF is celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2013. We'll be holding a few events throughout the year to help us celebrate 25 years. We held our Open House on March 7, and we're sponsoring a special ladies-only shootout and 25th Anniversary party in Norwalk in June.

Our Coyote-powered '85 coupe project is starting to come together. It recently received a complete paint and body overhaul by Spike's Performance and Summit Racing Equipment. And last month, we dropped the engine between the fenders and routed the FRPP Controls Pack harness. We still have a long way to go, but it's starting to take shape. When we started this project in the February issue, we outlined the purpose of the build. Editor Smith wants a track-ready Fox that he can also drive to the office, local car shows, or cruise nights. So after choosing the Ford Racing Performance Parts Coyote crate engine as the centerpiece, a six-speed was the natural transmission choice.

After a project car sits untouched for a while, it's hard to motivate yourself to pick up a wrench to end the hiatus. Dust collects, excitement fades, and the reality of the colossal task at hand comes rushing back. But even after months away, few other things can revive interest in a project like a fresh coat of paint and a garage full of new parts waiting to jump into the bare, clean carcass.

Good quality paint, a clean paint booth, and a capable painter are certainly necessary to pull off a good paint job. But beyond that, tedious tasks like sanding and blocking before, and wet-sanding and buffing after, are also key to a smooth-as-glass finish. In fact, the act of painting the car only takes up a very small percentage of a painter's time and effort.

We've done paint and body tech stories in the past. If you've seen one, then you've seen them all, right?

Two years ago, we introduced a new project car, Repeat Offender. This awkward-looking Sand Beige '85 coupe had received a few updates over the years, most of which were mismatched '90s-era mods. We didn't care because the price was right, and we planned to give the lightweight, four-eyed coupe a complete overhaul. Destined for the NMRA's Tremec True Street since its inception, Repeat Offender would be purpose-built, street-legal, and most importantly, fun to drive.

We took a month off from our latest four-eyed Fox project car last month. But if you've been following along, we've completely gutted it, smoothed the engine bay, welded in our subframe connectors, and mocked up the engine, trans, and rollbar. Now the car is at the body shop and we're looking for things to do while it's gone.

Over the past few issues, we've followed along as Livernois Motorsports built a new 323ci Four-Valve engine for Superfly. Consisting of an FRPP Boss 302 modular block, a Livernois rotating assembly, ported '03 Cobra heads, and custom Comp cams, it made 519 hp on the engine dyno.

When building a race car or a powerful street car, heat is almost always the enemy. After breaking into the 9s in the last installment of our AMSOIL GT, we decided to look at some of the underhood systems and see if we could reduce temperatures (namely inlet air temps and engine coolant temps), and find some extra power in the process.

Crate engines have become a staple of the automotive aftermarket. And in no portion of this market are there as many options as with the Mustang. From 302ci, 331ci, 347ci, and now 363ci, small-block Ford crate engines are dominant and plentiful—not to mention Windsor-based engines or big-blocks. And since the introduction of the modular engine, options have grown enormously.

Moving into the second month of this built-from-scratch race car, we've installed some of the critical hardware. Because we started with a bare shell, we'll be assembling the entire car, including many items you never give second thought to, such as the interior, windows, and all of the wiring. This stage of a project can seem more like a home improvement project than a car build, but wiring and plumbing are necessary to make sure all the systems work properly in the harsh racing environment.

Increased power and braking equals 9s at 139 mph, making our AMSOIL GT the quickest and fastest MM&FF project car ever.

Last month, we installed the Kenny Brown Extreme Matrix chassis-stiffening system on our latest project, an '85 LX coupe. We also bolted in the six-point Kenny Brown street cage. The still-unnamed project will feature an FRPP Coyote crate engine and a Tremec T-56 Magnum six-speed transmission from American Powertrain, and will serve as an open track car that will also be assigned street duty.

Step one: disconnect battery. Step two: remove engine. Step three: install ported heads and camshafts. Step four: enjoy!

If there is one thing that the staff of MM&FF loves, it's digging into a new project. Building fast Mustangs never gets old, as there is an endless list of parts and combinations to test and endless places to go racing. Planning the project is also part of the fun, as we love to discuss which powerplant or class will make for the most interesting results.

Last month we introduced our latest project, an '85 LX coupe. Destined for the open track, our max-effort, four-eyed Fox will also be required to perform just as well on the street. We laid out a few of the core components, including the FRPP Coyote crate engine and Controls Pack, Tremec T-56 Magnum transmission from American Powertrain, and a slew of stuff from Kenny Brown Performance (KB).

Back in the day, you could add a set of aftermarket heads, a bigger cam, and an intake manifold on a pushrod 5.0L and effectively double the power output. Although that sounds impressive, the base motor made a whopping 225 hp. (It’s amazing what was considered powerful in the ’80s and ’90s.) So what effect do heads and cams have on the latest 5.0L?

If you drive your car hard, broken parts are inevitable. If you go to the track regularly or drive your car in anger, you will eventually find the weak link in your combination. Downtime and the expense of replacing hardware thoroughly sucks, so we always recommend installing the best, and strongest components that you can afford.

As any project progresses, you hope there is a payoff. In the case of our 5.3L, big-bore Four-Valve for Superfly-DOHC, the payoff came with strong power numbers on the engine dyno.

Building our own project cars are our way of showing you a plethora of the newest aftermarket parts in one functional package. With our own rolling test bed, you get to see firsthand what parts we picked, and as we move forward with the build process, you get to learn how well the parts worked and how they do on a daily basis. We provide tips that will help you realize your goal in the quickest and most efficient way possible. You also get to see any snags we run into, which will hopefully help you avoid such setbacks when you tackle a build of your own.

Here at Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords magazine, we often talk about maximizing efficiency and concentrate on extracting the most performance from a given engine or vehicle. With our Street Smart Windsor project, we definitely went against the grain. When we proposed the idea of building an engine that idled like stock but produced a respectable 350-400, some questioned why we would spend so much money on aftermarket parts and leave so much on the table by going with a small camshaft.

Superfly- Destroyer of Hideous Camaros is near and dear to our hearts. Our once-editor (now editorial director) Jim Campisano has used this project '97 SVT Cobra in nearly all facets of motorsports. Its high-revving N/A Four-Valve has left many shaking their heads in disbelief with its 11-second timeslips and on-track abilitiesùall in street trim.

It doesn't take rocket science to know that less weight equals greater performance. The lighter the car, the less power it takes to get it moving. During the build, and throughout our track tests, the weight of our '11 AMSOIL GT has not been something we've paid much attention toùwe never even took the spare tire and jack out of the trunk! Now that the car performs consistently in the mid-10-second range, it's time to shed a few pounds.

During the infancy of the Mustang's modular powerplants, enthusiasts were left with more questions than answers. Fanatical owners used to the power and simplicity of the familiar and loved pushrod 5.0L-based Mustangs were greeted with complex multi-cam engines, lackluster performance from the 215-horse Two-Valve GT, and a desperate yearning for more excitement. Then-editor (now editorial director) Jim Campisano--Campy as we know him--saw the need to explore the uncharted territory of the modular engine platform, specifically, the Four-Valve SVT Cobra engine, and he used Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords as the platform for his expedition.