Project Name: Two-Tone Terror
Car: '82 Granada
Timeline: September 1999-March 2001
Goal: 10s in legal Street Renegade guise.
Result: 10.80s at full weight.
Grade: Incomplete, with an "A" for gumption.
Best Performance: 10.78 at 128 mph
Biggest mistake: Building a Granada.
Best move: Building a Granada. "I say, 'Granada.' Chicks say, 'My place.'"
Only MM&FF would have the cojones to build a Fox-chassis Granada for a prominent, heads-up racing class (the vehicle was known internally as "Ghetto Superstar"). A reader was so overwhelmed by TTT's beauty and performance that he bought it after its first race.
Project Name: Mad Max
Car: '88 Mustang GT
Timeline: May 2000-January 2001
Goal: 13s, reliable open-track performance and competitive autocross car.
Result: 13.80s, Second- to Fourth-Place finishes at various autocrosses in SCCA NY region, two open track days without failure.
Grade: B
Best Performance: 13.81 at 100 mph
Biggest mistake: None.
Best move: Leaving it stock.
STILL Sitting in driveway of new owner, five years later.
Project Name: Stone Pony
Car: '94 Mustang GT
Timeline: July 2000-February 2002
Goal: To build a 12-second daily driver that could also be used for bracket racing.
Result: Ran 13.0
Grade: B-
Best Performance: 13.0 at 108 mph
Biggest mistake: Not getting the correct converter and rear gear. package. The converter was way too tight, and that really hurt the launch. We also should have swapped the 3.73 gears for 4.10s or 4.30s.
Best move: Switching to Lentech AOD, installing Edelbrock heads and intake.
We sold it. New owner added blower and made 580 rwhp.
Project Name: 200-MPH Mustang
Car: '88 Mustang LX
Timeline: April 2001-Present
Goal: 200 MPH Daily Driven Street Mustang
Result: A work in progress.
Grade: Incomplete
Best Performance: Radar-verified 193 mph (with Vortech supercharged/TFS headed 5.0) in Silver State Classic Race (early '90s)
Biggest mistake: Sliding off course (after a rear control arm bushing worked its way out) while in the lead of an open road race from Mexico City to Acapulco; damaged passenger door and took us out of contention (finished Fourth).
Best move: Driving at 3 a.m. in the middle of the desert at 180-plus mph the day before the Silver State race. Crew chief Bernie Van Hamond was sitting on the passenger floor with no seatbelt and a flashlight in his mouth to read the boost and EGT gauges while tuning the Crane Interceptor. Roaring down the highway at 180-plus mph in the pitch dark (the lights did very little) on a wing and a prayer.
The project 200-mph Mustang is the same '88 LX that ran the race down in Mexico years ago. West Coast Editor Richard Holdener has been using it for stories since the early '90s and promises to finish it before the next millennium.
Project Name: The Fridge
Truck: '99 SVT F-150 Lightning
Timeline: September 2000-Present
Goal: To continually modify a '99 Lightning using typical aftermarket parts. First true goal was to run 12s, then 11s using the stock engine and blower, then to run 10s with a rebuilt engine.
Result: We hit the 11s with the stock engine and blower, and hit the 10s with a built motor.
Grade: A+
Best Performance: 10.999/120 mph
Biggest mistake: Leaving the stock engine internals on the quarter-mile at E-town after a fuel relay failed.
Best move: Installing a JDM Engineering engine with a Magnum Powers supercharger and the Level 10 transmission.
Using many aftermarket suppliers, MM&FF built a reliable, daily-driven Lightning that runs 10s. It still uses the factory A/C and has all the creature comforts, as well as the Level 10 transmission that was built in 2000. The Fridge is one of only a few Lightnings to have run in the 10s without the use of a KB blower and/or nitrous oxide.
Project Name: Mach VII
Car: '88 Lincoln Mach VII
Timeline: February 2001-April 2001
Goal: 13s
Result: Car stolen.
Grade: Incomplete
Best Performance: 14.90 (naturally aspirated trim)
Biggest mistake: Parking car on streets on Queens, New York. Never found perps.
Best move: Level 10 trans and converter/3.73s, Kenne Bell supercharger.
Death to all car thieves.