You wouldn't think a carpet company would know how to build a hot 5.0, but take a good look at this righteous '93 built under the guidance of the good folks at Auto Custom Carpets in Anniston, Alabama [(800) 633-2358], and you'll think otherwise. Not only was this car done right, it was done fast, in a mere 16 weeks start-to-finish.
For the '97 Hot Rod magazine Power Tour, ACC built a very nice '69 GTO, so when plans were under way for the '98 Tour, they went looking for another project to build, and had to look no further than their Product Development Manager, Ricky Cheek. Ricky's son Nicholas, a mechanical engineering student at Auburn University, had this '93 Mustang and, with 100,000 miles already on the odometer, it was ripe for a rebuild. Ricky's hand went up, and before he could say "cool," the keys were ripped from his hands and the car was whisked away for disassembly.
Almost immediately, the car was torn apart at the seams, taken down to nothing more than a shell to get it ready for a complete rebuild. Nothing was spared on the buildup of this Mustang, as its intended purpose was not only to look like a show car, but go like a road-race car--and for long distances at a time (like 3,000 miles on the Power Tour). We caught up with the car on the Tour's first leg, between Los Angeles and Mesquite, Nevada, and broke out the cameras to show it to you.
Starting from the bottom, the entire stock suspension was ripped from the car, tossed in the parts pile, and redesigned with some of the trickest hardware on the market. Up front, the strut arrangement gave way for a Barts Works SLA double-wishbone setup with coilovers. The Barts Works Grand Touring suspension uses tubular upper and lower control arms with a tall spindle mounting SN-95 hubs. This system provides vastly improved suspension geometry, and Afco aluminum coil-overs allow quick adjustment of both ride height and spring rate. All the suspension links, front and back, are spherical rod ends, so there's not a trace of slop anywhere in this suspension.
In back are more Barts Works parts, this time a three-link that retains the stock lower control arm arrangement (though with stiffer adjustable arms), but uses a single link up top in conjunction with a panhard bar. This eliminates the binding that exists with the Mustang's stock four-link setup. Another pair of Afco coilovers are used in the back, and the stock 8.8 rearend was upgraded with 3.55:1 Richmond gears, a Torsen locker carrier, Moser Engineering 31-spline axles, and an SVO girdle. On each corner are mammoth Baer brakes with (13x1.25-inch in front, 11-inch in back) slotted, drilled, and zinc-coated rotors, and PBR calipers. The world's best suspension won't do anything if the wheels and tires are junk, so ACC bolted up a set of 17x9 (30mm offset) HRE Performance 545 three-piece wheels and wide 275/40ZR17 Dunlop SP9000 stickies.
Since the car had to be reliable, ACC went with an entire Ford Motorsport drivetrain, including an SVO 351 crate motor with 9.5:1 compression, forged pistons, a steel crank, GT40 heads and intake, an M-355 cam, a 73mm C&L mass air meter, and 36-pound injectors. As is typical of most Mustang buildups, too much is never enough, so on top of the already-potent 351 was bolted a Vortech T-Trim set up to hammer in 10 pounds of boost. Supporting the blower is a Motorsport 190-lph in-tank pump augmented with a Vortech T-Rex inline pump, 3/8-inch braided lines, Earls fittings, Vortech billet fuel rails, and a Paxton billet adjustable fuel pressure regulator. Exhaust is via Motorsport short-tube headers (coated by Performance Coatings in Jonesboro, Georgia) and a custom 2-1/2-inch X-pipe (by "Big Al" in Jacksonville, Alabama) leading back to a pair of Flowmasters with 3-inch tips. The fire comes from an MSD 6BTM (on a custom aluminum bracket) with 8.5mm wires. Sending the power aft is a Tremec five-speed with a Motorsport clutch and heavy-duty clutch cable, and a Motorsport aluminum driveshaft. Cooling it is the job of a Griffin aluminum radiator and a stock fan and water pump. Ricky also wanted us to help him thank the good guys at Speedlab Performance in Gadsden, Alabama, for all their help.
Before dropping all this hardware into place, the car was trailered over to Randy Coppock at Coldwater Custom in Oxford, Alabama, for the visual rejuvenation. Coppock installed a seven-piece Cervini's Cobra conversion kit and 2.5-inch cowl-induction hood, then spent a lot of time making sure the body panels were smooth as glass before spraying the beautiful Sherwin-Williams Electric Current Red Metallic paint (provided by Ben Robertson in Birmingham, Alabama). Even the underside of the floorpans and inside the engine bay were coated with the paint. Hours and hours of wet-sanding were to follow, and after witnessing the finished product first-hand we're here to tell you it's stellar work. Even with a few dead bugs in the grille and some small stone chips, this is one show-quality paintjob.
The ACC crew was destined to spend some long days behind the wheel, so the interior was gussied up as well. Jeff Cheek (in Eastaboga, Alabama) bent up the unobtrusive eight-point rollcage (with low door bars to avoid the contortionist routine upon ingress and egress) to work with Dugan subframe connectors to really stiffen the car up. The pedals were replaced with Dugan Racing's drilled aluminum pedals, and a 5-inch Auto Meter Pro Comp 10,000-rpm tach was affixed to the A-pillar, along with boost, oil, and fuel pressure gauges. The only other deviation from stock is a set of M&R harnesses, and new carpets from, you guessed it. ACC also made up a set of custom Power Tour floor mats that are truly bitchin'.
Some 3,000-plus miles later, and this 'Stang was ready for Power Tour number two, the East Coast chingo from Boston to St. Petersburg, Florida. We visited the car once again on this tour--on the last leg this time--and were just as impressed as when it was new and fresh. It's a little more grimy underneath, due to all those miles, but then that's a badge of honor as far as we're concerned. And when we asked them if it was fast, their answer was that somewhere in Utah, they turned 5,800 rpm in Fifth gear. With an Overdrive ratio of .63:1, 3.55 gears, and 26-inch-tall tires, you do the math. Yeah, baby!