For Ford Mustangs Fans should read!!!

[Kangaroo Boy]

Go hard, go Hemi, or go home!

There's a definite laugh in this story, though some Ford owners might not see the joke. Anyway, it starts in New Zealand and moves to the USA…

Regardless of their personal allegiance, most Australian and NZ enthusiasts agree on the performance credentials of the Valiant Charger E49.

A little while back, a member of the Chrysler R/T 6 Pack Owners Club of NZ sold his E49 to Paul and Lisa Smith of Illinois, USA. (The photo is not of the actual car, but the favourite toy of Western Australia Charger Club president Trevor Hedge. There’s a link to the specs and history of the Aussie Charger at the end of this yarn.)

So, its new owner plans to restore the Charger to concourse condition and show it at all the major USA MOPAR shows. But in the meantime, Gary Bridger, of the 6 Pack Owners Club of NZ, received the following account of what happened when Paul took the beastie for some exercise …

"Hi Gary,
After a couple of days getting used to the E49, driving and tuning, I decided to see what we could make it do in the 1/4 mile. Wednesday night is grudge match night at the local drag strip. I call it my `run what you brung night’. A couple of friends and I decided to try to break into the 13's with the Charger.

The first pass was a lone run and I posted a 14.11 at 100.003 mph. Not bad for a first run All of a sudden the "Mustang" crowd started showing up to see what we had under the hood, oops I mean bonnet. We kind of closed the hood and let it cool off and waited for the next run.

We adjusted the air pressure in the rear slicks and unhooked the front sway bar for more weight transfer. I pulled up to the staging area and was up against a brand new 2000 Mustang GT. 4.6 litre 5 speed. He had all of the go fast goodies like a big exhaust, big tires and even chrome rocker covers. I knew that he was really fast then.

After pulling around the burnout box and doing a couple of dry hops we were ready for action. I had a reaction time of .489, started shifting and waited for the Mustang to appear. But to no avail, I never saw him except in my rear view mirror. After running through the traps and slowing down he did finally catch up with a real confused look on his face!

I got my time slip and I turned a 13.96 at 101.994 mph!!! Not bad for my second run.

The Mustang boy takes a look at the hood and says "No wonder you beat me you got a hemi!" Boy, was he in for a surprise!

Then we adjusted the timing and reset the rear tire pressures and went for it again. No! not another Mustang, a 1995 5.0 LX which is the lighter version. Oh well, what the hell, we’re here for fun!

After staging very shallow, we got the last yellow I hit it, rolled into second gear and he was nowhere to be seen. He had staged very deep and when I hit it on the last yellow light he hit it and red lighted! OK, so far so good, we beat 2 out of 2, pretty good luck.

Now the last run because of impending thunder storms. We cooled the intake with ice, checked the timing and tire pressures and went back for another run.

The president of the Mustang club wanted to run me so we set it up. He had a 1969 351 Windsor 4 speed and 3.90 rear. I figured that we were in trouble but again we were here for fun and waited for our turn. Well he kept giving me the "LOOK of Death", I guess we were making them look bad.

So I staged shallow again, a real favorite of mine and looked over he was laughing and giving me a real nice middle finger salute. Boy, those Mustang boys don't have a sense of humour! I let the last yellow glow and hit it again! It launched like a rocket, I didn't even spin the tires, 2 turns and we were off!! I was pulling the gears again waiting for the BIG BAD Mustang to appear, again to no avail it never did. I pulled into the cool down lane and got my time slip, 13.91!!! at 103.001 MPH, NOT BAD!!!

We all felt that we could get a lot more out of it. I don't think that 13.50's are out of the question. With a fresh motor, clutch and time we could really make these things fly!

I pulled back into out pit area to let the Charger cool off and the president pulled up and told me that it was a really bad running hemi and I should get it looked at! We opened the bonnet for him and the look on his face was worth a million dollars.

"A f*****g 6 cylinder!!!! What the hell is that??"

I explained to him what it was and what it was built for, he just shook his head in disbelief and walked away a really beaten man.

The word got out about the motor and it took us 2 hours to get out of there. Most of the Mustang guys took it in stride, they were good sports about it, a couple of guys said that we should beat them because it is a real race car! I asked if any of them would like to go to the race track with turns like Road America but there were no takers.

Overall a good night, hopefully we are making you proud back in good old aus.
lol..owned.

[BADMIHAI]

Nice kills there. I'm surprised that no faster stangs were in there...

[blah]

yea seems like you didnt go up againest real stang drivers. Its usually the F-body drivers that are dicks. Lucky for you there were no Mach 1s/Cobras, or people who can actually drive a stang. Good kills.

[graywolf624]

Actually I've found its mostly the mustang owners, at least in the south east. The number of ricey mustangs in Atlanta is down right scary, they almost out number the ricer civics(a bit of an exaggeration but you get the point).

That being said, a 13.9 beating a mustang. Makes sense for a relatively stock late 80s early 90s stang. Gas crunch was horrendous to quarter times for the pony cars.

As for the main topic. Cool car, but I think the author sort of over shoots the coolness of the win. Cylinder number nor displacement a win guarentees. I would trade a new mustang for a turbo trans am for instance.

I dunno, I guess Im just getting too old to appreciate a drag kill, either that or to cranky(take your pick).

[tkach]

most mustang drivers cant drive their cars. at least in so cal. its sad and funny. i cant wait to crush them all esplacily the ones with euro tail lights damn fags.

[blah]

Where i live, its mostly the Camaro drivers, that are ass holes. The Trans AM Drivers are always just laid back cool. The mustang drivers are usually nice, and arent cocky. In fact on my way to LACR this mustang driver was going about 110 or so, and he was handling the car very well. And when i got to LACR, i pulled up right next to him, and said very nice driving, and he was like thanks, but i almost lost it a few times, and he laughed. he ran about a 13.9 or so that day. while the camaro drivers ive talked to are always cocky SOBs. They think they drive a Corvette or something. Me personally, i want either a 79 Trans AM, black with Gold Hood emblem, or 98-02 Trans AM WS6, or a 99-04 Ford Mustang GT/Mach 1. Or ill take a brand spanking new 05 Mustang GT. :mrgreen:


Another thing i saw out driving a few nights ago. I saw a Bullit Mustang, EXTREMELY RARE! out where i live, and a Camaro Z28 with neon underglow, outragereos paint job pull up to it and rev, i was turning left and immediatly took the u turn so i could follow them, and the Camaro was bieng an ass hole, and when the light turned green toook off, and the Mustang just went at its own pace and then took a right, and the camaro sped off. Now at this time it was pouring out side, I had my TCS on. Just a few minutes before this happened, me and my friends pulled into the Target parking lot, and there was a mustang GT doing some pretty sick donuts in there. I pulled up next to him, and the guy was so fucking cool, its not even funny. He was with his girl, and was impressing her i bet. and then my friend asked him to do some more, and he did, and then as he pulled out he did a mean powerslide and sped off..

[Kangaroo Boy]

Really???I find that Muscle Car Fans are alot easy to talk to then Rice owners and some Import drivers.Ricers are think they are black,(not all)and some Import drivers think they are King shit because they bought a Supra TT(not all but some)...But Muscle car guys that drive American hot rods and street cars they are cool.They do like people coming up to them saying nice ride,and asking questions about there cars.I haven't had a problem with anyone.

[graywolf624]

Interesting. Perhaps you approach the guys with the camaros differently then you do the trans ams and you don't realize it?

In atlanta the idiots with the camaros that are rice get drummed out of the fbody club quickly. However, the number of people driving mustangs with 3 foot wings and under body lights make me want to retch. Heck, my roomates well on the way to being one with his stock v6 with 17" rims (his constant bs of putting in a twin turbo on the stock engine doesn't help).

Actually, I feel the need to elaborate. Most V8 fbody and mustang owners seem to be cool. In general(there are some exceptions) v6 owners have an attitude problem or are girls. Since there are more mustang v6s (and mustangs as a whole), there are more aholes with mustangs.

Oh and just to be the old man of the group, "It's not cool to take a road at 110 mph, take it to the track where it belongs before you kill someone" (realizing you didn't but still having seen the aftermath more times then I care to remember).

The members of the mustang club in ATL have been more then helpful, and the camaro owners, well lets just say I don't hang out with people that rub me the wrong way.

One last thing, the bullit mustang. They aren't as rare as you think, and only as rare as they are because no one ordered them. Sadly ford dropped the ball with the car, it was just a name badge and a color scheme. They did better with the mach 1, at least making it a unique model level when it comes to performance.

[graywolf624]

Interesting. Perhaps you approach the guys with the camaros differently then you do the trans ams and you don't realize it?

In atlanta the idiots with the camaros that are rice get drummed out of the fbody club quickly. However, the number of people driving mustangs with 3 foot wings and under body lights make me want to retch. Heck, my roomates well on the way to being one with his stock v6 with 17" rims (his constant bs of putting in a twin turbo on the stock engine doesn't help).

Actually, I feel the need to elaborate. Most V8 fbody and mustang owners seem to be cool. In general(there are some exceptions) v6 owners have an attitude problem or are girls. Since there are more mustang v6s (and mustangs as a whole), there are more aholes with mustangs.

Oh and just to be the old man of the group, "It's not cool to take a road at 110 mph, take it to the track where it belongs before you kill someone" (realizing you didn't but still having seen the aftermath more times then I care to remember).

The members of the mustang club in ATL have been more then helpful, and the camaro owners, well lets just say I don't hang out with people that rub me the wrong way.

One last thing, the bullit mustang. They aren't as rare as you think, and only as rare as they are because no one ordered them. Sadly ford dropped the ball with the car, it was just a name badge and a color scheme. They did better with the mach 1, at least making it a unique model level when it comes to performance.

[graywolf624]

Interesting. Perhaps you approach the guys with the camaros differently then you do the trans ams and you don't realize it?

In atlanta the idiots with the camaros that are rice get drummed out of the fbody club quickly. However, the number of people driving mustangs with 3 foot wings and under body lights make me want to retch. Heck, my roomates well on the way to being one with his stock v6 with 17" rims (his constant bs of putting in a twin turbo on the stock engine doesn't help).

Actually, I feel the need to elaborate. Most V8 fbody and mustang owners seem to be cool. In general(there are some exceptions) v6 owners have an attitude problem or are girls. Since there are more mustang v6s (and mustangs as a whole), there are more aholes with mustangs.

Oh and just to be the old man of the group, "It's not cool to take a road at 110 mph, take it to the track where it belongs before you kill someone" (realizing you didn't but still having seen the aftermath more times then I care to remember).

The members of the mustang club in ATL have been more then helpful, and the camaro owners, well lets just say I don't hang out with people that rub me the wrong way.

One last thing, the bullit mustang. They aren't as rare as you think, and only as rare as they are because no one ordered them. Sadly ford dropped the ball with the car, it was just a name badge and a color scheme. They did better with the mach 1, at least making it a unique model level when it comes to performance.

[blah]

I know the bullit runs the same speed as the GT, but i highly doubt that the Camaro was even a V-8 now that i think about it. He had Neon underglow, deccals, and other ricer crap. I see alot of fake z28s, and Mustang GTs around here. Youd also be suprised how many Fake M cars are here.

[graywolf624]

"was even a V-8 now that i think about it. "

Kinda validates my point now doesn't it:). Don't judge the fbody groups by the v6s. Very few of the v6 drivers end up in the fbody clubs.

[blah]

Youd be suprised how many fake cars are around here. I think one day i will take the Digi cam with me and take pics of the ricers around here.

[Quad-Turbo]

Not to sound like an ass or anything, but it sounds like to me the first mustang driver couldn't drive his/her car. Or like blah said...it was a mis-badged v6. I've personally ran 13.8 in late model gt's. Not saying I'm the best driver in the world, but I know i'm not the only one thats done it, so I know it can be done... :D

[Andrew91gt]

cool!

[hemi_fan]

^^^ lol... his first post... and wasnt it a deusie!! (sp) lol

[Garretts_turbo]

mustangs....... :(

[nthfinity]

i love stangs, and late 70's comeros, and early 70's ta's and the WS6 :)
that being said. ive only run into a few asshole dicks ive raced... and it seems to run in the younger cocky people rather evenly... mabey it takes more pride to build your own car, not have it handed to you.
an old neighbor who i sometimes see driving around town has the funiest mustang ive seen. its got the front facia of a GT, the badges of a V6, appeared to have the stock gt exahaust, and the rear bumber of a cobra. i once inspected the underside of such a confused car, and was a poorly done H pipe conversion. at least it was a manuel trans.