As background, I should state that the entire reason I started looking for a 5.0L Fox Mustang was due to me getting rid of my 4.0L/5spd 2006 PP coupe (best N/A ET of 14.312). Prior to selling it, I transferred all of the speed parts I could onto Debbie's 2005 4.0L/auto vert. Ran a 14.7xx with that, but was totally unhappy with racing an automatic. I missed banging gears and excercising my left leg! Hearing my complaints, Rygen suggested that I look for a 5.0L/5spd Fox to race with. Two weeks later, my older son's gym teacher approached me and said he was looking to sell his CHP Mustang that had been sitting in his garage for a long time. A deal was struck. Although the initial intent was to make it a streetable weekend racer, the SSP history changed my direction a bit, and since then I've been working on makin' Bacon a fun all-around car. The car has been back on the street for about 3 months now, and I continue to work on it. But I hadn't raced it yet.

So last night the stars aligned so that I was free on a Wednesday with nice weather. Jack (13yo) and Ray (12yo) served as my pit crew, and we drove about 35 minutes to Cecil County Dragway for their Test & Tune. Paid at the gate, and went straight to the staging lane for tech. The place was pretty crowded, although I've seen it worse. We adopted Ray over the summer, so this was his first visit to a dragstrip. The sights and sounds had him jumping around every time he saw a cool car. While Jack and Ray walked around, I stayed fairly close to my car after "passing tech" (CCD is fairly loose in how hard they inspect the cars) in case I needed to move my car towards the line. I talked with quite a few people in the staging lanes, despite what my parents taught me about avoiding strangers!

As I said the place was crowded, and people kept breaking down and scattering parts/fluids on the track. Finally, I was able to stage for my first (AND ONLY!) pass. Driving on 255 BFG street radials, I just did a quick spin after driving around the water box. Pulled up alone to the tree (officials were cleaning up parts from the other lane), and staged by lighting the first beam and stopping just as I tripped the second beam. Watched the ambers drop, revved up to 1800, and slowly eased the clutch out. Ahhh, the sound and feel of a 5.0L was so awesome! Sorry to say that my scanner won't pick up my slip, but I'll give you the details:

• 60' . . . . . . . 2.403
• 1/8 . . . . . .10.048 @ 70.64mph
• 1/4 . . . . . .15.489 @ 91.21mph

No surprise or disappointment here. I babied the car off the line to avoid wheelspin. There's an easy 4/10ths wasted at the line. I also granny shifted at 5K RPM's, and held on to 3rd gear through the traps. Yup, the car is still running highway gears. Also, as near as I can tell the motor has never been rebuilt after over 160K miles. And it needs a tune-up. And I was running full street weight (with spare tire and tools). And I hadn't dropped my rear tire pressure. And I had 3/4's of a tank of gas. [I know - EXCUSES EXCUSES! :P ] Given the numbers, a driver mod (ie getting more than one in for more experience), and track conditions, I know the car has 14's in it without throwing any new parts into the mix. As a critical thinker, I would have thought that my top end mph should have been a bit faster, even with the tall gearing.

All in all I am so happy to be back at the track again, even though both my 4.0L's ran/run quicker ET's. This is mainly a basline test to see where I should go with the car. It was so much fun banging gears too. Reflecting back on the night, there were TONS of Fox Mustangs there. But the lady in the timing shack held up the cars behind me to ask about Bacon. She even yelled over to her helper to come out of the shack and look at the car. I was happy to give them details - hope the racers behind me didn't mind waiting a few extra moments for their slips.

 

It's alright, my first time at the track I ran the same times in my 89. With no changes what so ever just a lot of practice I had the car down to consistent 14.2-14.3s with a few 14.0X and 14.1X passes. My car has a few more mods than yours, but practice makes perfect.

 

congrats on breaking Bacon's track cherry

 

What are the mods?

 

The motor is an unknown, but as near as I can tell it is still the factory assembly with a stock carb. The exhaust is new, consisting of stock Ford headers, going into only 2 hi-flow cats, h-pipe, Thrush mufflers, and LX pipes. Stock gearing in an 8.8" rear that I'd estimate to be around 2.73:1, but the t-lok works. Has 87-up front rotors and some type of rear disc brake set-up. KYB shocks and lowering springs ("Racecraft" suspension stickers were on the car). The rear-end has a huge welded-in panhard bar brace between the frame rails, and the bar itself is pretty hard-core. Also has welded-in sub-frame connectors. The car corners well. But in terms of 1/4 mile performance, the drivetrain is pretty much stock (for now!)

 

Cool, at least it sounds good im sure!!!

............though in my opinion it needs headers, o/r h and flows!!!!(dumped or piped)

 

Car looks great in the sig. I'd pimp the hell out of it.

On a side note, you can definately see some decent numbers out of that car for not too much money. Mid-high 12's should be enough to keep you street friendly, cheap, and still have a great time. Good luck.

EDIT: it's also nice reading a story from someone that has sentence structure and proper grammar skillzillz. Makes life so much easier.

 

I didn't know cop LXs were 5 speeds.

 

Sounds like a great time! As I've told you before, I love that SSP notch. Swap out those 2.73's and run some 14 sec 1/4's.

 

Yep, they all are.