Hooniverse » mustang

Please Please Please Let it Stay Under $500

Mad_Science — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:18:31 +0000

Typically cars make their way to LeMons in one of a few ways: luxury maintenance costs/depreciation, cheap econoboxes that were cheap to start with, horrible rust/flood damage, or just being a total turd to begin with. Massive collision damage typically renders them undrivable. Not so in this case. The 302c.i. powered ‘67 Mustang runs and drives, despite being nearly turned inside out.

Being a Mustang, there’s likely a ton of ~~slightly crooked~~ parts that people will pay decent money for. You can apply those saved pennies towards a little time on a frame rack to get all the wheels pointed in roughly the same direction. Fabricating a cage on a unibody car with massive structural damage might be a little tricky, but if you’re smart, you’ll build in a bunch of clever chassis reinforcements in the process. Obviously, you’ll need to add some kind of windshield (you know, for safety).

Team Inside-Out Boy might not be a bad starting point…what’ve you got?

It’s just under $200 with the reserve unmet and an auction ending Monday on eBay Motors

The Iacocca 45th Anniversary Edition Mustang – Rediscover the Intro Video Again for Modern Art Monday!

Jim Brennan — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:34:53 +0000

I know, this is rather old in terms of the inter-webs, but I rediscovered an old e-mail containing the link to the video in which this rather stunning rendition of the Mustang is beautifully photographed, with Frank Sinatra vocals and heavenly bodies. So for your viewing pleasure, The Iacocca 45th Anniversary Edition Mustang.

Autorama 2010

Jo Schmo — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:02:47 +0000

Saturday was a productive day at casa de Schmo. I spent the better part of the morning tinkering with Eleanor. Heck, I still have grease under my fingernails. The latter part of the day I braved 50 degree temperatures and huge crowds to drag my two Hoons-in-training around the Sandy Expo Center for Utah Autorama.

Hoonchkins

They were remarkabley well-behaved despite the fact that they both thought the main reason we went was to buy them a bunch of overpriced junk.

There was a lot to see there but as is typical with your large car shows, classic Camaros and Mustangs were everywhere. I decided to forego all but a few examples of those and focus on the cool/unique/weird stuff. There was probably the largest gathering of classic Cobras I have ever seen in one place as well. The GMC pictured above was probably my favorite vehicle there. Everything about that truck is just so money.

Another notable vehicle is this monster that gets my vote for Post-Apocalyptic Taco Truck:

Say hello to my little friend!

This should help out with the scale of the beast. When the zombie hoards come looking for brains, rest assured this guy won’t think twice about driving up and over the mob with his wife, six kids, and 3 dogs safely in the back. Even still, I’m sure there was enough room for a bathroom and kitchen in the back. It would, however be a shame to get blood and guts all over those shiny bumpers.

I will leave you with one other notable photo before the gallery. Enjoy!

[imagebrowser id=50]

Showdown – Dubiously Awesome Turbo Ponycars Edition

Mad_Science — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:00:46 +0000

I’m shocked to learn that you lot would pick one of the most plentiful 4×4s of all time over an orangered oddball custom-built behemoth with a removable roof.

Todaye we have a showdown only a thermodynamicist could love. We’ve got two pony cars from an era when Detroit was testing out a replacement for displacement: turbocharging!

Like FuManChu mustaches, malaise-era muscle styling is back, man. Unfortunately, the 180hp smog-choked big blocks hardly deliver what their displacement and macho styling would suggest. A big like stuffing the disco pants, if you ask us. Luckily, for a brief moment, The General decided to get deviant and throw 8psi of boost on the lightweight Pontiac 301, resulting in 205hp and 345lb-ft of torque for 1981. Of course, those numbers assume the turbo and the bizarre vacuum system for the carb are working happily together. This specimen appears to be in incredible shape, with only 88k on the clock. $6500 isn’t cheap, but give it a few years and it’ll seem like a steal for the 80s equivalent of the Oldsmobile Turbo Jetfire F-85.

While Trans Am has gone on to the Great Dragstrip in the Sky, the Mustang lives on, strong as ever. In the late 70s and 80s, the Mustang was still unsure what it wanted to be when it grew up. After that terrible Mustang II phase, was the front-wheel drive Probe chassis next? How about a decidedly more European direction? The Mustang SVO topped the 2.3L four-pot with a hairdryer to get nearly the same power (200hp) from less than half the T/A’s displacement. Obviously, torque suffered (240ft-lbs), but the Pony’s significantly lighter and equipped with a proper 5-speed and 3.73:1 LSD rearend. The T/A’s stuck with a three-speed TH350 and 3.08:1 rearend. Our bet’s on the Pony if we’re racing for pinks, but hoo-boy is it weird lookin’. Looks like a ‘Stang born to a mare that spent too much time under the power lines. You’re not paying for looks at $4800.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

What’s Your Eleanor? – Mad_Science Edition

Mad_Science — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:00:00 +0000

There will be no Vanilla Ice Jokes

Bear with me for a second. I know an ‘88 Mustang GT 5.0 drop-top has not weathered the last 22 years well in terms of cultural identity. The good news is, I don’t care. This is the car that introduced me to the concept that cars could be awesome. Not just to look at, or hear, but that they could move so fast you felt it in your chest.

I still remember coming downstairs one Saturday morning, and my parents told me to go look in the garage. Being six years old, I didn’t know that much about cars, but I knew awesome when I saw it: it was red, two-doored, convertible and the bottom was wrapped in air dams.

Dad's was red like the one above, but had these "turbine" wheels

Then there was the sound. Like it or not, nothing sounds like a 5.0L Mustang. The combination of that funky intake manifold, EFI and the factory exhaust gave it a voice by which I still judge all V8s. True to fashion, there’s a bit of Ford power steering pump whine thrown in to the chorus.

In addition to the “pefect C” exhaust note, The Mustang was my performance benchmark as a budding hoon. It was always “Dad, is that faster than your Mustang?”. For years, the answer was rarely yes. There wasn’t too much on the road in the early 90s that could beat a mid-6s 0-60 time, particularly for the price. That car provided my first exposure to a burnout, power oversteer, and running light-to-light (with a Chevy, of course). It provided my first dose of ohshitweregonnadie fishtailing when a family friend who was keeping an eye on me for a weekend took it out for a “cruise”. (Did Simon ever tell you about that one, Dad?)

I cannot remember caring if the dash was hard plastic or not

Time and performance engineering advances took their toll on the Mustang’s luster. In a way, I’m glad I never got to drive it. By the time Dad parted with it in ‘96, the air dams that seemed so cool in ‘88 were chipped and dinged. One fog light was busted. Eight years in the sun were not kind to an interior assembled to late-80s Ford standards. Even on its way out, it provided some entertainment: the night after my dad sold it, the cops showed up in our driveway, happy to alert us that they’d recovered our car. Huh? Turns out the dude that bought it handn’t changed over the registration yet, and had managed to get pulled over downtown. Oops.

This was about the shape it left in

Still, whenever I hear a 5.0 go by, I’m taken back to driving home from a soccer game with the top down, barely able to see over the dash, taking in the sun and listening to that motor sing.