Project Car SOTU: Motor City Muscle


How do you know it’s time to move on from a project car?  When it sits in your garage, and while you think about driving it, it doesn’t bother you at all that you don’t.  That is where I am with my 95 Mustang GT, hence, it’s time to sell it and move on.

I’ve owned this car for six years now, and for the first four, I pretty much spent stupid amounts of time and money trying to “unfuck” it.  Oh sure $4,500 for a Supercharged Mustang with a dyno sheet that showed 390 horsepower at the wheels sounded like a good deal, it had some good parts, but then reality came to town.  In the first four years of owning the car I replaced, well, let me run down the list for you:

heads
supercharger
exhaust
mass air meter
axles
posi unit
flywheel
clutch
seats
carpet
and had to rebuild the transmission after I grenaded it.

Oh sure it now makes 452 wheel horsepower now, I can roll into the throttle in fourth gear at 30 miles an hour and light the tires up, it will sit and idle in traffic, though with no A/C it isn’t ideal, and if you wanted to, you could take it on an 800 mile road trip and be fine.  But for me, it’s lost the magic.  When you live 200 feet off of Woodward Avenue, in the heart of where people cruise up and down it all summer, it’s great to bring it out and make a few laps.  It puts a smile on my face to roll into the throttle, but after about 20 minutes I’m ready to put it back in the garage.
 

 

A post shared by Eric Trytko (@rumblestrip) on


This has been a fun car, and I’ve enjoyed my time with it, but it’s time it had a new owner.  It’s the perfect car for the Midwest where curved roads are few, which is not to say it doesn’t turn or brake poorly because it’s fine, but it’s not a road course or autocross car, it’s for cruising the roads and heading to test and tune or grudge nights at the drag strip.  If you’re interested here’s the link to the Craigslist ad for the car.
What’s next?  I have a few ideas, just not sure which direction I want to go, another build, or something that’s just going to mostly fine as is.
 

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4 responses to “Project Car SOTU: Motor City Muscle”

  1. Andrzej N Avatar
    Andrzej N

    451hp with cam,heads and 13psi of boost ???

    1. cap'n fast Avatar
      cap’n fast

      i believe he said wheel horsepower? that would be what at the flywheel?? 530HP? not to shabby for a 5.0HO in a mustang.
      still, when the shine is off the bauble, either polish it some more or find a newer bauble. car collectors who do not drive their cars are like art collectors sitting in their vault looking at their Matise knowing that no one else in the world is also looking at it. some what perverted, is it not?
      at any rate, when one knows it is time to let go, it is good to let it go.

    2. rumblestrip Avatar

      To the tire not the flywheel. Cap’nFast is correct 525-530 at the flywheel based on 15% drivetrain loss.

  2. Zentropy Avatar
    Zentropy

    I’m not a fan of that body style (I’m child of the 80s, so the Fox bodies are more to my liking, unless you dip back into the 60s/early 70s), but there’s no replacement for that exhaust note. V8s just sound awesome.