Sure, 532 ci goes a long way in shoring up driveability, but can you really call something with a 273/280-at-.050 solid-roller cam a true street car? From the very beginning, we've made no bones about the fact that our 1993 Ford Mustang street/strip car will lean more on the strip side of the formula than the street side. After all, few things are as pathetic as a car that can't figure out if it's a street cruiser or a drag machine, and consequently, drives like junk and lays down miserable e.t.'s. Even so, when the mission at hand is achieving covert speed, scaring off potential challengers with a gutted interior isn't a good thing. Although installing a custom 10-point rollcage required completely removing Project Fox's innards, the resulting austerity was enough to convince us that we had to put it back in. Fortunately, with some careful fat trimming, it's easy to have a full interior while still shedding some weight.
The simple plan called for chucking the portly stock front seats for some lightweight buckets from Procar, installing a set of RCI five-point harnesses, replacing the fuzzy stock gauge cluster with Auto Meter instrumentation, and modifying the stock center console to accommodate a TCI shifter. To maintain as close to stock appearance as possible, the factory carpet, rear seats, dash, and door panels were reused. Likewise, the power door locks and windows were retained. While aluminum seats would have yielded additional weight savings, the prospect of sitting on a slab of metal during the 200-mile round-trip to the track isn't very appealing. Furthermore, we thought that confining all the gauges in the stock location, instead of having an assortment of pods spread throughout the cabin, would lend a far less cluttered look.
Installing a custom rollcage involves completely gutting the interior. Reassembling it isn't interesting enough to document the process step by step, but it does require cutting holes into the carpet and dash for the bars of the 'cage to pass through.
Granted, the interior rehab was rather straightforward, but Fox Mustangs aren't Torinos or Chevelles, and have rather cramped interiors. As a result, installing the bulky seats required a fair amount of finagling, and the rollcage and stock door panels occupied a good chunk of the available real estate. Headroom was at a premium as well. The solution was bending up some elaborate door bars while constructing a rollcage that snakes between the seats and the door panels. Custom seat brackets were also fabbed up to position the seats as low in the cabin as possible for maximum headroom. Many thanks again to Bill Buck Race Cars in Austin, Texas, for helping out with the interior rehab.
THE COST SO FAR Description: PHR Issue: Price: 93 notchback Mustang Nov. 2009 $3,000 Sold old wheels, tires, engine, trans n/a -$1,000 532 big-block Ford June 2009 $9,644 Phoenix TH400 trans Sept. 2009 $1,645 Strange 8.8 rearend Oct. 2009 $1,759 Comp Engineering rear suspension Nov. 2009 $1,708 AJE front suspension Dec. 2009 $1,679 Bill Buck custom 10-point cage Jan. 2010 $2,000 Engine and trans install Mar. 2010 $690 Russell fuel system Apr. 2010 $804 Cooling system May 2010 $305 Strange driveshaft June 2010 $498 Custom exhaust Aug. 2010 $291 Interior rehab Sept. 2010 $1,545 Total: $24,568 WHERE THE MONEY WENT Item: PN: Price: Procar seats 80-1606-61L/R $313 (pair) TCI Thunder Stick 616231 $223 MMC gauge plate n/a $150 Auto Meter speedometer 4988 $250 Auto Meter tach 4997 $186 Auto Meter fuel level gauge 4915 $63 Auto Meter oil pressure gauge 4927 $88 Auto Meter voltmeter 4992 $62 Auto Meter water temp gauge 4937 $70 RCI five-point harnesses RCI-9210PL $140 (pair) Total: $1,545
