The road from refurbishing to racing to finally reaching the conclusion to part company with this 1966 Mustang has been a roller coaster ride. I have been and will continue to be a fan of the Pony Cars, especially the race cars. The car was refurbished some 11 years ago; it was not restored, and as a matter of fact, still wears its bluish / green 70’s exterior paint.
I did media blast the underside, cockpit and truck areas to ensure that they were sound and recoated in satin black ( the car originally sported black then a speckled paint finish in cockpit and truck ). The original suspect 4 point roll bar was removed and a safer 6 point roll cage installed along with a modern alloy driver’s seat, the cars low back fiberglass bucket seat was stored away. When media blasting, we found the original over-rider traction bars (cockpit floor mounts) to be less than ideal after years of racing, so some gussets in key areas were added prior to the re-painting. The lack of gadgets and modern flashing lights in the cockpit make it a welcome place.
The only updates are the steering wheel, since wood rimmed units are not preferred and in some cases outlawed, a Moto-Lita leather wrapped wheel is now fit and a safer alloy driver seat. Overall the cockpit is very period, utilizing the original factory top loader and gauges is refreshing, and helps recapture the spirit of 60’s road racers.
As mentioned, the exterior sports its early 70’s paint; I feel the paint after buffing out, and it looks very nice while not losing its patina. The engine is proper sized at 289 c.i.d. and is all iron. The engine block is one of the cars later units; it is a Boss 302 block, though filled with 289 Hi-Po crankshaft, and other internal parts making the overall displacement a 289 and still making some 440 hp. I feel keeping the original engine size is very important and using one of the original race blocks is another way to preserve history and performance.
The same can be said with the Mustang’s close ratio top loader gearbox and original Hi-Po tapered tube axle housing. Yes, modern gearboxes and the later straight tube 9” axle housings may be slightly stronger, but they are not correct, and I feel that should be the goal when refurbishing or restoring an historic race car. After all, the factory gearbox works just fine, if your engine is built with-in reason ( i.e. period specs ), and having that correct Hi-Po axle housing under the car just looks cool and is reliable when using proper tires and suspension parts. You may have gathered that I prefer having cars built to period specs, and using the original parts means that you as a driver get more of the original feel these fun cars provided in their hey-day.
Sure, the car’s exhaust may sound gruffer, the shifts are not as precise and notchy, and the original Detroit Locker rear diff makes noise as it grapples with the weight and power transfers. It’s all part of the character and part of having a car spec-d out per original terms. The car is built to be reliable and proper, and makes no excuses for being so.
The Mustang had some minor history from its original foray into racing down in Mexico. A small independent team converted the car from street to race, and somehow received token sponsorship from Shelby de Mexico, basically allowing them to buy parts at cost. The car is not a Shelby built car, but carries the Shelby design influences and FORD/Shelby parts. The car came back up to the States from Mexico and was used as a street car for some time when I finally came across it in Michigan. Its nose was sticking out of a garage, and I thought it looked a little tougher than the typical street Mustang, and it did. The bumpers were gone and the bright orange valance with large cutout where the license plate would typically be mounted indicated this car had character. I stopped and knocked on the door to ask about the car.
Seems the guy knew what the car was and did not give it a second thought. He called it an old Mustang that was hot-rodded. At this time, it did have a crazy small diameter steering wheel (colored metallic blue!) and had some strange alloy rims and large exhaust pipes ending in glass packs and a smallish looking roll bar. I came to the conclusion that this may simply be some tarted-up pony car and then decided to ask for the boxes located in the rear seat area to be removed, just to check the floor condition. This is when I saw something that caught my eye, and made me interested in where this car had been and what it had done in its past.
With the boxes and papers removed, I clearly saw the wheel houses were notched with rubber pieces popped riveted to close the holes ( the traction bars themselves were missing ) and the brackets themselves made clear the car was used for some racing – drag, autocross, etc. I then became interested in seeing more of the car, so asked to see the front suspension and rear suspension, noticing that the front A Arms were modified (cut/repositioned/re-welded and relocated on the car), the rear axle housing had over-rider mounts welded to a proper tapered tube Hi-Po 9” axle housing and 10”x2.5” brake baking plates with numerous drilled out holes. There was also the presence of a panhard rod bracket on the housing. In my mind, I now thought road racing … This car had a story and purpose behinds its looks, and since I wanted another Mustang road racer, I made an offer right then.
The guy seemed taken aback and then showed me more boxes of bits and pieces, where I saw a Shelby and Cobra hi-riser intake, old Holley carb, used Shelby Belanger drag headers and lots of misc parts. I could not take it all in properly – I only know the bug bit, and I wanted the deal. After some haggling, I ended up getting the car to my parent’s garage, which was closer than my own. A few weeks later the car came apart and I got to know every inch of the old car.
It was well into the tear down when I received a call from the last owner – he gave me a phone # that was outside the country and advised if I wanted to know more about the car to try to call and make contact. I did eventually get the call made, and found the # to be from Chile! I cannot speak any language other than English, so I had a friend do some translating and eventually it was agreed to conduct the “discussions” by letter. So my friend wrote a letter requesting details and I provided pictures of the car in its current state for him to reference.
I did receive one reply letter (that had to be translated into English) – he commented on areas of repair, modification etc. It ended up being that he was a part owner at one time and the main body man for the car. So he knew the condition as it was in the day – I also could see the areas where he pointed out race dings and repairs. I also received two rough pictures of the car when it ran Mexican Libre classes in the late 60’s. The car sported a large (read – ugly) hood scoop to clear some type of hi-rise intake system or intake trumpets.
I was able to complete the refurbishment in one year and finally joined VSCDA in racing the car in Group 6. The car raced with VSCDA at Gingerman, Blackhawk, and the great fall Road America event and at Grattan. Personally I really enjoyed Grattan with the Mustang. I suppose the highlight was when I ran nose to tail with the ex-Trans Am series (University of Pittsburg) Camaro. Both the cars were period correct and we changed places every couple of laps at the tight hairpin section. My car was a little under geared and had a slight disadvantage on the straight, so the Camaro would get really close as we neared the brake section going into corner #1. I think I won on Saturday’s race and he finished ahead on Sunday – what a fun time that was.
We also ran the car at Waterford Historic – this is certainly a handling track, and I can say that I always had a fun time going around that undulating short track. There are not many places a Mustang can use a 4.56 rear gear, and some of the guys use 5.11 gears – but really turn up the revs! In the 1960’s one local Mustang racer proved that the change from 4.56 to 5.11 gearing was worth about .75 of a second. So you can see the blast that a bog bore car could have at the historic track.
A lot of people say that racing a bog bore car is hard to do at Grattan, Waterford etc, though I think that the cars should be raced at tight tracks just as much as the fast tracks – same as they did back in the 60’s/70’s. As long as the field is made up of similar car types, no one should have too much of an advantage, and sliding these Group 6 cars around Grattan or even Waterford Hills is certainly a rewarding experience and teaches good car set-up and driver skill. I hope that the Group 6 grids rebuild and get out to the track in the numbers that make the field full of Trans Am type cars; they certainly bring the spectators to the fence and make for a great show.
I had a lot of fun and enjoyment studying the history of these cars and learning what is and what is not period correct. Overall the car helped shape my interest in historic race cars and impressed upon me the point that getting a car back to its roots is a very important part of our sport/hobby. I was the past Group 6 rep and met a lot of the fine drivers the group has, and conducted the past Gingerman 1 hour Group 6 enduros. In other words, I had a great time with the car and the Group 6.
All the best,
John Ruth
