By the time her restoration was completed in 1981 she had an all new identity. Although the basic 351W remained, she now sported a wide ratio toploader 4-speed with Hurst Shift Linkage, a 9" posi rear, and 3:50 gears. She was stripped to bare metal and redressed as an authentic appearing Rangoon Red GT with Black Pony interior. She has full GT equipment (appearance group with fog lights, disc brakes, 13/16" sway bar, HD springs, 16:1 manual steering, and dual exhaust exiting though the rear valance). She also has full instrumentation, including a Rally Pac. Non-original type body modifications include a Shelby type hood scoop, hood locks, rear mounted antenna, and Nova dual mirrors. Vanity license plate reads "I Eat Z28". (Sorry Sammy Hagar fans).
The 69' 351W was rebuilt and painted original black then dressed up with 289 Hi-Po chrome valve covers and air cleaner. Modifications include a high lift cam, aluminum intake, headers, and a 650cfm Holley double pump carb.
FLASH FORWARD TO 2008: The car now sports a 393w stroker. The block was bored .030 and filled with a beautiful Scat 9000 crank and H beam forged rods. Aluminum dished Probe SRS forged pistons were installed to give a still pump gas friendly 11:1 compression ratio. AFR 205 aluminum heads with 2.08 intake and 1.6 exhaust valves were also installed. For an intake, I went with a modified Victor Jr. topped by a Holley 750 HP DP and then hid it all under a further modified 1 1/4" drop based HIPO aircleaner. The camshaft is a custom solid flat tappet from Camshaft Innovations and it was designed to use 1.7 ratio full roller rockers. Accufab supplied the 1 3/4" race headers that clear my clutch equalizer bar and the Lakewood SFI scattershield. The headers dump into a 2 1/2" exhaust system using an H pipe and the tailpipes pass through the GT rear valence. The clutch is now an 11" Ram Sintered Iron unit with a Long style pressure plate and it is mounted to a Ram SFI approved flywheel. Ignition duties are handled by a tricked out Duraspark and an MSD 6AL. Lubrication is handled by a blueprinted high volume Melling oil pump, ARP pump to distributor drive shaft, Motorcraft windage tray, and a Canton 7 quart street/strip pan with plenty of baffles. An Autogauge tachometer with a shift light replaced the original Rally Pac tach. Currently the engine is pushing 450+hp with gobs of torque!
The wide ratio Toploader 4 speed transmission was fully rebuilt in order to take any future abuse. It is mated to the 9" rear with an alumium driveshaft and 1330 spicer solid U Joints. The 9" was also beefed up with a True Trac limited slip center section, 3:70 gears, and 31 spline aftermarket axles.
Because I was never satisfied with the cooling on the old 351W motor, I decided it was time to do a major cooling upgrade. The old radiator support was removed and a new one from a 68' Mustang was welded in. The new 24" wide 4 core radiator offers more cooling than what was available with such engines as the 428CJ. Now the motor never overheats, even when being run hard on 90 degree days.
The suspension was redone for drag racing. The A-Arms were dropped 1" (AKA the shelby mod.) Calvert 90/10 race shocks and 6 cylinder coil springs were added to the front of the car. Subframe connectors were welded to the chassis to prevent flex and further improve the car's street/strip manners. The old slapper type traction bars were replace with a nifty set of Caltracs. New leaf springs and nine way adjustable Rancho shocks are used on the rear. 26" x10.5" x 15" MT drag slicks put the power to the ground.
So far this year, my best run was a [email protected] mph, NA and in full street rim including jack and spare tire.
