5th Car..... Time to get my hands dirty
Its now 1988 and I have started my career in the Auto Dealership world. I am selling cars at Headquarters Buick/Nissan/Jeep/Eagle in Morristown. I quickly start making more money than I ever have.....
GM and Ford are still going head to head for the top spot and its time for me to keep pace.... We actually had 3 1987 Buick Grand Nationals leftover on the lot, I figured I would wait and buy the last one.... but I changed my mind and decided to shop around and look at my alternatives.
The first car I looked at ... Since I worked at Nissan, was the 300ZX Turbo, this was eliminated quickly, just hated the way the independent rear suspension reacted on acceleration. The next car was the Toyota Supra Turbo. I have to say, I was really impressed, it would be the heaviest of the cars I looked at, but that made it a really nice high-speed touring car. Tons of luxury and plenty of speed, but also the most expensive of the cars I was looking at. The next car I looked at was the Mazda RX7 Turbo..... My god.... I nearly pulled the trigger on this one. It was a freakin slot car and when you revved that rotary up and boost came on, it was quite impressive..... But I decided to look at one more car....
Next door to the dealer I worked at was the local Ford dealer, and my 86 GT was serving me quite well, so what the hell, let's see what these new style Fox body Mustangs go for..... and look at that, for the price those 3 imports I was looking at go for..... I could get a Loaded GT Convertible, Hey..... that would be really cool.... and the deal was sealed.....
I was now the owner of a 1988 Mustang GT Convertible ...
I drove that car for 2+ years as my daily driver and added the wheels of course and had some nice suspension work done.....
If anyone knows the auto industry, it is quite common to switch dealerships quite often..... such as the case with me. I went from Sales to going to the back and becoming a Nissan Service Advisor, then going to a couple of other dealers.... ending up at guess where............. Douglas Ford, where I bought my 86 GT
In the meantime..... my first big transition in the hobby happened. I retired the Mustang from Daily Driver status..... and bought a $50 76 Chevy Nova beater..... LOL, and yes, it was time to get my hands dirty. Had to put a little money and time to make it reliable ..... but I was learning. Rebuilt my 1st front end and rebuilt my 1st carb.
. So there I was, a Ford Service advisor surrounded by some great Ford techs.... let the mods begin!!!
We proceeded to start from the back..... Installed an Auburn Rear Diff with 3.55 gears, then a Ford Motorsport Aluminum Driveshaft. The 5 speed remained stock.
Now it was time to get serious....
My 88GT still used a Speed Density system, and if I was going to perform engine mods I had to upgrade to the newer Mass Air system, so with help from a friend who was a tech guru, we installed the Mass Air system on my car. Now I can make major engine changes and the computer would understand the increased air flow. It was now the early 90's and Ford was just coming out with the GT-40 bolt on heads and intakes for the 5.0. I decided to forgo the GT-40 heads and instead ripped the heads off my engine myself and brought them to a very highly regarded engine builder in the area. In the end, after talking to him, I basically said give em an estimate on the ultimate street head for a 5000rpm street engine..... if its too high, we will cut out some things.... He called me a few days later, and gave him the OK for it all....
I decided to leave the stock cam in the 5.0, mostly because I was not that confident on my new abilities to go that deep into the engine. So I bolted on my newly rebuilt heads, a GT-40 intake, and 1.6 Ration Roller Rockers. Also a set of GT-40 shorty headers, High Flow H-pipe with performance cats and Walker system behind that.
My 225hp Mustang was now putting out about 300hp, still with the stock cam. It was like a new car..... which leads me to a new part of the hobby.....
It was time to hit the drag strip. My buddies said..... you will either love it or hate it..... needless to say, I loved it. After quite a few trips to Englishtown and Island Dragway.... I had her doing 14.0's @ 100mph on stock street z-rated 16" tires.... 1st and 2nd gear I had no traction. We figured with slicks she would go 13.2's, not bad. I was now terrorizing my local streets and beating Grand Nationals..... woohoo!!!
I owned this car for 10years, but with it not being my Daily Driver, it only had 30,000 miles on it. I ended up rarely driving it.... 1996 I got married, and the car was just sitting in the garage.... depreciating ..... It was time to go for my dream car, a 60's muscle car, and I knew exactly what I wanted..... so the GT went up for sale. I sold it to a young kid, and warned him that this car was quite quick, and could get you in trouble quick.... Within a few months, the kid wrapped it around a telephone pole...
In the meantime..... I spent nearly every night searching for that special car......
I spent 2 years searching.....
It was 2001..... and things were about to get real....
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