While some might not understand why, after about a forty-year hiatus, Joe S. finds himself drag racing again. For him, it’s easy: it’s in his blood. While back in the ‘60's he raced a ‘66 Chevy SS396, now he runs a ‘69 Mustang. When he bought it from the original owner about tens years ago, it was no race car. It had a 351 CID Windsor engine with power steering and brakes as well as air conditioning. It was a nice car, but then the race bug reinfected Joe. He built the engine, bored it .030 over, blueprinted and balanced it. With a barely-streetable .690 lift cam and a Holley 1000 cfm carb on a single-plane high-rise intake, to say it “lopes” is an understatement. Joe says with a grin that he has invested in a gas station just to keep it in fuel. After replacing the auto trans with a Ford toploader four-speed trans, Joe was ready to give it a go at the Sacramento Raceway. Using street tires, Joe turned a respectable time in the 14-second range for the quarter mile. Changing to semi-slicks, he brought his time down to the mid to high 13 second range. Now on a roll, Joe changed to “sticky” slicks that would grab the track rather than spin. And grab they did. They cut down on wheel-spin so well that the rearend scattered from the torque out of the powerful engine. Rather than crying over spilt gear oil, Joe decided to put in a differential that would stand up to track use: a Detroit locker with a 4.56:1 ratio. While this eliminated wheel slippage, it did make tight turns all but impossible and increased tire wear for normal driving. Still, Joe felt it was worth it for improved track performance. And that’s just what he did, perform on the track. Off the line, everything worked fine. Then his worn shifter locked between second and third. Nonetheless, Joe managed to make the low 13-second range. Joe has a new shifter now, ready to drop in, but feels there may be another problem in breaking into the honor society of 10-second drag racers: age. Joe thinks that he may need to get a younger guy with faster reactions as the “Christmas tree” count-down light turns green. However he is still planning to make another go at the fabled 10-second goal himself. After all, it’s in his blood.

Joe calls his Mustang a Mach I clone because of the spoiler and paint scheme. The hood scoop accommodates the air cleaner on the high-rise intake.

While Joe has not changed the interior very much, he did add a high-quality tach. He also has removed the A/C compressor since it probably wouldn’t survive at 7000 rpm.

While Joe says it is not a “show” engine, this 351 is clean and neat as was well as high functioning.