Words: Tommy Parry Photos courtesy aseyeseethings.com
Around a decade ago, Chad got his first taste of road course racing. His foray into both autocross and track days with a 1968 Camaro intrigued him, and over the course of the following five years he grew obsessed with the sport. In 2014, he got quite serious; in the search for more speed, he swapped in TCI Engineering's subframe and torque arm. While he now had a capable car, being a road-legal pro tourer, it was a little too compromised for Chad’s ever-growing list of goals.
Chad sought something safer, cheap to run and better at taking abuse. After his friend mentioned this ‘67 Mustang was on sale for a very low price, Chad picked it up as a turn-key track toy that had already been stripped, caged and flared. Plus, with a weathered exterior, he wouldn’t feel badly about it getting peppered with rocks and rubber on a regular basis. The real clincher was the long list of parts it came with:
Stroked 408W with AFR heads and solid cam
Five-speed T3550
Fire suppression system
Oil accumulator
Full floater rear end
Front coilover conversion
Homebrewed rack and pinion steering
Unfortunately, his post-purchase elation wasn’t to last long. After the motor broke a rocker arm during its first outing, he had to put it under the knife and break out the checkbook. The heads were thoroughly gone over and rebuilt by AFR and the rest of the motor was refreshed as well. Now having had a little experience with his car, he established two other goals while performing the necessary repairs.
For one, he needed it to be a slightly safer - he intended to make the leap from autocross to wheel-to-wheel racing with this steed. To have an edge against his rivals in faster corners, he felt the old dirt track-style suspension needed some renovating.
Not that the current suspension setup is terribly flawed, but Chad is a perfectionist - as it stands now, the setup includes stock upper A arms modified to use roller bearing inner shafts and ball joints. With ‘70 Mustang spindles, Global West lower arms and QA1 double-adjustable coilovers, the front turns in quite well. The rear isn’t terrible either; the Koni adjustable shocks with Cobra Automotive springs do a decent job absorbing bumps and putting the 408W’s power to the pavement.
At each corner, the Mustang sports a 17x9” Torque Thrust wheel wrapped in Falken RT615K rubber. With Brembo four-pistons and 13.5” rotors in front, Wilwood four-piston Unilite calipers and 12.825” rotors in the rear and only 3,000 pounds to carry around, the old pony stops surprisingly well.
With the new motor in place, he tried another autocross shakedown. This time, he managed a long string of exciting laps, but - true to form - left with another mechanical malady. Towards the end of the day, the three-link broke where it attaches to the cage inside the car. As it turns out, “turnkey” and “cheap” shouldn’t be used in the same sentence too often. Still, he’d enjoyed a few informative sessions and swallowed a bitter pill in the process. He wasn’t discouraged.
Now, Chad is focused on addressing every one of the Mustang’s weak points. In addition to replacing the cage, rebuilding the transmission and replacing the clutch, he has big plans for the footwork. He plans to install an entire TCI Engineering’s front independent suspension with three-way Ridetech shocks, as well as their rear torque arm. There’s a busy winter ahead for Chad, but as he lives in Southern California, the weather shouldn’t keep him from working.
Once it’s up to snuff, he intends to race against other classic muscle cars with with VARA Racing in their GTO class, as well as with NASA’s American Iron class.
To keep tabs on his progress, you can visit Chad’s build thread here and his YouTube channel here.