In October of 1991 my parents bought this car for me so that I would have more reliable transportation to and from school. The 1983 S10 4x4 Blazer I had been driving was plagued for ever with transmission problems. Originally I wanted to get a older car such as a 60s Mustang or Camaro, however my dad would not get one of these due to the fact that he had already got my older brother a 1965 Mustang and they were forever working on it and primarily in regards to electrical problems. The reason for picking a 5.0 Mustang LX came down to what you got for just $13k. It came with a 5-speed which meant hopefully no more transmission problems since my Blazer had a automatic, it also came with a V8 which meant no more lack of power problems since my Blazer had trouble just pulling onto the freeway and it also meant power windows/locks and my Blazer had manual locks/windows. My first pick for exterior and interior colors just happen to be what this car had. I went down to the dealer by myself to pick out the Mustang to get. The dealer only had two 5.0 Mustangs, a 1991 Black GT sitting on the lot and my green LX that was sitting at a stereo shop a few miles away. I was given directions to the stereo shop and burned my three quarts of oil in the Blazer to get there, it had a rear seal leak that sometimes leaked bad and that was one of those times. After getting to the stereo shop, I looked over the car and called my dad from there and told him I found the car. That night we purchased the car, while my mother signed the papers my dad and I drove it home. I got to experience its power while pulling out of the dealer lot, the salesman that drove it back from the stereo shop had already commented on how quick it was, but my dad decided to show me as he pulled out at full throttle. Once in our neighborhood I got to finally get behind the wheel. Since the only other standards I had driven before was a 1982 Volvo and a 1948 Plymouth, the Mustang took time to adjust to and I had trouble stalling it from a dead stop.

It was never my intent to race the car or make it faster. However one of the people I went to school with did race a 1987 LX and the bug soon bit me since we shared one class together. Just months after getting the car I purchased and installed a set of underdrive pulleys along with a 160 degree thermostat, removal of the air intake silencer and timing bumped to thirteen degrees and a couple months later a ram air kit and K & N went on. The next modification was months later and that was a 2 1/2" off road pipe. The car was run at the dragstrip with the stock mufflers disconnected and it ran a good time, but I have long since forgotten what it ran or where the time slip was put. Then came a FMS 3.55 gear which made the rear end howl, Texas Turbo warranted the gear with another and around the same time the dealer installed a FMS clutch kit since the stock one died. The next thing to come was a American Thunder kit from Flowmaster and this made the car almost too loud with its off road pipe. Then FMS shorty headers were put on and next it was taken to Texas Turbo to have a ported upper, 1.72 bolt on FMS rockers, ported EGR, adjustable regulator, and a 65mm FMS throttle body. I was waiting on the car as it was worked on and when they started it, it sounded like it had a large cam on and they turned it off, it would not start again for them. Turns out that Don, the one who worked on it, dropped a nut into the intake and shattered a piston in doing so when he started it and ruined the block. I was heading back to MS to visit my parents the day after this so left the car with them, did not really have a choice. The car was fixed with a another shortblock that used seven of my pistons and one new piston. Shortly after getting the car it blew a headgasket in Galveston and Texas Turbo came and picked up the car and fixed it for me. This whole deal left a bad taste in my mouth and made me decide to start working on my car myself.

Since I hung out at Texas Turbo, I got to know a lot of people in the Mustang scene and I also picked up slowly what to do to one to make it faster and how to do it. One day one of the guys, Carrey, that used to race for Texas Turbo expressed that he ran into some serious debt and needed to sell his motor. Since I did not have enough money for the entire motor, I bought everything but the short block. This included race ported GT-40 heads that I had o-ringed, race ported GT-40 intakes, Pro-M 77mm mass air, long tube headers, h-pipe, 30lb injectors, adjustable regulator, hardened pushrods, and adjustable 1.60 FMS rocker arms. Carrey's car was built to win a certain race class and had a enormous amount of time and money put into the GT-40 heads. I believe the car ran a 11.90 and that was with a EEC extender proto type that was causing the car to run strange, it actually could have run faster times. The heads were milled down so much that the intake was also milled down. With a stock shortblock the estimated compression ratio was 10.5:1. Before these parts were installed I found a deal on new Koni sports all around and some used Eibach springs and used chromed caster/camber plates, so picked them up and installed all of them myself with my friend Mike. My car ran very strong once Carrey's parts were finally installed along with a 190 intake pump, but not too long after installing them it lost a lot of power and gained a surging problem on cold starts. Months were spent trying to track down the cause of these and countless sensors were changed out in hopes of fixing it. The car won many street races in this condition and while still in this condition a I installed a custom ground Texas Turbo cam, built rear end with 31-spline axles modified 31-spline truck differential and c-clip eliminators, Tremec 3550 that was modified to take more power(also known as a Tremec 4550 back then), and got a NOS 125hp kit working that I had owned for sometime but never got working. The problem was finally fixed by pure chance. A friend of mine bought some GT-40 heads/intakes that came with a 70mm throttle body so we traded throttle bodies and upon trading the problem was fixed(he got the my problem). Turned out that the air bypass sensor had gone bad on my 65mm throttle body. This combination on my car blew countless head gaskets and the problem was never found, the heads were true but no telling if the block was. I was made aware of a deal on a Vortech B-trim kit that had a recently rebuilt compressor. I had always wanted to turbocharge the car, not sure why since I had never been in or around a turbocharged car, but since that was a lot of money I decided to get the used Vortech kit and traded my NOS and some money for that kit. Once the Vortech was finally installed by my friend Jeff the car made about 12lbs of boost and was real torquey. Jeff was the first to test drive the car and I rode in the front while my friend Darren rode in the back. Darren said that Jeff and I looked like Beavis and Butthead when Jeff got on the car and we started going sideways down the street due to the torque and the tight suspension the car had. The weekend before the supercharger was installed the car run a 13.00 flat on the motor and at 108mph, it did not hook up too well even with some used slicks on the back. The weekend after the supercharger was installed, I ran it at the same track. This was the first time for me to get on it after the supercharger install. The car was being run on a brand new set of G60s(cheater slicks), it almost hit the wall at the track numerous times since every time I got on it, it went sideways. When I was pulling onto the return lane I saw the smoke behind me and shut the car down so I could stop and investigate. Turned out a coolant line blew and shot on the exhaust, got to have the fire crew come out and bitch at me, but luckily none got on the track. Once back in the pits we found the clutch too was shot as were the headgaskets. After working on the car for sometime we got it running and tried to limp it home, ended up getting it towed. This was the final draw and the car was parted out to get rid of that motor with plans of doing a supercharged 351 with Dart Sr heads.

The car sat in my garage for many months without any work being done to it since I lost motivation. It had two old turbines on the front since I sold my stock wheels at this time and it had Koni reds installed along with front drag springs and rear stock springs with my old air bags in them. Finally a friend talked me into getting it running since I had a stock 5.0 motor laying in Houston and already had Dart Sr heads race ported along with a set of Cobra intakes that were ported and my Vortech. In 24 hours we had the car running again and it kept this combination for about a year. The ROH ZR6 wheels were bought around this time and installed along with the stock hood being put back on since the removeable "three intake hood" I got for free and installed was started to be annoying. A used exhaust was bought and installed it consisted of long tube headers and 3" pipes into flowmasters. This exhaust was LOUD and I got several tickets for it. The Vortech started to leak oil shortly after running so was sent off to be upgraded to a S-trim. The S-trim never ran completely right, it made 18lbs of boost and a lot of time was spent to get the car running good again. Even tried to see if we could go back to a B-trim but Vortech did not do that. Ended up moving back to Houston around this time and shortly after this the S-trim started to leak oil again and it was decided to hell with Vortech and the kit was sold off. The drag suspension was started to grow annoying at this time with all of the street driving I was doing. So a full front Griggs setup was ordered along with a manual steering rack with new steering linkage since the stock rack was starting to leak. Rear Griggs springs were installed and I bought back my old Koni sports and reinstalled them at this time.

The car was driven several month like this until it was wrecked leaving a club when we thought it would be funny to show a GN who was faster. The car went sideways going into third gear and jumped a curb, all I remember is seeing this poor girls face at a Jack in the Box drive thru then turning the wheel and going back over the curb to the road while trying to go in between a tree and a sign, the tree just brushed the passenger fender and ripped the skin almost completely off the car. We then got back on it and ran to avoid a ticket or worse maybe jail time. After this the car was repainted along with a Cervini hood installed and the ROH wheels were chromed since I always wanted to do that. The car was only driven maybe 200 miles after the body shop and then was parked for a turbo kit install. The parts no longer needed were sold which included the short block. A Baer track kit was installed a rear end was installed that did not have c-clip eliminators since mine leaked too much for my liking. The Tremec was sold since I planned on going to a 6-speed. In the three-four years since then the car has still not run. After many bad deals the car has ended up with a 331, C6, Cartech Street Kit, ladder bars, and a full roll cage just to list a few items. There is even a second bigger motor waiting for it that is a 347 built with all the best parts money can buy. Perhaps one day it will run again, it does not need much work, I have just lost motivation towards it.