I went through some real ups and downs with this foxbody mustang build. It was sold at one point back in 2024... and it started out with a V8 powerplant!
I don't really think i ever posted anything about the history and build of the foxbody. So here is the story! The car was originally built with a Billet SBF, and I actually sold the car in 2024, I took a deposit but he backed out on it. Good thing I guess!
So the car was purchased as a rough looking roller from a guy in eastern PA in September of 2021, and it was taken directly to Doug at Precision Chassis, Inc. to be turned into the car you see now. It took an extra long time mainly because I really couldn't make up my mind on what I wanted to do for sure, originally I wanted to keep the car X275 legal and keep the firewall. I also bought a billet SBF for the car and we mocked it up with that engine which stayed in the car until 2024 when i sold the engine and was selling the car as a roller at the same time.
I'll be 100% honest, I never loved this car, it was never "me" but I always knew the fox chassis was the one to go with because of damn near unlimited aftermarket support and so many knowns about how to set them up and make them work. I wanted something super light, and it was just a no-brainer to use the fox chassis. Also, I had been watching Doug build another car, he called the "potato chip" because of how light it was, and that was a big inspiration on this build. I thought to myself, if a car can be that light with a v8 in it, how light can we get with a 2JZ setup. Turns out, pretty dang light! It is not quite as light as the potato chip car, but still way lighter that the supra. And that was the goal.... Lighter, faster, stronger.
The reason behind this fox build was simple, lose weight. The Orange Man Bad supra was the heaviest of the top quickest h-pattern cars, weighing in at 2950#. This was a major disadvantage, trying to get a heavy car, with a little 3.2L engine and enormous turbo to leave the line well and stay in power. We have to leave with a lot of RPM other wise it doesn't work... and guess what high RPM does on a hot track.... All said and done, we did pretty well over the years with that car, and I still love that car and it will always be "my car" and it will always be the "first car to the 6's" and it was done on full body car with IRS rear suspension. The change to a solid axle in the supra was made 2 years later to try and lighten the car a little more and to try and be consistent.
Back to the mustang... So when I started the build I wanted to keep it within class rules, and at that time there was no "hybrid" setups allowed, where you could run an import engine in a domestic body. So it was built with a billet SBF to start, which I felt like was the best move. those guys were making 3000HP and they engines were pretty reliable at that power level. Guys were going 3.9 in the 1/8 in x275 trim at that time. So i wanted to make the car fit into that rulebook, but with one little difference... put a T56/Hpattern trans in it. That was 2022, and over the next two years the X275 class was losing car counts and drying up, so we had many discussions and we made some changes which I never really liked. Like I said, i never really loved the car, so the build was done with the thought of "when i sell it" what would be the best and most desirable chassis to sell it as. X275 was not it! So we moved the chassis to be more of a LDR style car, and got rid of the giant, clunky fox firewall in favor of a fab firewall. That was honestly one of the toughest things for me to agree to change... but the stick class rules started moving in that direction. The corvettes in stick could pretty much do whatever they wanted with their firewalls, and if you had a frame rail car, for whatever reason, those cars/trucks could also do whatever with the firewall. It was only the unibody cars that had to remain with a stock firewall. So that the car was more marketable and sellable, in 2023 the firewall got cut out.
In 2024, I grew tired of dumping money into the car, and still did not have any passion for a v8 mustang... So Doug listed the car for me for sale, and took a deposit. The guy ended up not buying the car, which ended up as a good thing for me. It was also later than year when WCF let the V8 powered S2K (Thomas West) race in the stick class, which had never been allowed before even though I had asked multiple times while building this car... When that door opened, and I could now run the engine combo i wanted in this car, the passion for the car came back... and I immediately sent up a mockup JZ engine to Doug and we started back into the build.
Christmas 2024 the car was complete and ready to pickup, i made the trip up and brought the car back to FL. Around the middle of 2025 our in house fab guy John started working on fabrication of the turbo kit and all other components. The car was mostly complete and ready for paint spring of 2026. The car was taken to Pimar Fiberglass to have the doors, front bumper and other components fitted and made perfect. I then moved the car to Jose Pancolo's shop for paint work. The car was painted fully black, again, following the theme "if i sell it" what would be most desirable color. I knew it was getting wrapped in the flame theme so to me, black didn't really matter that much, and the engine bay and interior in black would match the wrap better than anything else.
The car came back from paint in late June 2026 and we immediately started getting t work on reassembling the car. This took way longer than expected, and of course we ran into some small items we missed and had to fabricate some brackets and other small items but over all at this point the car was near ready for testing. We took the car to the dyno just to do a health check, and make sure everything was working as it should. It made good power on low boost but we had a small issue with the clutch and ended that dyno session early.
In early August I took the car to Saltwater Prints to get the wrap done, and with that, the vision was complete! When I looked at the car after it was wrapped, I finally felt a connection to it, and it was "me"... That was a good feeling. With the wrap done, now the only thing left to do was final checks, and have Eric Lafierre (driver of white rice) make sure the chassis tuneup, suspension and alignment was good for testing.
Eric L. set the car up here in our shop on the lift and what an amazing job he did. The car went straight as an arrow right off the bat, we did a 1.18 sixty foot on the first hit. Chris Delgado, who has been tuning for me the last 10 years got the car dialed in QUICKLY. On the second hit we did a 1.14 sixty, third hit 1.12, and fourth hit 1.08 --- after I saw that 1.08 I said its time to take a swing for the record. On the next pass, BAM 6.490 @ 222mph - the new world record on our first outing.
Only one issue... I had trouble getting the chutes out and the car started sliding when i got on the brakes. I drove out of it as best i could and slid left to right a few times but I got into the wall. I didn't want to go into the strawberry field at the end of the track and end up rolling the car like I have seen too many times... and i didnt want to smash the front end of the car into the wall... so I took the easiest fix path which meant sacrificing the rear of the car.
I don't think people realize how big of an accomplishment it is to bring a brand new car out to a test session and on the first FULL pass down the 1/4 set a world record. This didn't just happen by accident, it was not luck... I have the BEST people helping me on this car.
I've been wanting this stick shift record back for a long time. It was a struggle for the last 4 years with the Supra, and I gotta say my wife Jacinda has put up with me being gone and putting in late hours all while worrying about my safety… She has supported me through it all, love you baby.
We have the right chassis for the job now and that proved itself quickly. Big thank you to Douglas Kline at Precision Chassis, Inc. for the killer chassis work. Thanks to Eric LaFerriere for setting the car up and it going straight as an arrow right off the trailer. Thanks to Chris Delgado for being the baddest tuner in the land and getting this thing ripping. John Evans did an amazing job as always on the fabrication work. The Eric Luzinski triple 9" clutch is working sooo much better than the 7.5" setup we had in the car previously. This bigger clutch requires less maintenance between rounds and with my clutch tuneup we had it going 1.1x in the first few hits, and then a PB 1.08 on the record pass. The Precision Turbo & Engine 110mm is doing work, just less stressed from the lighter chassis now! Driveshaft Shop carbon shaft holding it down and transferring all the jam to the 9" rear. The Brian Roche built 3.2L Bullet Race Engineering billet block 2JZ has been holding it down. This is the same engine out of the supra from World Cup Finals. Big thanks to Adam Lambert at Precision Racing Suspension for the rear shocks helping us cut those killer sixty's. The Greg Caloudas GSC cams and valvetrain keep the valves in place on 10,800RPM shifts. Thanks to Wireman Junior for spending a couple late nights and long days getting this thing wired and working flawlessly!
The Grannas Racing ATLAS T56 is proving itself mighty capable. We have been running this transmission for over a year now, and the 1.98 first gear we spec'd and PGS built specifically for us is working amazing. This is the same Atlas transmission and 1.98 gearset that is going in Brett LaSala's car as well. All our ATLAS trans are now built exclusively at Nth Moto because Aaron Miller has proven these setups in the big power viper platform.
I am happy to get the record back, but I am very upset with myself for smashing up my brand new, perfectly working, beautifully straight hot rod.... This thing was PERFECT in every way... So that makes me very sick. But we will fix it and try to get be ready for FL2K in about 1 month.
----
Want to represent Grannas Racing and this achievement? We have cool new PEELED ORANGE MERCH now available!
