2005 Mustang
Specs:
We built this 2005 as a Ford project Vehicle for the 2005 SEMA show in Las Vegas last year. The name of the car is “Woodward GT”, signifying the relationship to Woodward Avenue in Detroit. The idea was to build a modern day version of a typical hotrod cruising Woodward Avenue these days. The first item to be attended to was horsepower. There is never enough! A Vortech supercharger with an aftercooler took care of this nicely. Paul’s High Performance in Jackson, Mi. did the installation and dyno tuning to generate 417 RWHP. Dynatech of Booneville, In. prototyped a set of stainless headers and exhaust for the Mustang that added a few more ponies and created a serious rumble to the exhaust note. We also swapped in a Be Cool radiator and a set of Spal fans to keep things cool.
With the added horsepower came the need for some serious stopping power. Baer Brakes built a set of their new monoblock 6 piston calipers that clamp onto 14” rotors. I can personally attest to the ability of this car to shut down from 140 MPH at Road Atlanta! There is a guy from Alabama with a new Corvette that is still disappointed about being chased so closely.
You just can’t have a hotrod with stock wheels and tires. We upgraded the Mustang to a set of 18×9.5” Billet Specialties SLX96 billet wheels with powdercoated centers. Because we intended to do some serious road course work we installed a set of 275/40ZR18 BF Goodrich tires.
To insure the Mustang looked as serious as it performed, Clay Cook Enterprises in Florence, Ky. spent several hundred hours building the hammerformed aluminum fascia’s, rocker panels, rear spoiler, radiator cover and hood vents. Kind of reminds you of the old SCCA Trans AM cars, doesn’t it? Our bodyshop, Precision Coachworks did the final touches on the sheetmetal work and applied the shadow effect sponsor decals to the polished rocker panels.
On the inside Ford did such a fine job that very few changes were needed. We built a stainless 4 point rollbar and billet speaker trim rings to surround the newly upgraded Kicker speakers. We also replaced the stock pillow-like headrests with a zoomy set of billet halo and mesh units similar to the Recaro seats that came in the 79 Indy pace car Mustang.
Of course, the focus of the Woodward GT Mustang was to develop an air suspension. We found the new Mustang chassis to be quite agreeable to these modifications. We built an AirStrut for the front of the car and replaced the rear coilsprings with a ShockWave 7000 in the stock shock location. It is all an easy bolt on. The compressor system is our new LevelPro electronic leveling system.
After taking the car to the Street Challenge, Drag Week, and the Year One Experience, I can tell you without any doubt that this Mustang rides like a Lincoln and handles like a well prepared serious street car. The dragstrip performance was also good…it ran a 12.46 @ 113 on Drag Week last year. This was on street tires with no special preparation…just drive it to the track and let it happen. I have several hotrods…this Mustang is my favorite to drive…so far!
It was subsequently used to participate in, and ultimately win, the $100,000 Grand Prize in the Forza Motorsports Showdown, a 4 episode reality series that aired on Speed Channel in the Spring of 2007.
The Ridetech team of Brad Coomer, Brit Marolf and driver Angela Cope out ran five other teams in a series of drag races, road course events, drifting and autocrosses to achieve this win. A total of 16 million people watched the 4 episodes as the Mustang and its crew navigated its way toward the $100,000 victory.
