About Us

           Cars were an instant topic of interest for me even when I was a small child. My mother used to tell me that at the age of three I could identify every car on the road by name. Growing up I always had an impressive collection of "Hot-Wheels" toys and demanded that my parents bought me a pedal Knight Rider car. One day back in the spring of 1987, I was walking back from school as a young six year old 1^st grader when I heard the unmistakable sound of burning rubber. I looked to my left and saw a brand new Iroc Camaro doing a power brake stand and getting left hard at the intersection. It was at that moment that the love affair with American rear wheel drive V8's began.

            Even though the Chevy Camaro is responsible for sparking my muscle car three-alarm-fire, I have always gravitated towards the styling and quality of Ford Mustangs. I won't get into a debate of which has an advantage over which but that is just the path that I chose. When I was 15, I decided that I couldn't wait any longer and was going to use the money that I had accumulated over the years through birthdays, holidays and random jobs to purchase my 1^st Mustang. My folks weren't thrilled, but they weren't going to stand in the way of a passion since we had the garage space. I remember going to look at a series of classic 64.5 - 68 Mustangs. It was during that time when I stumbled across an ad in the San Francisco Chronicle that showed a '67 Coupe with a 289/C4 combo that was being sold for $2900 obo. I decided to go and check it out with my old man, and upon seeing it, I knew right away that I was going to be making an offer. After my dad and I took the car for a spin, inspected it, and talked it over, I decided to offer $2700 to which the owner agreed.

            I owned this Mustang from 1995 - 1997 and during that time I drove the car to high school and generally kept it clean. I loved the attention I was getting in it since I couldn't leave the house without someone giving me a thumbs up or asking about it at a gas station. The only thing I ever did to it was bolt on a Holley carb since that was about the extent of my mechanical expertise at the time. Eventually the vinyl seats, lack of A/C, auto tranny, and 12MPG started getting to me and I decided that I wanted something more practical but I did not want to lose the "light up the rear wheels V8 power" that came with these cars. The logical solution was to get an 87-93 Mustang 5.0. I ended up selling the '67 Mustang in September of 1997 for $3900, $1200 more than I paid for it.

             A month later, in October of 1997, I was at a drug seizure auction in Modesto, CA where I stumbled upon a nice looking black 1987 GT with T-tops, AC, a 5-speed, and 87K miles. This was exactly what I was looking for. I made up my mind prior to the bidding of what my maximum bid would be, and fortunately I bought the car for less than that at $3700 (I had to add registration fees and a 10% action fee to that so the price out the door came out to $4270). This is what she looked like the day I brought her home.

            I learned most of what I know today about automotive mechanics on that car. Although I made a lot modifications that I regret making, overall it was a great experience. The car had all the bolt-ons with 3.73 gears, full exhaust, suspension work, and many other extras. I regularly raced it at Sears Point Raceway as well as Sacramento Raceway and was able to finesse the car down to 13.89 @ 102mph on regular Goodyear radials.

            In September of 1999 I went away to college at UCLA to pursue an electrical engineering degree and because of the difficulty with parking in West Los Angeles, the car stayed in my parent's garage in Berkeley, CA. It was during that time when I noticed a silver coupe owned by a guy named Sean Lewis. It was this car that completely changed my tastes from the foxbody GT to the foxbody coupe. I favored the leaner look of less body cladding and less visual enhancements of the LX coupe. Even though I still had a passion for my 87GT, it was dwindling and I no longer wanted to spend money and time on it during my vacation time when I was back in the Bay Area. Here is a pic of the coupe that changed my tastes:

 In the summer of 2002, between my junior and senior years in school, I started looking for an 87-93 coupe. I put the 87GT in the Autotrader for $5400 obo, and within 24 hours I had 18 calls about it. The first guy to come and see it took the car for a spin and gave me a check for my full asking price. Now I was ready to get more serious about locating my new coupe. All of the notchbacks I went to see locally were either beat up, had high mileage, were former CHP cars or were badly abused. After a couple unsuccessful months of this I started looking out of state. I remember stumbling upon a nice white '93 coupe in the Phoenix Autotrader. The car had 95K miles and was owned by a middle aged guy with a new baby who was forced to sell it. Not the baby, the car ;-) The asking price was $7200 obo. Because the owner was cooperative and agreed to send over many detailed digital pictures along with a vin# which showed a clean Carfax record, I felt comfortable dealing with him. The next day I booked a one way ticket to Phoenix and flew out to see the car. After taking it for a spin and inspecting it, I handed over a cashiers check and the car was mine. The drive back to the San Francisco Bay Area took about 10 hours. Here is the autotrader picture that my new coupe first appeared in:                   

During the first two years of my ownership, I kept the mods fairly light and made sure just to have a clean daily driver. I removed the air silencer and installed Motive 3.90 gears, Ford Racing King Cobra clutch, Pro-5.0 shifter, K*N filter, underdrive pulleys, 3 core radiator w/ 180* stat, and a UPR clutch quadrant with firewall adjuster. My focus at this time was mainly on finishing up school and getting a job.

 In June of 2004, I graduated from UCLA with a Bachelors degree in electrical engineering and took off for two and a half months to Europe to explore the world. Upon returning I was fortunate enough to find a job in the Bay Area as a Research Scientist at a company that mainly deals with pulsed plasma physics. Now that I was working and had decent money to throw around, I decided to start a few projects that I've always wanted to do. I began by installing an electric fan. The next thing I wanted to do was to upgrade the suspension to improve looks and handling as well as to address the marginal stock 87-93 brakes. I accumulated the parts that I needed thru junkyards, ebay, and corral.net. When it was all said and done, I had a 5 lug conversion with SN95 brakes. For the suspension, I installed 2003 Cobra front springs, Eibach Sportline rear springs, with Bilstein shocks/struts and Maximum Motorsports C/C plates. This was all topped off with original Ford Motorsport M179 '95 Cobra R rims.

The current list of mods:

• Moroso Cold Air-intake

• 3-Core Radiator

•  Taurus Electric Fan

•  130 Amp 3G Alternator

•  Ford Racing King Cobra Clutch

• T5 Steel Bearing Retainer

• UPR Quadrant and Firewall Adjuster

• Pro-5.0 Shifter

• 2003 Cobra Hardtop Front Springs/Sportline Rear Springs

• Maximum Motorsports C/C Plates

•  Bilstein Shocks and Struts

•  Pro3 Lower Control Arms (spherical bushings)/Steeda Uppers

• UMI Upper/Lower Torque Box Reinforcements Welded

• Ford Racing A-arms (M-3075-A)

• Motive 3.90 Gears

• Double-Cross Subframe Connectors

• SN-95 5-lug Conversion with sn95 Brakes

• BBS RK wheels 18x8.5/18x10   245/40/18 & 285/35/18

I've created mustangmotorsport.com as a place to store pictures and videos as well as to document some of the work I have done on my car so people have a reference when doing various maintenance or modification to their own cars. I don't know what is in store for my '93 coupe in the future, but the suspension is done, the brakes have been upgraded, and the car is visually where I want it, so I see only one logical direction. Yup, HORSEPOWER!