FASTER DAMMIT!

click on the thumbnails for a larger picture

OK, with something that says "Faster Dammit" you expect speed. Tom Hamilton owns this beautiful 1967 Ford Mustang. This car started life at a Ford dealership in the Big Apple. The second owner whisked her away from the road salt and grime of the northeast winters to a new home in sunny California. Tom found the car for sale in a local newspaper in 1999. It seems the current owner wanted to switch to a drop top Mustang now that she was in Palm Springs.

After driving it for a while with it's stock 289 /C4 auto powertrain and wire wheel hubcaps, Tom decided to add a few more oats to the pony. An Edelbrock Performer package got the ball rolling. But, once you go fast, after a while, you want to go faster (dammit)! So a bigger cam, new rear gears, posi, were added. Hey how about a new carb while were at it?

Now it was time to spruce up the sheet metal and interior. The stock Mustang seats were deep sixed and a pair of better fitting seats were liberated from a Nissan. The transmission was rebuilt, but as luck would have it the shop that built needed three attempts to make a high performance transmission. They never did get it right :( So Tom bought a street/strip trans from Performance Automatics. To maintain some fuel economy a Gear Vendors overdrive was bolted to the back of the C4.

Here's the Mustang at the Indian Wells Car Show.

Time went by and the 'stang made a formidable cruiser. But let's not leave well enough alone, right? Playing with a desktop dyno program Tom put together a smallblock putting out a streetable 400+ horsepower.

The current engine is still a 289 that's been decked and balanced.

Some of the features are as follows:

  • Edelbrock aluminum cylinder heads

  • RPM Air Gap intake

  • Demon carb

  • Crane roller rockers

  • Comp hydraulic roller cam, .540 lift  224-232 duration @ .050

  • Accell billet distributor

  • 300+ race ignition

  • Holley red electric fuel pump

  • MAC exhaust

The remainder of the drivetrain is as follows:

  • Performance Automatics C4

  • 3200 stall PTC torque converter

  • Gear Vendor overdrive

  • 8" rear with 4:10 gears and an Auburn posi

The suspension has been upgraded with Eibach springs, KYB shocks and subframe connectors. Oh yeah, to carry the philosophy to the internet, Tom's screen name on several web forums is, yup, fasterdammit!