Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords – October 2019

(Axel Boer) #1
Nothing beats the clean lines of an unfettered Fox coupe trunk
lid. Under that classic backside is an 8.8-inch rearend fortified
with an Eaton Posi differential, Ford Performance 3.31 gears,
and Moser Engineering 31-spline axles. Suspension bits from
UPR help to plant the rear Mickey Thompson ET Streets. Mean-
while, Maximum Motorsports’ full-length subframe connectors
do their best to keep the chassis from twisting under the might
of a twin-turbo 363.

Andrew Kelly’s classis Weld Racing RTS wheels measure
17x4.5 inches in front and 15x9.33 in the rear and wear Mickey
Thompson rubber. These wheels frame a Baer SS4 Deep Stage
brake kit with billet hubs and modified Fox spindles up front
and a rear-disc conversion out back.

WWW.MUSTANG-360.COM OCTOBER 2019 13

should enjoy the mechanical
side if you want to be a car
person. Seeing others pay
shops to build these fancy
cars amazes me. That’s the
part that I enjoy the most for
some reason—the accom-
plishment. This car has been
a project from the moment
I got it to the present day. I
never let it be. It has been
through multiple motors,
naturally aspirated, single-
turbo, and twin-turbo. It’s
always evolving. The most
recent restoration took a
couple years.”
Such efforts, however,
require a supportive spouse.
As with any relationship,
honesty is always the best
policy, so his wife, Krissy,
definitely knew what she
was in for when it came
to cars. In addition to this
coupe, Kelly has a pair of
SVT Lightning pickups (
and 2003), and his wife
wheels a 2013 Mustang.
Kelly says, “First, I think
you have to discuss the
level of your involvement
in your hobby with your
significant other early on
if you want it to work out.
Pretty quickly, she could see
that the cars weren’t a little
fad with me. They weren’t
going anywhere. My wife has
always been amazingly sup-
portive of my hobbies, and
for that I’m very fortunate.
She didn’t grow up around
cars, but she’s a great sport
and embraces what I enjoy.
Now that my two small
sons, Blake (7) and Bryce
(4), are hopelessly addicted,
she can’t get away from it.
As long as it keeps us all
together, she has fun.”
As he mentioned, his
coupe has seen a wide
variety of combinations over
the years. The former mono-
turbo arrangement ran
mid-11-second passes, but as
the car weathered from use
Kelly was at a crossroads.
The car ran well, so he didn’t
want to touch it, but he came
across the classic turbo kit
and made a change.
If you don’t recollect the
Incon Systems twin-turbo
kit, it was one of the earliest
off-the-shelf turbo systems


for Mustangs. Based on a
pair of cast turbo manifolds,
the system offered all the
gear necessary to twice-
boost a pushrod 5.0L engine
in one box. It even carried a
CARB EO number, making
it 50-state legal, which was
really ahead of its time in the
world of power adders. Alas,
the kit was probably a little
ahead of its time, but no less
effective on a modern small-
block build.
Kelly says, “My brother
and I came across the kit
at Fun Ford Weekend in
Orlando around 2007. Jake
Lamotta, of LaMotta Perfor-
mance, was at the track and
took a look at the turbos and
said they appeared to be in
good shape. He was one of
the original Incon install-
ers and gurus. We loved the
uniqueness of it. My brother
bought it, then had to sell
it to fund another project,
and I quickly jumped on it.
I sold the single TTI kit to
my friend and immediately
installed the Incon kit.”
Kelly ran this setup on
his existing combo for a
while before deciding his
project was at a crossroads.
He needed to either move
on or completely rebuild it.
As you now know, he stuck
with the car and completely
tore it down back in 2010.
He stripped it to a shell,
repaired some problem
areas, and shipped it off to
spray-gun maestro Dean
Santiago at Spike’s Perfor-
mance for a fresh coat of
Kona Blue paint.
A fresh Fox deserves a
new drivetrain, of course.
The centerpiece of this car
is a Ford Strokers–built 363-
cube stroker based on a Dart
SHP block and filled with a
Scat forged crankshaft and
forged rods swinging Wiseco
forged slugs. Topped by a
pair of Trick Flow Twisted
Wedge heads and Box R
intake, this engine lobes to
the tune of a custom Comp
Cams camshaft, which
makes the most of the boost
coming from the Incon’s two
Garrett snails.
As the combo rose from
the ashes of a full rebuild,

Kelly needed proper calibra-
tion to make it conquer any
drivability issues. Fortu-
nately, he had already met
another passionate and
knowledgeable Fox Mustang
enthusiasts who happens to
know a thing or two about
tuning power-adder pushrod
combos. Jack Lyons tunes
his own ultraclean black Fox
coupe.
Kelly says, “Jack and I

met at Orlando Speedworld.
I was running the Incon
stock-block combo, and he
was already running his
single-turbo Dart 363. We
both crawled all over each
other’s cars and immediately
hit it off. It’s not often you
find someone as deep into
this specific segment of the
hobby as the two of us. He’s
so gracious to always share
his knowledge and one of the
Free download pdf