A 1973 Mustang Mach-1 with the 351-C motor.
I purchased this car with the money from the wrecked ’72. I actually found it on the high way, hooked up to a tow truck. I followed the tow-truck and left a note on the car. A few days later I got a call. $2600 later I was the owner of a yellow Mach-1 that did not run. The interior was in great shape and I was lucky enough to have the Magnum-500 wheels that were in near perfect shape ($600 each at the time, very rare).
The car had been sitting in a field for so long that weeds were growing in the fuel tank (seriously) and the carb was totally destroyed. I took care of the obvious things and got the car running well enough before focusing on the rest of the mechanical fitness of the car.
After months of little issues plaguing the car I had finally got it running to the point where I took it to the drag strip here and there. Nothing special, in the low 15′s in the quarter, but it was fun. I eventually got sick of the yellow and painted it the flat-black that you see in the picture. I never wanted a pretty paint-job on it… in fact, charcoal was the color I wanted… with no clear-coat. Think “shadow”
Once I got the speed-bug though, I got myself in trouble. With my license suspended again (speeding tickets!) and California’s new laws, my Mach was taken from me by the Highway patrol. The new law stated that anyone driving without a license has their car impounded for a month. You know what it costs to get your car out of impound after a month? First you need to get your license before they will even give it to you ($3600 in tickets in my case). Then you need to pay the towing and storage fees (Another $3000!). A week after this, my license was re-suspended by the DMV because of all the points hitting my record… from paying all the tickets. At least the judge saw the error in that a few weeks later and took care of me.
6 months later, my license was yet again going to be pulled from me (another ticket). So, to prevent the car from being taken as well I bought an old ‘beater’ instead. I Garaged the Mach… actually to the point of putting it up on 4 jack stands and removing the wheels, just to make sure I didnt take it out for a spin. I was already driving this thing with open headers, so every cop in town knew when I was on the road with it.
A month goes by and everything is going well until I get the urge to open the motor up and do some “cleaning” in the heads. Turns out, one of my valves had a hole in it so I went to pick up new valves. New valves expects new springs. new springs = new rockers = head-rebuild = may as well get new pistons = better get the crank lightened and balanced = a complete engine rebuild plus some
I ended up rebuilding the entire car; Tranny, engine, Suspension, etc. I didnt bother trying to make the car “nice”, it was now an all out dragster!
The motor was converted from a smogged down 351-C with 180HP to something much more repspectable;
13:1 compression
Cranked lightened and balanced ($1200 on this alone)
.40 over Keith Black pistons ($400)
Gapless rings ($400)
.625 lift cam
750cfm Holley (actually the 650cfm Carter was better) was fed by a 6″ hood scoope
Heads rebuilt with a complete roller rocker setup and triple-valve springs on each valve rated at more then 800lbs. The machinist broke two valve spring compressing machines and a thumb getting those bad boys on!
When it was all said and done, it was an 8000rpm revving big block with 450HP to the 12″ wide Goodyears in the rear.
Suspension was upgraded to a much stiffer spring and damper setup and lowered 2 inches.
Car was gutted of anything not needed to drive fast, including carpet, dash, door panels, wiring for lights, and the passenger seat. It had a steering wheel, gas pedal, and a drivers seat left when I was done.
$6000 grand in the motor alone and I did all the work but the machine-work to save money.
I drove the car only a very few times after the rebuild. That much car was scary as hell and the radiator was too small to drive it longer then 15 minutes at a time. i basically drove it down the street to fill it up to make it back home :) It got 8mpg after the upgrade.
It made a hell of a lot of noise too with 13:1 compression and the long tube headers ending right under your feet. In fact, if you drove it longer then 10 minutes, your feet and butt were rattled so badly that they went numb (serious!). The car was actually louder OFF the throttle then ON. The “jake-brake” effect from that much compression is deafening.
Anyway, the car made the move to Mass with me in 1998 when I went to go work for Papyrus. It sat for nearly a year without every driving it. When I moved back to CA, the car did not return with me. I don’t want to talk about it… I will cry.
This was my truest love in a car. So much of my own blood was in that car. It was perfect for me… complete and total raw ANGER when you fired it up. It wasnt pretty, it wasnt nice, it was hell on earth complete with flames shooting out the headers when you came off the throttle. Im going to build another just like it some day… Man I loved that car
