Big Blue

Mike & Lori Williams' '73 Convertible

I bought my first Mustang when I was 20 years old from George Thompson Ford in East Point, Georgia. Prior to that I owned a 1970 Dodge Charger with a 383 Magnum and decided that the insurance premiums were a little beyond my means. So my mom and I made a trip down to the Ford dealer to trade “UP”. That evening I sped away in a 1973 Mustang coupe. It was a car that had been brought in for the boss’ son with special order paint, Medium Aqua, but when he saw it he did not like the color.

Tang 'Stang

Deby always wanted an orange Mustang however she wasn’t enamored with what Ford offered for an orange in their color palette so we decided we would build our own. We purchased a good used 2006 4.0L V6 Mustang in Performance White with a black interior with the intention of turning it into the Orange Mustang that Ford never made.

We built this car over the past 4 years, buying parts and pieces here and there as we had extra money available to do so. The project quickly began to take on a life of its own. We decided to work with all Roush and Steeda upgrades because of fit form and function and to maintain the “Made In USA” theme.

"The Beast": A Performance Driving School Workhorse

The 1999 GT convertible you see in the accompany pictures was acquired new by Jim Edwards in July 1999 from Lake City Ford in South Carolina. It was ordered with the leather delete due to the Columbia, SC heat where I was living at that time. It was my daily driver for a number of years and in fact, it was in late 2000 while dropping off dry cleaning that Leah Gowan approached me and extended an invitation to join CRMC. The “Beast” as it was to become known remained a daily driver for a couple years and then a weekend driver when I acquired other mundane transportation to reduce mileage on the black beauty. Oh, if you notice that the front fascia looks unfamiliar for a ’99 GT that is because the “Beast” and one very large dog collided on I-20 early one morning and a used Cobra fascia was cheaper than a new GT one.

James Ray's NASA Racer - Part II

Article courtesy of Steeda Autosports

It is safe to say that James Ray was seriously bitten by the performance bug back in 2008 when he took his "daily driver" – a 2007 Steeda Q400 to the race track and competed in a series of weekend events throughout the year. With the solid performance of his Steeda Mustang under his belt and the natural talent he acquired for winning, James captured the NASA Time Trial Championship in 2008.

Not wanting to sit still, James began preparing a "purpose built" race car to compete in the NASA Camaro-Mustang Challenge Series. The series rules require that the cars engine be basically stock, yet allows for required safety equipment and other minor modifications.

James Ray's NASA Racer

Webster’s defines as, “a change of form or structure.”

I have been driving road courses for a long time. Over the years, I’ve used my daily driver to double as a part-time track car. Adding safety equipment, including a roll cage to keep it as safe as possible was still a compromise for both street and track. For some time now, I have wanted to build a dedicated car for the track to give my son, Taylor, a safe and competitive opportunity to hone his racing skills. After selling my ’07 Steeda Q-400, the time was ripe!

Allow me to introduce you to Trigger! Trigger began his life as a black 2007 Shelby GT in Wisconsin. With 8100 miles on the odometer, Trigger decided to rollover & play dead. He was involved in a rollover accident that resulted in damage so bad the car could not even be sold with a salvage title!

Frankie Defeo's "70 Flashback"

I got car as a VERY big surprise from my wife, Kelly. You know, when I was 17 I could not even DREAM of having this car. Now I am 42 and living a dream!

The reason this car is called 70 flashback is that when I was 17, I had a FULL head of hair. YES I did have hair at one time! Well I also had this Yellow IROC and I did not like to drive it in the rain and I was always cleaning it (some things never change) so my boss GAVE ME a 1970 white Mustang with a 351 Windsor, black leather interior. Cool car , right? Not when the passenger seat falls out of the car due to excessive rust while you are driving at 55 MPH…

So while watching TV in late 2005, I saw the NEW commercial for the Mustang. Kelly and I lay there watching this commercial, and of course I was “oohing and aahhhing”. Her EXACT words were: “Are you kidding me, FORGET IT"!

Screamin' Yellow Fever - Gary & Betty Walter's '06 GT Convertible

Since becoming a Mustang owner, I have concluded that there are two basic groups of Mustang people. There are the “it’s just another car” owners and then there are the DIE-HARD MUSTANG ENTHUSIASTS. After driving one for about three months now, it’s hard to imagine that the first group really exists, but I see some of them nearly every day. I won’t describe them; you probably know what I’m talking about. I’m sure you’ve seen them too.