FOX and FRIEND
“I’m a New Jersey born and raised Chevy guy that’s owned about a dozen performance Bow Ties over the years,” says Ian Graham, when talking about his past GM addiction. Those rides included multiple F-body bruisers and a C6 ZO6 Corvette. “All that came to a sudden end when I drove my buddy’s 1990 Mustang LX coupe. Man, I just fell in love with it instantly,” he continues.
Well, that’s a tale that has been told on many occasions; how a fiery Fox-body has pilfered the hearts and “heartbeats” of American car enthusiasts the world over. Ian’s story is typical of the ones that have been documented here on these pages; a Brand X crony now under the spell of a Muscle Mustang… all done by just a push on the power pedal on the right.
Now this particular Fox that Ian fell for was no ordinary run of the mill Mustang to say the least. “My buddy’s car was the November 2009 MM&FF cover car; a car built by Jersey Mustang whisperer Jimmy Chahalis,”says Ian. Ian got up close and personal with this car after the owner blew the engine. “After he detonated the mill, I ended up rebuilding it for him. That’s the moment I really knew that this feeling I had for these Fox-body Mustangs was just not going to go away; I needed one in my life, “says Ian.
The search was on for a Mustang to call his own. However, Ian didn’t want just any ride. “I wanted a supercharged car with three pedals, “says Ian. He took his time, knowing exactly what he wanted. In time a car fitting his description was soon found for sale. “This particular ‘93 LX was built for well-known Mustang enthusiast Jim Richichi by none other than Chahalis. It had a similar engine combo as my buddies, sporting a Vortech Renegade passenger side supercharger, meth injection and a stick shift between the buckets,” says Ian. Needless to say, Ian made a bid for the car and soon had it stashed away in his garage. The hunt was over.
Once in Ian’s possession, he immediately took it on a shakedown run, not holding anything back. Sadly, he immediately ran into problems. “I grenaded the transmission on the first day out,” says Ian. But that didn’t dissuade Ian from becoming a fan of his Fox. “I made a quick call to G-Force and ordered up a GF5R transmission that was custom geared by Leonard Long, and then immediately shoehorned it in,” says Ian. Once again, he was out on the street, putting the car through its paces. He enjoyed the hell out of the nimble pony until more issues arose. “Unfortunately, I had a series of valvetrain failures, so I decided to pull the motor,” says Ian.
Into the garage it went and out came the mill for a serious teardown. “I ended up turning the 342ci bottom-end into a 363ci with the help of LRB Performance Machine in Franklin, New Jersey,” says Ian. Good friend Brian “Freezy” Friendentag helped out as well, designing a custom cam that helped wake up this massaged motor. The car was also switched over to race gas diet, which helped to push the power curve onward and upward to Ian’s liking.
Other repairs were made to the Mustang as well after Ian noticed the back glass falling out. A big issue was the condition of the car’s torque boxes. “They were pretty much crushed and destroyed from my driving style,” says Ian. To remedy the situation, Ian installed a Wild Rides Rear S-box and Battle Boxes, and also built a custom roll cage while he was at it.
As Ian dug deeper he found more issues. The rearend housing turned out to be bent; to correct that issue Ian brought in a converted 5-lug 8.8 housing out of Freezy’s personal race car. Strange 33-spline axles and a TrueTrac differential get the power to the pavement. Once this was finished, Ian noticed that the snout on the small-block’s crankshaft had bent. “I pulled the old parts and I installed a Callies Magnum crankshaft with H-beam rods, “says Ian.
It was through the process that Ian became friends with Jimmy Chahallis and Freezy as well. He soon had the Mustang in Jimmy’s garage where the Mustang master installed a Holley HP engine management system and a front disc brake conversion. During the tuning process Ian pushed Jimmy to go for it all; “I feel that my show-no-mercy attitude towards the tuning helped Jimmy and Freezy learn how far they could push builds before they came apart,” says Ian.
Well it didn’t take long to see how far Ian could push his tuned up monster. “One day the harmonic damper came off, and wreaked havoc on the engine, damaging the crank, and taking out the fan/accessory pulleys,” says Ian. So out came the engine again and a New Innovators West damper with flying magnets was installed, which completed the current crank trigger MSD 7AL ignition setup. Once it was finished up, the car headed for the dyno. “With Jimmy in the driver’s seat, Freezy on the laptop, and me reading spark plugs, the car made 744 rwhp on pump gas, and 855 rwhp on C16,” says a proud Ian. The numbers were tallied using 21 psi of boost.
Now that engine setup has been in the car since March 2018, and is still ticking; minus some belt failures. “It’s the longest the car has been running since I bought it in 2014,” says Ian. If you’ve ever seen how Ian runs the snot out of this car, you might not wonder why the car has had some failures. Ian is a demanding driver, and videos of his exploits have made their way around the web. “What’s the use of having 800+ horsepower if you’re not going to use it,” says Ian.
For now this guy is happy that his car has held together after all the road-ragin’ punishment he’s put on the drivetrain and chassis. Of course, there’s been an addition of more power, as Ian has pushed this Mustang’s mill to 26 psi of boost. Future plans; turbos will probably replace the supercharger and there will be the addition of a pair of TEA ported Trick Flow Specialties 240cc High Port cylinder heads in the near future. “I’ll keep making as much power as my budget allows, and oh yeah; I’ll never go automatic!” Well, that’s a promise we will make you keep.
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