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For over 30 years, Ford Motor company, aftermarket manufacturers, and west coast car clubs have reconvened to celebrate their love for the original pony car as well as the prestigious marques operating under the Ford umbrella.
What started out as a celebration of Mustang’s 20th anniversary in 1984 has grown into an all-Ford extravaganza -Fab Fords Forever, that pays homage to both the company’s roots and its future endeavors.
StangTV had the pleasure of touching base with several individuals touting their unique builds during the show. Below are five standout projects that made an impression on us during the 30th annual event.
Flared-Out Low-Pro Assassin – Junior Garcia’s 2000 Mustang GT
We spotlighted Junior’s unique build last year at the SEMA Show. Still maintaining all the show-stopping flare from when this slick pony was first encountered, we wanted to see what Garcia had in store for the future of his GT.
“Within the last four years, I’ve taken the GT to SEMA three times, and every single year I’ve made an effort to change it up a little.” Since last SEMA Garcia has been planning his next set of customizations which he is planning to have done in time for the 2015 SEMA Show.
“The GT will be getting a full color change, a new light bar, new wheels, new seats, and little details here and there.”
Last year Garcia had the pleasure of displaying his vehicle in front of the outdoor Meguiar’s diplay. This year it will be a feature vehicle inside of the TruFiber booth, the same company that Garcia also works for.
Be sure to check out StangTV’s first spotlight of Garcia’s 2000 GT to get a detailed breakdown of the vehicle’s specs. We’re looking forward to seeing the plans for his vehicle fleshed out once SEMA fever hits the industry in November.
White Lightning – Larry Moore Jr. of Headless Horsemen’s 2007 GT/CS
Moore is the founder of Headless Horsemen/Headless riders, a club dedicated to helping the homeless and raising awareness about poverty aid on the streets. Originally, his project vehicle that represented the cause of his club was a 2014, but it met its untimely demise in an accident, according to Moore.
He explained further, “After the accident, about six months ago, we flew out to Arizona to pick the bad boy that you see here today with dreams of creating a vehicle that could drag race, drift, and exhibit the flare of a show car.”
“We raise awareness to help the homeless across the nation so this car spotlights that endeavor. We teamed up with a couple of companies like TruFiber and Whiteline to get the prettiness and good looks, and to outfit it with suspension that could handle the track and drifting.”
The drivetrain is stock at this point, but as mentioned above, Moore has invested a good amount of time and money into updating the suspension. “I’m running H&R Super Sport springs and an adjustable panhard bar brace from Whiteline.”
To complement performance on the aesthetic side, Moore is running a set of STR-Racing Wheels. “STR represents a lot of guys that are currently in drifting, and since the wheels are holding up out there I figured I’d give them a shot. Right now they’re holding up pretty good, no damage whatsoever–they’ve been taking the beating that we’ve been giving them.”
The future is all hardwork and investment on Moore’s part in order to get the suspension locked in so that he can get his entry into Formula Drift.
Atomic Carbon – Andrew Alzaga of Headless Horsemen’s 2007 Mustang
Alzaga’s 2007 Mustang was situated next to his fellow club member’s California Special. The stark contrast between their vehicle’s styles made for a great back-to-back spotlight of the Philanthropic-centric club.
“I actually picked up the car my senior year of high school which was three years ago,” explained Alzaga. When he’d first bought his Mustang, it was left in stock condition. About two years ago Alzaga had secured enough funding and time to really start taking his vehicle on as a project. He explained that it wasn’t until about seven months ago that he started heavily modifying it to become what it is today.
“The biggest thing that everybody goes crazy about is that it’s on AirLift suspension and also the crazy wheel combo. My buddy Larry Moore had the idea to run these wheels. When we’d initially talked about it I was on the fence about it, but as soon as I tried the wheels out I instantly fell in love.”
The drivetrain of Alzaga’s carbon pony is mostly stock minus a few basic bolt-ons. The one thing that he’d mention was that he hadn’t touched the headers yet due to California’s strict emission laws.
Alzaga walked us through his AirLift setup in more breadth, “The management and air springs are all from AirLift. They make a kit specifically for the Mustang, so pretty much everything that a Mustang owner would need to convert is included in that kit.”
He continued, “What I really like about the Autopilot V2 Digital management system is that if anything happened to an air bag, like a leak for instance, I could set it to a maintenance option. This keeps the compressor flowing air into the spring until I’m able to pull off somewhere safe.”
Alzaga closed by letting us know that the next big project he has for his 2007 is to get it boosted. “Hopefully, by the end of next year I can say that I’m bagged and boosted–working on the boost is the next biggest thing. I’m still on the fence about running a turbo, but as of right now I’ve got my eyes set on a ProCharger centrifugal setup.”
Having the fortune of talking to such young and spirited enthusiasts we wanted to know where Alzaga’s passion for Mustangs stemmed from, “My dad wasn’t really a Ford guy, but he was just into classic cars in general when he was about my age. It was actually my uncle that got me into Mustangs. When I was starting to learn how to drive he owned a Fox body at the time and I fell in love with it. Ever since, it’s been all about Mustangs–it’s a perfect car all the way around–they have the power, you can take it to the canyons or to the track, and what it comes down to is that it’s just a really fun daily driver.”
Golden Coast – Charanjeet Nagi’s 2013 V6
It doesn’t matter if you’re stock or running a mod-motor man–you own a Mustang you’re one of my brothers.
“The body has a premium package and I bought it bone-stock. At the time I wondered to myself, ‘Why didn’t I buy a V8?’ but then I got with Bomber Performance Inc. who’s been helping me prepare for a turbo setup. From there I added the wrap and lowered it on springs first. I liked the spring setup, but then my brother ended up running coilovers on his car and he suggested I try it out, so I went with D2 Racing. The coilover setup lowered my car three inches in the front and two and a half in the rear.”
Nagi is running a wheel set from a friend who started his own company, Vordoven Wheels. The fronts are 19×9.5 with 255s and the rears are 19×10.5 with 255s as well; alignment is a square setup. “My friend suggested that I run wider wheels in the rear to give it a stretched look to give it an overall meatier look,” Nagi said.
Next on the horizon for Nagi’s uniquely wrapped V6 is getting the turbo, custom splitters, new cowl hood, and custom-made spoiler added. He is also trying to find a way to get the rear to sit lower, the issue being that the wheel stretch in the rear has maxed out his wheel well clearance.
Nagi closed out the interview with a message for V6 owners, equally as positive as what he was telling his friend about stock versus modded motors, “To all the V6 owners out there, don’t feel down that you own a V6. Ford is doing big things with the V6–you’ve got 300 horsepower bone-stock V6s nowadays, and back in the day V6s were pushing like 170-180 rwhp. 2015s have gotten even more powerful, only God knows what Ford’s doing for 2016-2017 models.”
P-51 Bomber – Simramjeet Nagi’s 2013 GT
As soon as we finished our uplifting interview with Charanjeet Nagi, he introduced us to his brother Simranjeet (the individual who had suggested that Charanjeet convert from a spring to coilover suspension setup).
“I named this car in honor of P-51 Mustangs which were used in World War 2 as long-haul single seater planes used mainly as bombers,” Nagi explained. “One of my patients use to fly a P-51. I’d met him when I’d first became a nurse after nursing school.” When it came time for Nagi to wrap his car his brother Charanjeet had suggested that chasing the P-51 theme would be a great idea.
Nagi wanted to emulate the Roush-style build so he ended up outfitting his P-51 with an upper-Roush grille, MMD 2012-2013 hood scoop, Roush lower-grille delete, fog lights, rocker panels, and side skirts. To punctuate this street fighter Nagi also added a GT500 spoiler and valence, and a custom rear diffusor.
Suspension was upgraded with D2 Racing coilovers and upper and lower Steeda control arms. K&N cold air intake flows fuel/air through a Boss 302 H-Pipe.
Next on Nagi’s list of modifications is adding a Vortech supercharger for some added horsepower and that’s his focus at this point.
Ironically, it was Nagi’s brother’s Mustang purchase that got him hooked on the pony car. He told us with a smirk on his face that he’d been driving a Mercedes-Benz prior, but as soon as he witnessed the work that his brother was doing to his 2013 V6, he caught the fever. We closed by asking Nagi what became of the Mercedes–he laughed and confessed, “Honestly, it just sits at home.”
Which of StangTV’s five spotlights did you find the most unique and inspiring? The Fab Fords Show is an iconic west coast gathering full of truly inspiring individuals whose soul and passion is evident in their rides. Our visit this year left us with an unbreakable smile on our face and emblazoned pride. There’s simply no other way to feel when surrounded by individuals who ride for their brand. Be sure to check out the full gallery recap from this year’s show below.
