Everyone claims to have a nasty-fast street Mustang. That begs the question, just what exactly is a street car. What does it mean? Some people say anything with D.O.T. tires that can drive 30 miles is a street car. We say no way. A street Mustang should look like the part, have real street tires (yes, 17-inch or 16-inch street radials), and have good street manners. And, naturally, it needs to be wicked fast.

Zaid’s setup has all of the wrappings of a true street fighter: “I just like the fun of pulling up to the track and surprising people. Plus, I don’t own a trailer. I used to drive the car around on slicks back in the day, but not any more. And mostly because I am way too lazy to change tires.”

The World’s Fastest Mustang Street car has pulled a best 60-foot of 1.42 on the 17-inch tires, although it typically hovers around 1.49 to 1.50. The hidden roll cage and flat hood really trip people out, “The car has a 10 point cage certified to 8.50. I made sure it was tucked in as much as possible so that you can’t really see it,” explained Zaid.

Not only is the Mustang fast, but it’s easy to drive, and even to tune. Brian said this about his Accel DFI: “I run an Accel Gen VII DFI. I really like it. In my opinion it is fairly easy to tune and with sequential injection you can make a huge injector very streetable. I run 160 lb injectors on the street with no problems.” You’ll also notice, that for a car that runs 160 mph, it appears it has no parachute. Aha. Nope, it does. “I actually have a chute on the car. I have the wolfe mount setup so it is easy to remove and you can barely see the hole in the bumper since the car is black. If you look close, you can see the mounting point in the middle of the bumper.”

Some people have suggested that Zaid does not really have a true street car, as it’s just another one of those trailer queens that has a completely different street setup. Not true either. “I run it at the track with the same setup as on the street. The only difference is I lower the rear tire pressure and put race gas into the car. The mt drag radials work really well. The car is a full drag suspension so that helps. I’ve been running high horsepower drag radial cars for a long time, so I think I have gotten pretty good at getting them out of the hole.”

So how does Brian Zaid’s 8-second ’89 LX Mustang Coupe define Street Fast? With a Procharged 427ci small block Ford, he has been a best of 8.91 on 275/40/17 Street Radials. Yes, that’s right – 17 INCH DRAG RADIALS. And it’s a true street car, with decent handling manners, and doesn’t look any different than a 13-second car.

To give you some history on this coupe, it started out as a Project Mustang 10 years ago with 169,000 miles on the clock. And it took a few years, but gradually it was transformed into the car you see here. The car we are declaring as the Fastest Real Mustang Street Car in America. (Caps added on purpose).

Let’s talk about the engine first. 427 cubic inches, a Dart Block, SCAT 4.00-inch stroke crank, and Probe pistons live inside the short block. TFS R-heads ported by Total Engine Airflow, Harland Sharp rocker arms, and an Edelbrock intake finish off the engine assembled by Gregg Scott. Fueling is by Weldon and EFI by Accel DFI.

All of those 427 cubic inches wouldn’t be doing much without a power adder. The choice here was none other than the ProCharger F2, a nasty centrifugal which helps stuff 20+ psi of boost through the ProCharger Air-to-Water intercooler. Hooker 2-inch headers finish off the combination with dual 3-inch Dynomax mufflers.

Suspension was the key to the 8-second runs. How else can you explain 1.40 60-foots on 275/40/17 Mickey Thompson’s, and 8.90s at 160+ mph? UPR Suspension is the core system here, with the UPR upper and lower control arms working together with a UPR K-member and A-arms. Maximum camber caster plates, and Strange adjustable drag struts and Strange adjustable rear shocks help plan then 275/40/17 rear tires. Wheels are the very clear OEM Ford 17 x 9 Cobra Anniversary-style spinners in front, and 17 x 10.5 rear rims. Cobra brakes stop the coupe. An anti-roll bar comes from Competition Engineering which helps keep the Mustang from twisting up during those wicked launches, and was used only because it cleared the tail pipes versus the other UPR components on the car, according to Brian.

Other items that Brian used to finish off the car include the previously mentioned Lentech AOD, a 4,000 RPM Precision converter, and an 8.8 rear with 3.27 gears for low RPM street cruising. With the huge 427ci engine under hood, the steep gears just aren’t necessary.

So, with everyone that you now know about Zaid’s ’89 LX coupe, there is really only two things to remember.

8.91 at 160 mph.
275/40/17