type='html'>

Vaughn Gittin Jr. came out to Formula Drift Round 4 “The Gauntlet” at Wall Stadium in New Jersey with hopes of success in order to gain some crucial points in the chase for the FD Championship. Not only did Vaughn accomplish that goal, but he also drove the Monster Energy Falken Tire Ford Mustang RTR all the way to 1st place after many extremely tough battles against fierce competitors. Wall Stadium is only a few miles from where Vaughn and the rest of Drift Alliance really began to hone their drifting skills back in 2002. Now ten years later, Vaughn has reached goals that were once only dreamed about with a Formula Drift Championship and multiple wins/podiums in the books.

Round 4 at Wall Speedway saw another sold-out crowd and the live Drift Stream saw over 200,000 total views in a 24-hour period. Even with Friday’s semi-wet track conditions, Vaughn was able to perform a near-perfect run that earned him a score of 96 and the second place qualifying spot.

For Saturday’s main event, Vaughn fought his way to the semi-finals after beating out Miro Ovcharik in his battle of the top 32, Robbie Nishida in the top 16, and then Matt Powers in the top eight. He met with his Drift Alliance brother and good friend, Chris Forsberg in the semi-finals; this would be a highly anticipated and very exciting battle, as these competitors are known for holding nothing back when lined up against each other.

Vaughn would lead first, sweeping the bank and scraping the wall, leaving his rear bumper in the Falken Tire smoke pluming from behind him. He continued to blast through the course with maximum angle and put his car exactly where it was supposed to be as defined by the Formula Drift judges.

When it was time to give chase, Vaughn followed Forsberg into the bank and remained glued to him throughout the entire run. With a better lead run and closer proximity on the chase run, Vaughn earned the win and would move on to the finals to face his arch nemesis and Falken Tire teammate, Daijiro Yoshihara.

Yoshihara was the only competitor that Vaughn Gittin Jr. had faced numerous times and had never defeated. So besides the desire for the top step atop the podium, Vaughn wanted very badly to attain this win against his rival.

Vaughn would lead first and put down an amazing run while Yoshihara pushed to stay close to the speedy Monster Energy Falken Tire Ford Mustang. Vaughn’s competitor surged a little too hard going into the last turn, causing him to straighten up and giving Vaughn the advantage.

Vaughn would next give chase, and did not let up once while applying the pressure and sticking to his competitor’s door. Once the Falken Tire smoke settled on the track, Vaughn was deemed the winner of the final battle and 1st place overall at Formula Drift Round 4 at Wall Speedway.

“It took me a little longer than expected to harness this brand new 2013 Monster Energy Falken Tire Ford Mustang,” said Vaughn. “My team and I worked extremely hard and overcame the challenges and got back on the podium and it feels amazing!”

With the points earned from his 1st place finish and 2nd place qualifying, Vaughn moves up to 4h place overall in the Formula Drift Championship. Next up for Vaughn on the FD circuit is Round 5 July 21 at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Washington. He plans to continue pushing hard in hopes of another podium finish and working his way up ladder in the FD points chase.

type='html'>

The Ford Mustang has a long history of serving as a police vehicle, most notably with the SSP (Special Service Package) Fox Body Mustangs built between 1982 and 1993. While Ford doesn’t produce a Mustang specifically for law enforcement today, that doesn’t stop local police departments from still using them for undercover duty. Perhaps our favorite Mustang cop car, though, is the Saleen S302 that played the part of “Barricade” in the movie Transformers.

Is there a place for a modern day Mustang police car package? Apparently the folks over at Shelby don’t think the idea is too far-fetched and have come up with a rendering of a vehicle they call the Shelby GTS Police Interceptor Concept. “Over the years we’ve had some police departments inquire about having Shelby make modifications to the Ford Mustang for pursuit purposes,” said Robert Lane of Shelby Performance Parts. No details are given about the performance specifications of the car – we’re imagining a supercharged 5.0-liter V8 under the hood – but the car comes complete with Highway Patrol graphics and the requisite law enforcement equipment including a lightbar, push bar and flood lights.

Would you like to see the Shelby GTS Police Interceptor made a reality or do speeders need more of a fighting chance? Let us know your thoughts below.

type='html'>

Fast forward to today and Porter finally has a car he’s ready to offer to customers – the UBB1000 Mustang. To be exact his company actually offers four different Mustangs, from the UBB500 Mustang all the way up to the UBB1100 Widow Maker Mustang, but the bread and butter of the lineup is the 1000. The car pictured here is one example, and it’s also the one that Porter let us drive. He tells us it’s the first time anyone in the media in the United States has been granted seat time. Gulp.

Before we got behind the wheel, though, Porter gave us a brief walk around the car. Each UBB1000 starts out as a fully loaded Shelby GT500, but you won’t mistake this for a standard production model from Ford. A new carbon fiber front fascia, vented hood and rear fascia have all been sourced from TruFiber, the ducktail spoiler comes from Cervinis and the 18-inch wheels are built by Forgeline. The smoked headlights and taillights (an add-on requested by this particular customer) look cool, but will likely get you a fix-it ticket in most states. There are also the requisite badges and graphics strewn throughout the exterior that can be found on every special edition Mustang, but Porter says that for the most part there is purpose to every component.  “Anything we’ve got on the car is there for a reason,” he tells us. “I’m really not into have all the scoops and other stuff on the car that doesn’t do any good.”

Overall the design is simple and cohesive, and our only complaint is that all of the parts are off-the-shelf pieces. To Porter’s credit he’ll personalize a Mustang to a customer’s taste, as evidenced by this car’s throwback Eleanor-style paint scheme. However, anyone can build themselves an identical looking car, and we wish the UBB1000 had a more distinctive look like a Roush, Saleen or Roush Mustang.

Moving onto the interior the UBB1000 Mustang, there isn’t much changed from the stock GT500. Our test car featured the stock GT500 seats (leather or clock Recaro seats are available as an option) with the leather inserts swapped out to match the exterior as well as an Alcantara-covered steering wheel, a short-throw shifter, new gauges with a 360 km/h speedometer (this particular car was destined for the Middle East) and faux carbon fiber surrounding the instrument panel and center console.

Like with the exterior, we felt that the interior needed more of a unique look to separate itself from what any owner could put into his or her own car. There’s nothing really wrong with the standard GT500, but for $120,000, the base cost of the car, we were hoping for something a little more unique. The fake carbon fiber definitely has no place on a car costing six figures.

Open the hood and the first thing you notice is the massive Whipple 4.0-liter supercharger system sitting atop the 5.4-liter V8. The huge blower compresses massive amount of air into the engine, which produces 1,000 horsepower and 860 lb-ft torque. Amazingly, though, the UBB1000 is surprisingly easy to drive at slow speeds. The twin-plate clutch doesn’t require a Herculean effort and the throttle tip-in isn’t so aggressive that you actually travel at slow speeds without lurching forward. It’s amazing how much more drivable high horsepower cars like this one have become over the last few years.

Get on the throttle, though, and a beast awakens from under the UBB1000′s hood. Thanks to the twin-screw supercharger, torque is instantly available in the lower part of the rpm band and downshifting becomes a moot point. We have to admit that that we explored the deeper levels of the throttle in stages, in part not wanting to swap ends in a customer car, but more than anything the car is terrifying to drive at more than half throttle. We found it hard to truly get a sense of how fast the car is, simply because accelerating for more than a couple of seconds will put you well past the legal speed limit. The UBB1000 is truly a car that needs to be experienced on the track, whether the drag strip or the road course.

One thing that did surprised us is how much traction the UBB1000 Mustang had given the output of the supercharged V8. Much of the credit goes to the sticky Toyo Proxes R888 tires. Amazingly, Porter has managed to fit 305/35/18 tires and 10.5-inch wide wheels on all four corners, providing a wide contact patch of rubber to lay the power down. The ability to implement such wide tires is due to the suspension system built by Cortex, with the coilovers specially designed to allow extra clearance for the 10.5-inch wheel even in the front.

Equally impressive is the ride quality of the UBB1000. While some aftermarket Mustangs are set up jarringly stiff, the UBB1000 can carve corners just as well as it can provide a comfortable ride. The credit again goes to the Cortex suspension system that can be adjusted via the strut towers for the front or in the trunk for the rear. Each car is also fitted with a watts linkage and adjustable caster/camber plates for even more improved handling. The stock 14-inch Brembo brakes remain in place, as Porter says they still do a fine job of bringing the car to a stop. They performed admirably during our time in the Mustang, but we still wonder if an improved setup would be required for doing laps at the track.

With the UBB1000 Mustang producing four digits of horsepower, the inevitable comparison is to the 2012 Shelby 1000, which produces either 950 or 1100 horsepower depending on trim. The two cars are amazingly similar in their specifications, and while Porter doesn’t have a 50 year heritage or the name recognition, he is quick to point out that the UBB1000 costs $80,000 than the starting price of the Shelby.

type='html'>

The 2013 Ford Mustang Cobra Jet made its competition debut this past weekend, and the results were nothing less than impressive. In the ADRL Summer Drags VIII at the U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan the 2013 Cobra Jet made its first ever pass, running a 6.02 @ 115 mph in the 1/8th mile in the hands of 24 year-old Drew Skillman.  Unfortunately Skillman couldn’t make it a debut win for the car, although another driver, Bo Butner took top honors to continue the Cobra Jet’s undefeated season in the ADRL’s Supercar Showdown class.
At the same time over on the West Coast the 2013 Cobra Jet was making its NHRA debut with new owner Gary Coe running consistent 9.60s in qualifying. Coe was knocked out in the first round, but the car won the “Best Engineered Award” at the event, marking the first time a factory-built car has won the award.

type='html'>

For the last several years Ford has partnered up with EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI to auction off one-of-a-kind Mustangs to benefit the EAA Young Eagles program. The aviation themes have included the AV8R, the AV-X10 Dearborn Doll, the SR-71 Blackbird and last year’s Blue Angels Mustang, all of which have combined to raise more than $1.5 for the charity. Now in their fifth year of partnership, the Ford and EAA AirVenture announced last month that a Red Tails Mustang would be auctioned off at this year’s event, honoring the Tuskegee Airmen of WWII.
The legendary African American pilots made up the 332nd Fighter Group and 477th Bombardment Group that served during WWII. The 332nd is the most known of the two, being the only operational unit and recording an impressive combat record in their missions in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. They flew with various airplanes including the P-39 Airacobra and P-47 Thunderbolt but are most commonly associated with their last plane, the P-51 Mustang. The group earned their nickname because of the red painted tails of their planes.

Before the Red Tails Mustang goes to auction, though, we caught up with the car in Southern California where it was just completed by Creations n’ Chrome. The shop has gained quite a reputation for building some impressive show cars over the past few years, starting with the “Pony Girl” Mustang that debuted at SEMA in 2010, followed up by their equally impressive Boy Racer Mustang that was introduced at the 2011 SEMA show the following year. In between Creations n’ Chrome found the time to build the aforementioned Blue Angels Mustang featuring a unique chrome paint job for last year’s EAA AirVenture auction, and now they have followed that up with this year’s Red Tails Mustang.
This unique 2013 Mustang started out like many that come from the factory, although Ford picked out a very specific car for the build – VIN number 00051 – to pay homage to the P-51 Mustangs flown by the Tuskegee Airmen. This car demanded more than a special VIN, though, and it was up to Creations n’ Chrome to turn the car into a vehicle worthy of six figure bids at auction. Like their previous projects, this Mustang needed a unique paint job, although Gary Watson, owner of Creations n’ Chrome, explained to us that it had be different than their chromed cars.
“If you put a glossy clear-coat over it then it would have looked much more reflective,” Watson told us. “I didn’t want it to be too blingy or flashy since it’s supposed to be a war bird.”

To achieve the look Watson used a special paint from Spectra Chrome called Magic Chrome. In reality it’s not paint but rather microscopic particles of aluminum that provides a metallic look. “I used the Magic Chrome because I wanted to use a material that the plane was made out of,” Watson explained to us.

To apply the ‘paint’ Watson first sprayed on a layer of glossy black followed by a layer of the Magic Chrome, then finally a layer of matte clear to give it a rough, unfinished look that might be on a vintage plane. The red and yellow trim are factory Ford colors – Race Red and School Bus Yellow – used to mimic the paint scheme of the P-51 Mustang flown by the 332nd Fighter Group -  and all of the graphics on the car are hand-painted.

The Red Tails Mustang also gets a unique look from a variety of components sourced from the Ford parts bin. The front fascia and grille are from the 2013 Mustang Boss 302 (the Laguna Seca front splitter had yet to be fitted), and the back end of the car gets the Laguna Seca wing as well as the rear fascia and quad exhaust system from the 2013 Shelby GT500. Speaking of the exhaust system, you might also notice the four exhaust pipes on each side of the car sticking out behind of the front wheels as a nod to the twelve exhaust tips protruding from the P-51 Mustang’s fuselage. Not only do they look cool, but they’re functional as well. Think of the Boss 302′s side pipes on steroids. As a final touch the faux gas cap on the back of the car features the emblem of the 332nd Fighter Group.

For the interior the Red Tails theme continues, highlighted by a set of custom leather Recaro seats from a Shelby GT500. The stripes and trim are done in red, and the seats have been embroidered with a “Red Tails” script. Many of the other special details are less notable, though, like the red-trimmed seat belts, the Alcantara-covered Boss 302 steering wheel, the one-off gauges with the Red Tails logo, an aluminum shift knob, customized sill plates and floor mats with the 332nd Fighter Group logo. As a final touch Creations n’ Chrome also installed the rear seat delete and cross brake from the Boss 302 Laguna Seca.

The Red Tails Mustang isn’t just about show, though. It had yet to be installed when we photographed it, but a Ford Racing supercharger good for 624 horsepower was scheduled to be installed under the hood at Roush’s facility in Livonia, MI before the car headed to EAA AirVenture. All of that power runs through a differential from the 2013 Shelby GT500 complete with 3.73 gears, and in the handling department the Mustang received Ford Racing’s handling pack complete with shocks, lowering springs and sway bars. Finally, a set of 20-inch Pirelli P-Zero tires were fitted over Forgiato Maglia wheels.