What’s This All About?

  There comes a time in everyone’s life where change becomes a necessity. For the Wimpstang the time has now come. For the past several years, my car has played a role in which it wasn’t suited for. No backseat, loaded with vinyl racing decals, race suspension, manufacturer and sponsor decals, etc. Not only that, but I did things to my car that I thought were funny as I believe that humor plays a major part in my life. The real problem with this is that this car is my daily driver. Not only is it my daily driver, but my daily drive just happens to span across three states (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware). While I had hoped that the time would come that I wouldn’t need to drive the car everyday, it just never became a reality. With that being said, the project that I had currently been working on just didn’t seem to fit the cars main use. Don’t get me wrong I love racing my car, it’s a big part of my life in which I focus a lot of attention to. It just isn’t the biggest part of my cars life, and that’s the main reason for the change. A car that needs to take the kind of abuse that I expect it to take on a daily basis needs to be more than just a race car. Thus being the reason for the change.

Why Project Nitemare?

  Good question! The answer however is rather simple. Because the name fits the project extremely well. Not to mention I thought it was pretty cool. Anyone who knows me knows that I have gone through literal hell the past year keeping it running, and struggling with a ton of what I like to call “issues“. I’ve broken, and snapped over 10 belts in the past year alone, broken a timing cover in half, went through 3 belt tensioners of two different kinds, seized up an idler pulley, etc. If you can think of it, I’ve had it happen to me in the past year alone. Therefore my car has been an absolute nightmare just to keep it on the road. So being as I was going to be changing my project to fit my car better, I might as well change the name to fit the project better. Not to mention that the name also fits in other ways as well. When you tell someone it’s night or nite in this case, the first thing they think of is darkness, and a mare is another name for a horse, or mustang in this case. Being as that I have a black mustang the name nitemare seems to fit quite nicely. Just as the original projects name fit. You see I do put some thought into these things believe it or not.

  (Wimpstang, Wimpy my nickname after the Popeye character who ate a lot of hamburgers, and stang after the obvious.) NOTE: I‘m a 340# fat dude who eats cheeseburgers like they were going out of style.

This is what the car looks like at the present time.

The Current Specs.

• Car: 1997 Ford Mustang Gt
• Weight: with driver avg. 3550lbs.
• Best Et / 60’ / MPH: 12.0 / 1.60 / 115.3
• Engine: 1999 Mustang SOHC untouched long block
• Heads: 1999 stock untouched
• Intake: 1999 stock untouched
• Throttle Body: BBK 70mm
• Power Adder: ATI ProCharger 12psi with 3-core intercooler P1SC model
• Spark Plugs: Autolite 764 copper gapped at .032
• Spark Plug Wires: Taylor 10.4mm race core spiro pro wires
• Thermostat: 180 degree
• Radiator Fluid: Prestone / Distilled Water mix / redline water wetter
• Oil / Filter: Pennzoil 20w 30 Synthetic with pennzane / purolator pure one
• Ignition: MSD DIS-4 (2 step set to 5000 - 5500 rpm’s)
• EEC IV Module: Custom Autologic program by LaRocca’s Performance
• Headers: FRPP Shorty
• Mid Pipe: Bassani X with high flow catalytic converters
• Cat-Back: Flowmaster American Thunder 2 Chamber system ~~
• Clutch: Centerforce
• Pressure Plate: King Cobra
• Clutch Adjustment: F150 31 spline (repacked with extra clutches)
• Gearing: FRPP 4.10
• Axles: Moser 31 spline with long 3” studs
• Other Misc. Rear: Axles tubes, housing, reinforced,
• Sub Frames: Kenny Brown Super Subs
• Drive shaft: Stock
• Drive shaft Loop: Lakewood
• Shocks: Tokiko 5 way Illumina (set on 1 for drag use)
• Struts: Tokiko 5 way Illumina (set according to track conditions 1-3)
• Front Springs: FRPP F springs
• Rear Springs: Stock
• Battery: Relocated to trunk using summit box, switch, wiring kit
• Mass Air: Stock recalibrated for 30# injectors (pro-flow)
• Fuel Injectors: FRPP 30# (red)
• Fuel Pump: In tank 255 Walbro unit, External pusher pump ATI
• Seats: Corbeau Targa RS
• Wheels Front: Weld Draglites 15” x 5” with Dunlop Radials
• Wheels Rear: Weld Draglites 15” x 10” with MT ET Drags 26” x 10.5”
• Sway Bar: Front and rear removed
• Misc. Suspension: Quad shocks removed, Maximum Motorsports CC plates
• Brakes: Stock
• Body: Stock with spoiler removed
• Gauges: Autometer monster tach, air fuel ratio, fuel pressure, boost.

Some Mods To Come

• Seating Surfaces: Brand New Pair of Corbeau Targa RS Wide. Seats
• Seating Support: Rhodes Custom seatback brace with race harness.
• Wheels: Returning to stock with a little twist.
• Appearance: Gonna have to wait and see!!
• Performance: MAF recal, New tune, bigger injectors, and a few other goodies.
• Audio: Custom Sealed Subwoofer enclosure, etc .. plan in the works

Stage 1 - The Preparation

  Stage 1 seems very simple, but believe me it’s rather time consuming, and all in all a lot of hard work. The first stage of this project is to remove all the vinyl decals from the car. The large banner across the rear window, the NMRA banner on the windshield (not shown in pic above), the LaRocca’s Performance decal on the hood, the Procharger decals on the front bumper, rear window, and both sides underneath the GT emblems, the NMRA MM7228 numbering on the rear window, both rear side windows, and the windshield, etc. There’s a lot of work involved with taking all this crap off. The first step is to buy a pack of razor blades, and a bottle of goo gone. Both these items can be purchased at the supermarket, or just about anywhere. The trick is to scrape the vinyl material off without damaging the paint underneath. This can only be done one way, by taking your time and doing it very slowly. By gently sliding the razor blade along the vinyl the sticker will peel upwards. You then work the razor blade through the vinyl slowly until you can grab a hold of it and peel it off the surface. Once all of the colored vinyl is off the car, you need to then use the goo gone to remove the gummy residue that was left behind. This is simply performed by using the instructions that come on the bottle. Once all this is finally completed, I can then begin to wash, and wax the car, and then move onto stage 2.

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