Potomac Café Racer Walt Ziffer’s boosted Mustang sounds domestic, but goes, stops and handles like an imported Supercar.
A fan of the Blue Oval, Walt Ziffer has over the years owned four well-massaged Fox-body Mustangs. His latest ride is a black ’88 LX, that puts out 700 rear wheel horsepower and 700 pound-feet of torque on 93-octane high-test and a whopping 900-plus horsepower when the tank is filled with 110 octane fuel. It shares the Ziffer family garage with a Porsche Turbo, which like the Mustang, is driven like it was stolen!
Ziffer originally purchased his ’88 LX as a half-finished rolling chassis from close friend, Howard Pasternak. “It was completely disassembled down to the unibody shell, without any glass, wiring, interior, or suspension,” he recalls. “It was just a shell with a fresh coat of black paint and an unpainted cage.” At the time, Ziffer owned an ’83 convertible that had been heavily modified for drag racing. The ’83 ragtop was great in a straight line but Ziffer was looking for a more well rounded package. He wanted a user-friendly, purpose-built show, road, and race car.
Manager of the Potomac Café Racers club, a satellite of the Sarasota Café Racers, Sarasota, FL, Ziffer’s goal was to build a stock appearing Fox-body coupe that would run 9’s on DOT tires, handle like a road racing car, and stop like my Porsche 911 Turbo! The ’88 Mustang was the perfect vehicle because it came with a custom roll cage and extensive sub-frame modifications. The engine bay had also been smoothed-out and painted. When he pulled the trigger on the purchase of the ’88 Mustang LX, the ’83 convertible was sold as a rolling chassis, minus its engine, computer, and fuel system which would serve as the foundation for his new project.
Ziffer started with some very clear plans. “I had already built a turbo motor and preferred turbocharging over supercharging used on my previous Mustangs. The torque curve on a turbo car is intoxicating, once you have experienced a turbo car, you have to have one.” He also added, “my 911 Turbo was an influence on the build of the Mustang, but the objective was not to replicate or surpass it.”
Ziffer’s biggest challenge was to take the drivetrain from the ’83 and modify it for use in the ‘88. Maryland Performance Center was brought on board for the project. They started by beefing the Ford Racing R302 block’s bottom end using a Cola 4340 forged crank with Oliver billet rods and a set of JE forged 9.2-to-1 compression pistons. They installed a pair of Canfield aluminum heads fitted 2.08-inch intakes and 1.60-inch exhaust valves. The bumpstick of choice was a custom-ground roller with .555-inch intake and .555-inch exhaust lifts and 273 degrees duration from COMP Cams.
This combination needed some serious feeding capabilities. Intake chores are handled by Edelbrock Victor 8.2 lower manifolds, along with a Wilson upper manifold. FAST 85-pounds/hour fuel injectors and a FAST EFI system with a 90-mm throttle body dispense the fuel. An Alky Control Methanol Injection system in lieu of a less efficient inner cooler aids the cooling of the pressurized air when boost begins to build. Ignition is by an MSD 6A1 box. A massive Turbonetics T76 turbo is fed by custom stainless steel headers and pipes. The spent gases exit via a custom single four-inch exhaust system mated to a Borla race muffler.
Power distribution is by a Lentech AODE four-speed automatic with a 3,600-rpm stall converter and transbrake. A custom aluminum driveshaft transmits power to the rear that’s fitted with 3.27-to-1 gears, 35-spline axles, and a Traction Lok differential. To take maximum advantage of the Mustang’s incredible powertrain, handling and braking had to be upgraded to the max. Up front, a Maximum Motorsports coil-over kit, tubular A-arms, K-member and Koni adjustable shocks were installed. Maximum Motorsports adjustable upper and lower control arms, with an adjustable sway bar, were added to insure getting the power to the pavement.
The Mustang’s stock brakes were tossed in favor of Wilwood six-piston calipers up front and four-piston calipers at the rear, working with 13-inch rotors. The last piece of the power delivery equation was the wheel and tire combination. Ziffer went with a set of black chrome Enkei RP03 17-inch wheels wearing 215/45/17 Toyo Proxes R888’s up front. Out back, he chose Enkei RP03 18-inch wheels wrapped in 245/40/18 Toyo Proxes R888’s.
Ziffer has two options for fueling the car, as it has been set up run on 93 octane pump gas or high octane racing fuel. George Reggio at Maryland Performance dyno-tuned the engine on 93 octane gas with a “safe” tune, resulting in over 700 rear wheel horsepower and 700 pound-feet of torque. Consuming 110 Octane-Plus, that number jumps up to over 900 rear wheel horses without pushing the motor to its limit!
Friends ask Walt to compare the Mustang and Porsche. “Both have long, flat luxurious torque curves that seem to go on forever. The Mustang has manual steering and manual brakes, but the Porsche’s steering, braking and handling are unlike anything else I have ever driven. However, I wish the Porsche sounded like the Mustang at full throttle.”
“I really enjoy and appreciate my Mustang, but my 911 Turbo is superior in almost every way. The Mustang is quicker in the quarter mile, since it is lighter and has over 200 more horses. The sound the Mustang makes is also far and away what the Porsche severely lacks. An American V8 wailing at 7,000-plus rpm, combined with the hurricane hissing of the turbo, is a symphony of sounds that the German engineers have not been able to match.”
Words & photos by John Machaqueiro.
For more information about the Sarasota Café Racers and the Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland area satellite, Potomac Café Racers, please visit http://www.sarasotacaferacers.com/community.html
For the complete story on Walt’s Mustang, check out
http://www.amosauto.com/Articles/Mustang/Features/all-purpose-beast
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