As anyone that’s ever parted with a car of any degree of significance in their life can attest, the decision can be both difficult and heart wrenching. But that’s exactly what Bell Buckle, TN racer Cory Gray opted to do last year, as he traded the ’79 Oldsmobile Cutlass that he had driven to high school and subsequently transformed into a killer racing machine, for an all-new project in the form of a ’99 Ford Mustang.

Last September, we featured Gray’s new project, already well under way at the time, here on the digital pages at DRAGZINE, and now some eight months later, his immaculate new ride is ready to wage battle on the racetrack.

“We got the car done in the middle of March and finally got it out to test a couple weeks ago down in Huntsville [AL]. We made three test hits on it and went 5.24 at 138.50. We’ve got some things to work on, but we’re pretty sure it’ll go 5.0’s in decent air and maybe some 4.90’s. That’ll be good enough to get us in the top half of the show at a lot of races, so we’re pretty happy with that.”

The new car is motivated by a 347-inch small block Ford “R” block-based powerplant, sporting a Scat billet crankshaft, Oliver rods, Diamond pistons, a turbo-minded camshaft from COMP Cams, and a set of high-port Trick Flow cylinder heads. The blue oval bullet utilizes a FAST XFI fuel injection setup with 90mm throttle bodies fed by a 91mm Turbonetics Y2K turbocharger through a PT1800 water-to-air intercooler. Other components include a complete Weldon fuel system, an MSD 7531 ignition setup mated with an AMS1000 boost controller, and wiring from Spaghetti Menders. The bullet is backed with a JW Powerglide transmission transferring to a 9″ Moser housing with 3.90 gears and 35-spline axles.

The 25.2 spec, stock suspension chassis sports AFCO coilovers out back, with custom fabricated upper and lower control arms, while the nose rides on Strange front struts and a UPR K-member. A set of Strange dual disc rear brakes and Aerospace brakes up front. A set of Mickey Thompson 28×10.5 slicks wrapped in Champion 15×12″ beadlocks put the power to the ground.

Gray acquired the Mustang in virtually stock form, and the laps in Huntsville were the culmination of several months of work to get the car in racing trim at the S&G Motorsports shop in Goodlettsville, TN, a full fabrication and engine shop that he and his cousins operate. Rodney’s Fabrication in Portland, TN and Chris Averitt in Hendersonville also played a role in the project, performing the roll cage and the paint work, respectively.

Although his schedule is wide open, Cory tentatively plans to make the competition debut for the Mustang at next months Ohio Valley Outlaw Series event in Louisville, Kentucky. Along with the OVOS schedule, look for this trick piece to run with the ORTC and virtually anywhere else in the South where True 10.5 cars roam.

Cory would like to thank Dusty Bradford, Bob Lapp and company at Spaghetti Menders, and the folks at PTC Converters for all their contributions on the project.

We’ve got a complete gallery of images of this real looker of a race car below, so be sure to check them out.