In 1975, the number one song sitting on top of Billboard’s year-end chart of pop singles was “Love Will Keep Us Together,” by the Captain and Tennille. That ringing, syrupy melody thankfully faded into the musical ether long ago, yet Paul Faessler’s deep fondness for his Ford Mustang Mach 1, purchased that same year, as his first car, continues to burn steady after nearly 40 trips around the sun.

“It’s a ’74 Mach 1 and I bought it in 1975 with six-thousand miles on it. Back then it was a V6 four-speed car and it was my everyday driver through high school and college,” Faessler recollects. “I kinda had the car bug and by late ’78 I decided to put a 289 ci in it. So we built a mild 289 ci and did the engine swap. That worked out real well and I drove the car for about another 25-thousand miles after that. I took it on some trips too, including Canada. When I got married in the 80s it kinda became my second car.”

Faessler is a Cincinnati native and he and Maria have been married for over 33 years now. In 1980, Faessler earned his BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Cincinnati. Since Ford wasn’t hiring at the time, he went with plan-B and accepted a position as an engineer for GM. When he was offered a promotion to the Central Office only three years later Faessler declined, opting instead to start his own business doing what he always wanted to do, to work on Mustangs and Fords.

“It was our first show car and we had a lot of fun with it,” says Faessler about the Mach 1. “It drove nice with the V8 and we knew we had a good car. But then I got busy with the business in ‘84 and I didn’t do much with it and it kinda sat.”

Origin Of Paul’s Automotive Engineering

Faessler’s business, Paul’s Automotive Engineering, started in his four-car garage at home where he restored Mustangs. After three years, in order to keep pace with his rapidly growing customer needs, he moved into a new larger location. Initially he rented only a small portion, but eventually he bought the entire building, expanding his operation to the entire 18,000 square-foot space it occupies today. For 30 years now, Faessler has upheld an unswerving dedication to maintain the highest standards, which is why he continues to produce nothing short of automotive excellence. Faessler has completed numerous 100-points Concours Shelby and Mustang Restorations, which have earned him more than 200 MCA and SAAC National Gold awards.

Faessler’s road racing designs and preparations have, to date, inked seven consecutive NASA American Iron/American Iron Extreme National Championships. He has also built plenty of drag racers, including the fastest NMRA Super Street Outlaw car back in 2005 which ran a 7.71 seconds at 193 mph in the quarter-mile, setting records nearly a decade ago. His projects have also included late model street performance cars (over 50 magazine feature builds).

“When Brian was like 10 or 12 years-old we dragged the Mach 1 back out as a winter project and gutted the whole interior and Brian scraped and painted the floor,” continues Faessler. “We put Dynamat in and added a little stereo. We took out the eight inch rearend and did a full Watts three-link suspension setup with coilovers for it (the three-Link rear suspension system delivers dramatically improved suspension geometry over the factory leaf spring system).That was a fun project and we basically just worked on it during the winter. We shared some good father-son time just getting in, grinding and cutting, wielding, and having fun with it. The paint has been on it since ’79 so we haven’t really done too much cosmetically. It does have a 5-speed from a 95 GT.”

A Chip Off The Old Block

Today Brian is 22, he’s the Faessler’s only child, and when he’s not attending the University of Cincinnati business school, he’s working fulltime with dad at Paul’s Automotive Engineering. “He’s had a very busy schedule racing this season as well,” adds dad.

Busy indeed, Brian who spent time racing in the American Iron, and American Iron Extreme series, stepped up to the North American Road Race Association (NARRA) GT Unlimited class this year, and he’s been making some tsunami sized waves this season. His Mustang, which began life as a Ford Racing body-in-white, was built from the frame up at their shop, and it competes most effectively, bumper-to-fender, against heavily funded, multi-million dollar teams running 1,000 horsepower Vipers. As a testament to the Faessler’s shop and Brian’s talent, he’s currently second in the season’s overall points race and he has already clinched the Rookie of the Year honors. Along the way he has set multiple track records, as well as being the first Ford to ever win overall poles, and overall races in the series. Brian is also running in the NARRA Time Trial Unlimited class, which he is dominating with nine of 10 wins to date.

Viewed as the underdogs in terms of their chosen car, and their financial means, the Faesslers have relied on the support of their loyal sponsors in order to make Brian’s racing career possible. Leading sponsors which include; Technitron Rotary Interface Tables, Ford Racing, Hoosier Racing Tires, Brembo Racing, Hawk Performance, Forgeline Forged Alloy Wheels, Precision Turbo and Engine, Trick Flow, Moser Engineering, Aviva by Terry Bryan, JRI Shocks and Cometic Gasket, Inc. “If it wasn’t for the companies that sponsor us, we wouldn’t be able to go out and do these things,” says Faessler.

Mach 1 Restorations Resume

“The Mach 1 has been on the dyno and it makes 280 horsepower at the wheels, being that it was Brian’s first car we didn’t want to throw a lot of power into it. It maybe had 80 at the wheels when it rolled off the assembly line,” Faessler explains with a chuckle. “After the initial changes, next we converted it to fuel injection, which was one of our projects. We took a BBK intake that was an inch too tall, so we had to mill all that down because I didn’t want to have it stick out the hood, and after that we put some Calico coating on it.”

“Over the years a lot of our customers would give us their take off parts, as we upgraded their Cobras or this and that, so we ended up with a lot of take off parts. So that’s a ‘03 or ‘04 Cobra computer and fuel injection, and we modified all that to fit on the 289 ci. That worked out well. Another customer gave us their ‘04 Cobra brakes and we modified it all to fit it on the car. Then we received the ‘04 Cobra anniversary wheels, and naturally I had to have the rear wheels widened to 11s. It’s a unique combination, with 9s in the front and 11s in the back. We also built a custom Chromoly roll bar, we had to stretch the wheel well just a little, and then we flared it out some. We are running a 315 tire on the back. Then we built a custom stainless dual exhaust in-house. And we’re running an ATL fuel cell.”

“You know, I’ve always emphasized safety on every car we have ever built. I want a good structure. That’s why we ran the 2×3 box frame rails. For the paint we went to the Ford color book and it’s one shade darker now than it was. The seats are actually Mustang SVO seats. You’ll find very few, if any, non Ford parts on our cars. Like I said, we put this one together from leftover customer parts, and they get a kick out of the fact that we didn’t just sell them, but incorporated them into this car, and they know we’re going to keep it.”

“There are times when I appreciate that this is my first car and I’ve been working on it for going on 40 years,” reflects Faessler, “And I just want to keep it, and keep playing with it, because we’ve had a lot of fun with it over the years. Now that we’re racing we don’t get to play with it as much.”

Back To The Future

“Last weekend Brian competed at Road Atlanta in the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) American Iron Extreme East Coast Championships. He started the Championship race from pole, swapped the lead with one of our customers a couple of times before he checked out. His fast lap of 1:25.9 broke the existing AIX track record by over 5.5 seconds. Unfortunately on lap-11 a timing chain broke ending his race. It was a heart breaker for Brian.” And then, as though needing further proof that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree Faessler adds, “I also race my 1965 AIX Mustang.” Faessler was in fact the 2008 NASA AIX (American Iron Extreme) National Champion.

“Memories, pressed between the pages of my mind, memories, sweetened through the ages just like wine,” reflects the lyrics to another enduring melody. For the Faessler’s, Paul, Maria and Brian, a lifetime of recollections manifest in 3D in their shinny blue Ford Mustang Mach 1, reminiscences they can touch, hear, and share together down the road tracing the journey of their lives.