Joe Huerta’s Original Owner ’82 Mustang GT Wins Shows These Days

Joe Huerta from Gardena, California has owned this ’82 Mustang GT since new. “It served as my daily-driver for a few years,” he says. Nowadays, it mostly serves as a fun toy, and periodically it gets driven to work. We caught up with Joe at the Fabulous Fords Forever show at Knott’s Berry Farm.

With a Coast High Performance 408 cubic-inch Windsor in the car, he’ll get there fast, but the California traffic slows him down, making the drive a not-so-pleasant one since the car is sans A/C. However, with that much power on tap, it’s still fun. The 408 benefits from an Isky roller cam, Trick Flow Twisted Wedge 185cc CNC heads, and a 351 lower with an Edelbrock Performer RPM upper.

The engine management system consists of a ’93 Cobra computer with a Swanson Performance chip, a Lightning 90mm mass air meter, and Lightning 42 lb/hr injectors. Huerta used to have a blower on the car, but now he relies on pure displacement to get him where he needs to go. To make the trip more fun the car benefits from a Maximum Motorsports tubular K-member and front control arms, torque arm, panhard bar, and Steeda lower control arms. Tokico Illuminas have a place all the way around.

The ’82 has a T5-Z with a King Cobra clutch in the car with a stock shifter on it. “I have an MGW shifter for the car. I just gotta put it on” Joe says. Behind the T5-Z is a Ford Motorsport aluminum driveshaft, which leads back to a 8.8 rear with 31-spline axles, an Eaton differential, and 4.10 gears.
American Muscle AMR give the GT a little different look with 18x8s up front and 18x9s out back. Kumho Ecsta treads are at each corner. To bring all this old-school muscle to a halt, the GT boasts Cobra brakes up front with ’96-’98 spindles and Baer brakes out back.

As many of us know, snaking an after-cat exhaust through a torque arm and a panhard bar is sometimes difficult. Huerta relied on The Muffler Man, a shop located in Placentia, California to fabricate an exhaust that would work. The X-pipe is from Pypes, which Muffler Man had to modify, as well. “They did a really nice job.”

The car has just 90,000 miles on it, and the inside shows. It has reupholstered SN95 front seats, with the stock rear seat upholstered to match. A Momo Champion steering wheel replaced the stock one, but Huerta says the original steering wheel is in great shape. Other than that, the inside has a few painted trim items and a few MGW accessories.

Huerta’s running out of stuff to do on the car, but he’s looking at adding a standalone EFI system to the car, and maybe change out the intake. Oh, and install that MGW shifter. “There’s always something to do I,” Huerta says.