Images courtesy of Brenspeed

Tire Rack’s One Lap of America is the ultimate test for the road junkie. It involves a grueling trek that takes 8 days, spans over 3,245 miles and navigates you through 11 states. Brenspeed and Gas Monkey Garage teamed up to take their custom 2015 Ford Mustang on the journey that starts and ends in Indiana.

Brenspeed and Gas Monkey Garage built this custom FRPP/Roush-supercharged 2015 Ford Mustang for their One Lap journey. Brenspeed’s own Brent White piloted the S550 Mustang while his co-pilot Chris Smith, also known as “Big” (seriously, he’s 6’9″), of the United Kingdom, served copilot duties. The journey landed this Mustang team to second in their class (SS/GT2 Big Bore), a class for normally for cars with over 3.5L engines with the vehicle costing less than $50,000.

It’s a challenge that once started as Brock Yates’ Cannonball Run, an event that ran from one coast to the other and is now meant for street-legal vehicles separated into different classes with rules to abide by. Each race challenge is separated by hundreds of miles and normally held in a different state each day.

Photos courtesy of the Brenspeed blog.

Eight full days in a Mustang can be tight quarters, especially when you have to pack enough for two. That’s not just clothes for two dudes for eight days, but racing gear such as racing suits and helmets, car parts, spare tire, and everything else in between. The whole challenge has to be done on the same street tires that you rode in on, so a spare tire is for desperate measures, but it’s necessary just in case something happens. Razor scooters were packed for “walking” the track before putting the car through the paces, and the race is on despite weather conditions.

The first day was a 550-mile trek from Indiana to Iowa, and the 2015 Brenspeed Mustang was put to the test on the skid pad, a challenge where water is thrown on the track and the guys have to drive in a circle as fast as possible without sliding off. Sounds fun, right? Day two was held at Raceway Park of Midlands in Iowa, where the Mustang performed like a beast on the straightaways, but cornering was a little too muchl for the tires. Then it was Colorado, and then Texas with some down south BBQ and keeping the Mustang well-maintained with fluids after a long day of stretching the pony’s legs.

After taking on Texas Motorsport Ranch for three different events including the 1.3 mile course, 1.7 mile course, and then a 3.1 mile course, the duo drove roughly 100 miles to North Star Dragway for a bracket race. Oklahoma was next and as soon as they were underway, a rock flew up and chipped the windshield. If that’s the worst that can happen, then game on, right? Well, it’s never good if you’re phone pops up alerts saying “funnel cloud.” With hail bouncing off abandoned cars, shelter was sought for the night in a less than desirable hotel. Just another day in the life of One Lap of America.

Then it was off to Bowling Green, Kentucky, for the NCM Road Course – Vette territory. With a near miss against the wall, Big Chris took the Brenspeed Stang “balls to the wall” and managed to nail third place in the challenge. After that, home stretch back to South Bend, Indiana for another day of racing in the books before calling the event a success.

After the long journey and challenges, the two finished second in the class SS/GT2 class against 7 other competitors including 2 Mustangs, 3 Chevrolet Corvettes, a Dodge Challenger and a Nissan 370 Z.

The supporters of the Brenspeed Mustang build include Afco, Ford Performance, Lucas Oil, Continental Tires, Gas Monkey, 360 Wraps, Kedan Logistics, Razor Scooters, and American Car Magazine.