Turbocharged doorslammer drag racing pioneer Mike Moran is finally headed back to the Pro Modified wars, and this time he’s left no stone unturned in his efforts to make his mark on the world’s quickest and fastest full-bodied eliminator once more.

After taking several year off to design and develop an all-billet Hemi drag racing powerplant, the Michigan native, who recorded the first six-second pass in Pro Street trim back in 1996 and the first five-second doorslammer pass in history in March of 2009, has teamed up with who, for the time being, will remain a silent partner, to construct a state-of-the-art new Ford Mustang that will be campaigned on the PDRA and NHRA trail.

“Basically, they [my business partner] want me to run the whole deal and handle all the design work — which is how this second-generation Mustang body came about,” Moran told us. “I’ll be driving and maintaining the car, and the agreement is written in stone, which is something that I made sure of from the beginning.”

Moran worked in collaboration with Jerry Bickel Race Cars to develop a chassis with all of the latest technological enhancements. Bickel’s team delivered a complete rolling chassis last fall, and then Moran and his team at Moran Motorsports in Taylor, Michigan, got to work on assembling the rest of the sleek new machine to get it race-ready.

“We spent the entire winter working on the front end of the car, plumbing everything to fit and making the plugs for the grille inlets and everything,” he said. “The plugs are where all the work is at — we probably had 300 to 400 hours in all of that.”

Along with Moran himself, there were seven other key individuals that have poured countless hours into making the project happen, including John Meaney, Bart Lemieux, head fabricator Whitey Brown, Rob and Don Diorio, Matt Tret, and Matt Grawberg.

The body, finished in a spectacular color that Moran describes as “Lamborghini Orange”, has undergone some minor alterations from the swoopy body originally developed some years back, particularly in the front grille and the hood. As he explains, the hood on the original body was designed to fit the large motor that his then-partners, the Biehle family, had purchased to go into the car. By utilizing a physically smaller mill, Moran was able to develop molds for a lower, more narrow hood.

While awaiting some new generation valvetrain components from longtime supporter, Jesel, to complete his own mill, Moran’s Mustang will hit the track initially with one of his customers’ engines between the pipes. Eventually, the car will feature power from a 604 cubic inch twin turbo billet Hemi engine on alcohol. Garrett turbochargers, a big supporter of Moran’s efforts, will be supplying the hair dryers — a pair of their prototype 106mm GTX5541R’s.

With the 600-plus inch, twin-106 combo, Moran and company will be setting their sights on outlaw competition at the outset — and the PDRA’s Pro Extreme category in specific, where turbo cars have already proven their mettle against their screw-blown counterparts. But as Moran explains, “we’ll run the outlaw stuff at first, and then we’ll have an NHRA-legal legal Pro Mod motor coming behind it that my partner is funding.” With the change is powerplants, Moran will also swap out the drivetrain, using his familiar manually-shifted Liberty three-speed with a clutch with the outlaw motor and a converter setup down the road with the legal powerplant.

Only the wiring and plumbing of the car remains before it hits the track for testing, although Moran admits projects of that magnitude take some time, given that he and his crew only work on the car after hours when the shop has closed for the day. Nevertheless, he’s hoping to get on-track with it by September, but suggests, “that depends on both funding and timing, because when I’m really busy, there’s no time to work on my own stuff.”

 

Make no mistake, during the racing season, Moran stays quite busy. In addition to all that goes on in his shop and his tuning-by-laptop from the office, he also spends many weekends at the track working with his customers. This week, for example, he’s hopping on a plane to the salt flats of Bonneville in Utah, where a customer of his is out chasing land speed glory.

As many will recall, Moran had previously struck a partnership with the Biehle’s, to design and develop an all-new Mustang body for a car that he would supply the power for and pilot for a season in a research and development effort before handing over the driving chores of a dialed-in piece. But before the car ever turned a wheel, both parties opted to go in different directions, and Moran went back to the drawing board.

“It is what it is, and I’m not looking back on any of it with regrets. I’m just moving forward,” he says with confidence.

His new business partner, a veteran presence, in his words, will eventually climb behind the wheel of a second team car that will be added at a yet-undetermined point in time. for now, the current car will serve as a research and development vehicle for the team to utilize in their future endeavors — including the second car.

After notching his place in the history books with the 5.97-second blast in 2009, Moran sold his familiar Chevy Monte Carlo, and has been out of the game — at least from a driving perspective — since that time. But he’s still had his hands in every facet of the sport otherwise since that time, and he’s quick to point out just how much the class has changed since he left it in 2009.

“It’s an evolution; it’s definitely not refined to the point that Pro Stock is, but it’s headed in that direction. More and more people are getting versed in electronic fuel injection, which is a big change from the late 1980’s up to the mid-90’s, when I was the only guy that was using it. Today there are far more tuners getting hands-on with it and really familiar with what it takes to make these cars run.”

Moran confirms that, beyond the knobs and dials, much has changed in the technology side of the class, as well, from the chassis to the engines and drivetrain.

“That’s why I like working with Bickel so much — he’s an open mind, and that’s why I went back to him when I set out to build this car. I went to him with several new ideas and he presented it in a company meeting, put his braintrust together, and made this latest evolution of his turbo chassis a reality.”

And so, given his insight on the present state of turbocharged doorslammer technology, one can only wonder his thoughts on how quick turbo cars — and especially his own turbo car — is capable of running. After all, if there’s a ‘grand poobah’ of the turbo in Pro Modified, it’s Mike Moran.

“I don’t think it’s there just yet. The mile per hour has always been kind of easy, because that’s all about power, but the first sixty feet is everything. The blower cars are going .840’s, while the turbo cars are still a tenth off of that. Eventually it will happen, but it’s going to be take some time. Just think back to three years ago — they were two and three tenths off in the sixty-foot, so they’re closing the gap and they’re doing really well. I would say in the next five years you’ll see the two combinations running back-and-neck,” he says.

Along with Jesel and Turbo by Garrett, Moran also counts BigStuff3 as a major supporter of his efforts, and he’s even spent recent weeks working with computer whiz John Meaney to help develop some new generation ECU technology at his facility. It’s these sponsors, he says, that allow this project to happen.

“This time, I’ve got a signed deal and I’ve got control over it, and the sponsors have been more than happy to come back and be a part of it.”