Host of The Smoking Tire Matt Farah is one lucky guy. He’s driven just about every cool and desirable car on the planet, from Aston Martins to Zondas, so it’s safe to say the man knows a thing or two about cars. So when it came time for him to pick a project car of his own, what do you think he choose? If you said a Fox body Mustang, congratulations on your basic reading and comprehension skills.

Farah’s Fox-body Mustang as a project car needed to put down some baseline numbers before the ball got rolling, which is what this next video is all about. There are some big plans in store for this unassuming notchback, that you had better believe.

Matt went off to Buttonwillow race track for some alone time with his new purchase, a former California Highway Patrol car. This 1988 Mustang SSP notchback is decked out with factory performance goodies, though Matt and his crew have wrangled Maximum Motorsports into upping the ante with a full makeover. When they’re done, Matt will have a canyon carving Mustang masterpiece.

But before that makeover happens, Matt has to set down some baseline numbers in his 5.0-powered Fox-body.He has plenty of fun taking it around the Buttonwillow course, and benchmarked a course lap of 2 minutes and 24.8 seconds. Not bad for a two-decade old Mustang, and after Maximum Motorsports has had at it, it’ll be a fearsome Fox body for sure. But you can tell from the smile on his face that Matt really loves his Mustang already.