BILL STEPHENS “IN THE GROOVE” 4/15/10

It’s certainly an inconvenience in this day and age when your computer decides to toss a few rods. The inconvenience turns to utter exasperation when both your computer and Internet setup both crash and burn simultaneously!  Such was my plight this past week when I had a major computer meltdown and the local cable company was hit with a system-wide outage that killed my Internet access.

Finally, peace has been restored……

It’s old news by now that JFR had an equally dismal experience in Houston with John, Ashley and Robert all off the program by the end of Round 2. Matt Hagan’s victory placed him within 70 points of John for the Full Throttle standings lead but it’s extremely premature to be placing much emphasis on the points standings after only four national events. Yet, it’s always encouraging to see a JFR driver leading the way no matter what point of the season.

While the drag racing world had its gaze fixed on Houston last weekend, I was in Kansas City serving as one of the expert commentators on the Mecum Muscle Cars and More Auction which was seen live on Discovery HD Theater on Friday and Saturday. As always, the lineup of impressive and desirable collector cars was topnotch throughout the event but one car in particular was one of the auction’s big draws: A 2010 Ford Mustang FR500CJ, a true factory-built racecar set up to compete in the NHRA’s Stock Eliminator category.

Back in the 1960’s during Ford’s “Total Performance” campaign, Cobra Jet Mustangs were a very hot item in the Super Stock wars and Ford turned out an entire fleet of 428 C.I. , big bloc-powered versions which were snapped up by a host of factory-backed teams and privateers. Those cars were not built entirely by Ford personnel, but were outsourced to race shops in the Dearborn area where final assembly was performed before they were shipped to awaiting dealerships and customers. The new-generation FR500CJ is different; built entirely by Ford and a true turnkey machine, ready to go to the dragstrip as soon as it leaves the factory.

There are only 50 of these very special Mustangs produced and we have seen several cross the auction block for prices well into six figures. They are powered by the ferociously powerful 5.4-liter high-performance Ford V8 with supercharging and an intercooler. Only 16 of the 50 which were built come equipped with a Liberty 5-speed racing transmission and the one at Mecum was so outfitted. A roll cage, special instrumentation, racing bucket seats, and a pair of grippy Goodyear slicks make the FR500CJ a very competitive and capable race machine right out of the box with 10-second elapsed times guaranteed.

The bidding reached $110,000 on Saturday but that was not high enough to end in a sale but chances are at some point, someone will step forward with enough cash to result in a deal and a new owner will be heading for the nearest quarter-mile.
As far as nitro-powered Mustangs are concerned, the three JFR examples will be rockin’ into Las Vegas as we speak for the next national event, the SummitRacing.com Nationals at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. A better outing than Houston perhaps?

We can only hope.