The following is the info you requested on my 63 Tempest. The inspiration for the car came from Mike Coopers Kansas Whirlwind 63 and of course Arnie Beswicks Tameless Tiger 63. I bought the one owner 326 HO car in late 87. It was very rough as it sat outside for 17 years and had not been run. The first order of business was to completely strip the car to bare metal and have all of the body work done as it was all surface rust. With 2 coats of glasrite primer blocked and sanded it went to the fabrication shop for the pro street, tube frame transformation. It has a narrowed Ford 9 inch rear with 3.89 gears and a full Chris Alston ladder bar rear and mustang 2 front suspension with rack and pinion and coil over shocks. It has 4 wheel manual disc brakes. We decided to lower the car as much as possible and still be streetable. Streetable was the underlying direction for the car.

I supplied a fully outfitted dummy block and transmission as I decided to move the engine back 10 inches which necessitated a new firewall and of course a completely new floor with a raised tunnel for the trans and drive shaft below.

While all of this was happening I selected Dave Bisschop of SD Performance to build the engine. It's a .060 over stroked 455 displacing 474 c.i. with a solid lifter Ultradyne cam and after market steel 4 bolt caps. Ross pistons ride on Eagle long rods. The Heads are 6x #4's fully ported by Dave to flow 275-280. A Warrior intake tops it off with an 850 double pumper Holly. The Compression ratio is about 9.65:1 and it runs well on pump gas. The engine dynoed at 552hp @ 5400 rpm and 597 ft. lb. @ 4300. It was pulling 530 ft. lb. @ 3000 rpm! The transmission is a highly modified 200-4r- 4-speed automatic, which is the key to the car being streetable. I love that overdrive! The fuel system is a custom aluminum 27-gallon tank utilizing a Mallory pump and is recirculating via � inch lines and a Barry Grant pressure valve. I highly recommend Dave Bisschop for engine work. This engine is AWESOME.

After all the fab work it was back to the body shop for interior and exterior paint which took another year to finish but was well worth the wait. Once home from the paint shop final assembly began with all the electrical, plumbing and drive line installation. Its final ride on a flat bed was to the muffler shop for a custom 3" to 2 �" exhaust system with Magna Flow mufflers. I drove the car home from there!

Next up was the interior, which consists of Fiero buckets and light gray carpeting over heat shield insulation. Full instrumentation is by Auto Meter. The door panels are skinned aluminum panels. The car has a great 4 speaker Pioneer stereo system with a CD changer and power antenna!

At this point 4 years had rolled by and it was time to find out what this baby could do. The best pass so far has been 11.60 @ 120 mph at Carlsbad Raceway and very similar times at Pontiac Heaven Drags this past spring. I have made some small improvements and expect the car to run mid 11's at low altitude. The car weights 3400 lbs and race weight is 3575. The car has been virtually trouble free and is everything I hoped it would be.