June 2010 Car Of The Month: Paydirt

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psfracer

billy badass
S197 Team Member
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Ryan Pantusa's Mustang GT

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This month we have a truly "F8TAL" combo for the competition. But building this mustang wasn't easy for Ryan, as he went through two engines in 8,000 miles. A tale of woe that many of us on this site can relate and attest to. While some may have given up, Ryan certainly did not. He responded to this calamity by building one of the baddest, best looking street cars around. We all face obstacles and challenges--how you respond to these obstacles and challenges is what counts. Take a look and read about Ryan's mod journey, in his own words.....

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Thank you all so much for this honor. It means a lot after all of the hard work and the ups and downs this build has brought. I am currently a third year college student at the University of Texas at San Antonio. The car was given to me as a gift when I was a senior in high school and I have been building it up ever since.


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At first my intentions were to just throw a few bolt-ons at the car and have a very fun daily driven car. As you can see it has come very far from that state. About a year after the car was purchased I decided to put the Paxton HO kit on it and have some fun while still on the stock motor. After a little TOO much fun and 5,000 miles later I was left with a block with a bunch of holes in it and a cross roads as to what to do. I ended up going to a Local shop here in San Antonio and had what I thought was a bullet proof motor installed in the car, fully forged bottom end, ported heads, cams. The works. About 3,000 miles later I came to found out all these upgrades were made, but the valves remained stock. resulting in a dropped valve and a shattered piston. Devastated by the carnage I thought it was time to pack it all up and give up. Not one to give up I decided to give it one more go around and do it all right. The motor was re-done with new pistons, full comp valve train, 1mm over one piece stainless valves and comp XFI stage 2 blower grind cams. Luckily the crank, rods and block were salvageable. After the mess had cleared I was guided in the right direction by Danny and the crew at Lethal Performance in San Antonio. We had decided on adding ALOT of power from the previous number of 555rwhp. We went with a IW 10% overdrive crank pulley, 2.95 blower pulley, maxflow racing bypass valve, and a snow performance stage 2 meth kit. Along with all of the supporting upgrades, injectors, dual boost-a-pump, ect...the results were astounding. Shawn, the tuner for Lethal, was able to squeeze out 693rwhp and 576rwtq on 93 octance pump gas and a 50/50 meth mix. I couldn't have been more happy with the results as the car still retains stock like drivability along with face melting power.


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Of course along with all of the power upgrades the car has alot of other areas in the car were addressed as well. The exterior was a vision I had in my head for quite sometime and I feel as if it all came together perfectly. The exterior consists of a CDC aggressive chin spoiler along with an APR front carbon fiber wind splitter. The rear boasts a Roush spoiler and some tined tail lights. The wheels are a 3 piece forged wheel from 360 forged in Miami, FL. The weight savings and look of the wheels is truly original and sets off the look of the car. The braking is done by a Brembo 8 piston caliper in the front with 15" drilled rotors, the rear consists of Brembo 4 piston calipers and 14" drilled rotors.


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I did decide to leave the interior fairly stock like, as I was very happy with it from the factory however I was led in the right direction by Gus Lozano of Custom sounds. The door speakers were replaced with boston acoustic speakers and the shaker 500 door subs were taken out and replaced with JL audio w3 8" subs. A 500.1 amp supplies power to the door subs and a pioneer double din head unit controls it all. The sound is truly amazing and is a joy to listen to on many of the weekend cruises are car shows that the car attends.


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While I know the story of the car is long and I missed out on so many pieces in the write up I think the pictures are worth a thousand words as well. The past 3 years of the build have been a roller coaster ride. All of the ups and downs at the shop, waiting for parts, hearing good news and bad news. I can't say that I regret any of it. I look at this car as a once in a lifetime experience and I tell people that all the time. I am truly blessed to be able to be a part of the wonderful mustang community and to have made so many friends along the way. Thank you again for making my Mustang car of the month, all of the cars on here are so special and have so much thought and love into them, and thats what this hobby is all about.

Ryan


Ryan's MOD LIST:


Performance 4.6L fully built motor done by Kotzur racing
Mcleod RST clutch
60lb injectors
KB dual boost a pump/boost a spark
Paxton HO kit
BGG 8 rib kit
2.95 pulley
IW 10% overdrive
American Racing Longtube headers
Ford Racing Stingers
GT500 fuel system
MSD two step
Snow Performance stage 2 meth kit
Hurst shifter

Exterior
CDC aggressive Chin
Roush spoiler
APR front splitter
clear corners
6000K HID heads/fogs
tined tail lights
custom painted skeleton grill pony
360 forged Spec 5ive's 20X9/20X11

Suspension
J&M billet LCA
BMR relo brackets
BMR adjustable panhard rod
Eibach Prokit
Brembo 8 piston calipers W/15" rotors
Brembo 4 piston calipers W/14" rotors

Interior/audio
Full audio system done by Custom Sounds
SOS dual gauge pod
Aeroforce Interceptor dual scan gauges


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