Custom car builds take a huge amount of time, money and dedication. No matter how rich you are, hard work must be done to achieve a spectacular result. A positive example is Florida resident Eric Leeper. His 1966 Ford Mustang is the result of 3 years work and thousands of dollars spent. However, his Mustang definitely stands out from the crowd.
Eric sourced the engine and transmission from his old Lightning. However, only the carbon fiber drive shaft made the swap. The 5.4 liter Ford GT aluminum block boasts billet crankshaft, aluminum rods and Diamond pistons. The exhaust has full Jet Hot powdercoating.
Initially, the build was a coupe. In the end though, it came out as a fastback. Apparently, Eric noticed how the same body elements were 5 to 10 times more expensive when coming from coupes, than fastbacks. All this happens although the parts are interchangeable.
Furthermore, Eric mentions the process of converting to a fastback from a coupe is not as difficult. The 1966 Mustang is all in stock size except for the front end (obviously!). The body work consists of sheet steel.
This Mustang is a race car. This obviously means a roll cage. Eric stripped out many unneeded parts of the car. The difficult part, as he mentions, was drilling through thousands of spot welds around the tail lights, rocker panels and doors.
It took multiple tries with body shops before the Mustang was finally painted. Eric sealed the deal with T1 Autobody in Miami. It’s no easy peasy painting a race car. Even the best plans might fail, so Eric wanted the best. Fortunately, the Mustang blue shines brilliantly on the body.
How does it run? Dragzine had the chance to see the car on its debut. The Mustang ran the eighth-mile in 4.71. However, according to Eric, the car had some unexpected issues and can go faster than that.
