Master Of The Fox-Body Grip Box

Martin Pond’s 427w-Powered, SVT-Style Mercury Zephyr Wagon.

- John Gatliff

The Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational is the playground of late-model Corvettes, all-wheel drive turbo imports, and megabuck Pro Touring muscle cars. So Alameda, California, tire dealer Martin Pond initially attacked OUSCI competition with the obvious choice: a $250 1980 Ford Fairmont sedan. Martin’s steel-gray internet legend Fairmont made great use of Fox-body Mustang parts interchangeability. Motivated by 357 ci of Ford Windsor V8 power and packing a full Maximum Motorsports Max Grip Box suspension kit, the whole pony cars laying rig still likely costs less than the annual service on a Fortune 500 company executive’s Ferrari.

So how did Martin follow up the ego-smasher Fairmont? He doubled down with a $500 junkyard 1980 Mercury Zephyr wagon. Gutting the rust-free shell, Martin and his son, Martin II, set about building a “daily driver” the way Ford’s Special Vehicle Team might have had they been around in the malaise days of Disco Demolition Night and Ted Koppel’s nightly Iran Crisis–America Held Hostage TV program. Martin and son replaced the spindly 7.5-inch, Salisbury-style axle with a castoff $300 SVT Cobra IRS. They pitched the asthmatic 255ci lump for a pushrod 5.0 V8. SVT Cobra brakes and massive 18-inch Falken tires filled fender wells that the Ponds carefully pushed out with a simple Eastwood fender-rolling tool. Martin then almost emptied the Maximum Motorsports Fox-body catalog to stiffen up the wagon’s unibody and improve handling. A pail of soapy water and a clay bar rehabilitated the Dearborntastic 1980 Dark Chamois Metallic paint.