Big Dog

This 1,015hp New Edge Mustang Gets Busy On 8.5-inch Slicks. 

 

- Ro McGonegal

Loyal readers of this rag know that Editor H concentrates his thrust on modified street-driven Mustangs, regardless of model or year. While the younger contingent gravitate to the S197 or S550 platform, the older force seems bent to the earlier incarnations—the SN95, SN97, and New Edge, and the diversity of the Foxbodies in particular.

Case in point: John Fields is a 60-year old hydraulic engineer (a specialized civil engineer who works with issues concerning the flow of water and other liquids) in Riverside, California. He is a tech guy and so his hardcore 2002 GT is loaded with it. Since it isn’t expected to go to the mall or the taco shop or grandma’s house, Fields has surely invested heavily in a real racer, not a compromise between hell and high water.

Perspective: His previous 1986 Fox wins two West Coast Outlaw 8.5 championships and sets several records. According to Fields, his New Edge “has lots of potential for a small nitrous tune-up.” Let’s see what happened.

Fields got a real deal on this character. A pal of his with a tow yard had the animal he sought, a perfect body and interior, but the motor was fractured beyond redemption. He dropped a grand on the pile—and spent plenty of coin transforming it into the race car you see here.

Experience told him to get a hot-shot engine builder to make the 1,000hp motor he envisioned. John likes BES Racing Engines in Guildford, Indiana, so Tony Bischoff’s crew did the measuring, the CNC operations, and attendant machine work. BES commenced with a 9.5 deck height block that they had bored and decked. They pin-fit the rods to the pistons, prepped the lifter bores, and enlarged the cam tunnel diameter to 55 mm to accept the more stable camshaft.