Many car guys look at survivor cars as a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow because survivor cars are rare.
Some car guys will preserve these pieces of history by tucking them away in a vacuum- sealed garage, while others will drive them about five miles a year to preserve that low number.
This 1972 Mustang is an extreme exception to the rule because while it still has relatively low numbers on the odometer, it has done many of them at over 100 miles per hour.
Jerry Sutherland
Brian Duncan is the proud owner of this 70s pony car, and he admits he bought it to push it beyond most speed limits. Brian’s not a freeway maniac—he’s a regular participant in the Silver State Classic challenge.
He started looking for a viable car years ago after a friend showed him what it was like to run in this unique challenge. Brian found this gently used Mustang in 2008 and he knew he’d found what he needed to participate in the Silver State Classic challenge competition.
Brian has competed for years, so he ran out of room on the windshield. He compensated by adding the race stickers to the Mustang’s trunk.
The Mustang was perfect because it was the right car for a high-speed run. Brian said, “It had no rust, and all the panels were straight–and the interior was perfect”. The only thing he had to do was replace the carpet, so this Mustang is still very close to its showroom look.
He kept the 302 under the hood and he said, “Made it look stock—but it isn’t.” Brian tweaked the small block to a level where he’s highly competitive in his class. He dumped the automatic in favor of a 5-speed aftermarket manual transmission and swapped out the rear end for a 3:00 highway gear ratio.
That combination makes this Mustang a highly efficient road machine because Brian drives it thousands of miles to these competitions in Nevada. He gets an honest 30 miles per gallon at highway speeds in a car that gets 300 horsepower at the rear wheels. Brian believes the freer-breathing aluminum heads are the biggest factor in his mileage.
Brian added some pieces to his Mustang from a donor car. The donor had a Cleveland front end and a rear sway bar—both key pieces to a performance upgrade. He also added a front air dam and credits it with keeping the front end down a lot better at high speed.
Brian has had a few misadventures on the road like a windshield that was the victim of a large rock, plus he had to replace an alternator. That’s a short list for a Level-1 road warrior.
The Mustang competes in the 110-mile-per-hour class, so that’s Brian’s target speed. Anything over 124 mph is a penalty and the key is to hit as close to 110 mph on your run as possible. Brian said many of his competitors use computers to hit the numbers and some of them have 2-300K in their cars. Brian is a one-man-band-on-a-budget who does manual calculations, and he consistently wins his class.
That’s the built-in mystery of the car hobby. Most people see a nice, well-preserved ‘72 Mustang—Brian saw a platform to a championship.
Jerry Sutherland
By: Jerry Sutherland
Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.
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