Thursday offers a choice between the Grand Strand and the drag strip
By Steve Turner
Photos by Steve Turner and Keith Keplinger
After a busy early run of Mustang Week activities, Thursday presents an option for many people. The official activities start off with a cruise-in at the Hooters at Myrtle Beach Mall. This event is set up as the launching point for a drive out to Darlington Dragway for the official drag night event.
It may have been love at first sight for your author and the Shelby GT350R, but every time we meet again, the car just looks better. It definitely attracted a lot of attention from the Mustang faithful at Mustang Week.
If you are hardcore about quarter-mile action, the decision is simple. You soak up the cruise-in and make the hour-plus drive out to Darlington to make a few drag strip hits with your friends. Others use the opportunity to stick around and check out the cars you might not see in the official car show or event take a day off to hang at the beach with family.
We hit the Cruise-In to check out the cars, and the first thing we ran into was a 2015 Shelby GT350R in the Ford Performance trailer. It stopped us in our tracks. We’ve seen these cars several times, but they just keep getting better looking. Better yet, Ford Performance reps would occasionally start the car up and rev the engine.
You can watch one such rev session as captured by someone who would be attending our Ready to Rock Night on Friday (note the wristbands)…
Ever wanted to compare your everyday Coyote engine parts with those of the forthcoming Shelby GT350? Well, Ford Performance also had the 5.2-liter Voodoo engine’s naughty bits on display for all to see. The reps at the trailer apologized for the appearance of rust on some of the parts attributed to the damp Myrtle Beach air, but our drool certainly didn’t help the situation.
It was a great way to start the cruise-in and had us pumped to check out the rest of the cars around Hooters and the surrounding lots. The crowd at these events seems to grow larger every year, and it would serve as a nice preview of the crowd at the official car show on Friday.
Likewise, the Drag Night at Darlington was packed too, so having lots of options serves Mustang Week well.
Cruise-In
Our friends at Pro Dyno offer the official chassis dyno of Mustang Week, and they were busy dyno testing and tuning cars. Main man Dan Desio tuned more cars that we can count over the course of the event, and we spotted this sweet, Terminator-swapped SN-95 getting it done on the company’s portable Dynojet.One of the cleanest cars on the scene at Mustang Week was this silver hatch. Sporting a Four-Valve swap boosted by two turbos, this LX is a poster child for a dream Fox build.At first we thought the signatures on the roof of this Shelby GT500 might be mourning some serious hail damage. Instead, we learned that the car owner’s ex-girlfriend thought he was unfaithful. She decided to hit him where it hurt. She damaged his pride and joy. We can’t support that kind of behavior, and we hope he gets the car restored to its former glory.It’s easy to get wrapped up in all the unique combinations rolling around Mustang Week, but there is something about a Terminator with a big Whipple that remains timeless. These cars never needed many mods to make them faster or cooler.Here is the other Mustang Week Edition 2015 Mustang, which was holding court at the Cruise-In. This variant was our favorite. Bullitt Auto Detail did a great job wrapping the top half of this car to give a two-tone look. It’s hard to tell in this shot, but the there is a Mustang Week logo embossed on the front fascia of the car, which is a nice subtle touch.Another of your scribe’s favorite Mustang Week rides was this clean, orange SN-95. Its clean engine compartment feature smooth panels and hidden wiring, which showcases a Vortech-supercharged Four-Valve 4.6-liter engine.
Drag Night
Shelby GT500s are born burnout machines, and this owner definitely heated up the tires before making a pass on the Darlington strip.Amy and Gregg Faulkenberry’s EcoBoost convertible wasn’t just raising awareness for fibromyalgia at the car show. Nope. The Butterfly Warrior also made passes at Darlington too, which definitely turned some heads.Johnny Lightning couldn’t just come to Mustang Week and set up a display to sell his wares. He definitely had to share the excitement of his 8-second NMRA racer with the Darlington crowd.
