Mustang Week closes out with a cruise-in and car show awards
By Steve Turner
By the time Saturday rolls around, it starts to sink in. Mustang Week is almost over. After a great week of activities closed out by the big Ready to Rock Night bash at the House of Blues Friday night, we admit we were dragging a little bit, but the final day of official activities offers the chance to check out anything we might have missed throughout the week.
As we mentioned at the outset of our coverage, Terminators made their presence felt throughout the week. Someone joked that all the 2003-2004 Cobras were in Myrtle Beach. That might have been an exaggeration, but there were quite a few, and several were upgraded with the VMP TVS supercharger, like this yellow droptop.
If haven’t been to Mustang Week yet, shame on you. If you have been, you know that the big cruise-in takes place in the same parking lot as the official show on Friday. The difference is that you don’t have to register to park in the lot, nor is your car judged. It’s a chance for anyone to show off their ride amongst a who’s who of the industry and a massive crowd of like-minded fans.
While there are no official saved spots, there are several clubs that host gatherings at other sites. From there they cruise to the official event and park together. One of the longest running and most organized bunches is the crew from Southeastern Foxbodies. This year they gathered 157 1979-1993 Mustangs and paraded them to the Myrtle Beach Mall. It definitely warmed this writer’s heart to see such a large gathering of the car that made me a Mustang fan.
You can watch footage of the Fox cruise from our friends at StangVids right here…
Our friend Michael Clark, known as Fox Body Mike because of his passion and knowledge, has put a lot of work into his 1985 Mustang LX. The project’s moniker is the Trailer Park Queen, which is a nod to its humble beginnings and Mike’s drive-it mentality. There’s a reason you don’t see many Dark Sage Green Foxes like his rolling around, as only 37 coupes like Mike’s were built in 1985 and only 140 total Foxes were sprayed in this hue. Kudos to Mike for keeping this one on the road in fine form.
There are plenty of other Mustangs on display at the cruise-in so we traversed the parking lot to find some of the cars we might have missed in our previous coverage. However, we did have to end our quest around 3:30 to attend the Mustang Week car show awards ceremony, where we were honored to bestow the SVTPerformance.com Editor’s Choice award for the second year running.
As another Mustang Week wound down we couldn’t help but smile. It’s always bittersweet. We love seeing all the cars and people, but we are worn out by week’s end. However, we always leave excited about cars and eagerly anticipating next year’s event. If you haven’t heard, Mustang Week 2016 will take place from July 18-24 next year, so mark your calendars and put in that vacation time. We will see you there.
Until then here’s an overview of the week’s proceedings from our friends at Late Model Restoration…
And here’s another great video of the week from our friends at SCT Performance…
You might remember Brian Warcup’s Coyote from our coverage of its ProCharger install at last year’s Mustang Week. This year Brian made the trip down from the Northeast to enjoy the week in his supercharged ’Stang. While he was in town, he picked up a few hydrodipped bits from JLT Performance which really made his engine compartment stand out.It’s really tough to beat a clean Fox coupe with the right wheels and the right stance. When you throw a 1999/2001-spec Cobra Four-Valve 4.6 under the hood, that makes for a really cool combo.SVTP’s project Triple Threat was on hand all week showing off its yellow-coated Whipple 2.9-liter supercharger and numerous other mods, including graphics from Bullitt Auto Detail and Outlaw wheels from Classic Design Concepts. We’ll have more on this project in the coming weeks, but it’s a definite head-turner.This Fox four-banger is a labor of love. The owner’s brother is restoring it for him after it was damaged in a fire. It’s looking good now and it wears a custom intake, a custom exhaust, Ford Performance lowering springs, Mustang GT sway bars, and Mustang GT wheels.This car looks awfully familiar. Yes this Steeda’s 2015 Mustang GT which has served as the model for several of our install stories on Steeda products. We drove and featured the car when it was naturally aspirated, but these days it wears a Vortech supercharger with a custom Steeda calibration and cranks out over 650 horsepower at the wheels. We can’t wait to take it for a spin again!The last bit of official business for Mustang Week is to hand out the trophies to the winners of the Late Model Restoration Car Show. LMR sponsors the whole show and hands out several Awards of Excellence. Mustang Week’s Brad Worley and Mike Clay (pictured) had an assist from several ladies working on behalf of LMR.You author was charged with selecting the SVTP Editor’s Choice award, and this year’s winner is Lew Mesta and his Coyote-powered 1966 Mustang.Built by Dennis Steppe as an anniversary present from Lew’s wife, this Hertz-themed vintage ’Stang is detailed from top to bottom, and all the accessories work so Lew can enjoy driving it. You can read more about the build in our forums.
great job Steve. I also like the car you picked for the award.
Thank you, sir.