Return of the Legend...
Article by: Jason Reiss
Photography by: Jason Reiss
June 2003
When I think back to my early days of "Mustang Fever", a few
definite events come to mind. I bought my first Mustang in
the summer of 1993, a 1982 GT, just because I thought it was a
cool car.. Took it away with me when I went to Penn State,
and while I was a student there I met a friend (who's actually a
member here), who introduced me to the insanity that is our
passion. I can recall sitting at the table in my apartment,
perusing the latest issues of Mustang Monthly, Super Ford, and
Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords. I used to run down to the
drugstore every month, and then spend hours and hours reading
about all the things that I could do to my car, if only I had the
money. Fast forward to May 1994, and my return
from Penn State. The first thing I did was purchase a 1986
GT, because I wanted fuel injection.
I remember the Stormin' Norman Invitational, back in June of 1994,
at Maple Grove Raceway. People in attendance included
Racin' Jason Betwarda, Gene Deputy, and all the names of days gone
by.
After many parts changes on the car, I found myself standing at
the parts counter at Dayton Ford, in New Jersey. Twenty
minutes later, I left with a complete Tremec TR-3550 transmission,
a Lakewood scattershield, and all the other goodies that belonged
with it. My salesman was none other than "Wild" Bill Devine,
the Pro 5.0 legend. I remember seeing Bill race at that
Stormin' Norman event, and thinking how cool his car was. I
had the pleasure of meeting Bill tonight, along with his wife,
Cheryl. Seems Bill lives only 20 minutes from my house.
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Wild Bill will be back in action for the NMRA ATCO race, this
season. He is one of the pioneers of this sport, and I don't
feel that way about everyone. He's been around, racing
Mustangs, for longer than most of us have been racing, period.
I expected to go to his house, and see this incredible garage,
stacked full of tools, and hardware that most of us only dream
about. Instead, I pull up outside his house, and see his new
car stuffed into a garage that is smaller than mine! (For
those of you who don't know, Bill has purchased the Pro 5.0
chassis of Brandon Switzer, of
Nitrous Pro-Flow fame.) This chassis was built by Mark
Wilkinson, of Racecraft, Inc.
I had the pleasure of seeing it in unfinished form, as Cheryl was
still peeling stickers off the hood right after I got there. |
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Bill's one of the friendliest,
most down-to-earth racers I've had the opportunity to
meet, and really went out of his way to make me feel
at home while I was at his house. He's in the
process of changing a few things on the car to work with
his combination, as Brandon was running a nitrous motor,
and as such, had a weight requirement that was much
lighter. Bill still needs to find a way to mount the
intercooler, and some other odds and ends, but when this
car's done, I have a strange feeling that it's going to
turn the Pro 5.0 world upside down. Remember, Bill's
been as quick as 7.26 in his old, back-half, stock-type
front suspension car. That's not too far off the
current fast times in NMRA trim. Having a quality,
state-of-the-art chassis under him can do nothing but
improve his on-track performance. |
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This is the motor
Bill will be using to propel the beast. It's been prepped by
Bob Oster of B&B Performance Machine, in Carteret, New Jersey.
Included in the engine package is a FRPP aluminum block, which
Bill says actually kills power at the top end of the dyno chart,
but is also stronger for what he needs. Dave Jack
Cylinder Heads assembled and ported the Yates castings topping off
the 1800 horsepower small block. Bill says, " Dave's one of
the most underestimated guys out there when it comes to cylinder
heads. His stuff just flat out WORKS." The motor is
actually the same 352 inch 302 based motor that was in the old
white car. A Hogan's sheetmetal manifold sits atop the
beast, and from the looks of it, this thing can flow some AIR!
For electronics, Bill's currently running DFI's sequential
fuel injection system. He's learned to tune it himself through
trial and error, and his trusty air/fuel ratio monitor,
constructed by Steve Flanagan (Bill's brother) .
However, he's considering a change to F.A.S.T's system due to
more functionality in the programming. Bill thinks he'll be extremely competitive running the same
engine combination from the old car, and somehow, seeing the look in his
eye, I tend to believe him. This guy is dedicated.
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He also raves about
Mark Wilkinson's craftsmanship. "The smoothness of this
chassis was one of the things that attracted me to it. Mark
is incredible with knowing how to make the car perform, and slip
through the air with a minimum of resistance." I snapped a
picture of the smooth integration of the rear window, rear quarter
panel, and decklid. The decklid actually slips under
the window frame. Check out how soft the transition is
between those parts of the body.
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The rear suspension
is what's become standard fare for Pro 5.0. A Mark Williams
aluminum centersection, Koni electric shocks, Lamb brakes, Strange axles, and
Mark's custom 4-link setup are included. Mark's custom
anti-roll bar completes the package, although Bill had to modify
it just a bit, along with the help of Tim at Coast Chassis, in
Jamesburg, New Jersey. Seems Brandon's light weight (for nitrous)
allowed him to run a thinner bar, and Bill wasn't comfortable
leaving it to chance, so he used some thicker tubing to beef it up
a bit.
The front
suspension consists of Lamb struts, brakes, and coil-overs, and it
leaves the ride height of the car somewhat slightly above
the dust on the floor of the garage. The wiring in the car
was done by Spaghetti Menders, and the organization of the system
is what attracted Brandon to their work in the first place. With
all the systems that need to be in place in a car of this caliber,
cleanliness is of the utmost importance. Check out the
pictures below to see what I'm talking about.
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The transmission
that Bill is going to use is the same tried-and-true Liberty that
has served him so well in the past. To see one of these up
close is amazing. Usually, all you can see is the shifter
poking through the transmission tunnel, but Bill's was sitting on
the floor behind the car. He loves the Liberty for its ease
of maintenance, as he told me "I can have that thing totally apart
in about 15 minutes, due to the split case and o-ring design."
A Trick Titanium bellhousing holds the clutch, and also provides a
window to allow for clutch adjustment. When Bill first
bought the clutch, he said it came with no instructions, and he
and Cheryl sat on the floor looking at it, wondering which part
went where. After the World Ford Challenge in 2001, and a
discussion with Jim Summers and Tim Huston, he was able to figure it
out, and now does all of his own clutch tuning. He admits
that it's not as big of a myth to tune it as many people think,
but it does take a bit to learn how to adjust at first.
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In any racing
program that is this sophisticated, there are always people behind
the scenes that make it possible. Bill would like to thank
Craig at Liberty Transmissions (313-278-4040),
PDQ Performance, Keith
at Pro Turbo Kits, Rick
Head at Innovative Turbo,
Dave Jack Cylinder Heads, Bob Oster at B&B Performance Machine
(732-388-1089), Chris Calkins Racecraft, the crew at
Preferred Mechanical, where he works- Scott, Dave, and Steve
Nelson, his race crew; Tom Petrovich and Tony Gentile, and last,
but certainly not least, his wife, Cheryl. Without Cheryl,
Bill tells me he'd never be able to do this.A big thank you
also goes out to Brandon Switzer and his family for allowing Bill
the opportunity to purchase this car.
As the car wasn't
yet finished, I didn't get to hear it, but tapping into my
memories of the past, I remember a saying going something like
this, "Speak softly, and carry a big stick". Well, this is
Wild Bill's big stick. Pro 5.0, look out.
FYI:
For anyone that might
be interested in having a top notch Outlaw 10.5 car, Wild Bill's
old ride is for sale as a roller, and fits all the outlaw 10.5
rules. It has been 7.39 on a "W" tire (on only its
fourth pass). Please contact
me at jason@hardcore50.com,
and I'll forward your interest on to Bill.
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This Webpage Last Updated: 03/06/2007 04:28:40 AM -0500 |
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