"The Devil's Reject"

Taylor Fenstermacher's '89 GT

    One thing that always peaks my interest about a car, is the story that led up to where it is now. I've had the pleasure of some amazing stories about a car's history. Some of them include tributes to lost friends, stopping a wrecker driver that was taking a fox to the junkyard for scrap, and cars that have sat forgotten for a decade or more. When I spotted this beast on Instagram, I knew it needed a closer look.  

    Taylor's fox body Mustang days started back in high school, with a t-top '85. "No mufflers, and a stereo strapped to the back seat, I thought I had the coolest car ever" recalls Taylor. Being from California, he hit the Canyon Runs one time and was hooked for good. Having owned several foxes over the years, Taylor has tried several different combos, even built a windsor powered '89 setup for drag racing. Despite enjoying drag racing, he knew the canyons were calling, and decided to get busy building his fox body to carve corners.

    When Taylor went hunting for his new build, he stumbled on a certain white '89 GT. The car was almost brown from sitting so long, the tint was purple, the wheels were rusty; but he saw potential. After weeks of cleaning, he had another great fox body to begin building. Eventually though, his heavy foot led to an oil pump failure, and the time had come to step up his game.  He dropped in a little 306 with heads, cam, intake, and a Vortech supercharger to get the fox rolling again. 

    Shortly after the new mill was installed, Taylor was invited to a time trial track day at Willow Springs Raceway. Taylor was in awe, and was also glad he wouldn't be hassled by the boys in blue if he was on a closed course. Making the choice to keep it at the track, Taylor began attending Willow Springs events regularly. His first few outings at the track the car began to have problems. After a broken transmission, and several broken valve springs, he knew a more reliable powertrain would be needed. The HCI/Vortech 306 just wasn't up to the hell of open track abuse.  

   Taylor began to gather parts, and talk to everyone he could about what it would take to build what he wanted. The goal was a lightweight, wide body fox, with an all motor coyote that would be competitive in the unlimited class, of Time Attack events. No small feat, but definitely doable.        

    Taylor's first call was to Greg and Mark at MMR. Their expertise in building coyotes was exactly what he needed. They started with a big bore, high compression short block, with a knife edged crank, and Manley rods. Next up was a set of MMR ported heads, MMR Gen II springs, and custom road race cams. He also used MMR billet guides, oil pump gears, HD secondary chains, and all ARP hardware. Where it gets interesting is the MMR phaser deletes, which save weight and get rid of VCT. This makes the valve train more stable at 9k RPMs. A ported Boss manifold, and 90mm mechanical throttle body top off the beast.   

    For the suspension, Taylor threw the Maximum Motorsports catalog at the car. The k-member, coil overs, control arms, torque arm, panhard bar, steering shaft, and so on. Maximum Motorsports knows how to make a fox body Mustang turn, so the choice was an easy one.

   For braking, a Wilwood setup with 14" rotors and six piston calipers handle the front, while 13" rotors and 4 piston calipers take care of the rear. Managed by a Maximum Motorsports manual brake conversion, there's plenty to haul down the 3100 lb fox.

    "There is a lot of blood, sweat and tears in this build", said Taylor. Taylor is very grateful to Mark and Greg at MMR for their expertise on the motor. Maximum Motorsports for their support and technical advice. Stevie's Garage for putting the car together, and supporting the build. Taylor also wants to thank Spec Clutches, Mechanix Wear, KRC, Radium Engineering, Fuel Safe, Haltech, K&N, Wilwood, B & D Racing, and Maier Racing. There are countless hours and dollars that go into a project like this, nobody can do it alone. What makes it great is when everyone comes together to make it happen. CR