By Mary Lendzion
Photos courtesy of Mike Ciborowski
For the past few years, Mike Ciborowski was purposeful while pursuing wins in NMRA Advanced Fuel Dynamics Limited Street, and he had plenty of them.
He even earned championships in the category in 2018 and 2019 in his red 2014 Mustang rocking a Rich Groh Racing Coyote engine, VMP Performance supercharger and ProFormance Turbo 400.
Then in 2018, he purchased another red 2014 Mustang that he was going to prepare for NMRA ProCharger Modified Street, and when it was announced that the category would not be contested in 2020, Mike began preparing the car for NMRA Edelbrock Renegade instead.
I flew from Illinois to Texas to get the car, and then I drove it home, said Mike. It had been in a wreck and repaired, but I was fine with it because there were only 40,000 miles on the odometer, it had a serial number and a title, the paint was good and I knew I would be able to sell its stock V6 engine and transmission and use the money toward the new build.
Soon after picking the car up, Mike and his son, Keith, who holds his own in NMRA Edelbrock Renegade, cut from the car everything that didn't need to be there, and delivered it to Jerry Haas Race Cars, where it received a 25.3 cage, fuel cell and parachute mount.
Mike and Keith installed BMR suspension components and shocks and struts massaged by Menscer Motorsports under the car, and soon, Jim Hallowell of Xtreme Muscle Carz will fabricate for it an engine plate and exhaust from the Barnbuilt Speed and Custom headers forward. He'll also install new carbon fiber doors by Larry Jeffers Race Cars and an MMR transmission tunnel.
Meanwhile, Rich Groh of Rich Groh Racing Engines is wizardly working on the Coyote engine that Mike was campaigning last year, and is porting the already-ample 2015 Coyote heads that it was wearing. Rich also will design specs for new camshafts for the engine.
And, just as he did with his previous combination, Mike is relying on Justin Starkey of VMP Performance for the perfect supercharger for his set-up.
We'll be getting Mike our latest and greatest VMP Gen3R supercharger, said Justin. This is our Stage 3 version, not our regular version. We're committed to helping Mike make the power he needs to make to be competitive in the NMRA Edelbrock Renegade category.
Mike's Turbo 400 is at Proformance Racing Transmissions for some upgrades before it's paired with a Transmission Specialties converter with specs suggested by Eric Holliday of JPC Racing, who will continue to partner with Keith in tuning Mike's combination with a Holley Dominator.
A new set of Aerospace Components brakes have been ordered, and Mike and Keith will run water lines for the intercooler, fuel lines and brake lines in the car which will fly VMP Performance and JPC Racing banners, and Keith will dive into the wiring.
When everything is in place, the car will be set up at HPJ Performance, and Mike hopes to be testing by June and racing at the Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing, July 30-Aug. 2 at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois.
With Keith and me both running NMRA Edelbrock Renegade, things will be a little more hectic for us at the races, but we'll make it work, said Mike, who added that he also has a huge amount of help from Tony Hobson, Mike Zacheis and Mike Bibas of HPJ Performance. I'm pumped up and I'm looking forward to it.
Joining Mike and Keith at the races on occasion will be Mike's other son, Kyle, who races his Mustang in NMRA QA1 True Street. The three were stars of the debut episode of Lohnes Calls Life, which recently reached more than 250,000 fans on the NMRA Facebook page.
Meanwhile, Rich Groh of Rich Groh Racing Engines is wizardly working on the Coyote engine that Mike was campaigning last year, and is porting the already-ample 2015 Coyote heads that it was wearing. Rich also will design specs for new camshafts for the engine.
And, just as he did with his previous combination, Mike is relying on Justin Starkey of VMP Performance for the perfect supercharger for his set-up.
We'll be getting Mike our latest and greatest VMP Gen3R supercharger, said Justin. This is our Stage 3 version, not our regular version. We're committed to helping Mike make the power he needs to make to be competitive in the NMRA Edelbrock Renegade category.
Mike's Turbo 400 is at Proformance Racing Transmissions for some upgrades before it's paired with a Transmission Specialties converter with specs suggested by Eric Holliday of JPC Racing, who will continue to partner with Keith in tuning Mike's combination with a Holley Dominator.
A new set of Aerospace Components brakes have been ordered, and Mike and Keith will run water lines for the intercooler, fuel lines and brake lines in the car which will fly VMP Performance and JPC Racing banners, and Keith will dive into the wiring.
When everything is in place, the car will be set up at HPJ Performance, and Mike hopes to be testing by June and racing at the Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing, July 30-Aug. 2 at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois.
With Keith and me both running NMRA Edelbrock Renegade, things will be a little more hectic for us at the races, but we'll make it work, said Mike, who added that he also has a huge amount of help from Tony Hobson, Mike Zacheis and Mike Bibas of HPJ Performance. I'm pumped up and I'm looking forward to it.
Joining Mike and Keith at the races on occasion will be Mike's other son, Kyle, who races his Mustang in NMRA QA1 True Street. The three were stars of the debut episode of Lohnes Calls Life, which recently reached more than 250,000 fans on the NMRA Facebook page.