No stranger to the NMRA and NMCA Open Comp classes, Tom Hoffman has been pushing hard to improve the performance of his 1968 Mustang fastback, but it wasn’t until fellow racer Rick Riccardi got involved that things started to roll smoothly.
Hoffman knew the Holbrook Racing Engines powerplant made 790 horsepower on the dyno, but the car’s best elapsed time of 9.79 wasn’t indicative of that, and he couldn’t quite figure out what was holding it back.
“Rick’s been helping me at the track,” Hoffman explained. “The car has a Holbrook engine and runs really strong, but it wasn’t running the number. Rick told me to bring the car to him and he would check it out.”
“I worked on Hoffman’s car almost every year, and no matter what you would do, the thing had issues,” Riccardi told us. “He decided to bring it to me over the winter and I went through it from the front bumper to the back bumper.”
With a custom-built racing engine, off-season maintenance is always good—and sometimes trequired—to ensure that it is operating at peak performance, and Riccardi contacted Chris Holbrook at Holbrook Racing Engines to discuss the situation. Riccardi was originally going to run through the valvetrain and Holbrook recommended checking the bottom end bearings as well.
When Hoffman had dropped off the car, Riccardi noticed there was oil under it while it was still sitting in the trailer. it would seem that a mishap with a floor jack had damaged the oil pan, causing the leak and Riccardi changed the pan out while he was checking out the bottom end.
On top of the engine sat a nice CFM Performance carburetor and Riccardi sent that back to have Dale Cubic freshen it up.
“I talked with Dale and Chris and we all felt it wasn’t getting enough air,” Riccardi said. To remedy that, Riccardi fabricated an air pan and added a forward-facing hood scoop to improve the airflow.
One main issue that Hoffman’s Mustang had was that it took two people to push the car, so with the car on a lift, he began searching for answers.
“I had it in neutral and tried to turn the wheels and found the from wheels were scraping the calipers,” Riccardi said. “The rear brakes were also hung up due to the proportioning valve. There were two different proportioning valves keeping pressure on the calipers.”
To that end, Riccardi installed a new braking system consisting of new lines and lightweight Strange Engineering racing brakes to replace the street calipers that were previously on the car. A pair of Weld Aluma Star wheels now offer plenty of clearance to the new, svelte calipers as well. Leaning on his experience in the Hot Street and NA 10.5 ranks, Riccardi used a specific “Pro Stock” grease and set the bearings properly. He also installed low-drag seals in the brake calipers to quicken the piston movement. And while he was under the car, Riccardi installed some new transmission and fuel lines as well.
Another component that was reworked was the Ford 9-inch center section.
“It took 39 lb-ft to turn it,” Hoffman told us.
It was tight,” Riccardi recalled. “As it’s going down the track, it’s heating up and getting even tighter.” Riccardi removed the center section and sent it to Tommy Lee Performance in North Carolina, where it was disassembled and rebuilt, and now only requires 8 lb-ft of torque to turn.
On the inside of the Mustang, Riccardi added some new gauges and cleaned up some old wiring, before taking the car to Farks Super Cars to have them set the chassis properly.
I took it to Farks Supercars and George [Farkouh] went through it, scaled it, and made a new diagonal bar to replace the old, repaired one,” Riccardi explained. “He set the suspension; it’s never been done to the car.”
It was obvious Riccardi had made the right changes when he let the Mustang down and it rolled off the lift.
“Tom was fighting torque converters and seeing how much binding was in the car, it was affecting the converter performance.”
“He went through the car with a fine-tooth comb,” Hoffman said. “Some of it, I was embarrassed about and some of it I would have never thought to think of.”
“We all have some personal bets going on what we think it might run,” Riccardi told us.
The fastback’s previous best was a 9.79 last year at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, and the duo is hoping the car will go 9.50s.
“On Chris’s dyno, the motor made 790 hp, and the calculator says it should go 9.30s, but it’s more like a brick going down the road, not an aerodynamic Fox Body,” Hoffman pointed out. “He did me a great favor and I think it’s really going to pick up. I’m really excited at what it’s going to do. When I had the car, it took two people to push it, now you lean on it and it rolls.”
Hoffman knew the Holbrook Racing Engines powerplant made 790 horsepower on the dyno, but the car’s best elapsed time of 9.79 wasn’t indicative of that, and he couldn’t quite figure out what was holding it back.
“Rick’s been helping me at the track,” Hoffman explained. “The car has a Holbrook engine and runs really strong, but it wasn’t running the number. Rick told me to bring the car to him and he would check it out.”
“I worked on Hoffman’s car almost every year, and no matter what you would do, the thing had issues,” Riccardi told us. “He decided to bring it to me over the winter and I went through it from the front bumper to the back bumper.”
With a custom-built racing engine, off-season maintenance is always good—and sometimes trequired—to ensure that it is operating at peak performance, and Riccardi contacted Chris Holbrook at Holbrook Racing Engines to discuss the situation. Riccardi was originally going to run through the valvetrain and Holbrook recommended checking the bottom end bearings as well.
When Hoffman had dropped off the car, Riccardi noticed there was oil under it while it was still sitting in the trailer. it would seem that a mishap with a floor jack had damaged the oil pan, causing the leak and Riccardi changed the pan out while he was checking out the bottom end.
On top of the engine sat a nice CFM Performance carburetor and Riccardi sent that back to have Dale Cubic freshen it up.
“I talked with Dale and Chris and we all felt it wasn’t getting enough air,” Riccardi said. To remedy that, Riccardi fabricated an air pan and added a forward-facing hood scoop to improve the airflow.
One main issue that Hoffman’s Mustang had was that it took two people to push the car, so with the car on a lift, he began searching for answers.
“I had it in neutral and tried to turn the wheels and found the from wheels were scraping the calipers,” Riccardi said. “The rear brakes were also hung up due to the proportioning valve. There were two different proportioning valves keeping pressure on the calipers.”
To that end, Riccardi installed a new braking system consisting of new lines and lightweight Strange Engineering racing brakes to replace the street calipers that were previously on the car. A pair of Weld Aluma Star wheels now offer plenty of clearance to the new, svelte calipers as well. Leaning on his experience in the Hot Street and NA 10.5 ranks, Riccardi used a specific “Pro Stock” grease and set the bearings properly. He also installed low-drag seals in the brake calipers to quicken the piston movement. And while he was under the car, Riccardi installed some new transmission and fuel lines as well.
Another component that was reworked was the Ford 9-inch center section.
“It took 39 lb-ft to turn it,” Hoffman told us.
It was tight,” Riccardi recalled. “As it’s going down the track, it’s heating up and getting even tighter.” Riccardi removed the center section and sent it to Tommy Lee Performance in North Carolina, where it was disassembled and rebuilt, and now only requires 8 lb-ft of torque to turn.
On the inside of the Mustang, Riccardi added some new gauges and cleaned up some old wiring, before taking the car to Farks Super Cars to have them set the chassis properly.
I took it to Farks Supercars and George [Farkouh] went through it, scaled it, and made a new diagonal bar to replace the old, repaired one,” Riccardi explained. “He set the suspension; it’s never been done to the car.”
It was obvious Riccardi had made the right changes when he let the Mustang down and it rolled off the lift.
“Tom was fighting torque converters and seeing how much binding was in the car, it was affecting the converter performance.”
“He went through the car with a fine-tooth comb,” Hoffman said. “Some of it, I was embarrassed about and some of it I would have never thought to think of.”
“We all have some personal bets going on what we think it might run,” Riccardi told us.
The fastback’s previous best was a 9.79 last year at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, and the duo is hoping the car will go 9.50s.
“On Chris’s dyno, the motor made 790 hp, and the calculator says it should go 9.30s, but it’s more like a brick going down the road, not an aerodynamic Fox Body,” Hoffman pointed out. “He did me a great favor and I think it’s really going to pick up. I’m really excited at what it’s going to do. When I had the car, it took two people to push it, now you lean on it and it rolls.”