When Tony Whetstone bought his 1988 Mustang back in 1990, he wheeled it around his home in Florida as frequently as he could. The car with a convertible top had a 5.0L engine under the hood, and it had just enough energy to encourage Whetstone to wind things up a bit.
He began taking it to the track to test, and then he took on NMRA True Street and Fun Ford Weekend Street Stang, while making some pretty major modifications along the way. He tried various engines paired with nitrous and superchargers, and clocked 14s, 12s and 10s. When he went to a 348 cubic-inch big-bore small-block Ford stroker with a Forced Inductions S491 turbo backed by a AOD transmission and lockup converter, he picked up to high 7s.
“I ran a 7.92 and 177 mph in March of 2019, and that was the fastest pass for a car with that set-up consisting of the stroker engine, turbo and AOD transmission,” said Whetstone. “ProLine built the engine originally, and then later, Bill Bam Jones started maintaining it.”
While Whetstone has kept his engine and turbo combination the same, he went to a PowerGlide built by Nationwide Transmission last year, and is working with various converters to find the best fit.
“I was at the end of what I could do with an AOD and wanted to try something else,” said Whetstone. “We put my car on the chassis dyno at Optimum Performance in Georgia a few weeks ago, and it made 1,267 horsepower. It’s going to be a good combination.”
Whetstone plans to put it to work in NMRA’s new SunCoast Performance 8.60 Street Race, a heads-up category that will be contested at the 28th Annual Spring Break Shootout, March 3-6 at Bradenton Motorsports Park in Florida, 14thAnnual NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals, April 21-24 at Rockingham Dragway in North Carolina, 22nd Annual NMRA Ford Performance Nationals, June 9-12 at Summit Motorsports Park in Ohio and the 24th Annual NMRA World Finals + Holley Intergalactic Ford Festival, Sept. 29-Oct. 3 at Beech Bend Raceway in Kentucky.
“I saw a story about the category on the NMRA website, and it sounded like a lot of fun,” said Whetstone. “It fits my car, and I think I’ll have a solid chance at winning.”
Whetstone uses Holley EFI to tune his combination, and is confident he can create an 8.60 tune for the SunCoast Performance 8.60 Street Race category. He’ll have help from his son, Andrew, who goes to all of the races with him, and Danny Nestor, who helps him set up his stock-location UPR suspension.
“I’m really looking forward to it, especially since the first race is at Bradenton Motorsports Park,” said Whetstone. “I haven’t missed an NMRA season opener there since I started running the series years and years ago.”