If you ask Justin Young on who he is in the community, he’ll say he is a nobody. But we know better. He seems to be a very important part of the modern Mustang community. A decently big cog in that aftermarket modular wheel. He’s not only an advocate of the modular engine, he’s also responsible for bringing enthusiasts together through Mod Motor Mustangs and the growing ModNationals. Naturally, as one of the leaders of the mod motor community, there’s got to be something pretty sinister locked away in his garage so he can keep the bench and keyboard racers at bay.

If you’re a Mustang enthusiast, you probably already know quite a bit about Mod Motor Mustangs, and may even know the man behind the scenes. Justin started Mod Motor Mustangs when he saw that there was a serious lack of representation of mod powered Mustangs across social media. With the help of his team, Justin has given the modular community a huge voice.

Justin’s contribution to uniting and promoting the mod motor scene isn’t limited to Facebook. The ModNationals had a successful sophmore year as it moved to South Georgia from Memphis, and is coming back in 2018 for more Mustang fun.

Justin’s 2013 GT500 is a rocket ship shoved inside the shell of a modern day muscle car. This car gives as good as it looks. Speaking of looks, Justin has let Ford do the talking since they did a damn fine job on these cars, it looks like a built street car out of the box, but don’t let that fool you, it’s no ‘out of the box’ Shelby.

One thing to keep in mind about Justin is, he is a firm believer that you need to actually drive your muscle car. He’s sick of seeing people buy Shelbys and turn them into garage queens. We talked to Justin to see what makes his gears turn, and it was one of the most entertaining interviews we’ve had thus far.

P&P: What makes you a gearhead?

Justin: Being a gearhead is a lifestyle. It’s being very critical about every nut and bolt that goes into the car. It’s trying to maximize the combination based on research, not on your pocket book — spending money wisely vs throwing the entire catalog at it.

I’ve built this car very slow and methodically and have built it exactly how I wanted and have been through some hardships along the way. I feel you aren’t truly a gearhead if you throw the 401k at your car and don’t go through the trials and tribulations that come along with it. If you don’t know the small details about the build and specifically why you chose to go that route (even if it’s an unpopular route), you aren’t a true gearhead.  

P&P: How did you get into cars?

Justin: Growing up, I had the Lamborghini posters on the wall and loved the sound of V8 engines, but I wouldn’t say I got into cars until I turned 16 and started hanging out at the local cruise spots in Kansas City. It was an addiction on how to go faster than the next guy and I have loved every minute of it, even during the hard times.

P&P: Do you work in the industry?

Justin: I own a semi-successful social media movement called, Mod Motor Mustangs and host a yearly race called, ModNationals. It’s a passion, more than a job.

P&P: Did you build this particular car?

Justin: I first bought this car in 2014 after visiting the 50th Anniversary of the Mustang celebration in Las Vegas. I went to the dealership and fell head over heels for the color scheme. It was the exact trim I wanted (track pack with no Recaros or glass roof). They wanted  $5k over sticker ($71k) and no test drives so I walked out a handful of times before they sold it to me for sticker price. I bought this car specifically to race exotics, Z06/ZR1’s and anyone that races passed the ¼ mile. It’s a heavy car so I knew it would be an uphill battle but I wanted to represent our community at the races where you really don’t see many Mustangs, and I feel like I am doing just that.

Once I bought it, I soon learned why there are memes that claim Mustang owners kill crowds, because this car, in its stock configuration, was very scary to drive. The tires would not grip. The suspension would not transfer weight. The transmission would not allow me to go into 2nd gear at full throttle. Besides the very strong engine, it left a lot to be desired. So I broke a promise to my wife that I wouldn’t modify the car.  I had to. It was too dangerous and unpredictable. I first added a complete rear suspension kit, followed by a decent rear tire, MGW shifter, Stifflers subframe chassis system, and made the car more predictable and safe. With the stock engine, my modifications included a ported OEM supercharger from Billet Pro Shop, smaller supercharger pulley, larger 10% overdriven crank damper, Ford Racing throttle body, Centerforce DYAD clutch, full length exhaust and larger intake — that netted me over 850rwhp on E85 and ran that setup for approximately two years with no drama. It ran great. Just shows what good fuel and a good tune will do for the longevity of the engine.

 

Even with good fuel and Lund tuning the car, I felt it was time for an upgrade. The bare block alone costs an incredible $5k. I compared the cost of losing the engine to the rod failure to building an engine before it let go. A fresh rebuild with my OEM block was a huge cost savings. Usually, when you lose a rod, you also damage the heads which are Ford GT that come stock in the GT500 and you’ll also damage the Cobra Jet crank which is also come in stock on the GT500. That can be a very expensive rebuild if you lose a rod. So I contacted a host of experts to help me build my engine.

Modular Performance Solutions in North Carolina was the shop to talk to about the rebuild as their reputation was very good in the community. Modular Performance Solutions owner, Jeremiah Hussey, decided to add Darton sleeves to the very expensive block, flat top pistons with valve reliefs,  heavy duty I-beam rods, and he spec’d the custom Comp Cams bumpsticks that went in. We collectively felt with this combination, the engine would survive most anything we threw at it.

For our timing and oiling setup, we knew we only had one call to make. That was made to John Mihovetz of Accufab. He advised us to go with the larger 10mm chains, the Ford GT secondaries, and larger Ford GT primary gears. If you didn’t know, GT500s come with smaller 8mm chains and smaller primary gears because they must have the smaller cam covers to allow the engine to be put in as a full long-block during production. With the larger 03/04 cam covers, installation was tricky. We had to put the engine in with the driver side cam cover on but the passenger side had to be put on after the engine was set in place.  This adds a considerable amount of time thus why production went with the 8mm chains and smaller cam covers.  Mihovetz also sent a host of Accufab pieces to include their oil pump gears, crank gear, billet guides, secondary tensioner, and all chains were subjected to a thorough hardening process.

With this much horsepower and potential for a lot more, we wanted to ensure the chains were strong enough for the task, and that any weak point was addressed. I am a big fan of doing more with less, and I didn’t see the need to switch blowers and spend $6k on a larger blower that will require a billet crankshaft and cause more stress on my engine than needed. So we decided to throw the factory Billet Pro Shop ported twin vortices series (TVS) blower back on for now but the plan is to upgrade to the VMP 2.65 (2650) TVS when it comes out this winter. With how heavy this car is, we are big fans of off idle torque and broad power bands. With the new addition of the XBA inlet, 168mm throttle body and 1320 Junkies Performance/PMAS 149mm intake, they just suck in so much air to feed the blower. With these positive displacement blowers, especially those that are near the end of their capability, every little bit helps with getting the air in and compressed. All I hear at car events is, “did you see the size of that intake”? It truly is the largest throttle body/intake combination you’ll see on most any car. But with Lund at the tuning controls, the 168mm throttle body and 149mm MAF are incredibly streetable and that was the ultimate goal.

P&P: What trials and tribulations have you had with the Shelby?

It was a mostly smooth ride for three years. But this isn’t my first car build and I knew there would be hiccups after the engine rebuild. With a race in the not-so far future, we were in crunch time to get the car lined out for the event. With JPC only an hour away, we took the car to them to get a thorough look over and get the car on a dyno to ensure the fueling was good for wide open throttle pulls. The drama started when we got on the dyno at Justin’s Performance Center when they noticed white smoke coming from the exhaust. White smoke is generally an identification of coolant in the engine… Thankfully, we used two different types of coolant by color and noticed some red/pink coolant, which is the color of the coolant I have in my trunk mounted air-to-water intercooler tank, in the throttle body and that showed them there was a crack in the intercooler and it wasn’t a head gasket. Evolution Performance sent an intercooler overnight to JPC Racing and JPC swapped it on immediately. We were able to get some good pulls on it but there were still issues, like belt slip, that we just ran out of time to address.

Since the race event was in Pennsylvania, I brought the car to Evolution Performance to get some belt slip issues under control prior to the race. They identified that the belt, idler pulley, and tensioner pulley weren’t doing a good job with this much power. They installed a new American Racing Solution tensioner, new belt, and a new double bearing idler tensioner to keep the belt tight at full throttle. We then spun the rollers of their Mustang Dyno, the boost held steady and the car was making some solid power. The car made a respectable 917rwhp/908rwtq at only 17psi and low timing. Lund decided not to get aggressive with the tune with the race just a day away on a fresh rebuild. They wanted to get some datalogs from the race before they tuned in some more power. They liked what they saw and it was time to push the fresh 5.8 for more power and performance. 

I know, more than most, that getting a car ready for a race is always a pain, especially when you are in crunch time but JPC Racing and Evolution Performance and Lund Racing really helped me get the car lined out. Every hose, every bolt, everything was gone through meticulously, and that gave me the confidence to go 200mph if needed.

P&P: What makes your car unique?

Justin: It’s simple. It’s not overly done. It’s a street car. It runs great. Fully functional. It looks a little crazy with the parachute on it, but it’s a conversation piece when I go to Lowes or Tractor Supply to pick up feed for the horses or lawn care products. Everything fits in the trunk with no drama and still as functional as it was stock.

I can’t stand most Shelby owners that put all of this engine dress up stuff in their cars and make a plaque that has their inflated dyno numbers on it and only go to car shows. I’ll attend car shows but only to show off what a properly built Shelby is to other enthusiasts to try to curb the negative opinions most have of regular car show centric Shelby owners.

P&P: What does the future hold for your car?

Justin: The car will get the TVS 2650 (2.65) from VMP Performance very soon. We hope that supercharger will get me to 190mph in the ½ mile and over 230mph at the Texas Mile if I can get the 4pt roll bar put in for the event.

P&P: Any companies you’d like to thank?

Lund Racing

Accufab Racing

Modular Performance Solutions

Centerforce Clutches

Stifflers Chassis

UPR Products

Evolution Performance

JPC Racing

Aerospace Components

VMP Performance

Weir Racing

Power by the Hour

Billet Pro Shop

Lucas Oil

Tech Sheet:

Owner: Justin Young

Vehicle: 2013 Shelby GT500

Body

Platform: S197

Fenders: OEM

Hood: OEM

Grill: OEM

Weight: 4,150lbs

Chassis/Suspension

Frame: Stock with Stifflers Fit System Chassis Brace

Rear End/Ratio: Eaton Truetrac/”half mile” gears/Stock 31-Spline Axles

Rear Suspension: Team Z Upper/Lowers/Panhard, BMR Relocation Brackets, Viking Double Adjustable Shocks

Rear Brakes: Aerospace Street Kit

Parachute: Tig Vision Bolt-In, Simpson 12ft Parachute

Front Suspension: Stock

Front Brakes: Aerospace Street Kit

Steering Box: Stock

Front Wheels: Weld Alumastars 17 x 4.5

Front Tires: 28” Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/R Tires

Rear Wheels: Weld RTS with Single Beadlock 15 x 10

Rear Tires: Mickey Thompson 275/60/15 S/S Drag Radials

Fuel System: Stock Tank with Return Style Fore Triple 465 fuel pumps and Fore Rails

Drivetrain

Engine: Aluminum 5.8L

Internals: Darton dry sleeves, Manley 3.700 bore pistons, Manley Heavy Duty I-beam rods, double keyed GT500 crank

Balancer: 10% Innovators West

Oil: Lucas 5w-50 Synthetic with Ford Racing FL820 Filter

Heads: OEM GT500

Oil Pump Gears: Accufab Billet Oil Pump Gears

Timing  Components: Accufab Billet Guides, Accufab Billet Crank Trigger, Accufab Crank Sprocket, Accufab secondary chains and secondary tensioner, Accufab 8mm Pins, 99-04 Navigator Tensioner Arms, 96-98 Cobra Tensioner, Cloyes Hex Adjust Primary Gear, Cloyes Secondary gears

Cams: COMP Cams 238/242 116 LSA .525 lift , PAC Valve Springs

Injection: Injector Dynamics ID1300

Supercharger: Billet Pro Shop Ported OEM 2.3 TVS Supercharger, OEM Intercooler & Heat exchanger, 2.39” upper pulley (17psi)

Inlet: XBA Inlet, Kenne Bell 168mm Throttle Body

Intake: PMAS 149mm MAF & 1320 Junkie Performance 149mm Intake Tube

Tune: Lund Racing Using OEM computer

Trunk Mounted: A2w Tank 8 Gallon Ice/Water Tank with Rule 2000 Pump

Valve Covers: 03/04 Cobra

Manifold: N/A

Ignition: OEM

Headers: 1-7/8” American Racing Headers

Exhaust: 3” H-Pipe

Mufflers: Magnaflow Black Series

Transmission: OEM TR-6060, Centerforce DYAD twin disc clutch

Shifter: MGW Gen 2 Shifter

HP/Torque: 918/908 with 17 psi of boost (Mustang Dyno)

*Justin tried to dyno it with a new clutch, new Lund tune up and half mile gear swap and it, unfortunately, blew a tire at 215 mph in 4th, so they were unable to get an accurate number with the new clutch.