Ford Friends

OK in the venacular of the young people I'd like to give a big shout out to two of my Gearhead friends Joe and Mike. I've know these guys since the late 80's and was honored to be the best man at Joe's wedding back in 94.

Joe is a big Ford fanatic, he drives a 96 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra Convertible, in black with the saddle interior, 3oo hp 4.6 DOHC V-8 and a five speed. He and I drove down to Nashville for the 40th aniversary of the Mustang last April, very cool trip. This is Joe's second Mustang Convertible, the previous one was an 86 GT in red with the gray interior and automatic.
Joe's never been afraid to take these daily driven muscle cars down the 1/4 mile. He and I used to go to Englishtown Raceway Park in New Jersey, with his 86 GT and my 91 LX 5.0 notch.
His Ford roots go way back and like myself one of his earliest Fords was a Pinto. For a couple of years he strayed into classic Oldsmobile territory, having first a 1970 Cutlas Convertible and then a 1972 Cutlas Coupe. That 72 made many a trip to car shows and the drag strip after Joe drove it home from San Diego in the early 90's. Even with well over 100,000 miles, he was never fearful of going balls to the wall down the strip. Joe is one certified car nut.

Mike is no less a car nut, although because of his work schedule, I don't recall mike making it to the dragstrip with us over the years and that's a shame. Mike is a car nut and somewhat of a Ford fan, but he has also had quite a diverse collection of automobiles over the years. When I met him, he was driving a Fiat Spyder and had a Volvo 240. Mike is one of those guys that will work on anything and I was amazed to see him pulling apart Weber sidedraft carberators on several occasions. You know what they say about FIAT, Fix It Again Tony, well Mike was becoming an expert on these eclectic little sports cars when I met him. Then he was the first one on his block to have a Toyota Corolla Twin Cam GTS. I have never been a big fan of Rice Burners, but Mike would wind this thing up to redline and beat the piss out of it. I remember him and my brothter Bob racing, my brother in his Mazda RX-7 and it being close. Mike had too many cars over the years to mention them all, so I will give the Ford hilights; 1989 Ford Taurus SHO, the original with the 5 speed (many a time, we would run down the parkway trading pole position between this and my 91 Mustang LX 5.0) Mike eventually traded this in on a 1993 Ford Taurus SHOmatic, the automatic trans being a compromise for a family man. I remember one other notable Ford Mike had over the years, a 1990 Ford Crown Victoria LX, tha was a retired police car.

Two very good friends and both real nuts. Joe and I are going down to Carlisle this year for the All Ford event in June. I am fortunate to have such good friends that share a passion for all things automotive. The only person that I know that rivals them for gearhead fanatacism is my brother Bob, the one with the Magnum. I know it's not a Ford, but that is one evil wicked car.

more posts to come, maybe some pictures if I can figure that out.