I have received several comments on my 1990 (which I have since sold) which reminded me that I ought to come back here and update my page. I am now working on a 1989 that I bought from a gentleman in Milwaukee. As with my 1990, I sent the car down to Disney Lincoln (aka Bryan Lewis)for all of the wrenching.
This car came with an original Cars & Concepts fiberglass GTC ground effects kit already installed. The real reason I bought the car was to have an example of this kit already installed on a car in order to use it for a model as we reproduced the kit for sale to other Mark VII enthusiasts. That we did:
http://www.fordvschevy.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51299
Contact W. V. Kelly or me through that site if you are interested in one.
The interior of this project car sports a Grant mahogany wheel, a carbon fiber dash kit, and Corbeau Legacy leather seats on manual sliders. The new seats weigh in about 75 lbs lighter than the stock 8-way power seats. The styling of the Corbeau Legacy I thought fit the interior of the car perfectly, whereas any other racing seat I looked at looked out of place. Note the similarity of the shape of the top of the headrest to that of a stock LSC seat. Most importantly, these seats are absolutely comfortable. More comfortable than the stockers, I'd say. I picked the steering wheel for it's "Shelbyness". I will be making a 5 speed conversion soon enough, and I picture a big white Hurst ball in place of the automatic shifter that is there now.
We added a digital guage package of Cyberdyne blue digitals to indicate Trans temp, water temp, oil pressure, and voltage. Two of them are in the A-pillar pod and two were put in place of the "idiot light" panel (which was ditched). The tach is an Aut
ometer Cobalt strapped to the column and blocking the stock dial. The stereo head unit is a Lanzar with a 3.5" screen that plays DVDs while you drive. Two 12" subs are powered by a PPI amp. Another PPI amp powers the front speakers which are a set of components by Polk.
The power is supplied by a 347 stroker shortblock from CHP. Internals are all forged from Probe pistons, H-beam rods, and a 4340 steel crankshaft. We added some TFS Twisted Wedge heads and Comp Cams XE-274-14 bumpstick that sucks air through a ported Holley Systemax intake.
Motor mounts are Energy Suspension red poly. Ford Performance Racing Parts stainless steel headers are coated and waranteed forever.
They hook up to an all stainless exhaust system starting with a Basani off road X-pipe, into a set of Nick T's custom poli
shed flow pipes, through some polished Magnaflows, to a set of axle pipes from a Magnaflow catback, blowing out through a set of Nick T's custom polished tailpipes. The whole system is 2.5" in diameter.
The suspension is what makes the car unlike any other Mark VII out there. It has nearly all of the components upgraded. The swaybars are replaced with an Addco #415 rear bar and a 1988 T-bird turbocoupe front bar. I had the front frame mounts tapped for zerks to facilitate greasing of the frame mount bushings.
Disney then fabricated and welded in his famous sub-frame connectors with seat rails. Koni Red rear shocks out back are offset it the front with Tokico struts. The struts come through a set of Maximum Motorsports caster/camber plates. The towers are then stiffened by a Maximum Motorsports strut tower brace. The FR500 wheels are skinned with Nitto 555s. This car drives like a go-kart!!
Other mods made to the car are: mass air conversion with a Mustang A9L EEC, an aluminum radiator, Mark VIII electric fan, Derale transmission cooler with it's own 10" electric fan (relayed), Optima battery relocated to the trunk, a TCI finned aluminum transmission pan, a TCI torque converter stalled at 3400, Bauman shift kit, vacuum assisted brake conversion (ditching the obsolete ABS system for which parts are made of unobtainium).
The Above picture shows off the European (French) version of the Marchal fog lamps with yellow glass.
Update!
The GT7 now sports 03 Mustang Cobra front and rear brakes with brake cooling ducts from Agent 47. Maximum Motorports tubular front control arms and coil overs with 450# springs. The steering shaft has been replaced with a Maximum Motorsports double jointed unit to get a more positive feel than the factory rag joint allows. In the rear are CHE tubular lower control arms with adjustable spring perches and Roush springs. The double adjustable upper control arms from CHE allow control of driveshaft pinion angle. Ha rdened axles and a Roush rear end girdle were also installed.
The large cam was leaving the brakes with little vacuum after a few seconds of braking. I installed a Comp Cams vacuum resevoir to help with this. The results are well worth the small effort involved here. I had considered a 12v vacuum booster pump, but the can was $100 compared to $300 for the pump.