SHOW PONY

PACKED WITH KILLER ENGINEERING AND 20 YEARS' WORTH OF WORK, PAUL THOMAS'S TOP 60 ELITE MUSTANG IS A PRO-STREET STUNNER

-  TAS MCMILLAN

PAUL Thomas's '67 Mustang appears deceptively simple from the outside with its jet-black paint and weed-scraping ride height. However, dig below the surface and you'll find a big Clevor breathing through individual throttle bodies, more barwork inside than the average playground, and lots of clever engineering. The high quality of the finished car was enough to score it a place in the Summernats 34 Top 60, a fitting result for 20-something years of hard graft.

In the late 90s, Paul nabbed the 'Stang from an importer in Melbourne. "I'd had XWs and XYs, but I really wanted a two-door, so I went on the hunt for a Mustang," he says. "This one was probably a container-filler: it was lime green with green trim, and you could tell it had never had a decent repair in its life because most of the paint was missing!"

Once the Muzzy was in Paul's possession, it barely made a few trips around the block before he stripped it to its undies to commence what turned out to be a two-decade-long build.

Sixties pony cars are renowned for many reasons, but chassis rigidity is definitely not one of them. With a view to improving this aspect of his car, Paul whipped out the death wheel and relieved the Mustang of its firewall and the entire floorpan. He reinforced the sills with rectangular box section, and RHS tube braces now connect both sides of the car to the original front rails, making for a much stronger body. Paul used cold-drawn tube to build the monster 10-point rollcage that ties the chassis together from front to back. Yep, this 'Stang is now stiffer than a teenage boy sneaking into Sexpo.