The exhaust percolates through the ports in the front fenders and the buzz of a cog-drive hums. As the RPM rises, the whir of turbos and hiss of blow-off valves join the party. When the throttle goes wide the sound emanating from this beast is more like a jet blasting down the runway than that of a car accelerating.
There is a very fine line between vacuum and boost. She will pull like a freight train with a tap of my big toe. — Joey Chestnut, owner
This 2001 Mustang GT gets up and goes far quicker than it ever did in factory form, and that is the result of an engine swap, a supercharger, two turbos, and a lot of hard work. The lion’s share of that work took place in Joey Chestnut’s garage, but the foundation of this project and his many other builds began in his challenging childhood.
Joey Chesnut’s ’01 Mustang GT strikes a menacing pose thanks to the towering, ported M112 Eaton supercharger atop the 5.4-liter engine underhood.
“Honestly, it’s a sad, but true, story. I grew up in foster care and group homes. Most foster parents didn’t have reliable transportation,” Joey reflected. “After being stranded a few times and not being able for us kids to go anywhere, I started reading Haynes and Chilton repair manuals that I borrowed from a neighbor’s dad. I decided to learn all I could about repairing cars, including engine bolt-ons, body parts, electrical, suspensions, and complete drivetrains.”
Having completed his self-directed schooling, Joey was ready to put his knowledge to practical use. Not lacking in motivation or creativity, he reached out to a local establishment that offered a ready supply of vehicles to wrench on.
“I experimented with taking cars apart and putting them back together at a local junkyard. I was granted approval as long as I didn’t break anything,” Joey said. “I even got a part-time job pulling parts for people who either couldn’t do so, didn’t know how, or just didn’t want to. I used to always admire awesome-sounding muscle cars when I would hear them go by.”
Even before he was learning to work on them, it was a certain Blue Oval machine that cemented his love for pony cars.
An Aeromotive A1000 fuel pump, Fore Innovations fuel rails, and Injector Dynamics ID1000 fuel injectors supply the fuel and a custom SCT tune from ProDyno controls the blown Two-Valve engine from a second-gen Lightning fortified with Oliver rods and dished Diamond pistons and topped by Trick Flow cylinder heads. It…
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