FOUR-SECOND FOX
MICHAEL BUNTON AND HIS
1,600+ HORSEPOWER DAILY DRIVER
When it comes to defining what a
true “street car” is, there’s a lot of
controversy and more opinions than
there are people spouting them.
Michael Bunton, however, has never
concerned himself with living up to
anyone else’s definition or expectations. When he went to work building his radical Fox Body Mustang it
was entirely centered on meeting
his exacting specifications of what
a “street car” should be, and the final
product is inarguable.
Residing near the coast in Savannah,
Georgia, Bunton’s been into building
cars for as long as he can remember,
but it wasn’t until his early 20s when
he bought a Cummins-powered ’05
Dodge 2500 turbocharged diesel
pickup that he really started getting
more heavily involved. The truck had
been mildly tuned, and Bunton
added a nitrous setup, but it couldn’t
hang with his friends’ cars. “I went
and bought an ’06 Saleen Mustang,”
says Buton, who added that the car
was fast for him, “but slow in
general.” He did a few mods, and
then eventually sold it as well as
the Dodge.
Daily driving a ’09 Z06 Corvette at
the time, his original goal was to
build that car as his primary race
vehicle. “The thing cost $72,000, and
I just couldn’t see myself cutting it
up,” he laughs. “I thought about it
for a while and decided to buy an
’05 Mustang instead.” However, as
plans often go awry, in late 2011,
Bunton came across a nitrous-assisted, LS-powered ’93 Fox Body
Mustang for sale and picked it up for
around $10,000.
“I drove it home, and it was a complete mess,” admits Bunton, who
didn’t get serious about racing until
around 2014. “I decided I wanted to
go fast at the track, and it let me
down this path.” He tore apart the
car from front to back, and replaced
the 4L60 transmission with a Powerglide unit. Three months later,
Bunton had to replace the motor as
well after a spun rod bearing put the
original into retirement. He selected
a 388ci LSX bullet from Abby’s Performance Engines in Beech Island,
South Carolina, and tapped Brian
Tooley Racing to do the heads, cam,
and valve train.
At first, his goal was simply to run
6.50s in the eighth-mile, and retain
the ability to drive the car around
on the street whenever he felt the
need. His first time playing with the
car yielded much more than that,
and it didn’t take long for a laundry
list of new goals and expectations
to come together. “One night, we
By Ainsley Jacobs
new direction in mind for the car,
Bunton got to work. After making
the necessary changes, he soon
found that the car was capable of
throwing down consistent 5.60second elapsed times. Wanting more,
he upped the ante. “I mini-tubbed
the car, put a new cage in it, did
some chassis upgrades, put coil
overs on in the rear, and it went 5.30s
on its first pass,” says Bunton. “It
really felt like I was onto something,
and it still fit the parameters, in my
opinion, of what a street car should
be capable of in terms of
street manners.”
Under the ‘93, UPR Products suspension components can be found just
about everywhere, while Menscer
Motorsports shocks handle dampening in the front and rear. Bunton
receives chassis tuning assistance
from Daryl Waldrup from DWRE
Chassis Works and Matt Ryan, while
I SAID TO MYSELF
‘I KNOW TURBO
STUFF, I’M GOING
BACK TO IT’
were working on the nitrous system Holeshot wheels wrapped in Mickey
at my shop and a fuel solenoid stuck Thompson drag radial rubber sit at
and started a fire in a freak accident,” each of the four corners. His buddies
says Bunton, who received second- at Commando Racing keep Bunton
degree burns in the accident. “Basi- well supplied with apparel and other
cally, the flow tool became a flame promotional goodies.
thrower. It was like something from
the Final Destination movies. It was In March of 2015, Bunton added a
a disaster.”
FuelTech engine management
system and picked up even more
It was that moment that inspired numbers thanks to help with the
Bunton to ditch the laughing gas. “I tune up from Luís Fernando Backes
said to myself ‘I know turbo stuff, I’m de Leon. Eventually, his Fox Body
going back to it,’” he recalls. With a dipped down into the 4.70s. “That’s
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