BREAKING THE MOLD
heavy parts on my car, side scoops that people hate and I run air ride suspension while heavily racing the car. It’ s exactly what I want it to be and people can think or say whatever they want about the car; chances are most people who talk smack on the car are going to get their asses drug anyways.
“ Once Corsa decided to bring me on, it just kind of spiraled upward from there,” Baker continues.“ I never thought the car would take off the way it did and I don’ t even think we are close to finished yet. This car is such a great platform and thanks to Corsa, Hypermotive, VMP, Fastlane and Cervini’ s, the car has become something I never imagined. Cervini’ s gave the car a makeover with a new front lip, Auto Designs Stalker Hood, Wing and Side Scoops, and it is the most killer look of any car, in my opinion, it makes it aggressive and very appealing.”
With the domino effect in full swing, Baker was adding part after part.
Full Corsa Performance Exhaust, Stainless Works longtube headers with Performance Connect off-road pipes, a full VMP Gen II Stage 3 Kit, Injector Dynamics ID 1300 Fuel Injectors, Fore Innovations L3 returnstyle fuel system, ARP head studs, and Drive Shaft Shop 1400-horsepower, half-shaft axles rank among the many modifications.
One modification in particular stands out, though. Most hardcore drag racers go for the traditional drag suspension setups, but not Baker, who decided to incorporate an Air Lift Performance V2 Digital Kit with Viking double-adjustable‘ Warrior’ shocks and hasn’ t looked back since doing it.
“ People are shocked when they hear I run an air suspension setup,” Baker says.“ Guys that talk smack on air ride have never used it before. I don’ t believe by any means that my Air Lift suspension is a limiting factor at all right now. It’ s a 4300-pound, six-speed car that’ s been to the drag strip running 20-inch wheels on radials while making mid 10-second passes; that should be a testament to the performance of the bag setup.
“ We honestly haven’ t run into any issues at all. I’ ve had the kit on the car for two years and it’ s gone through so much abuse. My stance on the subject is that I honestly think it gives me a little bit of an advantage because it’ s so much easier for me to adjust on the fly and get the car to transfer weight correctly.
“ Hypermotive and I talked with Steve at UPR Products to see how we could do this the correct way and we decided to throw some Viking Shocks on the back, because we didn’ t think the stock shocks would be suitable for what we needed. We then went and took a whole day at the track, test hit after test hit and watched videos from behind the car. After each hit we adjusted the rebound and compression until we got it just right. Now we have settings specifically for the track and the car just squats, goes, and makes it look effortless. It’ s definitely easier and less time consuming than constantly adjusting a set of coilovers. I just press a button and it adjusts— plus I can make it over a speed bump or two if I need to.”
For the Honey Badger’ s future, Baker is already making quite a few changes leading into the 2018 racing season. He originally was looking to run a nine-second pass on the supercharger setup, but has since decided to move forward and swap it out for twin-turbochargers. He has switched out the OEM brakes for Baer Deep Stage SS4 + Drag brakes front and rear to fit new 17-inch Weld Racing Alumastars up front and 15-inch Weld single-beadlock RTS S71bs in the rear. Also, he will be changing out the stock transmission for a built TR6060 from Ben Calimer Transmissions.
“ The MT82 in the Mustang has a bad reputation for some reason; it’ s
76 STREETRACE