The recent 1/8th mile PDRA Summer Drags held at Martin Michigan included a very special and rather unexpected public debut of a fantastic new race car courtesy of Australia’s Paul Mouhayet.
Mouhayet, who had been the buzz within the world of Fast Street Car racing following his world record smashing efforts on 10.5 tires in more recent times, showed at the 1/8th mile format PDRA event with an all new 2014 turbocharged Ford Mustang.
Despite being new and right out of the trailer, the car showed fantastic promise and amazing potential. That included leading the field after qualifying over 18 other entries in the events Pro Boost category with a 3.836 secs at 206.64 mph.
Paul’s car was built by highly reputed Tim McAmis and it features the very latest in Pro-Line motor technology – one of their 481X engine programs – which is equipped with twin-turbochargers.
The car is the logical path forward for Mouhayet, who will shift his race focus to “big tyres”.
“We raced a 10.5 car which we acquired from Brian Carpenter in the U.S. back in Australia for a while,” Paul explained. “We made that a world record setter – it went 5.99 secs at 252 mph. But the reality is that we were really pushing the boundaries with that and this car became the natural next step.”
“I’ve been wanting to get into a big tired car for a while and this concept started about 12 month ago,” he continued. “I went to Tim McAmis’ shop last November to get fitted in the car. I’m really happy with the results this weekend (in Michigan) considering this is the first time the car has seen the track.”
While his initial outing with the car was within the 1/8 mile racing format – that will change to a full quarter mile in the coming months. His plans include racing the car again at both the marquee Street Car Super Nationals events, first in St. Louis and then Las Vegas later his season. After that he will ship the car back to Australia for competition back home.
Paul does however face a bit of a dilemma when he gets back to Australia – that being the limited classes available to run the car legally in. In North America his car’s configuration can be made legal for a number of designations – NHRA Pro Mod, PDRA Pro Boost, Outlaw Pro Street etc.
“That’s a bit of an issue – right now we it is legal (only) for APSA Extreme Pro Mod,” he confirmed. “For racing in ANDRA – the car isn’t legal for Top Doorslammer – because they currently don’t allow turbo-charging. But we’ve begun some talks with ANDRA — and hopefully things can evolve — we are looking into setting up a new class so we can run over there.”
As to potential 1/4 mile performances — basically the sky may be the limit for Paul’s Mustang.
“Our car is pretty much identically equipped as to what Jose Gonzalez is running in North America and his car has gone 5.70 at 262 mph — so who knows?” Paul winked.
For Mouhayet, who is a manager at his father’s Sydney-based automotive shop – the new Mustang will also carry forward his valued sponsorship relationship with Australia’s MOITS – a major and multi-dimensional excavation and demolition company.
For more information visit MOITS at: www.moits.com.au
Photos and posting by: Bruce Biegler – www.DragRaceCanada.com
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