(Image/Summit Racing)

When Jakub Wrobel and his pal Yuri Tereshyn aren’t busy posting reviews and driving other people’s cars for their YouTube Channel, they’re making videos about their own stuff like Ford Raptors and Plymouth Prowlers.

Yuri bought a 1993 Honda Civic hatch, and Jakub went Fox Body with a 1987 Mustang GT—and its super rad blue with greenish yellow flames paint job. (Image/Summit Racing)

One such series was the Cheap Car Challenge. The premise was to buy cars under $5,000 Canadian dollars ($3,800 USD), get them roadworthy, then pit them against each other in a series of challenges where one would be declared the winner. Yuri bought a 1993 Honda Civic hatch with a list of problems as long as your arm, and Jakub went with a 1987 Mustang GT.

The Cheap Car Challenge featured several competitions—drag race, road course attack, burnout, and donuts. Jakub’s Mustang swept the field. It did the quarter-mile in 14.9 seconds versus the Honda’s 17.4, made it around the road course in 1 minute 34 seconds to 1 minute 39 seconds, and did burnouts and donuts that literally smoked Yuri and his Civic. In the subjective categories, The channel’s subscribers gave the Mustang the win for best exhaust sound and best car overall while giving the nod to the Civic for best paint and best name (2Yurious versus Kyle the Foxbody). Jakub also lost points for going over the budget limit, but the Mustang’s performance gave him enough points to declare Cheap Car Challenge victory. (Image/Summit Racing)

The GT had over 10 previous owners, picking up lots of rust, questionable modifications, and leaks along the way. But it had a most excellent blue with yellow flames paint job, so a deal was made.

You can see the competition in these The Cheap Car Challenge videos, but you probably already know who won.

Jakub entrusted CARSTAR Body Shops in Scarborough, Ontario to tackle the rust repair and other bodywork before painting the car Ford Molten Orange Tri-Coat Metallic. (Image/Summit Racing)

Once the Cheap Car Challenge shenanigans were completed, Jakub realized he had grown fond of the Mustang and wanted to give it a new lease on life. A dive into SummitRacing.com yielded a bunch of go-fast parts from Trick Flow, Holley, and BluePrint Engines plus a set Weld Racing Draglite wheels.

The 5.0L was rebuilt, the suspension was upgraded, and the body rehabbed and painted Ford Molten Orange Tri-Coat Metallic, the same color as Jakub’s 2010 Ford Raptor.

Woof, that’s one ugly engine. Still, the 5.0L looks remarkably unmolested. The only upgrades we see are an MSD Blaster coil and a decal on the fan shroud that indicates an MSD 6AL ignition box is installed. (Image/Summit Racing)

All of the work paid off on the chassis dyno, where the Mustang put 298 horsepower and 305 lbs.-ft. of torque to the rear wheels. You can see a proud Jakub showing off the car in this video.

The engine was torn down to a short block. The cam was replaced with a Ford Performance Parts E303 roller cam. The cast iron heads were binned for a pair of BluePrint Engines Muscle Series aluminum heads. A Trick Flow Track Heat® upper plenum with a BBK 70mm throttle body sits on a Track Heat lower intake manifold. (The Track Heat lower is no longer available.) Trick Flow also provided a set of 1.6 ratio roller rockers, a billet steel timing set, 24 lb.-hr. TFX® fuel injectors, gaskets and hardware, and an oil fill kit. You can see the top of the Summit Racing™ Performance Fit aluminum radiator too. (Image/Summit Racing)

Next on the list: taking the Mustang to the track and generally driving the wheels off of it. That’s what we would do, too.

The factory suspension parts looked like they had been sitting at the bottom of the ocean, so the Mustang was sent to Adrena Garage for a suspension overhaul. Upgrades included a Bilstein Pro-Kit shock and spring package with gas-charged shocks/struts and matched Eibach coil springs, plus rear control arms and caster-camber plates. (Image/Summit Racing)

Check out the parts list at the bottom of this article. It’s got lots of the engine and suspension upgrades Jakub installed, plus some suggested mods like the BBK VariTune exhaust system, Global West and Summit Racing rear control arms, and Summit Racing caster-camber plates.

You can build a nice 1987-93 Fox Body of your own with this stuff.

After a winter slumber, Jakub took the Mustang to the chassis dyno to see what the reinvigorated 5.0L would put to the rear tires. Jakub used a Holley Terminator X engine management system to do the tuning, and was rewarded with 295 rear-wheel horsepower and 305 lbs.-ft. of rear wheel torque. Considering the relatively mild upgrades, that’s pretty darn good. Jakub recently took the Mustang to the drag strip where it ran a best of 13.1 seconds at 106 MPH. He thinks the tires are holding the car back; with some sticky drag radials the Mustang would be well into the 12s. (Image/Summit Racing)

1987 Ford Mustang GT PARTS LIST

Engine

Chassis

Other Items

Keywords
Ford, Fox body Mustang, Mustang
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Author: Alan Rebescher

Editor, author, PR man—Alan Rebescher has done it all in a 37 year career in the high performance industry. He has written and photographed many feature stories and tech articles for Summit Racing and various magazines including Hot Rod, Car Craft, and Popular Hot Rodding, and edited Summit Racing’s Street & Strip magazine in the 1990s. His garage is currently occupied by a a 1996 Mustang GT ragtop.