Stangmino: The Wild Mustang (With A Bed) That Broke The Internet

It’s the Mustang that broke the internet — or rather, the one part Mustang, one part El Camino, that made the rounds on social media this week to decidely mixed reviews. To the Ford faithful (and there are many) it’s a complete abomination of one of the finest muscle cars in history; to the rest, well, either you love it or you hate it. But you certainly can’t discount the creativity, nor the craftsmanship.

A product of Merillat Racing in Archbold, Ohio, the Mustang that looks a lot like a truck is the mastermind of Michigan racer Steven Edwards, who conceived the unique idea for this Fox body that he’ll press into no-time racing duty later this spring. Edwards had previously chopped the rear section off of the Mustang Coupe in rudimentary fashion, and when he decided to transform it into a thoroughbred racecar, he turned to chassis-man Marty Merillat, who was initially taken aback by the idea — he’s quick to confirm it’s the most off-the-wall of his career. But, as you might expect with something this creative, Merillat says it’s been a ball to build.

The Mustang -- already transformed into a truck -- in its pre-build state. Needless to say, it's come a long way.

“It’s something else. It was his idea, and it’s what he wanted to do, and from there it just exploded,” Merillat says. “It was a Coupe that they had just cut the back off of, and to the best of my knowledge, had just taken a truck bed topper and used the fiberglass out of that for the back window. We’re re-doing all of that, and it’s going to be all carbon-fiber as far as a tonneau cover. We’ve talked with some people about doing a carbon-fiber topper. But we’re having a lot of fun with it. Some people love it, and some people hate it.”

Merillat started on the project a month ago, assembling a chrome-moly tube chassis within what was a fully-functioning, running car at the time, adding all kinds of trick fabrication work and race-focused components, including a sleek, custom 9-inch rearend housing.

The car is stock dimensions from nose to tail, including the B-pillar to the bumper (some angles make it appear that the “bed” section has been lengthened). The driver’s seat is also in the factory location. Merillat sourced a carbon-fiber front end, doors, and rear bumper from Motor City Solutions and a hood from Schoneck Composites to keep it uber-light. A carbon-fiber floor and tubs will be used in the “bed” area, and then topped with the aforementioned carbon-fiber tonneau cover. Conversations have drifted to the idea of putting a tailgate on it, but that has not yet come to fruition.

 

Keeping it from earning a second strike against it, the Ford fanatics will be happy to know that, at the very least, the horsepower will come from a small-block Ford built by Harold Martin, with a Nitrous Express dry nitrous kit, all controlled by a Haltech engine control unit and backed with a Powerglide transmission. The car currently sits on 28×10.5 Mickey Thompson Pro Bracket Radials.

With the chassis all but complete, Merillat will be shipping it North to Detroit for final body work to blend the carbon-fiber and steel body lines together, and the the car will either be painted or wrapped before it’s hoped-for debut in early May.

Edwards plans to run at Milan and Martin, Michigan and no-time events down South.

“This has been by far the strangest thing I’ve ever built. It’s been a lot of fun, though,” Merillat says, “and it’s really kept me motivated, just to try to make this thing look as good as I possibly can, and the only way I thought I could do that was to get it on the ground and get some carbon-fiber and glass on it. The true test will be when we get it finished and see it out in the sun. There’s a lot of interest in it … some people like it and some don’t. They can’t figure out what the heck it is.”

While the internet had dubbed it the “Truckstang,” Merillat confirms the official name is in fact “Stangmino.”

About the author

Andrew Wolf

Andrew has been involved in motorsports from a very young age. Over the years, he has photographed several major auto racing events, sports, news journalism, portraiture, and everything in between. After working with the Power Automedia staff for some time on a freelance basis, Andrew joined the team in 2010.
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