Here at Dragzine we love anything that lays down killer times at the track, from hardcore drag cars with all kinds of different drivelines in them to some killer sleeper cars that really do a great job of hiding their true nature. And Justin Price has built a Ford LTD sleeper that lays down some serious numbers that falls right into that sleeper category.
The Ford LTD was produced from 1965-1991, and was marketed as a family car. From the factory you could get these cars with a simple V6 all the way up to a monstrous 429 V8. As the years progressed, the LTD shrank until it was based on the Fox body platform. Even in the last years of the car you could pick it up with a 5.0 under the hood.
Justin Price took your average looking 1985 Ford LTD and made it into a LSX-powered animal. This isn’t an all-out race car, as this LTD gets driven three hours to the track. The motor powering the car is just a run-of-the-mill 5.3L junkyard motor. A GT2-3 cam has been swapped into the motor, along with upgraded pushrods, stronger valve springs, LS9 gaskets, and some head studs to keep all that boost in the engine. A totally hidden Precision Industries billet 7675 turbo is hidden to feed all the boost to the motor. A Powerglide transmission with a PTC converter handles the power transfer to the 2.73 rear end gears and 235 drag radials.
According to Justin, “we built this car to just be a fun driver and ultimate sleeper. On the highway it gets 20-plus mpg (even with the glide). It has a 40 gallon fuel cell since it runs on e85.” This year Justin will be adding a setup that will allow the motor to drive on 87 octane pump gas, and then switch to e85 when the car hits full party mode. Check out this video of a killer sleeper laying down a nine-second pass.