Alex Hays is from a Ford family. His grandfather drove a ’31 Model A back and forth to work at Ford Motor Company and his uncle owns a Ford dealership and Lincoln Mercury dealership. Simply put, he didn’t have much choice but to have a Ford product as a first car. And well, you’re looking at it.

This ’92 LX is Hays’ first car he purchased at 15-years old, and 10 years later, he still has it, and we don’t think it’s going anywhere. Hays bought the LX from a lady that used it as a Sunday church car. “All it had were Flowmaster mufflers,” Hays says. Plus, it had just 50,000 miles on it when he bought it.

Photos credit: Shannon Ferguson/SMFerguson Photography

Modifications were slow going at first on a high school budget, but then he ran into an oil pressure issue. The engine was taken out, and gone over to determine the cause of failure. One of the main bearings was down to the copper, so Hays realized it was time to do some work. Through his family connections, and the fact he was able to work at the family dealerships, Hays was able to get a good deal on a Ford Racing crate engine, which he paired with a Tremec TKO from Don Walsh, Jr. at Walsh Motorsports. The combo was good for around 340 rear wheel horsepower, and he raced the car regularly at Milan Dragway during high school drag events.

After a short time, Hays decided to go the supercharged route and found an old school Vortech S-Trim supercharger. After Vortech went through the blower, he added that to the car, along with an Anderson Ford Motorsport Power Pipe and 42-lb./hr. injectors. On 16 pounds of boost, the old school combination made 500–rwhp at Walsh Motorsports. “Donnie said he didn’t feel comfortable pushing it any harder than that,” Hays says. Could you imagine having a Vortech S-Trim Fox Mustang as your high school car? Unless you had one, too, you are so jealous right now.

The color of Alex Hays’ Mustang is a custom Calypso, which changes colors when the light hits it just right.

Still a regular at Milan Dragway’s High School Drags, the car ran 12.0’s at 121 mph so he knew the car had a lot more in it. With the TKO’s steep first gear, and 3.73 gears, you could track the car’s sixty-foot time with a sun dial. The combination just hit the tires too hard, so he bought a Dynamic Racing Transmissions’ Mighty Mite C4, pairing it with an Ultimate Converter Concepts torque converter.

To prep the car for quicker elapsed times, Hays took the car to Team Z Motorsports for a six-point roll cage, K-member, and rear suspension components. A return trip to the track after the transmission conversion, chassis, and suspension work netted Hays an 11.20 at 122 mph. The 60-ft times dropped significantly with the automatic, and elapsed times dropped accordingly. At that time, Hays was focused on school so he didn’t really do too much to the car for a while. However, he did enjoy the car on the street.

Black is supposed to be a slimming color, but for the upcoming 2015 race season, Hays hopes to be slimmer, as well. He put himself on a diet to help lower elapsed times, and be able to put weight in the car where he needs it most.

Of course, when you own a Fox Mustang, one doesn’t simply own one, you’re constantly tinkering with it to make it faster. That’s exactly what Hays did. He played with the timing and worked on cooling down the intake temperatures, and ran a best pass of 10.47 at 127 mph. “We did that a couple times,” Hays says, but running that fast only caused one thing – the itch to go faster. “I got the fever,” he says.

All this time Hays was a Pro Stock, naturally-aspirated fan. To get pointed in that direction he purchased an Ilmor Engineering NASCAR engine from Phil Harper. The engine was a Ford C3 that ran in the early 2000’s. On an engine dyno, the C3 engine made 830 horsepower at 9,000 rpm. “I had never had anything like that engine before,” Hays says. It was an endurance-type engine, and a steep learning curve for him.

In 2012, to help get the most out of the engine, he added mini-tubs to fit a larger tire out back, added Strange Engineering shocks, and took the car back to Team Z for a 10-point cage. Loose Ends Wiring re-wired the car, adding an MSD Power Grid, and a Racepak V300 and display dash. To put the car on a diet, Hays stripped the car and added a Motor City Solutions hood, front bumper, and doors. At that point he was running 8.90’s, he had graduated college, and was making money. Hays always wanted to run heads-up, and he found a naturally-aspirated class at Milan called All Motor, but after getting his feet wet in the class, he discovered his little 362 cubic inch Ford didn’t really cut it. At one race he was able to qualify number 16, making the cut at the end of 2013.

That wasn’t good enough for Hays, though. During that time he made friends with another Milan racer, Butch Kemp, an old NMCA Pro Stock racer. “He’s one helluva guy, and always fast,” Hays says. Butch was selling his existing race car, and asked Alex if he was interested in the engine out of the car. Ford fans hide your ears. The car Kemp was selling was a Camaro, and the engine was a 585-inch big block Chevy – ouch! However, it was a proven combination, and Hays was able to get the engine, the matching Rossler Turbo 400 transmission, and Ultimate Converter Concepts converter as a package.

Since the LX was built as a small block car, the car needed some updating. Keith Engling from Skinny Kid Race Cars talked with them and added a 25.5 roll cage, an outlaw K-member with a Stiletto rack, Strange Engineering struts, spindle mount wheels, and out back Skinny Kid took out the mini-tubs Hays had installed and added their own mini-tubs for a larger tire. A Team Z nine-inch rear with a Strange center section went into the car as well, with new Team Z suspension pieces. In addition, the car was lightened up even further as well, while at Skinny Kid. Carl’s Custom Concepts worked on the body of the car, adding a custom blend of Calypso Coral. “It’s a little bit different than the original Calypso. It changes colors, too,” Hays says.

Uratchko Racing Engines went through the big block, freshening it up, and adding new rods, new rings, and a new cam. The engine picked up 40 horsepower with the changes, making around 1,300 horsepower on an engine dyno with a single carb on a cast intake. Then the – gasp, big block Chevy was installed into the car, only needing minor header work to get it in between the framerails. Slick Rick Racing Heads’ Rick McConethy did the top end of the engine originally. “These CF3 BMF heads were the first big block Chevy heads to flow over 500 cfm,” Hays says. Reportedly, the heads are the prototypes of the Brodix SR20 heads.

With the off-season changes Hays has made, he hopes his Uratchko Racing Engines-powered Fox LX is able to run in the 7.70’s in 2015, and win Milan Dragway’s All Motor class this year. That is the goal after all.

Interestingly, Tommy Delago, who is NHRA Funny Car racer Alexis Dejoria’s crew chief, lives near Hays, and he was able to help with getting the car sorted out. His help was needed, too, because Hays had the typical new car blues, almost putting the car into the Milan wall during the process of getting to know the new set-up. With insight from Delago, and a lot of help from Skinny Kid, the car was finally going straight down the track. Perhaps the car was rejecting its new powerplant, but we digress. For the June All Motor event at Milan, Hays qualified number six, and made it out of round one, but lost in the second round. His fastest pass was an 8.10, and he was slowly accomplishing his goals for the car.

Gone are the car’s original Pony wheels, in their place are Weld Racing’s finest drag offerings. Hey Alex, why did you get rid of the 5.0 emblems?!

For the July All Motor race, the team made a couple changes. One was to the hood to get more air into the engine, and accordingly, they also made carburetor jetting changes and again qualified in the top half of the field, running an 8.07 in the process. In August they built an air pan for the engine, and made a couple more carburetor adjustments. Hays qualified fifth at that race and made it to the final round, even beating Ford drag racing legend – and former director of Ford Racing Technology – Brian Wolfe in the semi-final round. However, his buddy Butch Kemp waited for him in the final; and Hays was unable to take the win. However, he ran a best elapsed time of 8.02 at that event, so he was steadily getting quicker each time out.

In September, they received some nice cool fall air. Delago shared a few ideas during the summer months that really made a difference in the September air. Off the trailer the car ran a 7.99 at 171 mph. The second pass was a 7.96, again at 171 mph. Then Hays went a little too aggressive with the timing, and the elapsed time suffered with an 8.03. Returning the timing back to where it was resulted in a 7.94 at 171 mph for the first round of eliminations. The next round he had to face Alan Pennywitt, who is Hays’ nemesis, and Pennywitt was able to get by Hays.

The interior of Hays’ Mustang looks how a seven-second race car should look, with a 10-point cage, removable steering wheel, Racepak digital dash, and the like.

In October, Hays’ birthday month, he had another event at Milan, but because of cool weather, the track decided to limit the racing to eighth-mile. While others made changes to their cars, Hays decided to stand pat with his combo since it was working so well. He qualified with a 5.08, but once again his buddy Butch Kemp ended his weekend. Butch never lost a round all of 2014 so that tells you something about him, and what Hays was up against.

What started out as an innocent 5.0L driven back and forth to church by a little ol’ lady, is now a seven-second naturally-aspirated drag strip monster. Unfortunately in Alex’s grandfather’s eyes, a big block Chevy now sits in place of the 5.0L.

Still, Hays finished third in All Motor points for 2014 and received Milan’s “Most Improved Driver of the Year” award. Not bad for his first year of heads-up racing. “Without my crew guys David Wilson, Paul Vandooren, Dave Dimitri, Steve Seregny, Randy Hovey, and my mom and dad Pat and Robin Hays, there’s no way I would be able to do any of it. I am very fortunate to have the support of many people,” Hays tells us. He also has a social media person for the team in good friend Tommy Jenkins. Jenkins posts race updates, videos, and pictures on Facebook and Instagram to keep Hays’ fans, friends, and family abreast of the goings-on during a race weekend.

To say Hays is looking forward to the 2015 race season would be an understatement. With the way he performed last year, he’s looking to improve, and move up in the points standings in 2015. He’s added a Book Racing billet carburetor, a Moroso vacuum pump, Menscer shocks, and a Neal Chance converter. With those changes, Hays is hoping for 7.80’s, maybe .70’s in really good air.

However, Hays’ grandfather still doesn’t understand his engine choice.

Photo credit: Dave Rocheleau/Angry Spider Photography