Matusek Completing Pro Mod Mustang with Mod Motor, Installing Roush/Yates Engine Later

Racers are a bunch of impatient people. By trait we want to get from point A to B as fast as possible and have little patience for delay. Steve Matusek, owner of Aeromotive, has this same disease. While he fully intends to put the Roush/Yates Pro Stock-esque mill into his new 2010 Pro Mod Mustang, he wants to go racing…now. Matusek sold his previous S197 Larry Larson built Ford Mustang to John Mihovetz, owner of Accufab and PSCA racer. The new Mustang is another Mustang built by Larry Larson, but based of the 2010 Ford Pro Stock body and a double frame rail chassis.

While Roush/Yates have made good progress on their new Pro Stock venture, they are only just getting dyno data on Pro Stock racer Justin Humphreys’ engine combination, with Matusek coming up after that. On the other hand, Matusek’s Mustang is nearing completion and he wants to get some miles out of his new Mustang as soon as possible. With that, Matusek plans to put his tried and true Ford modular motor in there for the time being.

“At the end of the day I am a racer and I’m tired of sitting on the sidelines, especially since I sat on the sidelines most of last year due to an injury, Matusek said. “Also we have some unfinished business with the mod motor since we just started getting a handle on it the end of last year.”

“First off we had to see if we could get the engine in the car, since the chassis was built off the 500ci platform. The mod motor is a lot different, though we made the car have the ability to accept either engine now. Also since the 500ci motor was going to run on alcohol – we had to add an intercooler and radiator for the mod motor so we can run in Comp Eliminator. At the end of the day, the weight will be nearly identical.”

When asking about their race schedule for the year, Matusek remarked, “We are going to try to test before the Topeka divisional race, then Topeka and hopefully Indy. We might even take the car to the NMCA finals to test the new engine combination if we get the engine in time.”

Matusek has learned a lot from their mod motor campaign and has continued to make improvements on the combination. They have redirected some of the oiling in the block, installed bigger billet 91mm turbos, strengthened the chain drive, and a variety of valvetrain changes sum up a few of the upgrades. For the transmission, they are ditching their Liberty 5-speed combination and going with a B&J three speed, though the bell housing and vehicle has the ability to also run the Liberty or Lenco too if they decide to change down the road.

From a chassis perspective, Matusek feels very confident that they have learned enough from their old car that they can translate that to a strong performer right off the trailer.

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