Over-Prepared Mustang

“This build started back in the beginning of January 2010, when I first picked up the car,” he explains. “I had bought it from an older gentleman who had it in a storage unit with only 60,000 miles on it. The car was pristine, no rust, and absolutely beautiful.”

While the original plan was to keep the car stock, he admits that didn’t last long. Brett’s 1999 Roush Stage II Mustang received a few modifications while serving as his daily driver for the next three years.

In 2013 he discovered the SCCA’s autocross program. “I ended up picking up a Miata for a daily driver and autocrossing the Mustang,” he says. “I know, totally ass-backwards of what I probably should have done.”

The changes already made to the Roush forced him into the Street Modified class, where he faced more agile cars. In 2015 he moved to a more level playing field by entering the C Prepared class. This class allows more modifications, but it caters to rear-drive domestics.

Brett also made his first trip to the Tire Rack SCCA Solo Nationals that year. “I finished 17th out of 38th in C Prepared, which I was pretty happy with considering my lack of experience or instruction and just running what I had with me.”

After the event, he learned that his car’s special Roush bodywork wasn’t technically legal for the class-call it a victim of the traditional, rather complex autocross rules structure. He didn’t want to “de-Roush” his car–one of only two built in that color–so he looked for a new venue.

“This is when I realized that CAM had officially become a class and was starting to take ground in a big way,” he explains. “I still remember seeing Steve Farkas’s Fox-body in SCCA’s SportsCar magazine and thinking, ‘That’s the class I want to be in. That’s who I want to beat.’”

Brett put the Roush up on jack stands and started the work: improved aero aids, better brakes and more suspension work. The CAM rules require the interior panels, so they had to go back in. To meet the 3200-pound minimum weight, he also added 87 pounds of lead—some in the spare tire well with the rest in the frame rails. Despite making less power than others on the grid, he figured that he had a chance of winning the national title–which he did, besting the class by nearly a full second, an eternity at the national level.

Don’t look for the car at this year’s championship event, though, as it’s currently being rebuilt for 2018. “I’m going to be making quite a few improvements over the next year,” Brett explains. “The biggest of course is the fact that the engine blew at an event last year–thankfully after Nationals. Above that, I will be stuffing 335s under the front very, very soon. A full roll cage, revised rear diffuser design from AJ Hartman, and a beefier dog- box transmission are definitely in the works.”

And then he hints that more parts from CorteX suspension may be part of the plan, too.