Jack Rouch's Maverick ?

Can't get enough of

This is the car as it sits today. Its mainly suffering from long term storage. This pic was taken by the former owner some time ago, but it looks exactly like that today. Paint peeling (the original silver paint is underneath), dry rotted tires, brakes shot, leaky fuel system from age. Going to take a LOT of work, but I can't wait to get started! Have already bought new tires, fuel system, brakes just to get it safe to move around. Engine runs great and is all there.

Plan is to bring it back to it's original appearance. One item I can't replicate is the front tires. No one reproduces D70-13 Goodyear Polyglas tires and both Coker Tire and Kelsey Tire have both said "no molds, no plans to make them". So, I picked up a pair of new Mustang II rotors with 5 lug, a pair of original 73 Mustang aluminum 14x6 slots, and D70-14 Firestone Polyglas tires! Should give the look and only gain a 1/2" or so ride height. I can save the original 13" ET slots for later in case tires turn up to put it back original.

Here is another early article on the car dates spring of 1976, super stock magazine. Shows the car finished in it's original setup.

Here is the car from the 1977 Hot Rod magazine article, "Sudden Death". I think thats the appearance everyone remembers. This is with the 505" motor, freshly done during the winter of '76. I even had the license plates reproduced

I think it's that you found it again. Thanks for sharing. (Join us at the Bash)

Cool. Another great thread .......

OMG, does this bring back memories! I read and re-read that Hot Rod story so many times back in the day that I still have parts of it memorized - especially the part about down goes the gasser, lockup goes the convertor etc. I was just a young fella back then, and i wanted to have a car like that so bad I could taste it. Had to settle for a 429 thunderjet F100.
Hope I didn't post anything untrue about Wayne back on page one - I'm going off of memory, and that was 35 years ago.

And more...
I remember reading another article about Ruggirello wanting to race a mean Hemi car. The guy wouldn't race because something in the suspension was broken and Ruggirello was saying he shouldn't be out there if he wasn't ready to run. And something about if this 500 incher can't beat him, I've got G&R building me a 600 incher that will!
Then later I read about the Hemi car and they said he'd dusted off the acknowledged king of the hill, a 500 inch Mustang II. Did Joe ever put the 600 inch in and race the Hemi guy?
God I'm old and pathetic - can't believe I still remember that stuff...

John I. wrote:And more...
I remember reading another article about Ruggirello wanting to race a mean Hemi car. The guy wouldn't race because something in the suspension was broken and Ruggirello was saying he shouldn't be out there if he wasn't ready to run. And something about if this 500 incher can't beat him, I've got G&R building me a 600 incher that will!
Then later I read about the Hemi car and they said he'd dusted off the acknowledged king of the hill, a 500 inch Mustang II. Did Joe ever put the 600 inch in and race the Hemi guy?
God I'm old and pathetic - can't believe I still remember that stuff...

I guess we're just showing our age John, But thats okay. Those day's were a blast.

It was the Car and Driver article that had them talking about the Challenger Hemi that showed up not willing to run due to something in his suspension being broken. Ruggirello said that if the 460 wouldn't do it, he had G&R building him a 500 incher that would. That is the engine that was in it in the Sudden Death Hot Rod article.

I posted one page of that C&D article here showing Joe with the car. I found the article from Car Craft on Steve Lisk's Challenger where it said he beat the little Mustang, but I don't know what happened after Joe put the 505" motor in it as a result of that. It wasn't a few months later that he had G&R put the twin turbos on that motor. I did read on a mopar forum from someone who knew the cars, rode in this one with the turbos on it, said the Challenger wanted no part of this car at that point. Who knows, but it must have been a great time!! The Challenger weighed 3400#, 430" Hemi, tunnel ram, lenco trans. One pro stock driver at the time is quoted as saying the little Mustang II with the twin turbos "pulls harder than my pro stock in high gear". Wonder if they ever got the II and the Challenger lined up?!

I just love the history of this car and am determined to preserve it. I figure I could have the engine look exactly like it did then, but upgrade internally and some blue thunder heads since they are the only ones that look like factory contour on the ends.

Gonna be fun either way!

I'll post up the rest of that C&D article for you.

Car and Driver article from 1976.

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

Page 7

That is still one of the best articles I've ever read, (kept this 18yr at the time fantasizing!) and still have a huge mag collection dating back to '73... mosly Ford articles.
Speaking of Gapp & Roush, all of my high school Chebbie buddies an I (had a '68 390GT Mustang Fastback then) drove to Dragway Park Cayuga in late June '76 (I'm originally from St. Catharines, Ontario/ Niagara on the Lake) to watch Gapp & Roush in their Mustang II square off against Jenkins.
Final score: G & R - 3, J - 0 Guess who was standing tall that day
Here's a link to a pic I found of that day, I was probably about 20' to the photographer's right, along the fence.
http://public.fotki.com/predmond/assorted_race_cars/drag_cars/drag_cars/gappgrump.html

Thanks for the memories! I even remember where I was when I read that story. I would have put money on Ruggirello saying "If my 500" won't do it, I've got G&R building me a 600" that will"...but there it is right in front of me, so I guess I would have lost my money.

Also said something to the effect of it being an all aluminum Can-Am motor as well.

This is (TOO ) Brings back alot of memories of my street racing days.

Here is the engine when I saw the car in 1995 at Gainesville Raceway. Wish I could have found someone that day to buy it from!

Awesome thread! Thanks for sharing. I remember seeing that car in magazines. Glad you are saving it.

TJ

Here is the engine as it appears today (pay no attention to the dated photo). Note the notch cut in the cowl. Don't know why that was done and it will be the hardest repair on the car for paint. Luckily the former owner saved the Accel distributor Roush installed. It was a tach drive unit with Roush scribed info on the side of it. You can see the turbos were rotated and intercooler added. The car never had any type of boost control on it originally, no waste gates, nothing. The pop-off valve was added with the intercooler setup.

How fast was the car with the twin turbos ??

Travis