Brothers Take a Mustang from the Sidelines to Sick Week in Less Than Three Months
Brothers can look out for one another, as well as influence one another. David Diehl had already taken his 1994 Ford Mustang to the first Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive in 2022, and completing the week 10.45 average. Fast forward seven months, and David’s brother Nick had ideas on going fast with a Mustang, but instead of concentrating on the blue ’94 model, Nick had a different steed in mind.
“The last time the (2001 Mustang) was out was in 2018,” said Nick, claiming “on a dirt road tune up we went 8.22.” Life happened, and with both brothers have families and kids, they decided to tear down the orange Mustang and focus on safety. “Between covid and life, it just sat a shell of its former self,” said Nick. “After 2022 Hot Rod Drag Week, I told Dave I was ready to wiggle our way up the Sick Week list, and it was time to resurrect the orange car.”
Starting the project on November 25, 2022 meant the brothers had just over eleven weeks to complete the work to make it to Sick Week. After welding the roof back on and cutting the floor out, the Diehls purchased a Moore Race Chassis 25.2-SFI spec roll cage kit.
Sick The Mag keeps its web articles ad-free thanks to merch sales and magazine subscriptions. Thank you to all of you who wear our stuff and read our books!
They also got a jump on a new engine, choosing a 408 cubic inch LS powerplant. The filled it with a Molnar crankshaft and connecting rods. CP got the call for pistons, and a Baker Engineering custom camshaft pairs with NASCAR-style short travel lifters. LSA cylinder heads top the short block, BTR covers the rest of the valvetrain parts.
A Holley High Ram intake gets the boost from a GT55 94-millimeter turbocharger from Bullseye, and the power passes through a Jonathan Michael Capizzi-built Turbo 400 3-speed automatic packing a Hughes bolt together converter.
The rear end is a Merillat Racing 9-inch packed with a 3.25 gear and 40 spline axles, and connects to Merillat Racing’s upper and lower torque boxes. TBM Brakes slow everything down after a pass, and engine management is handled via a FuelTech FT600 system.
Everything was completed in time, and the brothers even got four dyno pulls in before making the trek to Sick Week. “We planned on testing on Friday, but the weather had a different plan,” said Nick. “Then we found out that there was a test session at Bradenton Motorsports Park, but again the weather had different plans.” They had to settle for street miles before registration open on Sunday to shake down the car.
Rolling into Monday, the Diehl bothers opened with an 8.23 at 163 mph pass, but discovered a few issues. “We started to struggle with the car driving left,” said Nick. “We were able to fix that, and then we got a fuel pump fuse problem.” Working through the fuel pump issues, broken exhaust and loosing drive belts, they rolled through four days of tracks and street miles with a best of an 8.11 at 165 mph at Gainesville Raceway on day four.
Day five found the orange Mustang back at Orlando ‘Sick’ World Dragway, and Nick thinking a seven-second pass was in the cards. “On the final day, we were sure we figured it out,” he said. “We added 1.5 pounds of air to the tire and tightened the shocks down, and I stuck in the hell Mary pass. Well, it didn't go.”
Finally, a track official showed Nick the problem. “They noticed some water on the right-hand side of the track after our pass,” said Nick. “Turned out that our water tank was leaking this whole time.” After draining the water tank, and fixing the lid with dunk tape, David got an 8.09 at 167 mph pass to end the week, an average of 8.25 to finish eighth in class.
“In the end, we built a new car, took it to Florida, and tested it, went low eights every day, and drove that car back in the trailer,” said Nick. “What's not to be happy about?”.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Nick Diehl and Sick the Magazine.