Joe Grippo’s 1970 “Mach 1” Mustang is a Pottstown Time Machine

Going fast is looking good. You know that is true after a blast from open headers blows down your row of cry baby dolls and all the guys on folding lawn chairs stop what they’re waxing and take a second look. Wrinkled meats and a ground-pounding cam turns heads, as did Joe Grippo’s Mustang when it stepped up to the line at Hemming’s Musclepalooza in Maple Grove, performed an easy wheels-up launch, and proceeded to click off a 10-second run, just to show everyone how it’s done. Hemmings editors on the hunt for the next feature car deployed the golf cart to meet Grippo at the top end for the interview. This is his story.

Before the internet was The Tradin’ Times, a periodical found at upscale locations like 7-Eleven in major metropolitan areas like Flourtown, Pennsylvania. The hardcore in our hobby knew when and where new editions would appear and showed up early to get the first look at the market for rust repair projects and Bondo sculptures. Fifteen-year-old Grippo’s window to thumb through the pages looking for his dream Mustang Mach 1 was Wednesday afternoon while bicycling home from school. Word was out and the payoff came when a 1970 SportsRoof was spotted for a princely sum of $400.

The dream of a code 63C Mach 1 was traded for the reality of a fastback with a 302 V-8, a 2-barrel carb, a C4 automatic, and an open 8-inch rearend (that becomes important later). The paint code read Calypso Coral, but the current livery featured a “bad blue paint job.”

Undeterred, Grippo dragged the car to his grandparent’s garage where he began to patch the doors and floors with parts scrounged from the local wrecking yard. He found a 1970 Mustang Grande and parted the deluxe interior and hood then added those to the mix. After a summer of work, Grippo got the car to run “okay” before it (and his pride) failed state inspection.

By the time Grippo was 16, the 302 had a 4-barrel and intake swap, and was he was cruising on the periphery of the famed Pottstown street races. This was in the ‘80s. By the early ‘90s, Grippo had an education and a job as an HVAC controls engineer. He bought a 4×4 Ranger to get to work, retiring the Mustang’s career as a daily driver.

By 1995, he had enough cash to get the quarters and rust replaced and the car painted. He was playing it safe at car club meets and cruise nights until he made the mistake of showing up at a club day at Maple Grove Raceway. Shortly after his fateful exposure to drag racing, he had swapped the 302 for a 351 and was running 13s.

The rest of the story should be familiar to everyone. With a 351 up front and slicks in the rear, all the stuff in the 8-inch broke. Grippo replaced it with a 9-inch from a Mach 1 and added 4.11s, roller rockers, more cam, more carb, and more converter. Having fun like an adult 15-year-old, Grippo detonated the engine at 6,500 rpm (okay, maybe 7,000) and split the block. He quickly ordered up a Dart Iron Eagle block, World Products iron heads, a Bullet cam, Callies crank, Oliver rods, and began shifting at 7,400 rpm (okay, maybe closer to 8,000). Dynamic Transmissions saved the C4s life with some good internals and Grippo and his Mustang went low 11s during Division 1 events.

Somewhere in there, the car was making enough power to break things like motor mounts and going fast enough to need a cage. Grippo added a motor plate and had a NHRA 8.50 cage built with downbars under the hood to tie everything together. He also pulled the engine and added Mahle pistons, more cam from Comp, and AFR 220 aluminum cylinder heads. He setup the rearend with a 4.56:1 ring and pinion with Mark Williams 35-spline axels. The current configuration is good for 10.00s in the quarter mile. Knowing that nine-second E.T.s  take yet another level of equipment and cash, Grippo stopped there.

The current configuration is a dead-reliable bracket car that should be running in Stock Eliminator. It sits on 15×8 and 15×4 E.T. Drag wheels from Mickey Thompson and 29×10.5 M/T Pro Bracket Radials. The suspension still uses a leaf spring setup with a Calvert Mono-Leaf springs, CalTracs Traction Bars and 9-way adjustable shocks in the rear. In front is an Open Tracker roller-bearing setup with crazy 30-way adjustables from Santuff. He uses a unique throttle control to set the launch rpm at 2,500-3,000 during staging so he can keep the foot brake instead of installing a trans brake. When the car is staged, he squeezes the handle to get the car up to 3,500 rpm on the converter. When the light turns green, he lets go of the handle, dumps the brake, and floors it.

The car looks and feels like it did in the ‘80s with some choice speed parts added along the way. We saw it run 10.17 at 130 mph at the Hemmings Musclepalooza show in April. If you want to see the car in person, it haunts Maple Grove on weekends during the summer. When you see him, ask him to demonstrate the throttle controls and thank his dad and wife for letting him bring the car to our show.

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