Living life to the full P

ro-Touring is a relatively new style that has washed over to these shores from the land of the free and opportunity. The concept behind the style is to keep the car’s body looking relatively original (with the option of body kits in some cases)

Words and Pics: James Webber speaking the Pro-Touring definition applies mainly to muscle cars. Steven Cox, for example, works with Land Rovers by day, and people are forever modernising those while keeping them looking standard. But since when was a Land Rover capable of being Pro-anything? but with modern and enhanced suspension, brakes and wheels.

‘I’ve always had a strong interest in my cars since I was young,’ he says. ‘Back in South Africa, growing up I learnt most things from my Dad and my Grandad during my first car ownership.

This is a formula you can apply to almost any vehicle of a certain age, however strictly

Steven wasn’t about to be that guy. And anyway, he might work on vehicles made in Solihull but his heart lies further west. To put it bluntly, he’s a Mustang man.

‘I’ve always had a huge passion to work on cars, making them into what I feel they should be and sorting any issues along the way. I’ve always strived to live for the day and jump on every opportunity that arises, and this has enabled me to slowly build my way up to better and more powerful vehicles, be they on two or four wheels.’

In 2016, my dad was finally at a point in his life where he could treat himself to something new. We bounced back and forth between a BMW or a Mercedes… or a Mustang, as they had recently become available in the UK.

‘With our love for American vehicles ruling over any common sense, he decided to take the plunge!’

It may have been his old man’s car, but Steven loved it like it was his own.

‘I was there as often as I could be, detailing it, stealing it and just outright bugging him that it’s my inheritance!’

That turned out to be strangely prophetic, however, when four years later the story took a nasty turn. ‘In October 2020,’ Steven tells us, ‘I was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer. It’s an incurable cell-based cancer that attacks the hormonal system; it can spread to almost any part of the body and prevent organs from functioning properly.

‘Currently, my condition is stable. The tumours often tend to be slow growing and symptoms stay pretty mild, but it can be unpredictable like any cancer and one day it may become more aggressive and spread.

Early inheritance

‘With the uncertainty that any day I could have less than a year ahead of me, or another 30, my dad decided it was time for me to have that inheritance so he could be sure I will definitely get to enjoy it.’

So Steven was now the owner, and you’d think a very proud one, of a modern

Mustang. But it’s what the two of them did next that will stir your soul.

‘I feel more comfortable in an older car,’ he admits. ‘It’s where my knowledge is and the experience of the drive is always there.

‘Dad decided to go for a ’66 as a replacement for the excitement a Mustang brings, which we all knew he would miss. So I then sold the 2016 and followed suit with a ’65, to make sure that every time we can be at a show together, we will be.’

Steven travelled across southern England to buy the Mustang from a guy in Hemel Hempstead. ‘I found it was not running well at all. I discovered some of the plug leads had burnt through and the Weber carb system was unbalanced and majorly over-fuelling the engine. So the first change I made was to an Edelbrock 4-barrel carb and intake system.’

Front to back

That was just the beginning, though. Only one of the Mustang’s headlights was working, so Steven decided to check all the wiring. Then he found that the steering wheel was loose and there were nuts and bolts missing: somewhere down the line, this car had been badly bodged.

‘It was then that I decided to go through it from front to back and make it my own as I went along.’

And he sure has. Which is where the Pro-Touring vibe comes on. The Mustang doesn’t appear drastically non-standard, but the more you look beneath its skin, the more you see how much it’s had done.

Coincidentally, the build was done in 2016, the same year as that modern Mustang. It’s just that the build wasn’t completed until Steven got his hands on it and did it right.

The full spec on the engine is that it’s a fully rebuilt 1970 Ford 302ci V8, bored out 30 over and fitted with full MSD ignition as well as that 4-barrel Edelbrock. It runs long-tube headers and a Magnaflow exhaust (soon to be changed for a cherry bomb with electronic cut-outs) as well as an uprated radiator and cooling system, and behind it is a Borg Warner T5 World Class box.

Keeping it stiff

So it goes right, and a disc brake conversion using early 2000 Mustang rotors and new