Noel Valdez is no stranger to building fast cars and drag racing. He’s had a Mustang Cobra, Pontiac Trans Am, and a back-halved 1963 Chevy Nova. He decided to get rid of the Nova in the summer of 2020 and got bored with the Trans Am. He decided he wanted to build a compact truck but was looking for something a little rarer and more unique. A friend of his in Salinas, California, had this 1972 Ford Courier sitting in a barn. It was a roller in pretty rough shape, but the body was clean. It also had a past racing life running 10-second quarter miles with a small-block Chevy back in the early 2000’s.
Noel wanted to be able to build the truck with a Chevy LS motor, so he installed a Ford Mustang II front suspension to make room for it. He then installed a LQ9 (6.0L V8) outfitted with a Brian Tooley Racing turbo cam and valve springs, 243 heads, a Holley Hi-Ram intake, and a pair of 67mm turbos VS Racing that are tuned to deliver about 15 pounds of boost, a setup that Valdez estimates to be good for about 850 horsepower at the rear wheels. But even with the Mustang II front suspension, he still faced some challenges getting everything to fit in the tight confines of the Courier engine bay. The air-to-water intercooler is what makes the intake stick up really high.
A two-speed Powerglide transmission sends the power to the rear wheels through a Ford 9-inch rear end, and a Holley Terminator X Max is onboard to manage the proceedings. The Terminator X Max controls the boost, trans brake, and pretty much everything else all with one unit.
The suspension uses QA1 coilovers and Weld AlumaStar wheels wrapped in Mickey Thompson drag slicks ensure that the power gets put to the pavement.
The interior is pretty much stock except for the Motion Raceworks steering wheel, racing harnesses and aftermarket buckets.
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