STEVE GOOCH — 1958 FORD THUNDERBIRD

There’s been no end of changes and drama with Steve Gooch’s unique twin-turbo Ford Thunderbird since it first graced these pages. Here’s how Steve recalls it: “I sent the car to Andre at Speedtech. Unfortunately, his dyno wouldn’t support the amount of torque the car made. Andre was good to deal with and we ended up sending the car back, but the transport company managed to tear the exhaust out of it. So after a $6500 repair and small claims court we managed to get the car sorted.” You reckon 10 weeks at a different tuner would be good to get it sorted? Not quite … that outfit managed to overheat the trans, melt the trust bearings out of it, and destroy the case. So another complete transmission had to go in, and Kaspa Transmissions came to the rescue. “I purchased a billet transbrake valve body from Jake’s Performance, which quickly burnt out the reverse band due to excess clearance in the valve body,” Steve mentions. “Kaspa rebuilt the trans again — clearly it was the valve body, but I can’t speak highly enough of the boys there for not charging for the second rebuild.” Then there were the converter issues. According to the Kaspa guys, the current one should have a stall of 2200rpm behind a big block, but with the boostthe-turbos build, it’s stalling at around 4200rpm. Aside from the driveline dramas, Steve’s also done a bit of preventative maintenance, especially with regard to under-hood temperatures, adding a belt-driven flexi fan to keep it cool, which has been working really well. “I’ve had a run at Winter Drag Wars and plan on heading to Father’s Day Drags [see elsewhere in this issue]. It’s still running a pump gas tune and full exhaust, so it makes the same 595hp at the wheels,” he reveals. But he has mounted another fuel cell and pump, and is just waiting on a chip to upgrade to the Autronic ECU to run two fuel maps, to run a high-boost C16 tune. “I’ve also been chasing a high-speed vibration after the drags, which I think I’m on top of now, and have had a few road trips to Leadfoot and Beach Hop, generally trying to get some use out of her. I enjoy building it, but have decided it’s time for the ‘using it’ phase. The drag racing phase is up next,” he says. As they say, good things take time, and with the amount of it that Steve’s lavished upon the Thunderbird, he’s ready to let the good times roll.