Don Bryant has had the Mustang since he was 17 – it was his first car. You might not know it from looking at him, but Bryant is a quiet, hard working man from Knoxville, Tennessee.

“I just kind of started hot rodding it little by little,” says the somber and serious voice of Bryant. “It’s really been my only car.” The Mustang came black when his dad gave it to him as a present, but Bryant had it sprayed turquoise almost 20 years ago. Most recently, Dustin Lee at Clyde’s Body Shop shot the car with a Turquoise Poly by DuPont.

“[The best part of the car is] just the way people have flocked to it,” says Bryant. “Regardless of whether they are a Chevy guy or whatever, most seem to like it.” Bryant recently completed his second race in a small 1/8 mile bracket racing series on the east coast, The King of the Street Series.

“We didn’t have a good show but man did we have fun down there,” Bryant said about his second try at the King of the Street Series. “We just wanted to come out to show support and let them know we’re coming next year.” He entered the KinMark, King of the Street series at Rockingham during the Holcomb 10.5 Civil Wars Shootout. It was the season ender.

He had a nitrous backfire on the rev-limiter that lost him the race in the early rounds of eliminations at Rockingham. “It’s the biggest class I’ve had to work with,” Bryant states, discussing stepping into a competitive class like the King series. He has raced on and off again for most of his life, but he has never been involved with this type of competition. “They have just been the most accommodating guys. I’ve only been there two times.” said Bryant. “They don’t make me feel like I am an outsider.”

Bryant has run the Mustang in only a few other races. He ran the three Pinks All Out shows, but with little success, making qualifying rounds but never TV time. “I guess you could say I have quite a bit [of drag racing experience],” said Bryant. “But never enough.”

He has driven for other owners and built engines for friends in his off season. You can see his name written on his valve covers, but Bryant found it too stressful to pursue engine building as his racing became more serious. Bryant used to build anything that made power with no regard to the brand, but today he sticks with Ford stuff. He works on the power train for his crew member’s car.

“I’m just kind of doing my own deal now. Just parted ways with that stuff,” said Bryant. “It was mostly when I wasn’t racing my own stuff.” Drag racing was not Bryant’s necessary initial intention with the car. He just wanted to build a cool Mustang, and he did. “Heck, I drive to work sometimes,” said Bryant. Though not too often, as he runs a C16 VP fuel that is rated at 114 octane.

Unfortunately, Bryant’s drag racing career has been on the back-burner recently; he works at the local Honda dealership selling parts. When he’s not working, he’s been caring for his mother, who has health issues. “I just don’t have the time to race like I want to. It’s hard for me to break away,” Bryant says. However he does find the time once in a while to take this ‘street car’ to the neighborhood cruise behind the local K-mart, and he sometimes participates in the occasional rod run in Pigeon Forge, TN.

There are a lot of unsung heroes of this ultra clean ’65 that have helped Bryant to make his high school car what it is today. David Gill with GillWelding.com handled most of the fab work, Rob Urwand handles the hook-ups to the laptop and other computer tuning work, and Rick Anderson escorted Bryant to his first King of the Street run at Rockingham and handles the machining work. Finally, Rob Nockes and Don Dasha act has Bryant’s track day crew.

THE CAR:

Engine:
320ci Ford (smallest in class)
Edelbrock Victor heads and intake Pro Systems Carb

Transmission:
Doug Nash 5 speed with Liberty gears

Misc:
Runs mid to high 5.00s on an 1/8th
Mickey Thompson 28X10.5
Tubbed chassis
Edelbrock/Steve Johnson Nitrous–180 shot and above