Photos By: Mark Gearhart

For Joey Redmond the journey into the Mustang realm took a different route than it does for many of us. Redmond is a lifelong car guy, beginning before he even had a license, he started modifying a handed down car, getting it ready to be something more than just a plain driver for the day when he’d finally be handed his license, and a ticket to freedom.

Like many of us Redmond has had a variety of different love affairs with various segments of our hobby. There’s been drag racing, car shows, and now drifting. “My passion has always been for cars, modifying them, making them what I think is the best they can be,” he says. His love of drifting in fact is so much, that he heads the only American magazine on the subject, Wrecked.

Life Changing Drive

Through his adventures in the world of tire smoke and power slides, Redmond made friends with drifting sensation and Mustang hero, Vaughn Gittin Jr. In 2011 with the new Coyote engine now providing the Mustang GT with it’s most potent basis for power ever, Gittin developed his RTR program.

When the RTR was completed, Gittin handed the keys to his friend Redmond and had him drive the car back from Michigan to California as a favor. Redmond didn’t realize it at the moment, but the drive he was about to embark on would forever change his car life.

Brakes from Wilwood handle the stopping, while RTR wheels wrapped in Continental rubber do their best to provide grip under Redmond's heavy right foot.

For many of the brand X faithful usually a ride or drive in a modified Mustang is like an injection of Ford blue blood into their system. Showing them what we already know. We hear countless stories about how it was a single event like this that changed someone’s brand allegiance quickly to the blue oval. It was the same for Redmond, “In my opinion, this was the greatest car ever made,” he told us of Gittin’s RTR. Redmond knew then that he wanted a Mustang of his own.

New Endeavor

Redmond’s latest business endeavor is FuelCulture.com, an online deal finder for high performance parts. Visitors to the site enter the parts they’re looking for, and the budget for those parts. The site does it’s best to then match the two, “It’s kind of like a Priceline for performance parts,” says Redmond.

This new business venture needed a project car to help showcase what they’re all about. Redmond sold his Nissan NISMO 370Z and set out to buy a newly refreshed 2013 Mustang GT. This was finally his chance to get a Mustang of his own, which he’d been looking forward to since that fateful cross country drive in the RTR.

The Candidate

Picked up from a dealer in the southern California area in May of 2012, the car itself was a fairly plain GT, with only two options, the SYNC system, and a driver’s power seat. Redmond had attempted to locate a no-options car, but none were available.

With a goal of debuting the car at SEMA, just five months from the date of purchase, he and his FuelCulture.com team set about transforming the Mustang into one of the first 2013 RTR’s.

Redmond's car was one of the first 2013 Mustangs to wear a Novi 2200. Paxton used the car as a development mule to verify fitment and tuning calibration for the refreshed S197.

Early to the Game

Almost as soon as it debuted many of us found out that the Coyote engine rewarded owners with incredible power numbers when paired with forced induction.

Redmond’s new Mustang was quickly sent to Paxton Superchargers, and became an R&D mule for that company. Although there was little mechanically changed to the Mustangs for 2013, companies that provide tuning software, Paxton needed to check and update their calibration software for the new model year Mustang.

Other upgrades to the engine would include a CSF radiator, Magnaflow high flow catalytic converters, and RTR axle back exhaust.

Magnum Shift

With just 600 miles on the odometer Redmond destroyed the car’s stock driveshaft. The stock MT-82 transmission was likely living on borrowed time as well under the Paxton’s fury and the cracking whip of Redmond’s power shifting. “We were having issues with the MT-82 being able to handle the torque,” says Redmond

As a result of the transmission’s persistent protests under it’s constant flogging, a Tremec T-56 Magnum XL transmission upgrade was chosen to beef up the powertrain. Much like this car was one of the first 2013 Mustangs to wear a Paxton supercharger, this was one of the first to also receive the T-56 Magnum XL swap. Redmond tells us that the swap made such a difference in the car, that if he only had to pick one modification, it would be the T-56 Magnum.

“To me, the car was bordering on perfection, installing that transmission with the direct shift instead of the semi-remote shift made it perfect,” he says. The transmission swap also necessitated a change in the clutch, since the input shaft spline count is different between the MT-82 and T-56 Magnum XL. Build sponsor ACT was tapped for their XACT flywheel, and heavy duty street clutch. A shorter driveshaft is also necessary, and something sturdier than the factory two piece was also called for. Dynotech provided exactly what was needed in this case, sending one of their custom aluminum units to provide the link between the transmission output shaft, and the pinion yoke of the rear differential.

Chassis

With the powertrain squared away, the car needed to stop and handle like an RTR Mustang. Stopping power comes via an upgrade to a Wilwood big brake kit. All of the rear control arm bushings including in the third link have been replaced by heavy duty pieces from Energy Suspension.

Setting the ride height and allowing the dampers to be adjusted is a complete Steeda adjustable coilover system. Steeda also provided the panhard bar, and the front and rear sway bars.

Custom Cabin

There are a lot of options out there for Mustang interior, but Redmond chose to go with something custom. The car was sent to Infinite Auto Design in Huntington Beach, California to get some upgrades that would set it apart from the rest, but look to be high end OEM in their final fit and finish.

Additional bolstering was added to the front seats. The rear seats were modified, having the enormous stock head rests removed, and replaced  with a molded in type that were used on earlier S197 models. The door panels and seat covers have custom double stitched upholstery as well. Then of course there’s the RTR floor mats, Schroth Racing belts, and the RTR dash plague, proclaiming that this is RTR #007 for 2013.

Left: Infinite Auto is responsible for the custom bolstering on the original seats, as well as their double stitched covers and the matching door panels. Right: The all important RTR dash plaque shows this is car number 007 for 2013.

Outside: RTR and Then Some

The Exterior of the car is what really grabs you though. Having received the full RTR body treatment which compliments the good looks of the Mustang and adds some definite appeal, Redmond was determined to set his Mustang apart from all the others. Keeping true to the blue oval the car was repainted a Ford OEM color. BASF Gold Bronze, a factory color on late model Ford Super Duty truck models was sprayed over the entire exterior, door jams, and engine compartment, replacing the car’s original Ingot silver hue. The combination of the RTR appearance mods and wheels, coupled with the gold bronze paint job makes us think Ford missed an opportunity to offer this color as an option on the current Mustang.

Today Redmond is enjoying the completed car, the first Mustang he’s ever owned, in fact other than his pickup truck, the first domestic car he’s ever owned. The car is serving as the calling card for FuelCulture.com, and will be participating in the Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour this summer. Until then Redmond will be showing off the car wherever he goes, and no doubt enjoying his initiation into the Mustang brotherhood, “Selling my 370Z and buying a Mustang was the best decision of my life,” he says, and we couldn’t agree more.