A local Mustang guy turns to a 17-year old stereo installer to wire a few nitrous kits, and the rest is history. The 17-year old kid was 2014 NMRA Renegade champion Bart Tobener, and the Mustang guy was UPR Products‘ Joe Mainiero. Of course, this was before the UPR Products that we know of today. Back in the day, after the elder Mark Maineiro became tired of working on Pontiacs, recognized the Ford market, specifically 5.0 Mustangs, was where they needed to be. When that happened, Unlimited Performance Racing was THE shop in south Florida to take your Mustang when it needed performance modifications.
At each Fun Ford Weekend, NMRA race, or World Ford Challenge, you just waited to see what UPR would have at the race. Sure enough, everything UPR had was stupid fast, whether if it was driven by Tobener, Joe Mainiero, Jeremy Martorella, or the legendary Willie Figueroa. Tobener, who had left the car stereo business behind, had a big part in it.
Over the years, Tobener toiled in various classes, building several race cars for both NMRA and Fun Ford Weekend competition, and making the move from south Florida, and UPR, to the Atlanta area, and MV Performance. During those formidable years, Tobener was successful in both the NMRA and Fun Ford, stringing wins together here and there, but with that going back and forth, he wasn’t really able to concentrate on winning a championship. All hat changed with the car you see here. This is the car in which he won his first championship in NMRA Renegade competition.
How did he get here? A lot of hard work, for one, but also a lot of experience at knowing what works and what doesn’t. That experience led Tobener to build this championship-winning combination.
Chassis and Suspension
It starts with the chassis. Calling on his roots, Tobener outfitted the car with UPR Products’ best both up front and out back. A chromoly k-member gets things started up front, with matching tubular A-arms, bumpsteer kit, steering rack, and caster/camber plates. Tobener makes front suspension changes by turning the knobs on a pair of Strange Engineering double-adjustable struts.
In the back, Tobener’s coupe uses UPR’s Pro-Series Extreme upper and lower control arms, with the corresponding double-adjustable anti-roll bar. Same as up front, Tobener makes compression and rebound adjustments thanks to a pair of Strange Engineering double-adjustable shocks. Living within the mini-tubbed rear frame rails is a Strange Engineering 9-inch rear with 40-spline axles and spool. Weld Racing V-Series wheels wears the appropriate rubber, both front and rear. In NMRA Renegade competition, the car wears Mickey Thompson ET Street Radial Pro 275/60s.
Exterior Appointments
As far as the car’s exterior, this is probably the nicest race car Tobener’s ever had. That’s saying a lot when you think about all the race cars he’s had. Starting with a Fox coupe body style, Tobener looked to Disco Dan Schoneck at Schoneck Composites for a hood and front bumper. The front bumper features an open air source, the first year this modification is NMRA Renegade-legal. In the back, a Hyperformance carbon fiber decklid helps to reduce overall weight.
Engine and Transmission
Now for everything you’ve waited for us to talk about; the car’s powerplant. Under that Schoneck Composites hood is a MV Performance-built iron block 5.4-liter modular engine with a Cobra Jet crankshaft, Oliver billet connecting rods, Ross pistons, King bearings, and ARP hardware throughout. Up top, Wilson Manifolds-ported Ford GT Supercar heads feature custom Bullet Racing cams, valve springs, and retainers. A Sullivan intake, also Wilson Manifolds-ported, uses a Berry Motorsports billet elbow, an Accufab 90mm throttle body, and Billet Atomizer 160 lb/hr injectors.
In NMRA Renegade competition for 2015, racers can choose from a turbocharger, supercharger, or nitrous oxide as a power adder. In every year leading up to 2015, turbochargers weren’t Renegade-legal. Being a supercharger guy anyway, Tobener chose a ProCharger F-1C 10.5 supercharger with an ATF Speed gear-drive and a Berry Motorsports sheet metal intercooler.
“I can’t work on cars forever,” Tobener says.
The converter is a Ultimate Converter Concepts 6,900 rpm stall converter. “The converter locks up at that rpm,” Tobener says. “I can actually foot-brake it to like 4,500 rpm,” he adds. Behind the ATF Speed Powerglide, the car’s steel driveshaft isn’t from a household name. “It’s one from a local shop called Ron’s Driveline,” Tobener tells us.
Championship Run
In 2014, Tobener put it on the Renegade class, running 7.90s on several occasions, and winning his first championship in the process. As a matter of fact, Tobener’s first 7-second pass was also the Renegade class’ first 7-second pass. He was the top qualifier at five of six races, and he put together wins at MIR, Norwalk, Joliet, and the NMRA World Finals at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He didn’t even have to win Bowling Green in order to win the championship, all he really had to do was show up, and tech in. However, he put an exclamation point on his season by winning the battle and the war. Up until Tobener’s 2014 championship run, Brian Mitchell had a stranglehold on the class. Tobener put an end to that.
In 2015, though, turbochargers and other supercharged power adders became legal, leaving Tobener a tenth off the fastest car in the field. No one wants to be a tenth off the fastest car in the field. To start the 2015 season, Tobener damaged a crankshaft, a connecting rod, and three pistons in his quest to keep up. Obviously, he wasn’t able to keep up at Bradenton, but the NMRA adjusted weights after the race, deducting 100 pounds off Tobener’s supercharged combination. As the season has gone on, no other adjustments have been made to Tobener’s particular combination.
So what are Tobener’s plans for the rest of the 2015 season? He does have a couple things he could try in an effort to go quicker. He’s going to give them a whirl, and he’s even talked about moving over the NMCA’s Extreme Street class. “My car actually fits Extreme Street better at this time,” Tobener says.
Tobener is also undergoing changes in his career life. He’s worked at MV Performance for some time now, but a familiar name, Race Parts Solutions and Jodar Performance Products moved to Bart’s neck of the woods in the Commerce, Georgia area. “I can’t work on cars forever,” Tobener says.
Whatever Tobener puts his mind to, he’s going to be a champ.