SEMA Top 10 – #8 Widebody Mustang

Top 10 of SEMA 2015 – #8 Widebody Mustang

Published By Nick Koskowski

Picking the Top 10 vehicles of SEMA 2015 was a hard task. Quality-built cars and trucks are everywhere, but the list wouldn’t be complete without Matt Alcala’s ProTouring ’65 Mustang.

Every body panel of this thing, except for roof, has been modified to look and perform well. The car is widened by a total of four and a half inches. Today, this just makes you would think that is just has four and a half inch flares slapped on the side to make it a widebody. This is not the case with Matt’s car. The entire car is widened, not just the wheel openings. The team at Best of Show Coachworks in Escondido, CA put a ton of time and effort into giving the car a relatively factory appearance. Matt wasn’t going for the giant flares and “Look at me, I have a widebody!” look. He wanted subtle and functional. Everything is hand fabricated, including the front end, hood scoop, widened doors, fenders and quarter panels with functional scoops for the transmission and differential coolers.  Best of Show has put out some great cars in the past, but this is a real standout.

Matt has built ProTouring cars before, so he knows how important the right components are to make it drive and handle like he wanted. The powerplant is a Coyote Boss 302 with the Cobra Jet intake, headers, camshafts and a custom ram-air intake. This modern Ford power is sent through a Tremec TR6060 6-speed manual. The Coyote swap may not be as popular as the LS, but it is becoming more feasible as an option. I would much rather see a Coyote than an LS in a classic Ford, but brand loyalty isn’t as strong as it once was.

The suspension is a combination of Detroit Speed and Mike Maier components. The front setup is Detroit Speed’s Alumaframe setup. This is a total subframe with Detroit Speed’s custom tubular control arms, spindles, splined sway bars, rack-and-pinion steering and specially-valved aluminum JRi coilover shocks. This gives it a total of 6-inches of travel with a comfortable ride, but handling on par with modern sports cars.

The rear suspension is sourced from Mike Maier Inc. Mike Maier has been racing Mustangs and tuning suspension since he was a kid. The long family history and knowledge base led him to start his own company and begin producing top-notch classic Mustang suspension. The setup in Matt’s ’65 is their MOD2 Torque-arm system surrounded by a full-floater 9″ rear end. This also includes a set of specifically tuned JRi Shocks. Maier uses this setup on his ’66 Mustang and has won winning national championships and countless autocross events with it.

Matt managed to get the suspension system rock solid, so the next step was brakes. You don’t build a ProTouring car and just rebuild the old drum brakes. These cars are meant to be driven hard on a regular basis. This includes occasional trips to the autocross or road course. He went with StopTech’s Trophy big brake kit. This included 6-piston calipers up front with 4-pistons in the back. The pedal system and master cylinders were sourced from Wilwood.

To keep the unsprung weight as low as possible while keeping a wide contact patch, Alcala had Forgeline build him a set of their Gz3R forged wheels. They measure 18×11″ all around and are wrapped in 315/30R18 BFG Rival S tires.

Matt’s Mustang is one of our favorite Mustang builds in the past few years. It definitely turned heads in the Spec Clutch booth at this the SEMA 2015 show. We couldn’t help but pick this ride after seeing it all clean and untouched at SEMA and then watching it tear up the track at Optima’s Ultimate Street Car Invitational the day after. Stay tuned for the next seven Top 10 picks.

Check out the video below of Matt’s Mustang pulling into the shop!