New to the HiPo group

Hello, my name is John Ruth.

I have been involved with Mustangs for some 25 years in all manner from MCA show car to my hobby of the last 15 years of Historic road racing.

My current car is a 1966 Mustang Notchback, originally made in New Jersey, sent to Tn, then exported to Mexico in 1966.

While in Mexico, the car did amateur road races. It was always raced in Mexico (no US history) from late 1966 - 1970 actively - then sporadically from 71-74.

The car raced out of Tuluca Mexico and was owned by a racing company owned by a Mr. Ramirez and Mr. Rojas. They also owned a construction company and used the car as a form of promotion - they used drivers mostly from the local of the race event to save costs. There was minimal sponsorship from Shelby de Mexico - the car was required to sport the Shelby de Mexico decals on the sail panels and rear tail light panel + under hood, in order to receive a discounted price on parts.

The Mustang raced at Tuluca Road races, Leon Guanajuato races, Valle de Bravo Chaves, Acapulco, Magdalena Mixhuca Circuit de Mexico and Guadalajara - and local races as well.

It also ran then in FIA Mexican Road race Series, similar to the SCCA Trans Am Series in the late 60's early 70's and in the Mexican Libre class 70 on up using a 302 Boss and 351 W engine.

The Musatng retained its original specification most of its race career - though at times sported a large hood scoop to clear the 351W, while it raced in Libre. The car is returned to its early race configuration with a 289 and close ratio top loader.

The car returned to the USA - eventually to Dearborn, Michigan where I bought and restored the car. As of now the car is restored 100%, except for the exterior paint which is the original paint. I think it gives the car a patina, and is from the ra, so I am trying to preserve it as long as possible. I race the Mustang out of Michigan, and run Historic events from Road America to Watkins Glen.

I am considering purchasing a HiPo stret Mustang in the future, so wanted to meet up with you all -

With best regards,

John Ruth

Here is the Mustang in action

The exterior paint is original paint from the early '70s season , with a lot of work done to restore its luster! The competition orange (Poppy Red) front valance was painted in the bright color to allow the team to identify the Mustang from other cars on circuits and the street courses it ran on in period.

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Here is a picture of the engine bay. 289 cid with Cobra Hi Rise intake, competition prepared Holley 650 double pumper, original Shelby Belanger drag headers. Horsepower = 430 on dyno.

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If anyone has any questions, or interest in Historic racing Mustangs, I will be happy to discuss them with you all.

Thanks for the nice welcome,

John

Gary,

Good question - finding car history -

I have a few historic racing cars - this Mustang being one, and it takes a while to gather all the old owners names, then to get them to talk about their experiences+ share pictures etc. Seems like a lot of the old racers viewed their cars as tools to get the job done, and many do not even have many pictures of their old cars.

On the Mustang, I was lucky enough to find that it had only 2 owners ( besides myself ) - and the 2nd owner recalled one of the original team members name - mainly because his brother shared the common 1st name!

Through a friend that is fluent in Spanish, I was able to find the original team member ( in all places, Chile ) - this took about 3 years to locate him. Remember the car ran out of Mexico - so I had to start tracing names there, and wind the way to Chile. This man was the cars main fabricator, or repair man, so he identified all the unique traits ( read repairs ) the Mustang had, and provided 2 pictures of the car from period, as well as confirming the overall story of the car + races it ran. It was unfortunate that the actual team owners had passed, but did find the 1 guy who was involved with the old racer.

I also race a ex-SCCA MGB roadster in historic racing that ran out of Grand Rapids Michigan. You would think that tracing the cars history would be rather easy ( since I live in Michigan ! ) - though the MGBs history also took about 2 years, and I am still in process of geting pictures and entry lists from old SCCA guys that recall the roadster in period. The fact that the MGB ran from 1965-1979 makes for a lot more people who remember the car.

The Mustang ran from 1966-1970 - then 1971-74 sporadically. Seems like the record keeping in Mexico is not as good as the SCCA's results, though I recently meet yup with a man who was a volunteer race registrar at many Mexico road races, so this may be a possible lead to obtaining entery lists for the car to confirm drivers names.

So getting the history basically comes down to a lot of time and leads being checked, returning empty handed, and checking some more! I suppose most of us will never get the entire history down for our cars, but getting 1 piece is better then nothing!!

Best regards,

John