Sitting on a jig at Bell ChassisWorks in Woodstock, GA, Todd Berry’s 1990 Mustang is just a couple of months removed from winning in Limited Street and setting a new speed record of 162.46 mph at the Outlaw Racing Street Car Association’s (ORSCA’s) 2006 season ender. That performance convinced Berry and driver Eric Dillard it was time to step up with a chassis upgrade to 25.2 specifications, but not so long ago the car lay abandoned to rust away in a north-Georgia forest.

“We went over to a buddy of mine, told him I was hunting a Mustang to race, he had one, and I told him I’d give him $200 for it,” Berry recalls. “This car was literally drug out of the woods. We pulled it out, took it to my shop, completely stripped it, and started from there.”

The initial build to an eighth-mile, 6.0 index racer was handled by Jason Mote in 2003; then Berry caught the Limited Street bug a couple of years back and stepped up with a new small-block nitrous motor put together by Pro Line Race Engines, also in Woodstock, GA. That’s where Berry first met Pro Line co-owner Dillard. “I found out he wanted to drive, so I sort of watched him for two or three months, liked what I saw, and put him in the car.”

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The twin-turbocharged, Pro Line-built 598 cubic incher patiently awaits reunification with the 1990 Mustang it propelled to a fifth-place finish in ORSCA Limited Street points last year.

That was November 2005, but Dillard and his cohorts at Pro Line, including Outlaw 10.5 record holder Tim Lynch and turbo guru Steve Petty, who both work at the shop, soon convinced Berry to switch over to turbocharged power and they completed the Mustang’s second incarnation just in time for last year’s ORSCA season opener at Atlanta Dragway.

“We were rushed to get it done and it hurt our consistency, at least early in the year” Dillard admits. “Every race we might go one or two rounds, but then the fuel pump would fall off, or the oil pump belt would come off, or the turbos were oiling because they were mounted too low. That’s when I suggested to Todd that we bring the car to Joey (Bell) here. He took a look at it and remounted the turbos, remounted everything on the front of the engine and that’s when we really took off. We were able to stop having to fix things all the time and concentrate on how to go fast and go rounds at the track. Bringing the car here was the turning point to our season.”

Shortly before the ORSCA win at Jackson, SC, Dillard confirmed Berry’s driver choice by picking up his career-first race title at a big, outlaw event at North Carolina’s Piedmont Dragway. It also confirmed that while Berry’s team was on the right path, it was somewhat hobbled by what remained an essentially stock Mustang fitted with ladder bars and a rollcage. The decision was reached then to commission Bell to update the chassis.