The need to purchase a new car arose one morning when I was driving to the post office in Herndon, Virginia. I was on my way there in July of 1997 in order to drop off a resume because I really needed a job. I was driving down Van Buren Street when a grey Chrysler LeBaron jumped out of nowhere. The car sped straight through a stop sign, and crashed into my 1988 Mercury Cougar, ripping the front end right off! It turned out that the offender was a kid named Darrell Rodriguez, and he was fleeing the scene of a hit-and-run that occurred about 2 minutes earlier. He messed his car up pretty bad, and couldn’t leave the scene of this accident. The only thing that kept me from getting out of the car and beating his ass was that I couldn’t get the driver’s side door opened. By the time I got out of the car, I had cooled down.

So you see, I needed another car. I liked the way my car looked and performed, however I knew that I needed something a little newer. A later-model Cougar or Thunderbird was a natural choice, and I really preferred the Thunderbird’s lines to that of its cat-like sister. I looked for several weeks for one that could offer me keyless entry and a moonroof, and was opened to either the SC or the 4.6L models. I finally settled on a jet-black 1995 4.6L with 24,000 miles on the odometer. It was quite a deal at $14,500, so I couldn’t pass it up. It had everything I could possible want, including ABS, the 8.8" rear end, leather seats, cruise control, CD player, moonroof, and keyless entry. It made it through my mechanic’s stringent tests, so I bought it the next night after work.

A few weeks after purchase, I thought that the car was just not doing it for me. After several conversations with my pal Jay Anderson, we decided that the reason I did not care for this car as much as my 1988 Cougar was because I hadn’t gotten involved with it. I hadn’t installed a larger throttle body. I hadn’t ported the intake manifold. I hadn’t sweated over the disassembled heads for hours as I installed rocker arms. I hadn’t taken a look inside of its soul, made changes to it, and pushed the car on to better time slips. OK, this may sound a little extreme, but you get the picture.

The first thing I had done was to have the windows tinted. I got 20% transmission tint, and it looks tight. Recently my friend Rand Dozier asked if the car had any windows. This made me feel real good about my decision to go black. They have gotten me in trouble, though. I was nipped by the cops in December of 1997 for going 27 in a 25mph zone. They used the dark windows as an excuse to search my car which "matched the description of a car seen fleeing the scene of a shooting near Dulles Park around 8pm." The thing was it was now after midnight, and I was never anywhere near Dulles Park. They asked to search the car, and I granted them permission to search everything but the glove box. Not that I had anything in there, I just felt like being a badass. I was detained on the side of the road for over 3 hours for being a badass, while they got the warrant to search the glove box. The cop was pissed that I was jerking his chain, so he issued me a citation for illegal tint, and called it a night. I then promptly sued the police department where I got pulled over (as per the terms of the settlement I cannot disclose the name) and received $2672 for my inconvenience. That’s $763.43 per hour!

I have been doing intense research on MN12 cars for almost a year now. I have done the customary K&N filter transplant, and even installed factory-like fog lamps. I have also added a 145 MPH Speedometer and NR Auto white-face gauges to spruce up the car's appearance. In an effort to beef up the car's suspension and handling capabilities, I have installed an anti-sway bar as well as 'Cobra R' type rims and 13" front brakes with dual-piston calipers. I moved up to the 13" rotors after my stock 10 inchers warped pretty bad. The car really sticks to the road and stops on a dime with these handling upgrades. I still feel that the car is lacking in performance. I had Chantilly Steering and Alignment install the Dynomax cat-back system along with the MN12 Performance downtubes and resonator. I would have done the installation myself, except that I don't have the equipment to weld the pipes together. I don't see too much of a power increase, but the car does sound a bit tougher with the new exhaust. The exhaust should set me up well for future improvements though. I also had the Ford external transmission cooler installed underneath the radiator to prolong the life of the transmission that is experiencing the well-know 'torque converter shudder' common to all Thunderbirds. It has mitigated this manufacturer's defect to some degree. That's the most recent update on my car. Please be sure to check back to see the progress that I've made on Tical, my 1995 Ford Thunderbird!