Oh Boy, did these car thieves screw with the wrong person. The owner isn’t sitting around crying, he is doing something about it. He is publishing the details of the car all over the internet, and with your help, the thieves may realize its hopeless, and Josh may get his car back.
2003 Mach 1 Mustang Race Car STOLEN on or about 5/15/2010
Josh Klugger’s Outlaw Drag Radial Mustang was stolen this weekend from a self-storage facility in Ocala, FL on the weekend of 5/15/10. Please forward this to EVERYBODY you know. Maybe we can catch the thieves before they get a chance to dismantle it.
The car was last raced at South Georgia Motorsport Park at the Boost vs No Boost race in Valdosta, GA about 2 weeks earlier. The car was in a 48′ enclosed trailer in a self-storage facility in Ocala. Somebody apparently stole a truck to hook up to the gooseneck trailer, pulled the trailer forward, broke into it and stole the race car. They left the stolen truck hooked up to the trailer, so they must have had their own truck and trailer waiting. This is a 6 second drag radial car, so it’s not really a car that could be driven very far at all. No radiator, small fuel cell, etc.
If you see any parts to this car, any body panels that look like they may have come off it, any suspicious people that suddenly have a car hidden under a cover somewhere, whatever, please let me know. You can email me at [email protected]
The car is so custom, that many parts on the car are unique to the type of racing we do, where the motors make over 2,000 horsepower. The car was just repainted a 2010 Mustang dark blue color. In the sunlight, it can look somewhat purplish. I’ll include pictures of the car from when it was black as well, so you can get a good idea of what the whole body looks like. I only have a few pictures of the new paint job, and they are mostly closeups. The body looks the same as it did when it was black. Here are some unique aspects of the car to be on the look out for:
Carbon fiber 03/04 Cobra front bumper cover – Carbon fiber tall cowl induction hood that fits tight to the windshield – Rollcage is painted a dark gray hammercoat color – Hurricane Performance.com windshield sticker – New polished stainless “bullhorn” exhaust pipes that come out the bottom of the fenders and point upward like stacks – The car was just painted dark blue/purplish color, but under the hood it’s still painted black. – Black Skinny Kid rear wing – Twin parachutes – MSD/Racepak instrument cluster and Racepak datalogger – Proline Racing 450+” small block Ford motor – Keith Neal powerglide transmission – Carbon Fiber driveshaft – Alston Chassis “Fab 9” rear end housing made to bolt into Mustangs – Twin precision turbo 91mm turbos (huge) Twin Tial wastegates – Coan bolt-together torque converter (very heavy duty-high rpm stall) – Alston Chassis “Chassisworks” double-adjustable rear shocks and gold color heavy duty control arms – Holeshot brand wheels with Mickey Thompson 315/60/15 drag radials (rims beadlocked in rear) – Kirkey aluminum racing seat w/ black cover – BigStuff 3 EFI computer AMS-1000 Boost controller – MSD 7531 ignition box – Dry-sump oil system – D&D K-member – Flaming River manual steering rack (with torn tie rod boots) – Stroud cam-lock black racing harness – Aerospace dual caliper rear disc brakes – 25.3 Certified chassis (Dan Neumann Race Cars ID plate in drivers door area of cage)
If you even think you see or hear any of these parts for sale, or see the car, please let me know asap at [email protected] The dark blue/purple paint is a brand new Mustang color, so it’s not popular yet. It looks a lot like Ford’s sonic blue color. Please take the time to forward this to as many gearheads as you can!
To the Car Thieves:
By now, you must realize that you can never own or race this car. The awesome power of the internet has put pictures of every inch of it onto every imaginable forum. This will only get worse with time.
There are yellowbulleters that are truckers, port authorities, cops, racers, track owners, shop owners, vendors, painters, tuners, mechanics, interstate camera guys, you name it. Your UPS guy just might have seen the car on his favorite Yugo forum, so it’s just a matter of time before someone puts it together. Sooner or later, someone will notice you have an unfamiliar car under a cover somewhere, and that it doesn’t quite add up. One day, he’ll stumble across a website and bells will go off in his head.
Just about every part on that car is unique and custom. Every single part is high-end stuff, only used by cars with huge power levels. There are only so many people that use parts like these. We know most of these people, and our friends here know the rest of them. Even internationally. Our friends have probably already emailed your friends with pictures and information about the theft. The parts can’t be sold, they’re worthless to you. They can’t be repaired without being identified. Even if you sold them, one day those parts will need repair and the manufacturer will recognize them. They will then be traced back to you. Faced with stolen parts charges, your buyer will quickly roll over on you.
The engine is so custom that anyone capable of rebuilding it will recognize who it was built by, and red flags will go off. All it takes is one set of rods, lifters, crank, a needed valve job or whatever. How many race head shops are there? How often do Blue Thunder heads really come through? How many of them already got our email forwarded to them? Just on this site alone, there were something like 12,000 views within 8 hours of the original post. That’s 12,000 people on day 1 that are now looking closely for you, or any part that comes off that car. And that was day 1, before it spread to every Ford, Chevy, Honda, Nissan, Dodge, Buick, Fiat, Volvo, and Yugo forum there is. Google “Josh Klugger” and see for yourself.
The RacePak? Serial Number. Big Stuff? Serial Number. Heads? Serial Number. MSD box? You see what I’m saying? Need the converter rebuilt? It was custom built for us, and would be easily recognized. Tranny? Custom internal mods. Rear end & suspension? prototype from Alston Chassis. Wheels? Custom offset and beadlocks made just for us by our good friends at Holeshot. Turbos? Joe @ Precision will be watching for them. This car, and it’s parts, are worthless to you. Even if you managed to sell some parts, every part you sell is a part that could later be identified and eventually traced back to you. The more you sell, the greater the risk of identification.
You certainly couldn’t sell the car as a whole to a legitimate buyer. Title, VIN, recognizable car. It’s also a real Mach1. How many real Mach1 race cars do you think there are? And a sudden influx of high end parts to your car would certainly raise suspicion, wouldn’t they? If you go faster, people will notice. So if the parts are no good to use or sell, the car is not sellable as a whole, keeping it around is a ticking time bomb, and every day the word gets spread even further and faster, your only realistic choice is to get rid of the car before you get caught with it. Just today, someone launched a website for us…
StolenMustang.com
You’re probably a car guy yourself, so don’t screw up a beautiful race car and someone’s life dream. Here’s an easy way out: Park the car in a nice, safe church parking lot at about 5am. Write the words STOLEN FROM OCALA, FL on the windshield, and walk away. And consider this… when you do end up getting caught, whatever missing parts or damage happens to that car, you will be court ordered to pay for in restitution, as part of your parole conditions (after you finally get out of prison and break up with Bubba). Not paying your restitution on time every month is cause for violation of parole, and lands you back in prison, so you can’t escape paying that back (probably at minimum wage at that point). And these parts aren’t cheap. So it’s in everybody’s best interest that the car just comes back safely and whole.
By now, you know you messed up. Please don’t make this any worse for yourself, or Josh, who is suffering unbearably because of you. Do the right thing, before it’s too late. Giving the car back will be a huge weight off your shoulders.
Good Luck Josh…I hope this helps find your car!
Article courtesy of Chris Raymond