DEARBORN - The best thing about attending a club car show or cruise-in is meeting interesting owners and seeing their remarkable rides. After we helped the Southern Illinois Mustang Association celebrate its 40^th Anniversary Mustang and All-Ford Car Show in Alton, Illinois, last July, we were invited to a late-day cruise-in across the Mississippi River in St. Peters, Missouri. It was there where we got an eyeful of Mike Gierten’s amazing monster-motored 1969 Mach 1. To hear what Mike did to his ground-shaking Cobra Jet, read his email to us below:

“Hello, Ford Performance. It was really cool to see you mingle at the church lot cruise-in – I’m so glad that Karen and Mitch Mitchell of the Show-Me Mustang Club had invited you! I’m also glad you liked my 1969 Mustang Mach 1.

“I purchased that car in July of 1976. After driving it for two years, my dad and I installed a 429 Cobra Jet out of a ’71, using the stock Toploader 4-speed manual transmission. The current engine you saw in it is the 429 CJ block with Ford Racing 514 pistons, rods, crankshaft, and aluminum heads. The cam is a Ford Racing hydraulic grind. The intake is an Edelbrock Torker, the carburetor is an 850 Demon, and the distributor is a Mallory Unilite. The headers are from Tubular Automotive.

“Power runs through a Tremec TKO-600 5-speed manual transmission and a Ford 9-inch Trak-Lok rear end with 3.50 gears. The sway bars are from Hellwig, and the wheels are 15x8 Magnum 500s. My brother, John, painted it back in 1983. The color is '77 Ford Dark Metallic Blue. The car is equipped with tilt/tilt-away steering column and features a factory tach dash, power-windows, door locks, trunk release, antenna, and disc brakes. I’m honored you wanted it to appear in your ‘Ford fan Spotlight’ – thanks!”

Editor’s Note: One of the most popular features on FordPerformance.com and in our Fast News e-newsletter continues to be "Ford Fan Spotlight," where readers can send in their own reasons why they're fans of Ford Motor Company. You know who they are: Ford "superfans;" grassroots Ford racers; unique Ford vehicle owners; loyal Ford enthusiasts; notable Ford club people; special Ford families; and/or any avid supporter of Ford, Ford vehicles, Ford motorsports or Ford Performance who deserves a little bit of special recognition.

All you need to do to get you, your car or candidate considered is to send in a brief description (200-500 words or less) and a few photos (in .jpeg format, preferably 300 dpi) of a person (full name and hometown, please) and vehicle that you think Ford Performance should feature (and why) in the "Ford Fan Spotlight" for an upcoming installment of Fast News and posting on FordPerformance.com. Then email it to: AskTFR@Ford.com. Should you wish to send a video, you simply need to post it on www.YouTube.com (preferably 1-2 minutes long) and send in the link, along with a brief description, to that same AskTFR@Ford.com email address. We'll choose one submission each week.