Back when Braden Turner’s dad worked for Ford, he bought a brand-new 302 V-8-powered 1977 Mustang II Mach 1 and put just 25,000 miles on it before parking it a decade ago. He’s since handed it down to Braden, who happens to be an engineer for Ford Performance. As you might expect, Braden plans some performance upgrades while getting the car back on the road. See below to hear what kind of tweaks he’s got in mind for his second-generation Mustang:

“I’m a product development engineer at Ford Performance, and was pleasantly surprised to see a beautifully restored Mustang II Cobra II at the Ford Performance picnic last summer. I couldn’t help but notice the four-barrel carb atop an aluminum intake, and the custom dual exhaust.

“I have a 1977 Mach 1 with the factory 302 and C4 automatic transmission. The car was handed down to me from my dad, who bought it new when he worked for Ford. It’s got just over 25,000 miles on it. The car is all original except for a redone exhaust, which was needed after it sat in my grandmother’s garage for 10 years and some mice decided to make a nest in the muffler.

“I’m never going to sell it, so I figured I’d make some very slight modifications to it, basically to make it what Ford could have done had the emissions rules of the mid-1970s not happened. Like the Cobra II that I saw at our picnic, I’m thinking to incorporate a bigger (4-barrel) and better (aluminum) intake, perhaps a hotter cam, plus a full dual exhaust. I’ll need to consult some of the mechanics at our Roush facility about the different ways to get one of the exhaust pipes exiting on the driver side, since the factory setup had the gas tank shifted to the driver side and a large rear muffler on the passenger side.

“Now that I’m an owner of the family’s second-generation Mustang, I was disappointed that I was not able to attend last August’s first-ever National Mustang II Reunion and Cobra II 40^th Anniversary Celebration during the annual “Mustang Memories” show at Ford World Headquarters. The Mustang Owners Club of SouthEastern Michigan (MOCSEM) always does a great job on that event! I plan to join MOCSEM soon and tap into all that Mustang restoration knowledge.”

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 (200-300 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.