“Fast Ford” racing is certainly one of the most brand loyal sub-genres within drag racing and Ontario’s Jay Misener remains deep within that mix….
Misener, who is the owner of Misener Motorsports (Brantford ON), has a very long time and deep personal passion for racing his Ford Mustang. As owner of this race car (1988 model LX) for 20+ years — Jay’s project has seen a rather amazing and rather constant state of flux as it has been morphed and modified numerous times.
Jay reflected back on some of the history of that development and his participation within some of North America’s (including Canada) most prominent Fast Street Car circuits. 
“I’ve owned this Mustang for over two decades now,” Jay revealed. “This has been the car I have learned my craft with — it’s been completely rebuilt now 3X. It was originally a 4-cylinder 5-speed (306 SBF with a T5 transmission) that went low 12s. I then switched it to a 347 stroker with a manual transmission and it went mid 11’s (naturally aspirated) and then high 10’s on nitrous. We also had and played with a 358 Windsor engine in the car beginning about 2005.”
It was in 2006 that Jay first opened Misener Motorsports – now a full service performance shop. Since that time Jay has employed his Mustang directly as somewhat of a rolling test bed to help develop his tech, ideas and concepts which he then passes on to his customers.
“While I was growing my shop the car stayed parked initially until about 2010,” he continued. “Then I decided to put another modified Ford motor in it – a 4.6 litre with a Vortech supercharger, carburetor and Powerglide which, for its time, was a bit of an odd ball. A couple years later we installed a 5.0 litre Coyote program. With that we managed good progress every season with it – and got the car to run a best of 9.94 secs. I had put 250 passes on it (and likely just as many Dyno pulls for R&D) before it was ever pulled apart.”
Misener’s Mustang evolution has continued ever since — including some involvement from New Generation Engines, switching the rear end assembly to a 9-inch and putting the car on a weight loss project — all designed to help him become even more competitive within his primary target — NMRA Limited Street class category.
“For NMRA Limited street (a class made up of a lot of different competing combinations) I added a Nitrous Express Fogger kit with a Blow By Racing Reaper plate and the car’s best response so far is — 8.88 secs @ 152 mph.”
Jay Misener’s “pet project” Mustang is over two decades and counting.
In its current form (as of year end 2020) Jay’s Mustang has a stock CID Coyote with a Boss 302 crankshaft and ported Cobra Jet intake. The touch of Al and Andrew Blanchard (New Generation Engines) is prevalent — including the engine’s bottom end the cylinder heads. More recent upgrades includes a stunning new paint scheme by Stacy Cromwell (CT Auto Collision) and an updated cage (originally by Darryl Chatterson) by Hugo and Tyler Kranendonk.
Within Canada — Jay Misener is a circuit regular within the Canada Heads Up drag racing series.
Jay’s mission within drag racing has come a long way from being just a test and tune guy for years within Canada’s OSCA local scene. Now he quite regularly runs his machine within the NMRA in the USA and also competes in the Street 275 class in the Canada Heads Up series.
“The hours that I and my shop staff have put into this car is countless!,” he laughed. “But I think my top accomplishments so far might be — winning the manual transmission class at “Smackdown 1” and being one of the fastest all motor Coyote cars in North America. I also had a very high flying 3rd gear wheelie at Route 66 Raceway in Chicago a couple years ago — and that has been watched on-line a lot since.” (Link to that YouTube clip: HERE)
Jay does credit a lot of people and friends for his deep rooted racing endeavour.
“I would like to thank the fine folks at UPR for their help and track side assistance, Jim McIntrye ,Brenden Misener, Eric Webber, Tim Biro, Chad Stephen, Stacy Cromwell, Scott Forbes and Hugo and Tyler Kranendonk,” he added.
Jay’s Mustang shown in “full flight” at the 2018 version NMCA/NMRA Super Bowl event in Chicago.
For more information on Misener Motorsports:
Post and photos by Bruce Biegler 
