As mentioned earlier, the Holley Mustang was a last minute substitution on our Power Tour roster – but certainly a welcome addition. The original plan was for the Holley/Crank N’ Chrome Mustang to join us on our blast across the country, but unfortunately that car ran into some last minute difficulty and couldn’t make the trip. What was the difficulty? Well, let’s just say it involved a drag strip, a nitrous bottle, and a head gasket. The good news is the car was running well into the 11’s when it happened!

Be that as it may, our friends at Holley stepped up with the ’93 LX that was used to develop their 302 SysteMax engine kit. This little car turned out to be a complete blast to drive! The original shortblock was equipped with Holley aluminum cylinder heads, a Holley intake system, Hooker headers, the SysteMax hydraulic roller camshaft, and the cool Commander 950 engine management system. Altogether, this little screamer made 370 horsepower on the dyno, which is a fantastic number from only 302 cubic inches.

The SysteMax 302 was backed by a World Class T5 5-speed tranny, which passed the energy to the stock 8.8” rear axle equipped with a 3.73 gear set. Chassis-wise, the Holley Mustang was dropped a couple inches with Eibach lowering springs, and sported a set of polished-aluminum Weld wheels.

The most impressive thing about the SysteMax Mustang was how hard it pulled throughout the rev range. The SysteMax engine system adds a ton of power everywhere, with the midrange being so strong that you’d swear the car had a 351 in it. The car had nice, lopey idle that sounded good, but didn’t affect the power brakes (or the air conditioner!).

Even with all the power made by the fortified 302, fuel mileage was still around 21 mpg or so out on the highway, and that includes those stretches where we, uh, took advantage of the wide open spaces out west. Wink wink.

Spending lots of seat time in the Holley Mustang definitely proved to us that Holley is on the ball with respect to generating plenty of power while maintaining good daily drivability and street manners. The combination of intake, cylinder head and exhaust flow with advanced engine management and fuel injection features is certainly hard to beat. We’d be happy to recommend the SysteMax system to any Mustang owner looking to make their Pony much quicker without hurting its ability to serve as a good daily driver. And really, that’s about the best thing you can have in a hot rod!

Many thanks to everyone at Holley for letting us play with their Mustang. It was great fun and dead-solid reliable.