Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
It’s likely by now you’re familiar with internet personality Cleetus McFarland. The YouTube sensation and hardcore automotive enthusiast has amassed nearly a million followers entertaining the universe with his insane brand of crazy car builds and down-to-Earth commentary. Cleetus hits home bringing you inside the shop and behind the wheel for endless hours of burnouts and other automotive thrills and spills.
Recently, Cleetus stepped out of his GM comfort zone with “Neighbor.” This ex-Police Interceptor Crown Victoria project is designed to honor his friend, who formerly owned the ex-copper. In true Cleetus fashion, the Vic has been massaged, modified, hammered, and modified again. And now, VMP Performance joined in to give Cleetus even more power.
The wimpy factory 4.6 L lump was replaced with a 2007 Shelby GT500 powerhouse that’s connected to the Shelby six-speed manual. The four-door Ford’s interior was also gutted, now four lightweight Kirkey seats replace the factory chairs. He also fortified the 8.8 with a locker rear differential—for better burnouts of course.
While the supercharged Shelby engine provided an upgrade over stock, Cleetus and his crew were still hunting for something extra. They connected with our team at VMP Performance and stopped by for a visit. Cleetus was looking for maximum propulsion from the Ford project, and VMP President Justin Starkey offered up a perfect plan. “The plan” was to slip a new VMP Gen3 TVS onto the Vic. This is actually a great upgrade for any GT500 owner, as the VMP Gen3 TVS is virtually a direct bolt on that will seriously boost the four-door sleeper or your own Mustang.
Justin gave Cleetus the grand tour of the VMP ranch, including a walk-through of the shop where Justin unboxed a brand new VMP Gen3 TVS along with a new VMP dual-fan triple heat exchanger that will keep air inlet temps nice and cool.
To give Cleetus a taste of the VMP Gen3’s power, Justin threw him the keys to Track Attack, our wild 2016 5.0 Mustang GT SEMA build that makes 740 rwhp and has looks to match. The performance is comparable to the power level Cleetus was going for with Neighbor. After he banged through gears on Track Attack, the excitement to bring home the VMP Gen3 TVS for his project became apparent.
We know how much he loves burnouts, so next we gave him the keys to ‘Chucky’ our 2011 GT Ford Mustang “parts farm” car. Cleetus “let ’er rip, tater chip” with some figure-8 burnouts that burned up what little was left of Chucky’s rear skins. The video alone was worth it and we provided a link for you.
With the sun fading, Cleetus and Cooper made their way back to Tampa with some sweet goodies for Project Neighbor. We gave them a few days to get the parts installed and Justin along with Rebecca, VMP’s Director of Customer Experience, made their way to Tampa to ensure Neighbor had the right tune—plus everything necessary to get it running strong and smooth. This included a dyno session where the Crown Vic launched into the 800-horsepower range!
Doin’ it for Dale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKxJETOT4pc&t=928s
