Devin Vanderhoof and Josh Davis Bust into the Three-Second Range with a 3.99 at 185 MPH Blast in Testing with Sick Week-Winning Mustang
After a notable 2023 season where this 1993 Ford Mustang convertible picked up a trio of drag and drive wins, including the Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive and the Sick Summer Presented by TBM Brakes event, owner Devin Vanderhoof decided to make some major changes in 2024.
The results this year have been very notable, and the team of Vanderhoof and Josh Davis have broken a major barrier during an evening test session last night.
The newest class to Sick At The Rock, the Sick Street Car Challenge, will battle it out alongside the wild Rockingham Big Dog Pro Mods, with classes inspired by the former National Muscle Car Association (NMCA) and National Mustang Racers Association (NMRA) series: Street Race 8.60, Small Tire Pro Stock, Nostalgia Super Stock – Nostalgia Muscle Car Combo, Coyote Stock and Open Comp. It all takes place at Rockingham Dragway in North Carolina April 10th - 12th, 2025! For more details on Sick At The Rock, and the over $50K in payouts, CLICK HERE!
Vanderhoof and Davis did try to make an early dent early on in their 2024 season, especially when the Mustang known as ‘Big Ern’ got a significant bump in power, swapping from a single 118-millimeter turbocharger to a pair of 88-millimeter turbos from HPT to feed more air to the 540 cubic inch big block Chevrolet.
Those changes got the Mustang to a personal best of a 4.10 at 186 mph eighth-mile pass at Street Car Braggin Rights in May 2024, but Vanderhoof knew the next steps would require a clean slate.
“I was pulling out timing to keep the car hooked up and not rattle (shake) the tires,” said Vanderhoof. “We were just starting to scratch the surface of what the new set-up with twin turbos could do.” After weighing the additional power the car was making against the Mustang’s current chassis, Vanderhoof made the decision to scratch the rest of the season to make a slew of changes to the Mustang.
That list included a switch from a stock-style suspension to an aftermarket (parallel) 4-link suspension, double frame railing the Mustang, upgrading the roll cage to a 25.1 / 25.2 SFI-certification, and putting the car on a diet and removing around 200 pounds of heft.
With all that in their rear view mirror, Vanderhoof and Davis started their 2025 season at this year’s Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive. The duo laid down a new personal best pass of 6.37 at 227 mph at Gainesville Raceway (with eighth-mile numbers of 4.23 at 181 mph), in route to capturing the Modified class Sick orange helmet, and another Gear Vendors Overdrive Top 3 guitar.
Just a couple week later, Vanderhoof and Davis returned to South Georgia Motorsports Park (SGMP) for the popular radial tire Lights Out event to participate in the ‘Braggin Rights’ street car class. After a few days of work, the team captured the overall title with a 6.38 at 228 mph final round blast.
But Devin knew there was more to be uncovered in the revamped Mustang, and a Friday night test session was just the ticket. On the fourth of five test runs made at Carolina Dragway, Davis put the 275 radial tire Mustang through the eighth-mile timers at 3.99 seconds at 185 mph! The 60 foot time was an astounding 1.02 seconds for the small tire car!
“When we were at SGMP for Street Car Braggin Rights, we were in race and win mode, so we were hesitant to try to get after this heavy pig in the front half of the race track,” said Vanderhoof. “This has been a goal we’ve been after for a long time.”
Doing the math on the eighth-mile time, Vanderhoof figures the car was on a 6.04 to 6.08 quarter-mile pass. He said there’s more left still, and we might just get to see it at our Sick At The Rock event at Rockingham Dragway, April 10th-12th, 2025.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine, Chris Simmons Photography, 1320 Video and Devin Vanderhoof.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com