1970 Ford Maverick

As he closed the hood to the '70 Maverick, readying the car for its last pass of the day, Chad Reynolds of Spectre Performance waved to the puny 200ci six and bid it adieu. With nothin' but rings holding together a piston or two, Reynolds suspected that the 175hp nitrous shot (along with "a little more timing" and "a little less fuel") was gonna be a Dr. Kevorkian elixir for the six's pain. And a glorious end it was. Piston vapor is a power adder like no other, and in the few milliseconds before flatlining, the 200-incher gave its full measure, launching the Ford like a Pro Stocker, delivering massive tire spin, then barfing half the cold-air kit through the grille. With a shotgun crack, our testing was over; so was the six. The crowd at Los Angeles County Raceway's Last Drag race was on its feet and track owner Bernie Longjohn was doubled over in laughter. Mission accomplished. But let's go back to the beginning of the Maverick saga.

After deciding to get more heavily involved in aftermarket performance, the staff at Spectre Performance developed a penchant for project cars and has second-gen Camaros stacked up like cordwood. Then Spectre owner Amir Rosenbaum found a superstraight, rust-free Maverick for sale. The semifresh cheapie paint job, whitewall Michelins, and freshly rebuilt 200ci inline-six called to him, and a low-buck project was born. He picked up the car for $2,500 and told his crew, "I love it and I want you guys to do something unique with it." Dangerous words.

There are plenty of '70s compacts out there with six power. There's also a virtually unlimited supply of Coronas for the brainstorming sessions. Do the math, make the noise.

The wiring is the time-consuming part, but Spectre's eMS-Pro is fairly simple even for electronophobes. The Mavinator's computer is tucked under the dash next to a trio of Sun gauges. The red switch is for nitrous arming and the black is for purge.

Here's the Mav's phase two EFI setup, using the K-car throttle body topped by a 5.0 Mustang adapter that was bunged for six 25-lb/hr injectors from BDS. The cold-air induction was fabricated from scrap aluminum tubing and Spectre's P4 air filter. Notice the nitrous nozzle just above the injectors in the rear.

For a baseline, the stock Maverick was strapped to Spectre's Mustang chassis dyno, where it ripped off 58 hp and 79 lb-ft of paper-bag-ripping torque to the wheels. And that's after some tuning. Sadly, it's a far cry from even the minuscule 120 hp touted on the air-cleaner housing, and with an auto trans sucking up power, the Maverick could hardly fall out of its own way. So the Mavinator concept was born.

Spectre is heavily promoting its new eMS-Pro engine management system, so injecting the six on a budget became step one. Good idea, but not exactly easy since the 200ci Ford suffers from the same problem as its 170ci and 144ci predecessors: a one-piece casting that integrates the cylinder head and intake manifold. A little junkyard scavenging was in order to find a workable throttle body. The right score came from a mid-'80s Chrysler K-car.

After the installation of the K-car throttle body and dial-in of the eMS injection, the Maverick saw 72 hp and 97 lb-ft of torque at the wheels. Still a weakling, but that was a 20 percent increase, and the extra 14 hp and 18 lb-ft were at least noticeable. Driveability went through the roof, and the Mav even delivered 26 miles per gallon in miserable Southern California traffic. In that trim, the team drove the Maverick on the '07 HOT ROD Power Tour(r) and hatched a plan that involves an online contest where you can tell them how to build the car. They'll pick their favorite idea, build it that way, and the winner will get a free eMS-Pro setup and all-expense-paid trip for two to drive the Mavinator on the '08 Power Tour(r).