Bagged & Blown
Jeff Scofield defies convention with his iconoclastic Shelby project
By Steve Turner
For many, Ford Performance vehicles are justifiably treated with a reverence not granted to everyday cars. These vehicles certainly earn that respect with performance, but for many their rarity and high-performance nature make them sacred to the point they believe these cars should remain just as they rolled off the assembly line. If you are reading this, it’s unlikely you agree with that sentiment.
One person who definitely doesn’t agree is Jeff Scofield of Plant City, Florida. He’s a racer, but not the kind we usually cover here. His passion is circle track racing, which he and his son Tyler pursue all over Central Florida. While racing is serious business for the Scofields, their hobby is building bad-ass street Mustangs.
“I own a 2014 GT500 Shelby. It currently made 1,250 at the tire at about 28 pounds of boost (with a) Kenne Bell blower. After building that car and buying my son an S550, I realized I wanted to venture into the new GT350,” Jeff explained. “I bought this one and like we all say, I was going to leave it stock. I just wanted a nice street car to drive around, but it didn’t work out that way. It wasn’t but about two weeks and I got with Magnaflow and ordered their exhaust and got with Diode Dynamics and ordered some of their lights...”
That snowball started barreling down the hill and Jeff was headed down the path of a pioneering project that made waves around the Internet when he installed an Accuair airbag suspension on the car Ford Performance built as its street-legal road-course king. As you might imagine, some of those aforementioned purists didn’t care for his modification.
“First car on the bags. First car with the ProCharger. First 350 to be ‘destroyed,’ really, as most people are saying,” Jeff said with a smile.
In case you missed it, here’s the superb video that Accuair put together to demonstrate the air suspension on Jeff’s GT350. It also does a great job of capturing the raw aggression of the car’s exhaust system…
[video=youtube;_g2yCfv1z-4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g2yCfv1z-4 [/video]
“…It’s different,” Jeff said with a smile. “There’s no two ways about it. I like being different. That’s the name of the game for me. We race circle-track cars, so this is just a side hobby for me.”
It might be outside the norm, but the system is effective. As owners of low-slung Mustangs we were instantly jealous that Jeff‘s car would rise off the ground to clear the aggressive driveway at our photo location. Moreover, the system provides great ride quality and performance when you want it. We took a ride in the car to interview Jeff about its unique Shelby and it felt great accelerating or cruising…
[video=youtube;SUIb2fy5-U4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUIb2fy5-U4[/video]
“This is their top-of-the-line with ride management which is almost like the magnetic suspension the 350 comes with. It is monitoring every millisecond. …It’s constantly making adjustments. There are like six settings internally in the system that you can control from the remote that gives you race aggression, where it acts quick, and then you can do it for your street were it really slows it down…” Jeff explained. “It’s basically an anti-roll bar built into the bags, where you see the cars rolling over on the track to the rights or lefts, it eliminates that because it’s catching it and applying air pressure where it’s needed, when it’s needed…”
The suspension isn’t the only modification to stir the purists. Not only did Jeff remove the Magneride suspension from his Tech Pack Shelby, he also decided to supercharge its high-strung, Flat Plane Crank 5.2-liter engine.
“…I didn’t want to go with a Roots-style. I wanted something different that people could hear so I decided to go with a ProCharger…” Jeff said.
To that end, he shipped the car up to the company’s Lenexa, Kansas, headquarters where ProCharger techs designed a P-1SC kit specifically for the Shelby GT350. While it is quite similar to the 2015+ Mustang GT system, this kit features a unique intercooler designed to take full advantage of the wide-open fascia on the latest Shelbys.
Not knowing how the Voodoo engine would respond, ProCharger sent it back to Jeff pullied for 4.5 pounds of boost. He called on Ken Bjonnes to develop a custom calibration for the car in advance of Mustang Week, and the results were quite impressive for just a few pounds of boost. It put down 603.89 horsepower and 418.25 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels.
After the Mustang Week, Jeff plans to crank up the boost to over 7 psi with a smaller pulley and an eight-rib belt drive. He hopes to push the stock engine to the mid-600-horsepower range, but the story of this car that was going to remain stock won’t end there.
“Future plans for the 350, we’re gonna build the motor. The expectation is January sometime after we get done playing with the ProCharger…” Jeff added. Pull the motor out. Take it to Tim at MPR. Build the motor up to handle boost and put some air to it. See what she’ll do and try to get the torque curve up on it; maybe even go higher rpm with it. Currently it’s at 8,000. We’ll see if we can go up to 9 with it. Why not?”
Why not, indeed? It looks like Jeff might just give the Internet something else to talk about in the New Year.
Jeff added a GT350R-style wing and lots of carbon-fiber accents from HCM Carbon. The wheels are custom Rotiform KPS Forged beauties wrapped in Toyo tires and the cat-back exhaust is from Magnaflow and it’s fronted by Lethal Performance cat-delete mid-pipes. The car looks and sounds great.
Running a conservative 4.5 pounds of boost, Jeff’s ProCharged 5.2-liter Voodoo engine put down 603.89 horsepower and 418.25 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels thanks to a custom 93-octane calibration from Ken Bjonnes.
Whether or not you are a fan of modding rare Ford Performance vehicles, it’s hard to deny that Jeff’s bagged and blown Shelby GT350 is a stunner.
Inside, Jeff’s Tech Pack GT350 sports a stock interior, but he did beef up the factory audio system with a subwoofer and amp that are tucked away in the trunk.
Thanks to its adjustable air suspension, Jeff can quickly switch his GT350 between a lowered height for display purposes and a livable driving height like this. We rode in the car and the ride quality is just as good as the stock suspension.
The heart of the air suspension is this tank and dual air compressors, which is ready to adjust the pressure in the Ridetech dampers in an instant.
The first of its kind to wear a ProCharger system, Jeff’s car was actually used by the company to design the kit, including this high-efficiency intercooler built to make the most of the GT350’s large front fascia opening.
The only real interior mod is the presence of the remote control for the Accuair e-Level Air Management system that allows Jeff to adjust the suspension.
Jeff upgraded all of his GT350’s lighting with LEDs from Diode Dynamics. He blacked out the headlights and added the company’s adjustable, multicolor lightning, which allows changing the hue with a swipe of the remote control.
The Mod List
Powertrain
Block: Stock Voodoo 5.2-liter aluminum
Crankshaft: Stock flat-plane
Rods: Stock
Pistons: Stock
Camshafts: Stock
Cylinder Heads: Stock
Intake: Stock
Power Adder: ProCharger P-1SC
Fuel System: Stock w/ high-flow fuel injectors
Exhaust: Stock manifolds w/ Lethal Performance cat-delete midpipes and a Magnaflow cat-back system
Transmission: Stock Tremec 3160 six-speed manual
Rearend: Stock
Electronics
Engine Management: Stock w/ custom calibration by Ken Bjonnes
Ignition: Stock
Front Suspension
K-member: Stock
A-arms: Stock
Struts: Accuair/Ridetech Shockwave w/ e-Level Air Management Package
Springs: Accuair/Ridetech Shockwave
Brakes: Brembo w/ cross-drilled rotors
Wheels: Rotiform KPS Forged, 20x10.5
Tires: Toyo Proxes 305/25ZR-20
Rear Suspension
Shocks: Accuair/Ridetech Coolride w/ e-Level Air Management Package
Springs: Accuair/Ridetech Coolride
Brakes: Brembo w/ cross-drilled rotors
Wheels: Rotiform KPS Forged, 20x11.5
Tires: Toyo Proxes 335/25ZR-20
