Brian Saltis became immersed in his passion in his friend’s driveway after he had just received his driver’s license. His friend’s mother had a beautiful fastback, but between the two of them, only Brian could drive.
“I think we wore the tires off of that thing in a few nights,” says Saltis. “It was a lot of fun.”
Suddenly, 25 years passed, and his commitment to raising a family yielded many purchases of pickup trucks and family cars. But then came the release of the S197 platform.
“I was really impressed with the retro look of Ford’s new Mustang,” says Saltis. “So after inadvertently getting one as a rental car while on a trip back East, I was sold. After I got back, I told my wife I had to have one.”
These days, the search always begins on eBay, and with Saltis it was no different. He found a 2006 model located in Houston, Texas and eventually won the bid. So, he flew down from Olympia, Washington and met a dealership driver who escorted him back to close the deal. After an hour of paperwork, only his new Mustang and a 2,400 mile journey home awaited.
Initially, the weather was beautiful, but it soon turned sour as he began to pass through a few states with which he was unfamiliar.
“The whole time fears of giant hail-storms were on my mind,” says Saltis. “While going through Kansas, I thought, ‘here we go!’ The sky turned black and a thunderstorm warning came over the radio. The wind picked up and started pushing the car around— then I hit a solid wall of water. I could barely see so I slowed down to about 30 miles per hour and kept going. I wanted to get the hell out of there”
Blue skies soon appeared and Saltis managed to narrowly avert the dreaded golf ball-sized hail. In several days, he was home at last. Perhaps because of his Mustang’s perseverance through the dark, treacherous storm, he decided to name her “Black Betty”
Saltis has toyed around with cosmetic mods as well as a Zex 125 shot nitrous kit. He has also used a centrifugal supercharger and plans to add it back on when his pocketbook will allow for it.
Be sure to hit up Brian in the forums-- his username is
BossStanger.
For a full listing of mods and more photos of Brian Saltis’ “Black Betty” be sure to check out the reply below.
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