Sondra Leslie has been a staple on the NMRA circut for the last several years. Up until 2012 she has competed with a V6 car that was first nitrous injected and later was supercharged. Taking the plunge into the world of Factory Stock heads-up competition, Leslie decided to go all out and modify the car with addition of a brand new Coyote crate engine and AOD trans from the fine folks at New York’s F&B Transmission. We believe this is one of the first Coyote powered Factory Stock cars in the country.
When we caught up to the car, it was at Performance Auto and Dyno in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Shop owner Travis Johnson and his right hand wrench Ben Dahlgreen were providing some shop space and a hand here or there to Sondra in order to get the car finished in the short term. Unfortunately we missed meeting Sondra, but the guys said she is 100% hands on and has performed the vast majority of the work on this car herself. She’s legit, boys and girls!
Sondra was hoping to run the car at a test session earlier this week but an issue with the computer harness has kept the car silent for now. We’re guessing she’ll have that licked soon enough and the car will be burning tires and hiking the front tires at New England Dragway in no time. Plans are to campaign the car for the NMRA season in 2012.
If you are not familiar with Factory Stock, it is a highly regulated class. There are a couple different engine options available to competitors. They can run old school pushrod motors, 2V and 3V modulars, and the Coyote. While the other engines are allowed a tweak here or there (and they are MINOR ones) the Coyote is allowed nothing. The engine must remain factory stock from top to bottom. Running the AOD behind it earns Leslie a 100lb weight break.
We look forward to seeing this car running in anger soon, but until then, drool away Ford lovers!
