April 18, 2018

Unless your mom and dad stuck to utilitarian vehicles, you most likely have a love towards any cool cars they ever drove. If they drove mini-vans or giant station wagons…well, you might not have been in a rush to go out and buy one after getting your drivers license. However, as impressionable youth, if they drove something even remotely cool, that’s what we wanted once we were street legal.

If we did want a car just like mom or dad, most of us would have to settle for a car similar to what our parents had, but in Rob Ruska’s case, this is the car his dad owned. Yes, the exact one.

Want to hear the most asked question Rob gets at a show? “What color is that?” If you’ve been wondering then here’s the answer. It’s DuPont Hot Hues Candy Apple Red with a custom Silver base. Sounds easy enough, but other than the two colors, that’s all we have. Just to see what the car would look like without them, Rob removed all the GT side skirts and rear bumper cover to, “See how it would look,” he says. Once Rob was okay with how the car looked, Retro Designs of Concord, North Carolina handled the rest of the body work and paint, smoothing the area below the moldings in the process. You’re looking closer at the body now aren’t you? The finishing touch on the car is a set of SVE Series 1 Liquid gold 18x9/18x10 front/rear wheels, finished off with Nitto Invo treads. To bring the car to a stop, Rob relies on Wilwood discs at each corner.

“I remember the day my dad brought it home,” Rob tells us about his dad’s 1990 Mustang GT. “I was 10 years old,” he adds. Both his mom and dad took the GT to track days at Watkins Glen. At 12 years old, Rob was the car’s crew, checking tire pressure, fluid levels, and the like.

Unfortunately, Rob’s dad Ivars Ruska was struck with cancer, and the car sat while he battled for his life. Eventually, Rob’s dad would lose his battle, and pass away on August 30, 2011. “Hours after my dad passed, I pulled the car out and did the most epic burnout in front of the house,” Rob says.

Having moved to North Carolina previous to his dad’s passing, Rob took the car back to tobacco road with him, and drove it for two months before tearing it apart. Being in the car industry all of his life, working in stereo shops, doing window tint and paint protection, and current partner and manager of Sunstoppers Lake Norman location, Rob knew he couldn’t leave the car the way it was. Rob initially just planned on an engine rebuild, and new paint, but like his dad, cancer had taken over a few key areas in the form of rust. To get the GT back in fighting shape, Retro Designs cut out the rusty shock towers, replacing them with good metal and smoothing the engine bay in the process.

To fix the faded and rusted Wild Strawberry body, Retro Designs got after the exterior, smoothing the body below the molding line, fitting the Cervini’s hood, and applying fresh paint. Instead of going back with Wild Strawberry, which his dad chose because it matched the flag of Latvia where Ivars was born and raised, Rob chose to change things up a bit by choosing a custom color combining a custom silver base with DuPont Hot Hues Candy Red. The result is simply amazing. Whenever Rob has the car at a show, the paint mesmerizes those in attendance, ultimately leading to the question, “What color is that?” And to us, the car’s SVE Series 1 wheel in Liquid gold is the perfect peanut butter to the body’s jelly. Up front are 18x9 examples with 18x10s out back, all wrapped in Nitto Invo treads.

Besides the paint on Rob’s GT, the other thing separating the car from every other Fox is the way it sounds. Sounding more like a rowdy big-block, Rob’s GT has a Prestige Motorsports-built 347 stroker with a new block, an Eagle crank, Scat forged connecting rods, SRP pistons, a custom Comp cam, a Melling oil pump, and a 10:1 compression ratio. Edelbrock E-Street aluminum heads with Scorpion roller rockers make a nice resting place for an Edelbrock intake and Quick Fuel Technology SS-650 carburetor. An MSD Digital 6AL ignition with a Blaster coil and Ford Performance spark plug wires make sure the engine has fire, while a Quick Fuel Technology mechanical fuel pump provides the go-juice. Circling back to the exhaust, Rob’s GT uses BBK Performance long-tube headers, an H-pipe, and living up to their name, SLP LoudMouth II mufflers with Flowmaster tailpipes.

Back to Rob’s initial plan of rebuilding the car’s tired engine, Rob added a Prestige Motorsports-built 347 with a sound as breathtaking as the car’s exterior. Prestige started from scratch to put together the car’s powerplant, and Rob backed it with a T5 transmission, McLeod clutch, Pro-5.0 shifter, and the car’s stock driveshaft. To help make the most of that 347, the 8.8 rearend has 4.10 gears in it, but Rob is thinking about a more street-friendly 3.55 in the future, along with an aluminum driveshaft.

Chassis-wise, the car needed plenty to make sure it was structurally ready for the newfound power. Up front, Rob added a Team Z Motorsports K-member with Maximum Motorsports front control arms and coilover springs, Bilstein struts, and Wilwood disc brakes. Out back, the Maximum Motorsports theme continues with the company’s adjustable upper and lower control arms combined with Bilstein shocks, H&R springs, and an Eibach sway bar. Even more strength comes in the form of a custom roll cage and Maximum Motorsports subframe connectors.

When it comes to Fox Mustangs, the red interior gets no respect. It’s probably the least favorite color interior. As such, most are ripped out and replaced with black guts. Rob hasn’t quite made the complete transformation, but we think it has just the right amount of contrast with black carpet, Corbeau seats, black and red dash, Hurst shifter, LMR cupholder console, custom cage, and a Florida 5.0 dash filled with Auto Meter Sport Comp gauges.

“The car is fun, loud, powerful, and handles like a dream,” Rob says of the finished product. “It also has that old school race car feel at the same time,” he adds. The car made its debut at Mustang Week 2016, where Rob met the right people to make it a regular at other big shows like Foxtoberfest and Ponies in the Smokies.

When we asked Rob what he likes best about his car, he says, “The history and story behind it, being my dad’s car.” We also asked him if it would ever be for sale, to which he answered, “Hell no!”

Rob would like to thank Doug Aitken from Prestige Motorsports, Manir Karim from Our Dream Auto Restorations, Caleb Hendricks from Foxcast, Mike Clay and the Mustang Week staff for putting on such a great event, Harris Lue for taking these pics, and “all my Fox body friends,” Rob says. Most of all, though, Rob would like to thank his wife Andrea, and sons Connor and Kyle for their support during the car’s build.