Matt Fint fought off tight competition in the new Street Stick class of the TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout at the 2025 Holley Ford Fest. And he put on a show doing it with awesome small-tire wheel-stands in his 1998 Ford Mustang Cobra.
The Street Stick Class in the TREMEC Stick Shift Shootout consisted of cars that ran 10.00 second or slower elapsed times (E/Ts) in qualifying. To guard against any “sandbagging,” the class had a tenth of a second breakout rule. If any Street Stick racer ran more than a tenth faster than his or her qualifying time, the racer would be disqualified.
Six cars qualified for the Street Stick class, with Matt earning number one qualifier honors with a 10.167 qualifying E/T. The field was tight, with three other cars having 10-second E/Ts. Despite the tough competition, Matt went round after round earning the win light in his lane. It was the first overall race he’d won since 2023, and the biggest race he’d ever taken home the trophy from.
Matt has owned this 1998 Mustang Cobra since 2009. Out of 5,174 Mustang Cobras built for the 1998 model year, only 563 were sprayed in Bright Atlantic Blue, making this Cobra rare out of rare. After a mere two weeks of daily driving, Matt tore the Cobra apart to modify it into a street/strip machine. In 2018 Matt wanted more horsepower, yanking the Cobra’s original 4.6L DOHC V8 in favor of a modern Gen III 5.0L Coyote V8. The factory K-member was replaced with an Anthony Jones Engineering (AJE) unit along with D&D control arms and Strange struts with QA1 springs.
At one point Matt wanted more horsepower and started the process of adding a turbocharger to the Coyote V8. But part way through the install Matt had second thoughts and decided to keep the engine naturally aspirated. Bolted to the engine is a G-Force G101A transmission with a Ram clutch. That sends power to an AJE fabricated 9-inch solid-axle rear end with UPR Products Pro Series rear suspension components with Team Z springs and Viking rear shocks.
With racing season almost over, Matt’s plans for the winter are to upgrade the 1998 Cobra’s front suspension with a UPR K-member and corresponding UPR suspension components.
