This week’s Builders Showrooms “Pick of the Week” is brought to you by Steve Strope and his shop Pure Vision. Known for Street Machine and Muscle Car builds as well as insane Hot Rod fabrication Mr. Strope and his gang have carved out quite a reputation for themselves in the world of Hot Rodding. Being recognized as a perfectionist throughout the industry is a proud badge for Mr. Strope. He has earned respect and recognition for his attention to detail, creativity and the resulting rolling art that comes out of his shop. In a nutshell, his talents are highly sought after and one of his visions is our “Pick” this week.

The inspiration for this week’s Builders Showrooms “Pick of the Week” struck us while watching the Australian Grand Prix this past weekend. Front and center was the Williams Martini team and those iconic Martini Racing colors. Those blue and red stripes have been seen on team sponsored and enthusiast rides alike for going on 50 years. That brought us back to an insane tribute build that absolutely crushed the scene when it debuted a few years ago. We are talking about the Pure Vision designed “Martini T-5R” Mustang.

The concept behind this build was an imagined meeting between the heads of Ford and the Martini team. Riding high on the Mustang 1-2 finish at the ’64 Tour de France, hypothetically Ford wanted to further develop their race program by partnering with Martini. Adding Ford’s association with Carol Shelby to the funds the Martini team could provide, a partnership and a Mustang made in heaven might just have been created. Instead Steve Strope created it for all of us to drool over 50 years later.

To say this ’66 Mustang is race prepped is putting it mildly. The entire car was lightened in every way possible. To keep with the vintage feel fiberglass was used rather than carbon fiber. And that fiberglass in used darn near everywhere on this ride. The interior is sparse and set up for rally racing, complete with a navigator’s foot pedestal. As a nod to the Porsche heritage of the Martini team, the gauges are all German. Underneath this beauty is where all the modern magic lies. A Detroit Speed suspension, Wilwood brakes and Evod one-off rims set this Mustang up for taking on just about anything. At the heart of this build is a 300 cubic-inch, all-aluminum, quad-cam Indy motor mounted to a NASCAR-prepared four-speed transmission. The combined weight of this setup is just 363 pounds (remember I said they lightened the car in every way possible!)

The German export model of the Mustang was called the T-5 and hypothetically Ford would have sent a race prepped Shelby R model so Steve dubbed this 21st century version the T-5R, FYI. I for one would have loved to see a hybrid Shelby R Mustang with an Indycar motor to go road rally racing. Now, take a look at this beauty remembering that according to Steve Strope everything else is just traffic….

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Even though this build is a few years old, it just shows to go ya that it isn’t only what these cats are posting right now that’s the bee’s knees, it’s the stuff they’ve been posting all along. So take some time and really check their galleries out. Head on over to the Pure Vision All-In-One Social Media Gallery to cast an eye at everything this shop is posting across their Social Media accounts; it’s a vision and then some!

Till the next time – Keep on Kruzin!