Lee Miller's "Ninja Turtle" SHO 
Thanks to Lee Miller for this wonderful story of one of the "Ninja Turtle SHOs" that he was lucky enough to find.
    In 1991 and 1992 in the Firestone Firehawk Endurance Championship 4 hour Sport/Touring Race series there were four Taurus SHOs known as the Ninja Turtles.  Each car had a decal of one of the four Ninja Turtles prominently displayed on the hood. One of these four was painted purple and red and was bedecked  with number 36 and Leonardo the Teenage Ninja Turtle. The cars were driven by Willy Lewis of Falmouth, ME, Jim Byrant of Manchester NH,
Dave Laughlin of Woodstock VT, Sam Shanaman of Andover MA, and many others.
    On January 25-26, 1997, the same car returned to Sebring. This time it attended the Sunshine Bimmer fourth annual Winterfest. The car was now wearing number 33 and had a few decal changes. The driver was not a professional, even though the car was. A great deal was fun was had by all.
    The car was originally put together by Woodstock Motorsport in Woodstock VT by Lance cook. It started life as one of the original four Ninja Turtle cars sponsored by FORD. As the story goes, it can off the production line as a TAURUS GL and was given SHO implants at Woodstock Motorsports. The upholstery was removed, a full roll cage installed and some mystical suspension changes were made. Koni adjustable shocks on all four corners, ride height adjustable coil over springs (the springs are probably not stock), a 65mm sway bar in front and a 83mm sway bar in the rear were added. There are also some other non-stock looking pieces under the vehicle. The vehicle weighted 3210 lbs with 3/4 tank of gas. There are front brake ducts, a K&N air filter, a Sparco race seat and five point harness, Autometer liquid filled gauges (oil pressure, oil temp, and water temp), and a full face tachometer.
    After running for two years in the American Firehawk series, the car moved to Canada and under the flag of CANCOM MOTORSPORTS ran the Canadian version of Firehawk. After that it was acquired at auction by Peter Klutt of Legendary Motorcar Company Ltd and used as a driving school vehicle. And that's where I  come into the picture.
    I was using my 1989 Taurus SHO as a driving school vehicle, I had reached the point where I felt I needed more car. During the winter of 1995, I was mulling over plans to tear my SHO apart, strip out the upholstery, add a roll cage, etc, etc, etc. During breakfast one fine winter day as all the decisions were flying past my ears, I was reading Autoweek. I spotted an add "For Sale Firehawk SHO".  Ah ha, my problems are solved. I bought the car in the dead of winter without ever driving it. It was unloaded and stored, waiting for the New England winter to end.

    With winter finally over, I removed the Firehawk tires and replaced them with BF Goodrich Comp/TA R1s. I run 245/45x16 on the front and 225/50x16 on the rear.  I changed all the fluid, and took off for a Thursday afternoon of testing at New Hampshire International Racetrack. I came home smiling. I then added front and rear strut tower braces from the SHO Shop in Huntington Beach CA. I added a SuperTrapp 5 inch Diffuser to the tail pipe to reduce the noise (some tracks have noise restrictions for non-race days). I found that I had to restrict the exhaust to the point where the top end was limited to meet the noise restrictions at Limerock Park CT. I the added a DynoMax Race muffler and found that I could meet the restrictions with more plates in the diffuser and without limiting the top end.
    I then switched to custom made Hawke Blue brake pads from Carbotech. I do sometimes run R4E pads from Porterfield Enterprises.   Now it was off to the dyno to see what the engine was doing and needed. I used the DYNOJET 248C at HMS Motorsport in Marblehead MA. The Ninja Turtle produced 201 wheel HP at 6200 RPM and 179 FT-LBS of torque at 4800 RPM. I then added a VORTEX 73mm air mass unit and found 207 HP at 6200 RPM and 183
FT_LBS of 4700 RPM. Both torque curves were flat out to 6000 RPM. I have yet to find a chip which will run with the installed computer. The story goes that FORD showed up while the car was in build at Woodstock Motorsports, removed the computer, tweaked it and upon return stated "don't try to use a chip with this".  Ford Electronics was a sponsor. It could appear that they were correct.
    I have since added an SHO Shop Hi Revs clutch and lite fly wheel. I have also added the "Doug Lewis" brake upgrade and run with 1994 style front knuckles and brake cylinders with 11 inch rotors. There is no question about the ability of this SHO to stop.
    The exhaust was then modified to use the SHO shop Y pipe and the existing three inch exhaust pipe from the y pipe back.
    Well after all that you ask, "How does it run?". I have a thing about timing myself on the track, so I have to judge my performance based on where I run against other vehicles. I also use the comments of others as a gauge. The typical comment as people (Porsche and BMW owners) wander up to the Ninja  Turtle will be "Is that thing stock?", this usually means that I passed them and they couldn't catch me or they couldn't pull away from me on the straight.  The Ninja Turtle pulls strong right up to the redline at 8000 rpm, on the main straight at Sebring the speedo was indicating 130 MPH at 6500 RPM in fourth.
    There is some speedo error due to the 245/45x16 tires on the front. The handling is excellent, I use 34 PSI front and 37 PSI rear as baseline pressure, the tail of the car can be hung out and the car can be steered with the throttle as the rear is hanging out. The car can be rotated in much the same manner as a rear wheel drive vehicle. And will stay flat in a corner. The weight transfer seems to be much better than with my stock SHO, the stock SHO suffer front major wheel spin under acceleration out of a corner. The Ninja Turtle doesn't.
    What next? An 80mm air mass unit and a chip? Rework the valves? Only time and money will tell. But, you can be sure that we will see many track miles this summer. Its only February and we have already logged four track days and have sixteen more scheduled. Look for Leonardo where every you go on the East Coast.