The beauty of the sport compact scene is that any dream, even one others may label a nightmare, can come to fruition. Chris McGehee of Bakersfield, Calif., has been a Ford man since birth.
"My Dad worked for Ford his whole life. So the Blue Oval has been in my blood ever since I can remember," says Chris. "In fact, we [he and his wife] got this Probe as a special order with 6 miles on the clock."
The Ford Probe is one of the unsung heroes of the performance motoring world. Built in a Mazda plant in Illinois, the model was manufactured in limited numbers. With its six cylinders up front and a lowered stance, few have seen the need to modify this rare bird. Thus, the Probe rates a zero on the 1-to-10 scale of go-fast parts availability.
At the time, Chris was heavily involved in car-stereo competitions, so he immediately turned his Probe into a thumping bass-mobile. The car shook pavement around the state for three years until Chris got bored. One day, as his ear drums were recovering, Chris picked up a set of plug wires from a shop called Gen X Motorsport. The owners offered to hook Chris up with some high performance if they could use the car as a demo. The road to high-quality show "cardom" and stardom was set upon and no return ticket was in sight.
Recently, Chris, with his wife's permission (who also owns a Probe), decided to kick the effort into high gear. First off, the Probe went to the paint shop to receive numerous coats of brandywine Kandy paint over the jams, body, engine bay, and the Sinsei body kit, which includes the front and rear bumpers plus the side skirts. On top of the hatch rests an APR GTC-200 carbon-fiber spoiler.
Step two saw the painted Probe in the interior shop. After a month, it exited the doors of Carcraft Interiors with a fully wrapped, two-tone, Doe-skin-and-perforated-light-mocha interior. Amidst this oasis of white and burgundy sits a Grant Corsa-D steering wheel and a Speedhut aluminium gauge surround. With one foot on the right Sparco pedal, Chris drove straight to the stereo shop with the worst of intentions.
The worst of intentions means plenty of amplitude, starting with the two crossfire BMF12 12-inch subs along with a custom EQ designed to raise or fall back flush with the boot at the switch of a button. Not even Battlestar Galactica ships had gadgets like this! The entire installation took six months.
Chris then focused on other mods. Rims are a whopping (although now almost standard nowadays) 19x8 inches. The RO_JA Motegi Kruzz aluminum has been wrapped with BFGoodrich Scorcher T/A Black 235/35-19 performance rubber. Dropping the chassis down on said wheel/tire combo is a Ground Control coil-over kit and Tokico Illumina adjustable gas struts.