This past December a beloved member of the Mustang community, Joe Gosinski, was found murdered in his Chicane Sport Tuning shop in Torrance, CA shop. Various people and groups have done a variety of things to remember Gosinski including several memorial car shows and cruises, but one particular customer and former employee have teamed up to build a special pony car dedicated to the well known Mustang tuner.

The idea for the Mustang initially started as a SEMA project for Chicane Sport Tuning. “Joe and I decided that 2011 was going to be the year we were going to build a ‘knock their socks off’ Mustang for Ford,” says Matt Bernal, a former employee of the company. “We had discussed the project with Ford, we had a design and the project was a go. Joe was finally going to build a SEMA car.” That all ended, though, when Gosinski was murdered in December. “When we lost Joe the Mustang we were going to build was the furthest thing from my mind,” remembers Bernal.

That’s where Sal Valdez, a customer and close friend of Gosinski, stepped in. “In early January a few of us were talking about how it was such a shame that Joe never got to build his SEMA car and blow everyone away,” he told us. Those conversations go the ball rolling, and from there he connected with Bernal to help make the project a reality.Valdez purchased a 2011 Mustang GT and began working with Bernal to come up with a design for the car.

As for the actual design of the Mustang, Valdez says that it will represent how Gosinski and Chicane built cars. “As far as themes, it simple: The Chicane way. If you know anything about Joe and Chicane Sport Tuning, it’s that only perfectly built cars given the utmost attention to detail came out of that shop,” he says. “We want to build a clean, sleek, powerful car that you can drive everyday, and at the same time take to willow springs and carve corners with the best of them. We also want to have it look like you can walk into any ford dealership and buy one.”

So far the pair has received a fair amount of support from various manufacturers who want to be a part of the project. Doug Thorley Headers jumped on board first, building a custom exhaust system for the car and offering to display the car at their SEMA booth. Vortech has also provided a supercharger system for the car, and TruFiber, Cal Pony Cars, Baer Brakes, and Real Performance Mustangs have also offered support.

We’ll bring you more details about the car as it comes together, and we’ll definitely show you the final images when it’s finally unveiled at SEMA this fall.

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