Over the last month, the RTR-X has been in San Diego with Mark Delong. Mark has been hand-sculpting and leading the body since he took delivery. I was determined to make sure everything done to the body was done the "right" way using only metal. While I knew it was definately going to delay the project, I refused to do the body modifications any other way.

As you can see it has come quite far in regards to the body work. All of the work is obviously a work in progress, but I wanted to share the amazing metal work Mark is doing in its raw form. These pictures were taken at Steen Chassis during my three day trip back for some final touches and it has since gone back to Mark for the final massaging of the body including fitting all the body panels perfect.

It is unbelievable to see the body transforming from the stock shell to the incredible vision for the RTR-X as shown via Andy's original renderings.

It was pretty challenging dialing in the profile and sweep on the rear spoiler between Maryland and California. There was a lot of pictures and phone calls back and forth to say the least. Mark was more than willing to do it 15 times until it was perfect.

Eventually we nailed the "flow" we were going for. As you can see the spoiler defines the rest of the rear profile and is obviously a key element to the uniqueness of the RTR-X. Notice how tight the bumper is to the body? FLOW!!!

Next piece of art is the hand-formed NACA duct.

Mark nailed this on the first try and it is perfect!

Watch out birdies!

Here you can see where he added metal so that we could flush-mount the rear window and eliminate the factory trim.

A little bit of body leading to fill a factory seam. Of course no real lead was used in the state of California for this!

My beautiful Kinsler Custom ITB setup arrived and Mark did an amazing job on the hood and making it look factory.

And there you have it… the first-ever ITB injection system bolted onto Ford's new 2011 5.0 Mustang engine. Can you imagine what this thing is going to sound like tuned by Motec?!?! The suspense is killing me!

I am so happy with the attention to detail. Look at the tiny lip on the inside of the opening.

Even the underside of the hood looks like this could have been a factory option.

I did put my "metal only" attitude aside and decided to be practical when I chose to make the fender blisters and chin spoiler out of fiberglass for the simple reason that there is a good chance they could get ripped off at some point.

The Twins took the opportunity to fit the custom flares Maier Racing made for us while the fiberglass king was around to make sure everything fit properly with the fenders mounted.

Perfect wheel fitment! I'm not even going to bore you with the long story of how these fender blisters were made without having the body or the wheels on hand. It makes me smile to see how perfect they turned out on the car.

BOOM!

I will leave you with the view you will see in your rear view mirror, coming soon to a street near you!

- Vaughn Gittin Jr. 

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