Of all the Mustangs at SEMA, the one we were most excited to see in person was this custom 2011 Mustang built by John Heermann. We’ve seen modern Mustangs converted to to a vintage look before, but what makes this particular car special is that 23-year-old Heermann, whose nickname is Johnny Sparks, built the car completely by himself.
Obviously, transforming the 2011 Mustang into its current form took quite a considerable amount of work. It took Sparks nine months to construct the car, hand-fabricating panels from 1968 and 1969 Mustangs to fit the current S197 platform. The wheel arches have been raised and lengthened to fit the 20-inch wheels, and the lower front of the car has been shaved to fit the ’69 front fascia and grille. The ’68 doors skins have been lengthened to fit the car and modified to fit the 2011 door handles and side skirts. The ’68 quarter panels have been extensively modified, lengthened and widened to fit and utilize the 2011 rear window. The rear of the car utilizes ’69 Mustang body panels including the rear valence, all modified to work with the 2011 parking lights and trunk latch. Many items had to be built completely from scratch including the rocker panels, headlight buckets and rear quarter extensions. The overall look of the car is finished off in matte red paint.
Sparks has added a few performance modifications to the car as well. Under the hood is a JLT cold air intake system and APR carbon fiber engine cover. A true muscle car sound comes from Dynatech longtube headers and x-pipe as well as a Bassani cat-back exhaust system.
You can see Johnny Sparks’ “Reversion” Mustang on display in the Dynatech booth at SEMA in the gallery below.
