THE AUTO BUILDER

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The Great 8 at Detroit Autorama 2025

We were back in the Motor City for the 72nd Detroit Autorama, held from February 28 to March 2, 2025, at Huntington Place. Over 800 custom cars, trucks, and motorcycles filled the halls, showcasing everything from high-dollar, jaw-dropping builds to gritty, backyard-bred machines. But the biggest prize? The Don Ridler Memorial Award, aka the Ridler, handed out to the one car that stands above all others for design, craftsmanship, and attention to detail.

Back From The Dead

Leon Sneed and Chris de Melo are the men behind Big House Customs, a Mustang restoration and customization shop in Dayton, Tennessee. We met them after moving our company to Dayton, the town we now call home. Like anyone else who runs their own shop, they are constantly on the lookout for project cars to fill in the gaps when customers don’t bring in cars, and that’s exactly what De Melo was doing when he saw a newspaper ad selling miscellaneous Mustang parts.

JOHNSON & JOHNSON ’CUDA

Say what you will, but function is back! We find more high-profile cars built to be driven, and driven hard. Everywhere you look, car owners and builders are searching out new ways to put the fun back into driving the wheels off the rides they build, and they’re looking to the past for their inspiration as they recreate older brands to kick the snot out of new, overpriced super cars. It’s an old technique, as aged as the hobby itself.

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TO THE POWER OF FUN

Installing The Granatelli Fuego Controller And Hi-Performance Coil-On-Plug Connectors

Author

Matt Emery

Story & Photography

So you say that you are not all that hep when it comes to diving under the hood of your new truck, but you play a mean game of computer solitaire? You also say that you would like to add a little more power to that truck, and that you are not really sure where the cam is but you can at least replace the plugs? If that’s the case, then this story is for you.

When you’re talking power, few know more about it than Joe Granatelli. Not only does he come from the legendary Granatelli racing family, Granatelli is a licensed Pro Street drag racer and spent time as an instructor at the Roy Hill Drag Racing School. In 1989, he founded Granatelli Motor Sports, and since that time he has been busy designing and manufacturing items that add power to your truck or car. Those items include the Big G systems as well as exhaust and other high performance systems for not only gas and diesel pickups, but also for some fast Mustangs as well.

Two of those performance items are the Fuego Tuner and Hi-Performance Coil-On-Plug Connectors. The Fuego is a hand-held computer tuner that not only adds horsepower, it allows the person to control many of the actions associated with increasing the performance of the truck. Do you want the trans to shift not only firmer but also at a different rpm than the stock unit? The Fuego is capable of doing it. Do you have bigger tires? No problem. Want to retard or advance the spark? The Fuego can do that too.

Speaking of spark, increasing the fuel and air intake especially with a supercharged engine, places more pressure (no pun intended) on the spark plugs. Granatelli also offers his Hi-Performance Coil-On-Plug Connectors. Producing a claimed 60,000 volts, the Hi-Performance Coil-On-Plug Connectors produce a spark hot and strong enough to stand up to any intake system, and the more completely the fuel is burnt, the more power there is.

We were on hand as Granatelli employee Chris Cardilino took this ‘06 F-150 to new performance heights with the addition of the Fuego controller and Hi-Performance Coil-On-Plug Connectors. The entire process only took an hour or two to complete, and if you can change a plug and play a video game, you can add a ton of Granatelli power to your truck.

While this install is on a Ford F-150, know that Granatelli has systems for nearly all Ford, Chevy and Dodge pickups. So if you have a truck and a desire for huge power and ability of melt the hides off of the back of your ride, give Granatelli Motor Sports a call. Your truck will thank you.

The Granatelli Fuego hand-held programmer enables the owner to totally manipulate the Ford’s computer. From added power to disabling things such as the top speed governor to changing shift and tranny characteristics, the Fuego does it all at the touch of a button.

Adding plenty of power to the plugs is simple thanks to the Granatelli Hi-Performance Coil-On-Plug Connectors. This is a job that should be done whenever it comes time to change the plugs.

The 5.4-liter engine that comes in the Ford F-150 is a healthy unit, as it comes from the factory, but that doesn’t mean that there is plenty of horsepower potential lurking inside.

Thanks to microelectronics, coils are now found atop the spark plug rather than as a separate unit. The upside is that the engine is not reliant on a single unit, which may quit at anytime due to heat, but they are also much easier to replace. The downside of modern engines is that there is a lot of stuff in the way, even when just changing out plugs. If you are installing the Granatelli coils, change the plugs at the same time.

To just get to the plugs/coils, first you must remove items such as the air intake tube as well as the electrical connections for the injectors.

There may be other lines and hoses that also need to be removed before access to the plugs/coils can be possible. That is why it is a good idea to replace the plugs while you are there.

The leads for the coils as well as the injectors are housed in a loom, and that loom is held onto the engine by sliding onto posts. A tug on the loom will pull it free from those posts.

With that, the connections are pulled from the coils.

The on-plug coils are held in place with a small bolt. This bolt is removed.

With the bolt out, the on plug coil can be pulled off of the plug.

Prepping the new Granatelli Hi-Performance Coil-On-Plug Connectors for installation is as easy as adding a few dabs of dielectric grease to the inside of the boot.

With new spark plugs in place, the new Granatelli unit is slid into place.