The Hooligan Brothers are a quartet of gearheads out of Fort Wayne, Indiana: Michael Martinez, Tony Zamora, Nilson Mendez and Brian Orellana. Their social media channels are chock full of high-performance Dodge fun, focusing heavily on a Charger SRT® Hellcat and a Durango SRT Hellcat – both of which are modified inside, outside and under the hood. However, when they arrive in Detroit to compete in the Direct Connection Grudge Match at 2025 Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge, they won’t be showcasing a Dodge product like they did at last year’s Roadkill Nights event, where they were entered as normal racers. Instead, they will be racing in a 1991 Ford Mustang that will focus more on the Hurricane engine than the look of the ’90s pony car.
Why would a group that usually drives Dodge products decide to campaign a Ford? We talked to Michael Martinez and he provided a great look at what the Hooligan Brothers are bringing to Roadkill Nights 2025.
“The inspiration behind the choice of car was to bring a chassis that is known in the ‘street racing’ scene. Most street racing events, more than likely, have at least one crazy fox body in the picture. So we thought it would be so cool to bring that into the picture. Plus, we are Hooligans. Wouldn’t be so Hooligan of us to bring something boring.”
Martinez explained that their early efforts to find sponsors or partners for the build didn’t go so well, so the team paid out of pocket for anything needed beyond the budget provided by Dodge. Unfortunately, the car was pretty bare when they got it, so they had to spend some money on basic items that other teams likely did not.
“The fox body in itself was literally just a roller. The previous owner of the vehicle literally just tack welded the roll cage, slapped in a Ford Ranger rear end and threw on some wheels. So we literally had to start from basically zero. There were no brakes, no sort of lines for brakes, fuel, literally nothing. Kind of why, we went over budget… but nothing the hooligans can’t handle.”
He went on to tell us that the car will not have any front end body panels when it arrives at Roadkill Nights. The car has a tubular front end setup and without any front end panels, they can show off the Hurricane engine – which they plan to leave stock. They thought about adding nitrous oxide, but they are going to rely on stock power in the Direct Connection Grudge Match.
We would imagine that this Ford Mustang will have a very low curb weight when it arrives in Detroit, so they may not need much power to rival the other teams in the competition, but maybe the Hooligan Brothers have some surprises in store for the Roadkill Nights crowd. Martinez pointed out several times that they believe that simplicity is the key to winning, so we will see if that approach pays off.
We will have more details and more pictures of The Hooligan Brothers’ 1991 Ford Mustang with Hurricane power once we get closer to 2025 Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge on August 9th.
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