Rally-Pac Perplexity
Reproducing a vintage Mustang part is never easy. Even if it's a single stamping of a metal part, hundreds of hours are spent checking the stamping for accuracy, thickness, quality, and so on. Now take a look at the Rally-Pac we installed and the dozens of parts it took to create (that's just one model; there are several when you include different gauge faces and colors) and you can imagine what an undertaking this project must have been for Scott Drake. We talked with the folks there about this latest reproduction part to find out what they had to go through to get it engineered, built, and to market so enthusiasts could once again enjoy the look and style of the Mustang's Rally-Pac option.
From our conversation with Scott Drake employees, the Rally-Pac was one of the most difficult reproductions the company has undertaken. Starting with designing and manufacturing all-new tooling to produce the pressure zinc die-cast housing, Scott Drake spent well over a year perfecting its new Rally-Pac. Nordskog didn't just provide an existing gauge for the Rally-Pac, it had to redesign its own products to work the way Scott Drake wanted them to.
Unfortunately, Scott Drake had to relent on wiring the tach under the dash like the original. With the proliferation of in-distributor electronic-ignition devices, Scott Drake and Nordskog couldn't get an air-core tach to work properly. So the decision was made to run the single wire to the coil. I think we can live with that.
At the time of this writing, Scott Drake was working on a restomod version of the Rally-Pac that features a cool, bare-aluminum-look housing. Requests for a white-face version of the Rally-Pac haven't fallen on deaf ears and are being investigated. We were also told the company might offer the Rally-Pac in several popular interior colors or at least with some kind of paint-mask kit for those who want their Rally-Pac to match the interior. Last, Scott Drake employees told us to be on the lookout for a '66 five-dial-cluster conversion kit that will change the gauges to a more modern backlighting (like the new Rally-Pac that's much easier to read at night) but will look original. We're all for that!