Southeastern Foxbodies History

[cobra_4]

SEFB History
A close group of friends from the Greenville , SC area(Scott Wilbanks, Kevin Brown, Johnny Dentimore, Trai Sorrow and Greg Beauford) shared a common bond as Fox Body Mustang owners. Through the late ‘90s and early into the new millennium they enjoyed the local Mustang scene which was heavily focused on the SN95 and New Edge models of the time. However, the once beloved Fox Body was becoming less prevalent and soon drifted deep into the minority at cruises and car shows. In fact, to see one of their Fox’s recognized with an award was rare, if ever and gave the owners a sense of their cars being forgotten.
Knowing there had to be other Fox lover’s out there experiencing the same, this group of five decided to start a club dedicated to the Fox Body chassis, in essence, creating a home where the owners will feel welcome and the cars appreciated. With thousands and thousands of Fox Bodies still on the road they figured it was best to expand the welcome mat beyond their own front door and settled on the Southeastern United States as manageable region to focus on. Hence, Southeastern Fox Bodies was born in 2001.

Scott Wilbanks took the reigns as the unofficial leader and along with the others began attended car shows and track events promoting the new club. Periodic “Meet n Greets” at restaurants and local drag strips were held as well as the occasional club cruises through the twisty mountain roads of western South Carolina. Excitement and membership grew steadily over the next 12-18mos and in mid-2002 the club decided the internet would go a long way in taking the club to the next level. Initially, CarolinaRides.com gave a section on their website for promoting the club and organizing events, but a couple years later the club anted up for its own domain and with the help of Eric McKim and Chuck Brooks they launched the first club website, which was eventually upgraded to the vBulletin platform in mid-2008.

With Mustang Week held annually in Myrtle Beach, SC it was only natural that SEFB focus a lot of attention on this major event. Simply attending the event in its early years and then stepping up as a paying sponsor, the club gained some legitimacy with a vendor spot at the car show/cruise-in. However, nothing has done more for club exposure at Mustang Week than the annual Fox Body Cruise on the final day of the week-long event. This cruise has grown from a couple dozen to over 170 Fox Body Mustangs in 2015. The magazines have picked up on this and now publish pictures of the cruise as part of their Mustang Week coverage.

When Fox Mustang Restoration in Locust, NC opened its doors SEFB was there to welcome and support their business which was dedicated exclusively to the Foxbody platform. FMR would annually invite the club for a shop meet and after couple of those the idea for an all Fox event began to brew. The first FOXTOBERFEST was held in 2011 and SEFB has supported it since with volunteers to help run the event. It has since grown into the largest Foxbody Only event in the country with over 300 Foxbodies attending in 2015.

In 2012, SEFB came up with the idea to build a Foxbody Mustang with used parts between the members and sell it for charity. The club settled on “Save A Fox” as the projects name. That simple idea grew into a full build with donated parts from not only its members, but over 40 companies that gave money, parts or services to the project. A 4-cylinder hatch was donated and the car was stripped to its uni-body and converted to LX V8 status. All the body work and paint was donated as well. In the end, the build took a little over a year to complete, a limited number of raffle tickets were sold and the winner was drawn at Mustang week 2013. The project raised a net total of $18,000 for three different charities.

SEFB is proud of its humble beginnings and even more of where it is today. The members are the real treasure here as the cars are simply the common denominator. It is our individual passion that fuels the love for these models and it is this same passion that saved Ford’s pony car from almost certain extinction in the early ‘90s. For this reason alone, you gotta’ love those Fox Bodies!!

[Speedfreak]

That's a great story.Few friends an idea.
Glad I found this site.

[capriracer86]

Yeah it was tough back than we had belonged to another club and we were never looked at as equals. All the newer cars got the looks and we ended up being outcasts. But I'm glad all that happened and SEFB was formed!

[86gtstang]

I first met Bones and Johnny in 2005 when I was building my 85 GT,started going to cruise ins and get to gethers with them.It's always been a good club but over the years it's become one of the best clubs anyone would want to be in.

[ESGT]

Cool to know

[7up Fox]

I met Bones via internet around 2007 when I was on FoxBody Forum. I'm glad that SEFB has such solid roots. Someday, I will look forward to meeting the members when I relocate to Florida.