Many moons ago, a guy by the name of Ben Alameda made quite a bit of noise in the late-model Mustang scene.

During the days when Mustang racers on the East coast were becoming household names, Ben was showing that he could "run with the big dogs" too, becoming the first 'Stangbanger in Cali to take a Fox-body Pony into the 9-second zone, when most of the free Mustang world was still trying to run 11s without scattering engine parts all over the place.

Throughout the '90s, Ben Alameda Performance became somewhat synonymous with late-model, all-motor, small-block Ford performance. That's right, Ben's not big on power adders. Then, at some point around 2002 or so, Ben Alameda dropped from the scene.

Well, we recently learned that after a long time off, Ben Alameda is BACK, and we'll give you the details after the jump...

Once again, Ben Alameda is back in the hard-core, small-block Ford game, and I recently attended a little "grand-opening/open-house" event held at his new engine shop in Santa Clarita, California (Ben Alameda Performance Racing Engines; [626] 203-2712).

A nice, sunny Sunday in SoCal brought 'Stangs from all over the metro area for a few hours of informal car show, bench racing and checking out Ben's new space.

Here are some of the photo highlights from the day.