thor'svr4

If you had to pick a mustang to build for the track, which would it be and why?
What are some pro’s and cons of the fox body’s vs. the 96-04’s vs. the 05+ mustangs? Especially pertaining to boosting the car. I originally joined the forum with the intentions of building a turboed 82-92 gt, but im starting to wonder if I might be better off with a different year.

Unfortunately when I used the search tab the words ‘which’ and ‘Best’ are omitted so I couldn’t find much info. All I really came across was that that the 96-04 mach 1’s and cobras had 32 valves vs. 16 valves in the gt’s. So if I were to look into a 96-04 I would def try to get my hands on a mach 1 or cobra. However I’m pretty sure that boost will make up for a 2 valves poor head flow so I’m not sure if it would be worth spending the extra money for a mach 1 or cobra if I’m going to be boosting the car.

There’s a lot more than just head flow to take into account though. I think I read that the 92 Cobra had a forged crank and rods from the factory, so that might save me from having to do a bottom end build.

I’m also curious which gen seams to be able to put the power to the ground the best since that seams to be the major downfall of most higher hp cars I run into. Since my current car is awd I’ve never had to do any suspension or rear end mods and I’m still trying to understand what setups work the best. A lot of my friends are into hardcore off-road trucks and they have helped me understand 3 link vs. 4 link rear ends but I’m sure there has to be a difference between a 4 link on a truck and a 4 link on a track car.

One of my major concerns is the amount of power that stock parts can handle. Ie which gen has the strongest bottom end, trans, rear end, ect?

At the end of the day I’m not looking for a car to build up and then drive to school / work. I’ve already got a two daily drivers so this would be purely a weekend car. It would be nice to be able to take it out for a joyride on the street hear and there, but in general this car would spend 95% of its life being built and sitting in the garage waiting for some track time.

If anyone can point me in the right direction I would really appreciate it.

MU71L4710N

depends on how much power your realistically talking about wanting to make. 400 or less whp then anything will do, fox body has stupid cheap parts, and its not expensive to put a blower on a 2v. i would not do a 3v tho, since you said "build this for the track" and those cars are significantly heavier than a 2v.

but the most obvious answer here is 03/04 cobra. forged motor, tranny, rear end...comes stock with about 370whp, and for the cost of a few boltons and a tune you can be running 450+ whp.

thor'svr4

I’m amazed at how expensive some mustangs are. After your suggestion I decided to look more closely at the SVT Cobras and more specifically at the 93 SVT Cobra, 93 SVT Cobra R, 95 SVT Cobra R, 2000 Cobra R and the 03/04 supercharged Cobras. All of them go for more way more than I’m willing to spend on just the car. Don’t get me wrong, a 2000 Cobra R is a very nice car, but $30,000 for a used one is out of my price range. The 03/04 Cobras were less expensive at ~14-25,000 but even that is a lot of money for just the car. I know the old expression ‘you get what you pay for.’ and ‘fast, cheep, reliable. Pick two’ but I’m starting to feel like perhaps it might less expensive in the long run to buy an inexpensive mustang and build the motor and trans.

I forgot to mention in my first post that my current daily driver made 418awhp before I built the bottom end, with 5 psi less boost, and a much more ‘basic’ engine management system than the current setup. so while I haven’t gotten back to the dyno (going in mid January for another dyno tune) I’m hoping to break the 500whp mark. In reality I’m most likely going to be ~460-480whp. The reason I brought up my current daily drivers hp is because there wouldn’t be any point in building a mustang for a track car if it made less whp than my daily driver. Therefore if I had to set a very rough power goal for my future mustang I would say ~600whp. If anyone feels this is an unrealistic goal for a mustang please be open and let me know. I’m still a noob to the platform and to be honest I’m overwhelmed by all the options. Also if there are ‘tried and true’ setups that yield that kind of power please let me know. I’m not entirely set on a specific gen / body style.

MU71L4710N

well you never posted a budget. in the long run, its not terribly cheaper if any to start with a GT or just buy the 03/04 cobra to have the starting platform.

if you don't mind having a car that literally is a garage fixer-upper and your wanting 600whp, you could find a cheap 99-04 GT for a few grand with a bad motor or just torn to ****, or 5-6 grand running in decent-ish condition. take a grand to beef the rear end, 1-2k in suspension, 2500$ for an MMR shortblock and throw in some ported heads and blower cams (not sure on price depends what your able to do yourself as far as installing the motor, heads, cams, accessories, etc...), a t56 (1500-2500 used to new if i remember right), then a blower. you'll have a car you can beat all day but you can see this has all added up. thats excluding the other supporting mods you need to hit 600whp too (fuel system and all that crap).

its no joke money wise to get these cars to 600+ whp.

thor'svr4

That actually sounds like something that is much more in my price range and I kind of prefer to have a dedicated project car that I can go home and spend a few hrs a day working on it. Ill start spending a lot more time researching the 99-04gt’s and the mods that you suggested.

Thanks for the help.

a_penquin

If your looking into a purpose built drag car I would look into the fox bodies or the 94-98 GT's. Parts for the fox's will be cheaper than the SN, but you can get both for well under 5k. Both have a hefty aftermarket for superchargers and turbos. The suspension on both is the same with the exception of shocks (foxes have a slightly shorter factory shock). I would also look for an auto for consistency at the track. Keep in mind in the end the price of the car, and possibly some modifications can offset by parts sold off the car.

Theres a sticky around here explaining everything you could ever want to know about these suspensions and the horrible 4 link design these cars come with. You can either end up eliminating the upper control arms or relocating them for better geometry. Good luck with your build and please post a build thread once started.

LilRoush

Maybe I missed it in all the text, but what kind of racing?

PNYXPRESS

Im thinking Road course because he said track instead of strip.

If I had the budget, I would take a fox body for weight, termi drivetrain for power, and s197 suspension for handling.

thor'svr4

sorry i meant 1/4 mile drag racing. i found something that could be a deal on a 347 fox, but it looks like it might be a flop since the car was converted to a carb and cant get through emissions.