Do cai and tuner first off. I promise you the power you get will be crazy!

 

i definitely think you should look into a CAI+Tune combo. i've got the C&L CAI and tune from brenspeed for my V6. since the tunes are really custom fit for the car, the tuners are very careful not to lean out the car. they're great mods because you can feel the difference ASAP plus it's an easy install. also, since it's so easy to take on and off, if anything happens to the car, it's easy to put the stock airbox on and return to stock easy.

as far as exhaust goes, that's something that you'll never get a straight answer for. each person has their own idea of what sounds good. i personally prefer the FRPP/Borla stingers. they're illegal in CA due to sound restrictions which makes me want to buy them hehehe. searching youtube is great. i know on one forum i'm part of they have an exhaust registry so that way each person can show how their own exhaust system sounds. one thing you'll want to know too is that the H pipe will make a sound difference where as the X pipe is better performance. something to keep in mind.

as far as wheels go, i'm a fan of the 20 inch razors in gunmetal. i currently have 17"s because i can't afford 20's. do know that as your rim size increases, so will tire prices. unfortunately, performance has an inverse effect. bigger rims=slower car. tinted windows always look slick and be sure to get moleskin installed when doing the windows, it prevents the tints from scratching (tons of stories about that on these forums)

and as mike said, a lot of the guys on the forums who will be EXTREMELY knowledgeable in our cars will be old enough to be your dad and they have some kick *** mods. regardless of what you do to your car, someone is ALWAYS going to say daddy helped. they're called haters. what you don't want to do is be OVERLY flashy because then we criticize you but good luck in your research and take some pics asap!

 

+1 on CAI/tune. As far leaning your car out, I wouldn't worry too much about. Some CAIs don't require a tune and some do; the ones that do need a tune won't get leaned out because the tune is made for the CAI and has a more agrressive fuel curve to make up for the extra air.

I guess that won't provide the "in your face" mod you're talking about. People don't buy a Mustang GT who are just looking for transportation, so most Stangs you run into will be customized at some level. I think an exhaust will make it look your own. Since you are on a budget, find a cat-back or axle-back system to give it some sound, and you'll be able to install it yourself and save some $$$. I got my FlowMaster axle-backs on eBay for $150 shipped! Used, yea......I prefer the term "broken in." I polished the tips and they looked awesome, and sound even better. As long as the mufflers don't have holes in them, it's fine. There are no moving parts in it, because normally I'm against buying used car parts.......but mufflers are mufflers.

 

I'd skip the cat back and just go with axlebacks, You end paying for new over axle pipes that arent needed.

 

Soooo, we should be doing your searches for you? (I just couldn"t pass that easy of an opportunity up )

You really need to hear the sound in person. Video sound recording can be misleading. At best, it"ll point you in a general direction (i.e Y-pipe, H-pipe, muffler - but if you"re hung up on any particular brand name all the sound clips in the world won"t likely change your mind).

Good, bad, or indifferent, bling sells. The tuner shops are in business to make money, period. That doesn"t make it better or necessarily even as good as the OE sizes, just more noticed. The performance hit isn"t quite as bad as some people make it out to be, but it"s there. There are a few other downsides that are not as picky. Ride quality usually isn"t as good, wheel damage is more likely,overly large wheels have a way of making stock rotors look puny, and they draw attention away from the rest of the car (probably more so when you are running top-down). Your choice.

Seriously, try to picture the total effect of whatever you"re thinking of before you throw any of your admittedly limited resources at it. And try to avoid fads that do not age very well.

Yeah, I"m old (checking my profile will only waste a couple of seconds, plus a few more to do the math).What does "going clean" mean, after you say "more in your face"?


Norm

 

double post

 

Newbie - don't feel bad ! I can tell your knowledge is limited and your sources are less than credible. I have been working on cars since I was a kid - not a "professional" but know my way around a car. I find THESE FORUMS highly informative and dead on accurate.

CAI & Tune is a MUST for your FIRST upgrade. Anything less than that anf YOU'RE cheating yourself big-time. CAI + Tune. DON'T BOTHER with CAI without tune. That will give you close to NO performance gains. I bought the STEEDA / DIABLOSPORT combo and have AWESOME gains and most guys here in the forums say that the STEEDA tune is nothing special. The throttle response is almost instant, (without tune you can't even "blip" the throttle between downshifts).

Take your time to make your decisions - but choose better sources of information than what you have now ! Educate yourself but DEFINATELY include the forums. Many MUSTANG guys talking shop on the good, bad, and ugly !

 

Oh man, sorry for my arrogance, I didn't mean the "My Dads Car" comment to be offensive. I guess its just how my generation speaks. Simply put I find alot of people are suprized to the point that they don't beleive I own the car, and question why I didn't by an import.

I'm happy that rugedrawnoticed my suddle hint of my 1g-2.5g bugget.

Oh, and I have a crappy Cell phone picture of my car outside my parents house. I just don't know how to set it up in my profile, along with a picture of myself. So any advice regarding that on the downlow would be cool, (Don't want to look like a moron).

What I ment by "In your face" was something notice-able, but in expensive. I've found a thread on the antenna deletes, andI'm going to do that when I have a moment (forgot about doing it today). AlsoI'm working on welding up the holes for my spoiler, and respraying it (I'm an autobody apprentice).

The cold air intake I am looking to is the following: http://store.summitracing.com/partde...p;autoview=sku
Personaly I feel it looks suttle. But after reading more into CAI on another thread I've started. I'm starting to think that a CAI, and Tuner might be the way to go. But the reason why I've picked the Injen product because I want to bo original, and it seems like a CAI not many people would choose.

What I mean by clean is a form of customizing that is done with personal taste to make a it seem as if the car came that way


I appreciate all the advice, and there have been many good points

Not to be disrespectful, but the reason why I don't go search threw forums is because I'm a "Newbie" and don't exactly know how...

Oh and will underpullys, and a CAI make up for the power loss of throwing on 20s?

The reason why I created this post is because I want to see what other people have done with there mustangs, so I can see what I like on my car without having to buy a part and realize I don't like it after Ive paid for it

 

I dont think any offense was taken just be aware that a large part of the mustang croud are older, hell I'm almost 40 and still want the mean look with ungodly amounts of power. I do understand about the budget believe me thats the only reason the SC calling my name hasnt yet been answered. The search doesnt work at this point so I wouldnt bother, asking question is the best way to get what you want out of the car but do check out the stickies and Taco Bill's how to's you will learn quite a bit about the car and can better decide what works best for you and what questions to ask people on the forum's.

 

They will make up way more than your going to lose with 20's.