jmcmike

Hey all. I'm new to the forum and Mustangs in general and I have a situation for which I am up for hearing a broad range of opinions. If you see my post duplicated on some of the forums you follow, sorry for the duplicate posts but I want to make sure I reach out to the Mustang community at large.


Background: Sort of middle aged dude, owned a wide range of cars in my time but have been a truck guy (Ford FTW) for many years. I have always wanted to own a yellow sports car and in my recent quest for replacing my truck (have grown tired of trucks really) I ended up buying a very clean 2001 yellow Mustang Cobra. I bought it from a well known used car dealer chain (hence the fact that it is very clean, visually and title-wise) and I paid, well too much probably.

The only mods done to my car are a Flowmaster cat-back exhuast and some after-market shocks/struts.


Based on my over-the-top geek-fueled research over the last 2 weeks I have come to the following conclusions:

1) Had I to do it all over again, I would have bought a yellow terminator via non-retail channels.

2) Since I can't "do it all over again" I am in possesion of a car that I paid dealer retail for and am therefore upside-down by a bit in this car.

3) Regardless, I am 'bound' to my new car. I love it really. Call it fate or providence, in any case, I love my Cobra.

4) No matter the love, I now realize (all too late of course) that unless I am blessed with the skill of the Stig himself, I can easily be walked by a number of new comer's, especially Terminators.

5) My car cannot compete with a ported Termintator without spending obscene amounts of money, more than it would take to sell my car at a loss and buy/port a terminator.


Goals: What do I really want to do with my car?

1) I am not up for spending the the money necessary to compete directly with ported terminators (looks like 8-10K)

2) I do want to ensure that with appropriate skill, I can beat a mostly stock terminator and at least hang with a ported terminator. (I don't mind losing, I just want to hang well enough to give props with dignity.)

3) This is a daily driver car (low miles FTW) and I may never bring it to a strip. I mostly care about stop-light to stop-light performance. I understand that a lot of this is based on skill, I can handle that slack. If I lose because of how I run, that's my fault.

So this brings me to my question (if you've hung in long enough you get a cookie).

What should I do?

I won't directly suggest the many options I know already, I've read enough to write a flippin' book on the subject. I just want a fresh specific opinion on these options from someone in, or close to, my situation. Feel free to smash my conclusions, so long as your advice fits my goals, go for it!

Thanks!

Justin

Blackvenom01

hey justin i like sugar cookies pm me for my address lol jk

well i was in the same boat you were in i had a 2001 cobra i did all the basic bolts on including full exhaust intake underdrive pulleys tune and 4.10 gears...with those mods i would say that if we went from a dig i would pull maybe a car or 2 intially thanks to my gears and sticky tires but then eventually i would loose

i ended up looking into supercharging it and then came across the wonderful termi world and i said thats my next goal..so i sold my car work up some more money and found the one i have now and snagged it up

to this day i still miss my 01 cause it was my first really nice car but what i miss more is i built it from stock and made the car into my vision...everyone around here knew what it was and who owned it and they loved it cause i made it specifically to how i wanted it

it seems like to you speed is not your main concern therefore make it yours and everything you want...i was lucky enough to pay 12k for 40k mile 01 and sell for 12.5k with 49k but i added 4k in mods from visual to sound to performance

a good quick easy and cost affective way to make some more power is to get yourself a 2k dollar centrifugal supercharger and then you would beat alot of cars out there while remaining a DD and still safe on the motor

if i couldnt get rid of it then mod it to your looks and ear then throw a centrifugal sc on there an you will be happy...as far as me i get bored easily lol

jmcmike

I am pretty much thinking that some sort of FI is where I want to go. The lack of forged internals on this motor being a barrier, I don't plan to or need to exceed 450 RWHP. I am thinking that with 400-450 RWHP I would be able to hang with stock termi's. The question then becomes what sort of FI and how can I spend as little as possible?

If money were no object I would drop the $6700 on the Kenne Bell 9 psi kit but wow, $6700? Really? Ouch.

The other options work down from there. I think I lean more towards positive displacement SC's for the low end torque but I am up for advice in that regard from those that have run centri blowers.

Blackvenom01

well yes a roots style is nice and fun cause it makes boost right away but for the power your thinking about and the money you can spend your limited you can still run a low psi centri and throw some nice gears in there since you wont have to worry bout traction as much with a centri

also you could do a wet shot or a dry shot something like 100 150 with a good tune that would be the cheapest route...

also with that 400-450 power you will beat mainly stock termis specially if you add some gears thats what i would be doing in your situation

jmcmike

Good points on the centri, thanks.

Where do I find a $2k blower kit BTW?

Blackvenom01

the complete kits are alittle more...but what i see alot of ppl do is build there own kit like piece it together themselves and thats how they get it for 2k

im hoping someone will chime in on this thread with a link casue i dont remember it i would just google it...i think svtperformance.com is the place that has the build thread

jmcmike

Thank you all for your advice. I have pretty much decided what I am going to do. I am going to keep the car and build towards a low boost FI setup, between 400 and 450 RWHP.

I am going to start where it seems to matter most, beefing up the IRS and changing gears, probably 3.73. I'll probably do a new shifter and mid pipes either at the same time or shortly after. Then I'll start piecing together an Eaton swap. It may take a while to get it all done but that's OK. I am a low miles driver so I plan to enjoy this car for a few years at least.

Thanks again!

SVTeeshirt

Superchargersonline.com

good site to piece together a blower kit.

Also you will need 42 lb injectors a 95mm(ish) MAF, and a SVT focus pump (or something similiar).