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
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