PLEASE do NOT waste your $$$ on headers as one of your top 5 mods. 1. Cold Air Intake + Tune 2. 4.10's 3. Drag Radials (Mickeys) 4. UDP's 5. Mid-Pipe After that you'd likely wan't to go for the following... 6. Shifter 7. Lower Control Arms 8. Adjustable Upper Control Arm With good driving and decent weather you'll see yourself in the 12's easily. Headers on N/A S197's are seriously a waste.
so what would be the difference in getting a CAI and tune, and getting a non tune CAI and buying something like a diablo chip later on down the road? also why do the lower control arms make such a huge difference on these cars?
About to head out to the Ford Power Festival so I'll answer quick LOL If you're going to get a CAI you will need a tune. There are some kits out there that do not require a tune when installed however they may not give you power gains that you'd see from the JLT, Steeda or C&L kits. You can buy a combo Intake+Tuner at a good price. I'd also consider getting an email tune. If you go Predator, go with an email tune from Scott Beer @ D'Agostino Racing (he's DiabloSport's former head tuner and a tuning god in South Florida). If you go with SCT, get a Brenspeed tune. Control arms on the S197 will help lower your 60'. They reduce wheel hop and other traction related mishaps. Keep in mind, for an ET car your 60' is where it's at. When you start launching at 5K on Mickeys you're going to want that extra support & strength that the LCA's provide. Well, gotta go!!! Hope that helped.
I don't want to start a big controversy here but MOST people will agree that if you are trying to save some cash by getting either a tune or a CAI then you should go with the tune first. I think it is by far the biggest gain you are going to get as far as the bolt-ons and relatively inexpensive mods go. Unless of course you consider a twin screw supercharger a bolt-on
I only take out stuff that requires no tools: spare tire, jack, trunk liner, rear seat bottom, and 1/4 tank of gas tops. As desperate as I am to run 12.99 or better, I like knowing I can do it without really stripping my car down. Guess that means I need more hp to get into the 12's.
spyder7724 ran 12.09@114 with less than 300 RWHP in his auto. That is simply awesome!!!!! Still a full second quicker than me! Of course he does some track only tricks to achieve that, but still runs low 12s without doing the tricks
That is actual timeslip. At the last drag day our Mustang Club had I personaly saw him run 12.14@114. I didn't see any of his slips, but on that run he had a 1.70 60' time as that is also displayed on the scoring boards before you trip the final beam. Here is a post by spyder7724 from elsewhere on the net back on 9/17/07... it's true i don't like how heavy these cars are but i still haven't cut the car. i did remove the front seats and replace with one butler built aluinum seat and of course the spare is out too but my car still weighs in at 3320# w/o me and 3550 w/my fat ass...you do the math on that one mods that count: SPYDERSHAFT thats it really i don't have anything crazy just a bunch of bolt ons and i constantly tweak on it looking for a couple hundreths here and there. TCI converter 3800+stall 4.30 gears bogarts &m/t's hooker L/T's o/r h-pipe stock mufflers SCT tune steeda 80mm cai march fluidamper lower pulley e-w/p cmcv deletes with port matched intake manifold strange struts with coilovers and rear shocks J&M LCAs LRP bite bars (soon to be released) removing the belt was the ringer cause i ran 12.35 at 107 on the first run and after removing the belt it went 12.22 @ 112.8 !! the last run i just let it cool down for 1.5 hours and tweaked a few things and it surprised even me. here's the stats my car dyno'd at 296hp on a dyno jet at excessive motorsports in No.VA and 281hp by woodbine motorsports here in MD on a mustang dyno run stats: r/t .016 60' 1.688 330 4.964 1/8 7.726 mph 87.83 1/8th 1000' 10.131 1/4 12.155 mph 111.27 i think that answers all of the questions i'll be at mason dixon dragway on sunday for the mustang clubs track rental and hopefully with some better weather i can lower it a bit more. i still get 17.1 mpg and it cruises great with the stock tune even though the convereter is loose. the lockup and overdrive are great features that allow you to be very aggressive with converter and gearing and still have a daily driver.
