New Guy Looking For A 5.0 Fox To Be My Dd In The Near Future

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Hey found a flaw in you 13 sec recipe ;) - the price. 13's under a grand? Not in today's market.

Slicks-$400
Long tube headers- $254.99
U/d pulleys- $70
Gears- $160
Tb- (bbk) $199
Mass air- cardone reman for 95 gt 69.99
Off road exhaust- pypes o/r x $189.99
Total-$1,343.97
Labor not included. When I had my gears installed if i remember right the labor was somewhere in the neighborhood of $300-400. Would you mount those slicks in your 16" pony's? I'm not trying to pick a fight with you with my list I'm just kinda messin' with ya. Anywho would you say prices have gone up much since the good ole days when 13's were king and 12s were stuff of legend?

Newsflash: You can buy used stuff for less than new.

I mounted my slicks on a set of stock 10 hole 15" wheels and used the stock donut spares as front skinnies back in the day. Ran a short belt, iced the intake, disconnected the front sway bar links, removed everything from the trunk, ran a 1/4 tank of gas, and drove the piss out it. Not afraid to say one time I got about 30 ft off the starting line and shot my driver side axle about 10 feet. The car had 4000 miles on it. lol. Had a hard time explaining that to the dealer but after putting the car back together and towing it to the dealer, got it fixed under warranty.
 
Hey found a flaw in you 13 sec recipe ;) - the price. 13's under a grand? Not in today's market.

Slicks-$400
Long tube headers- $254.99
U/d pulleys- $70
Gears- $160
Tb- (bbk) $199
Mass air- cardone reman for 95 gt 69.99
Off road exhaust- pypes o/r x $189.99
Total-$1,343.97
Labor not included. When I had my gears installed if i remember right the labor was somewhere in the neighborhood of $300-400. Would you mount those slicks in your 16" pony's? I'm not trying to pick a fight with you with my list I'm just kinda messin' with ya. Anywho would you say prices have gone up much since the good ole days when 13's were king and 12s were stuff of legend?
Of course the prices have gone up a little but for say an investment of say 5-7k you can buy a nice mustang with mods to get you well into the 13's(or better). And who "wants" to drive a Camry etc lol. I will probably always have a fox body. I just like them to much. I always come back to them.
 
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I've never been to the dragstrip, and I'll probably never go. I just want a fun car that is loud and relatively fast...at least faster than the cars of similar age/price. Obviously an average Fox won't beat a Coyote or other modern fast cars, but I'm perfectly fine with that.
 
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Newsflash: You can buy used stuff for less than new.

I mounted my slicks on a set of stock 10 hole 15" wheels and used the stock donut spares as front skinnies back in the day. Ran a short belt, iced the intake, disconnected the front sway bar links, removed everything from the trunk, ran a 1/4 tank of gas, and drove the **** out it. Not afraid to say one time I got about 30 ft off the starting line and shot my driver side axle about 10 feet. The car had 4000 miles on it. lol. Had a hard time explaining that to the dealer but after putting the car back together and towing it to the dealer, got it fixed under warranty.

what did you tell the dealer? haha
 
haha....every video I see on YouTube of a new-ish car breaking while racing I try to imagine how they could explain it to the dealer. It's a fun game.

Well that was 20+ years ago with an OBD-I computer so it was easy to put the car back to stock and the dealer had no clue. These days the news car computers can tell the dealer what mods were done, what speed you were going, etc. I've heard of guys when the 2o11's came out and put tunes on them that were too lean, burning up #8 cylinders, then restoring the tunes and bringing it back to the dealers. The new computers can tell that you had a tune and dealers were not honoring the warranties.
 
Well that was 20+ years ago with an OBD-I computer so it was easy to put the car back to stock and the dealer had no clue. These days the news car computers can tell the dealer what mods were done, what speed you were going, etc. I've heard of guys when the 2o11's came out and put tunes on them that were too lean, burning up #8 cylinders, then restoring the tunes and bringing it back to the dealers. The new computers can tell that you had a tune and dealers were not honoring the warranties.

Another plus for an older car is less computer S%$+!
 
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A lot of 4-cylinder cars nowadays have 200 hp. Where the factory rating for Foxes was 225hp. Like someone else said, stay away from 300 hp Subarus and the like. You will be quickly embarassed with a stock Fox. When I first bought this after driving my Explorer Sport for 9 years, I kind of was surprised that pulling away from stoplights at normal speed, little compact cars were usually in front of me. I would have to get on it to keep even. And pretty much any decent modern sedan has over 300 hp now. However, when I'm driving around with my x-pipe and Flowmasters, most cars on the road aren't rumbling like my car. When I've had some young nieces and nephews in my car, when they've only been in minivans their whole lives, they're like, "Oh my God, what's happening?!" I've always been a car guy. I love my car and use it as a DD. To other people it's just an old car.
 
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as I get older, I'm learning that going fast isn't all that matters. Now I don't want to drive a Prius, but I also don't have to win every little challenge on the roads either. Let the guy in his $40k STi beat me, that's cool. I wouldn't want his car payment. The positive things about a Fox body to me are:
1. minimal (or no) monthly payment
2. cheap and abundant parts
3. fast enough and loud enough to make me smile
4. able to be made very fast for relatively cheap
5. cool factor. everybody likes these cars

did I get those right?
 
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as I get older, I'm learning that going fast isn't all that matters. Now I don't want to drive a Prius, but I also don't have to win every little challenge on the roads either. Let the guy in his $40k STi beat me, that's cool. I wouldn't want his car payment. The positive things about a Fox body to me are:
1. minimal (or no) monthly payment
2. cheap and abundant parts
3. fast enough and loud enough to make me smile
4. able to be made very fast for relatively cheap
5. cool factor. everybody likes these cars

did I get those right?


Agreed. If I wanted the fastest car on the block, I'd write a check for new Shelby, get a pulley and tune, and headers.

My 23 year old car gets more looks and thumbs up than any new car. It puts a smile on my face when the top is down and you are cruising along with the wife and kids. Every time I pick up my daughter at school, all her friends jaws drop when they see her get in the car. That is priceless.
 
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Yeah, it should be noted that even a new econobox is north of 15K for a base model, and the camry's and accords being mentioned are hardly cheap cars either. Really, a bone stock Fox Mustang (are there any out there anymore?) will at best keep pace with some of these newer sedans, but they are way more fun to drive, cheaper to own, and far cheaper to make fast.
 
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does the Explorer top end swap net as much HP/TQ as the Edelbrock and Trick Flow kits?

I have the Explorer top end from a 96- slightly ported intake (gasket matched and opened to 70MM) and heads with TFS springs- you normally get around 50hp. The TW intake and heads are good for about 75hp. This is not including an aftermarket cam. With a decent cam I'd say the difference in rwhp is about 20-30 hp... usually in the range of 260-280 rwhp for the Explorer setup vs. 280-300 on a TW setup. Not a big fan of the Edelbrock heads- maybe from the bad taste still in my mouth from a set of 6037 heads I bought back in the day that chewed up the spring seats in a few thousand miles because they chose to use cheap ass non hardened seats. I do like the Performer intake and the Performer II better. I'd expect around 28o or so rwhp with that setup as the heads IMO are not as good as the TW.

I chose to keep the stock cam as I wanted to maintain normal idle and manners, and I'll wait until I swap to a set of TW 170's and call ED @TFI and have him grind me a cam for $300.
 
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Agreed. If I wanted the fastest car on the block, I'd write a check for new Shelby, get a pulley and tune, and headers.

My 23 year old car gets more looks and thumbs up than any new car. It puts a smile on my face when the top is down and you are cruising along with the wife and kids. Every time I pick up my daughter at school, all her friends jaws drop when they see her get in the car. That is priceless.
Pretty much the only time my 15 yr old daughter wants to be seen with me at her school is when I pick her up in "her dad's hot rod" as she puts it. Convertible, shiny, sporty, and a nice rumble is all they see and hear. I don't think any of her friends have ever asked me how it would run against a new Camry
 
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So Punisher, how goes the search?

I assume you mean me....lol. Well, I still owe on my current car, but as soon as I can sell it and pay the bank off I'm getting a Fox. This might be as long as 6 months from now, which would actually be ok with me, as I've never owned a RWD car before before and I'd hate my first few months of ownership to be in the snow haha.