In today's age, 5.0s just aren't competitive...

I'm only 18 and as soon as I graduate from high school I want to get a fox. Everybody who knows that I want a mustang asks why I want an old one and not a newer one and I say they are cheap, pretty easy to find, there are tones of performance parts out there for them. My neighbor, that I hang out with has a 79 mustang cobra and a 94 stang and when ever we are out in the cobra we get people turning their heads to look at it but, when we are out in his 94 people dont look or do anything, its just another stang on the streets. That is another reason I want a fox, and no matter where you are whether you are at a car show or just going to the store, there are always people looking at foxs even if they are not car people they have to come up to it and look at it. I cant wait until I get mine.
 
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I don't see where the Fox has to be compared to the z06's and the like. Most people with those cars are not able to drive them to what some professinal driver is able to. For the most part people now adays are driving supercharger 4 bangers or turbo' 4 cylinders. And guess what the mustang can still take these cars. It still is the bench mark for performance. I hear it all the time. the question how fast is your car. The answer..... faster then a 5.0L. My 5.8L is still whooping pretty much everything we have locally at our track if its still a street car. Sure there are som serious 10 second cars but they are usally trailered. The Fox is still competitive. Maybe we have to build big block cubes in sbf blocks but when we do we have enough HP to run with anything out there. Even KB Cobra's.
 
it's about as competative as your wallet allows lets leave it at that. every week someone complains that that they cant keep up with an LS1 or I hate the new Z06. save some money and put some parts on your cars. 20 year old technology isnt going to win races.
 
5.0's stock i think are fun as hell, stock they have a perfect power to weight ratio, i love our 5.0 and wouldent trade it for a newer stang. but theres allways mroe room for power.

stangs have the fun factor, and you vert guys know the 5.0 "pun" factor. :D

Isnt your car a 6 cylinder?????:shrug:
 
Hate to tell you but anybody serious with their car, goes out and gets a new one and MODS it. I havent seen a stock 03 Cobra in alongggg time, or a stock F-Body for that matter, hell even a stock 4.6 GT.


Those are no longer new cars. Im talking about the new GTO The New Z06 etc etc. Most guys who buy those dont go modding them straight away. But they dont mind laying the smack down on a fox or sn95 or cobra.

trust me you are not telling me anything I dont already know. I have had many FAST foxes.
 
Comparing even a well modded '80s sports car with that of a Z06 is beyond apples to oranges...it's like airplanes to sailboats.

Except that there is no forum in which airplanes and sailboats actually confront each other, whereas Z06s and mustangs do.

It all comes down to money...simple as that. Give me the cash to buy a Z06 and let me put it into my coupe, and it will out accelerate, out handle, and out brake it. ................. since you can spend a fraction of that 80k and run faster than a Z06 in the quarter.

You're absolutely right - it is all about the money. The point I made is simply that people do not put into their 5.0s the money to do these things very often anymore for whatever the reason. Either they don't have the money to put into it, or they choose not to.

It also takes a lot more than just money to make one of these cars fast. Most people don't have that, either.

Chris
 
it's a lot easier to finance for a 50k dollar car than to get 50k in cash for performance parts and body work.
the bank wont want to see a vehicle worth 5-6k at the most used for collateral on the kind of cash that it would take to make a mustang stomp on a vette.
Are you saying you would have to put $50k into a fox to make it stomp a vette???? You would have about $40k left over, and a vette in your rearview mirror.
 
I agree with what everyone is saying, but one i know we don't promote street racing or anything on this site, but at least in my area go to the street races and it is 75% fox body mustangs, then newer stangs, camaros, a few lightings and then all the hondas and Volkswagens. Not many of the real new high end cars. But most of these cars can beat any of the new production cars easily in a drag race. I think just that is a way of showing our cars still can compete. Most of the serious cars at the races have almost enough money to buy the new cars into them but they are still the ones that are there.
 
Sometimes it's not all about being the faster car on the block.

The Mustang has a good name, and that's good enough for me. You still get tons of attention and praise even if in a 14-second stocker

x2.

i could give a **** that my car is slow. my friend in his 96 gt just walked me. right now i just got it back from being painted, and my goal is to make everything stop rattling, make it handle and stop better. and enjoy the 5.0 liter that gets 18 mpg around town.

you have to remember these cars were the cream of the crop of their day. honestly, can you imagine going to the dealer in 87 to 93 and getting a new car with power lumbar, adjustable side bolsters, on board diagnostics, fuel injection, sun visor lights, power mirrors, doorlocks, and windows? i think thats allot of options that are ahead of the game there. and dont forget foxes are light.

ill never forget watching an episode of american muscle car, when they were doing a show on the camaro, and they said how many people would skip all the options, get a litttle bit better of an engine, and a posi trac. and be happy as a clam. its all about simplicity. honestly, 10 grand into my car and i can put a corvette in my rearview mirror. how much do performance parts cost for STI's, corvettes, supra's, and SRT4's? im gonna guess more than parts for 5.0's

all im saying is im happy with a rwd v8 american car with a posi and fuel injection. long live the mustang.
 
since when has the fox become non-competitive??? :shrug:

Last time I went to the track.. the faster of the fastest cars WERE foxes...

come to think of it.. EVERY time i've been to the track the fox was hanging with or out performing everything else... and thats saying something considering I grew up on te dragstrip.

Stock for Stock.. sure, there are LOTS of cars out there today that are faster.. but that by NO MEANS grants the "too old" label on the fox.

I bought mine for its *potential*... I think most would agree that a fox has nearly endless potential. :rolleyes:
 
Heck, nothing under 100k is really competitive with a Z06!

A lot of fun cars aren't competitive with today's Corvettes or whatever, but they are still fun to build -- CRX, fox body, 3rd gen fbody, LT1 fbody, 94-95 GT, 240sx, ae86 Corolla, Grand National, Syclone, turbo Dodges etc. I know a guy that just dumped $30k into a late '70s Datsun 510 -- would it outperform a C6? Probably not, but it's very cool and fun.
 
Unfortunately in today's world of stock 505hp Corvettes, 420 horsepower cobras, 500 hp Shelby GT500's, 400 horsepower caddies, pontiacs, Chargers, challengers.... The list just keeps going and going.... 300hp lightweight AWD cars, supercharged Cobalts, Turbocharged neons... Hell, The honda freaking accord comes with a 253hp V6 whereas our beloved 5.0 came with only 225 hp in its best form (besides a cobra).

New Corvettes are ugly, 63 split windows where cool.
Cobras and Shelbys are definately cool.
GTO's are nothing great and look like sporty Grand Ams
Chargers are ugly big boats.
Honda's are family cars.
Cobalt and Neons are just little tuners.

I think the Fox Bodys are cool as hell!!!!!
 
The LS1 fbody seems to be taking the place of the foxbody as the car that will run with the "big boys" for a little money :) Fbody = $7-$9k with 310+ rwhp and solid stock handling. Add a cam and juice and they'll outrun just about any stock car south of $50k (1/4). Heck, a cam and 100 shot LS1 can outrun a full bolt-on/ported blower 03/04 Cobra for half the price (handle as well too). About $40k cheaper than a GT500!
 
since when has the fox become non-competitive??? :shrug:

Since Chevy started coming out with cars from the factory that were faster than well-planned H/C/I 5.0s, and since Fords mustang Cobra could make 500 rwhp with a chip, pulley, exhaust and a tune.

I know that once I twin turboed my '91 mustang, I never looked at a 5.0 as if it were a race. I did, however, look forward to racing '03-'04 cobras, '05+ vettes, etc...

I know there are some blazingly fast 5.0s out there, but guess what: on the street in two years of having a turbo 5.0 that only made around 420rwhp I only ran into one other fox-body that could run with me. They've got a corvette now from the factory that's faster than both of us were, and there are plenty of '03-'04 Cobras that I see around town that would've run with me.

5.0s just aren't competitive today. There's just too much that has to be done to one to put it in the same league as another gear-head's cobra, vette, LSx, hemi etc... They still have a reputation as being capable of being fast if a lot of money is put into them, no doubt. Then again, the same could be said of anything.

Chris
 
The LS1 fbody seems to be taking the place of the foxbody as the car that will run with the "big boys" for a little money :) Fbody = $7-$9k with 310+ rwhp and solid stock handling. Add a cam and juice and they'll outrun just about any stock car south of $50k (1/4). Heck, a cam and 100 shot LS1 can outrun a full bolt-on/ported blower 03/04 Cobra for half the price (handle as well too). About $40k cheaper than a GT500!

Seems like a good comparison to me. LS1s will make over 400 to the wheels with the right cam and a couple of bolt-ons. Add a 100 or 150 shot to top it off, and that's good power, and you won't have to worry about breaking the bank or the stock block.

Believe me, I went head to head with the LS1 for a very long time. My friends saying that they're better than 5.0s, and then me proving them wrong time and again. The twin-turbo helped me compete with the old Z06s... Now, chevy's upped the bar again, and I went ahead and built an engine that I doubt a chevy will ever outrun again straight from the factory, haha.

I enjoy a good horsepower war, but I certainly respect the LS1.

Chris
 
I know there are some blazingly fast 5.0s out there, but guess what: on the street in two years of having a turbo 5.0 that only made around 420rwhp I only ran into one other fox-body that could run with me. They've got a corvette now from the factory that's faster than both of us were, and there are plenty of '03-'04 Cobras that I see around town that would've run with me.

Here's the deal. If you want to race, you should go to the track. That's where the faster and better cars are determined, and the better driver for that matter. You can have all the horse power in the world, but if the car doesn't launch well, and the person can't drive it, you won't be winner. And in street racing, you lose either way. You can end up killing yourself or better yet , an innocent family out for a ride. Seems like the horsepower thing is more of an ego thing instead of who has the better car (i.e. suspension, tuning, consistancy, reliability)

In bracket racing, horsepower doesn't matter. I won twice this past summer in the open trophy class with my near stock 93 GT Mustang, consistantly running 14.2 to 14.4 1/4 mile e.t.s and going up against 10-15 second cars.
I went up against a Roush Mustang in the Mustang Showdown event. It was heads up racing with a .4 pro-tree. I left him spinning helplessy at the line with his $50,000. car that wouldn't hook up and that he couldn't drive. Actually, the owner of the car had someone at the track drive it for him because he couldn't drive it!

5.0s just aren't competitive today.
Ever check out the NMRA? Fox body's are the most winning and most used Mustangs in their compititions.
Fox bodied have been called the 55-57 chevy's of this decade.
They are everywhere. Parts are easy to find. Affordable. They really hold up from hard driving. They are very quick from dead stop, just as the 55-57 chevy's were in the past. A true racers car. Buy something cheap, and try to make it as fast as you can, instead of buying something fast right out of the showroom. That's for people with loads of money!! I've seen some new GTO's at the track and they don't do anything.
When I use to go to the track as a kid, all you saw where 55-57 chevy's. Now it's Fox Bodies.
Right now in the NHRA stock classes you do mostly see 67-69 Chevy Camero's dominating the class.
By the way, talking about it costing too much money to upgrade a Fox Body?
Have you seen the projected prices for the new Camero's and Challengers? I don't know the numbers, but I remember them being really high!