joeware - never stop exploring...

…I bought a new Mustang GT. A Black Premium Convertible with the California Special Edition package and the Shaker 1000 sound system (allegedly 1000 watts) w/ satellite and lots of other options. I was chatting with Don on the phone the other day and he said, “joe, go buy a Ford product!” and so I did! Sticker on the new addition to the family was just over $38k. I get the Ford X-Plan which meant I got it down to $35k. Not too bad. I somewhat sadly traded the Rubicon in. I think the sales guy thought he stung me a little on the trade value but I needed to get away from the jeep as mentioned previously.

So far I have only replaced the stock tires on the ’stang. I went from the 235/50ZR-18 BF Goodrich G-Force T/A KDWS All Season to the BF Goodrich G-Force T/A  KDW NT high performance street tire. This thing will NEVER see snow unless there is a surprise snow storm on a day that it is 60 degrees plus between the months of April and November so losing all-season isn’t a big deal. I love the aggressive tread pattern on the NTs. I almost went with the street legal slicks but I have a really bad story from my high school years about crashing my 1972 Mustang with a hot rodded 351C (the big block) that was due to slicks and some unexpected rain while I was racing a Smokey and the Bandit type Trans Am w/ the 400 and shaker hood. I beat the TA and lost a good chunk of the underside of the car to a curb. Anyway, see the new tires here - http://www.bfgoodrichtires.com/overview/g-force-t-a-kdw/22.html

I will be receiving some cool stuff from American Muscle on Thursday. A tuning computer called the LiveWire which should help me eek out some additional horsepower as well as some lighting modifications. The car starts out at about 300HP on normal 87 octane gas. The LiveWire will tune it to run on the gas I buy (93 octane) which I have read can give me a good 20-40HP and another 30-50 foot lbs of torque. The lighting mods simply change out the stock bulbs for some higher output bulbs as well as a fun read tail light change which reminds me of my 1972 Cougar I had.

I am also intending on adding a MagnaFlow exhaust. At first I thought I was going to replace the H-Pipe and everything else from the headers back but now I have decided just to do a cat-back mod. Mostly this mod is about the sound, the Mustang GT has one of the most distinctive and best exhaust notes out there of all the current “hot rods” but it is a bit too subdued. I want it to growl just a bit more.

I am also trying to find a company that will install a Roush Supercharger for me. The Roush superchargers are a bit expensive but the factory warranty is maintained which I consider to be a good thing. This, unlike the exhaust is about the power. The Roush supercharger has about 5 PSI of boost which translates to about 115 extra ponies. I figure that will put me up around the 450HP range with everything else.

When I originally went looking at the Mustangs I fell in love with a Vista Blue GT500 with white racing stripes. 500HP right from the factory. Only thing is the moronic dealerships are trying to get $25000 over sticker for those cars and their sticker is $50k or so. No X-Plan available. I loved that car but I am not a complete retard. Just for the sticker price alone I am talking $15000 in cash to spend on mods. With that much money I could make the Mustang a 1000HP car if I wanted to. With $40000 in cash to spend on mods, I could probably get it up to Mach 5 or so and use it to get out to Redmond when I need to visit… As it is, with under $10k I will get it up to 450HP and be running with 4.6l engine instead of the 5.4l which is considerably heavier. My HP to weight ratio will be better.

I love the Mustangs, well most of them, some are ugly as sin, most of the 70’s and early 80’s were a wash, the late 80’s with all of the GT body panels were nasty. The 71/72/73 were ok but that was strictly because they offered real engines, the body style was nasty. I wouldn’t have had one but that is what my dad dragged home for me to put together when I was like 16. Of course my next oldest brother Mike got the car I wanted, the 1970 Mach I with the 351c which was WAYYY beefed up. He has had that car now about 20 years and it still sits in his garage in pieces. We drove it once… The motor was tied down with custom solid steel motor mounts and chains on top of it to keep the motor from ripping lose. It had no seats in it, he was sitting on a milk crate and I was holding onto the handle on the dash. That car was hotrodded to the point that it likely could pop a wheelie and he popped the clutch to try it. He was fine as he was holding the steering wheel, I wasn’t so lucky. The dash handle I was holding popped loose and I flew all the way into the hatch/trunk area and got all busted up from it. Of course I immediately popped back up to the front of the car and said let’s go again! Likely though it is better that I didn’t get it then as it likely would have ended up had I had it. I probably would have crashed it.

I haven’t had the best of luck with hot rods through the years though the crashed 72 is the only one that I can say was fully my fault and due completely to stupidity. I crashed my 72 Cougar while zipping up to Michigan State one January with some of my friends and hit a section of black ice on I-96 and spun around and around for at least a couple of hundred feet (weather was gorgeous so I was doing like 65 - the road itself was in great shape back then and could handle 120-130MPH just fine (not that I am admitting to first hand knowledge)) just barely getting the car in control to avoid hitting a State Police car on the side of the road and came to rest in the left lane but backwards. I, unlike tens of other drivers, didn’t end up down a 20 foot embankment. However as I caught my breath and my friends were swearing I look up just in time to see the word MACK on the grill of a tractor trailor that slammed into us and sent careening another 60 or so feet down the road. Believe it or not the car was still driveable, just looked like crap. The State trooper told me I did an amazing job of keeping the car on the road and that he hadn’t seen such good driving in quite a while. He was sure I was going to take out his car. I didn’t get a ticket or anything. If he knew how much illegal, dangerous, and bad driving it had taken to get to that skill level he may have ticketed me just for good measure.

The one hot rod I owned which was in one piece when I was done with it was a early-90’s Mustang LX 5.0 notchback that one of my younger brothers “bought” from me. Bought is in quotes because he never actually paid me, he just took delivery and took it off and destroyed the rear end and I think the tranny and then I think crashed the whole thing. I am not sure, just know it didn’t last him very long. I don’t even remember why I sold it, likely it was because he needed it more than I did and I was probably way up on my Secretary of State ticket points again. I have been at 12 points on two separate occasions which is the point level where they call you down “to chat” and just before you lose your drivers license.

So now if you are with my insurance company, don’t get worried. I don’t intend to beat this car up like that. Quite frankly, it is too expensive a car to do that to. You will likely catch me accelerating to the speed limit a little faster than most people might tend to but that will be about it.

   joe