Topic: '06 Mustang GT Convertable Accessory Opinion

[pg2676]

My boss wants to drop $2000 on accessories for his wife's '06 Mustang GT Conv.  I've told him go with the K&N Cold Air Intake, Magnaflow Exhaust, and Superchips upgrade.

What do you guys think?  Opinions on what you would do?

[si]

If she's in it for flash, get the exhaust, some 18"+ rims (which fit the stang very well), and maybe the GT styled front grille fog lights mod.

If she's in it for speed, the cold air intake, catback exhaust, chip, and grippy-er tires will do.

[mdxtasy]

I agree with Sivic.  Figure out what the wife likes....an aftermarket exhaust can be tiresome if you're not into that sort of thing.  Aftermarket stereo, HID's, rims/tires....it's endless.

[rrocket]

Tell your boss to pick up Mustang Muscle magazine.  Inside, there is advertising from many companies that provide "power packages" for the new Mustang.  You get intake, exhaust and a programmer...and for far less than $2000!!!!  I like the Diablo programmers myself, but that's just me.,...

I have the current issue at home...I'll look and post a couple of links for you...

[ovr50]

My boss wants to drop $2000 on accessories for his wife's '06 Mustang GT Conv.  I've told him go with the K&N Cold Air Intake, Magnaflow Exhaust, and Superchips upgrade.

What do you guys think?  Opinions on what you would do?

Let me say first that I have done zero mods to my '07.

However, there are a ton of things that can be done, and as CIVIC and the poster formerly known as MdX5 have said, you really have to decide what kind of car you want to end up with - going for the bling, the drag-strip speed or the all around handling?

I'm not into bling but 18" wheels are great on the GT, my GT/CS comes stock with the 18" polished Bullitt wheels and not many wheels look nicer on the car that those. The cold air intake is a very basic but intelligent mod in that it does boost the power a slight bit. The aftermarket exhausts (no matter the brand) will not add much if any power, and will make the noise factor greater. Mine is quite noisy in stock form, I would not go aftermarket for my car. The air intake and the chip (re-tuning) will add the most "go". I would also consider dropping the car about an 1" to 1.5" using some of the recognized spring sets available.

Really depends on what you're trying to achieve, you can spend a ton of money doing these things.    

[inco]

I'm dating myself here, but one of the ways of maximizing what the motor gods created was to 'blueprint' the engine. This amounted to pulling the engine and milling it. This was a way of cleaning it up and maximizing the power available, but I don't hear about that much anymore.

Perhaps the manufacturing process has gotten so good that there isn't any gain

Engineers - to your post! Have at it.

[evil_twin]

The only mod I have on my 05 GT is Borla catback exhaust...and I love it.  I disagree with Ovr50 that it will not add any power to the car.  Most dyno tests I've seen on mustang websites indicate about a 10hp bump.  Not HUGE, but decent.  It definitely does make the car louder, but in a good way (in my mind).  You can hear all the little "burbles" and backfires and it sounds a lot more like an older muscle car.  Also, the noise is most noticable during hard acceleration; At lower RPMS, it's not to bad.  Last, but not the least, the polished stainless steel pipes really fill out the cutouts in the back bumper much nicer than the stock setup.

But I guess I'm biased


So to answer, the original question:  I'd go with the 3 options you've recommended:  CAI, Catback exhaust, and a tune.  Pick the brands you feel best about and read up on them in mustang forums, etc.  I can recommend Borla firsthand (The Borla exhaust is the same one Ford uses in the it's "official "performance package, just rebadged with Ford crap) and I've heard good things about the K&N intakes.

As far as wheels/tires, if she's got an '06 GT, it's probably already riding on 18s.  I wouldn't do anything unless I could afford to really upgrade the setup.  Something like 255s in the front, 285s in the rear.  But that can be pretty pricey depending on the wheel and tire you choose.  I'd love to do it to mine, but I can't justify dumping that kind of dough into my "Ford"

[Vmango]

www.steeda.ca my friend

"Shop around"

But Evil Twin has it right - and I will also comment first hand that his Borla CB is beautiful - it might get to you on long trips though (cabin droning), but that depends on how much of a gear head you are (doesn't bother me). Between intake and cat-back you'd have another 20WHP give or take and that will run you around $1500 - get a nice tune to round that up to about $2000 and you'll have 30-40WHP. But that's going the performance route - wives tend to think *differently*

Good luck

PS Evil Twin - Get an intake already 

[ovr50]

Evil & vmango - as to the brands mentioned, I would agree with K&N and Borla (but many others use Magnaflo for exhaust). As to the power "increase", lots of owners on the several Mustang forums I frequent report very little or no uptick in power due to the exhaust itself (adding a tune is a different story and definitely does increase HP). Maybe the earlier editions of the GT are different, but many '07 GT/CS owners are not bothering with the exhaust upgrade (except for sound purposes). The stock set up on my '07 GT/CS is quite noisy  and gives the "burbling" and "backfires" that you mention. I'm not saying there is zero power gains from the exhaust, but that they are very slight (if any) and the cost can be well over $1,000 in Canada.

That said, the exhaust + the air intake + the tune should give a measurable uptick in HP. It would also exceed the $2,000 limit the original post mentions (in Canada). If I were to mod mine, I would the air intake, the tune, and do a 1" or so drop, if any more $ available, then I might get Borlas (which I did have once on a '94 Z28 Camaro and did like  ).

 

[Vmango]

Steeda has a complete power package for the 05-08GT. I was trying to find it just now but I just don't have the time. But I've tried to convince Evil Twin about 100 times sending him the link.

The package is a cat-back, intake, and tune and from what I recall was in the 2000-3000 range? They also dyno tested this upgrade at roughly 30-40 WHP.

But back to the exhaust question. I don't think $1000 is out of the question for something that will make a Mustang sound 100% better, look 38.5% better, and give a slight performance edge. Does the GT/CS come with a different exhaust than the standard model? If I remember correctly GT/CS owners paid a hefty fee for slight mods coming from the factory?

[ovr50]

I am familiar with the Steeda equipment and have their current listing of upgrades. I would use Steeda equipment and feel comfortable with it. I would be a bit dubious as to their claim of 30-40 WHP and suspect most of that accrues to the tune.

Re: exhaust, I'm not saying that $1,000 should not be spent, but that the original post had a limit of $2,000 and if I had to live within that, the aftermarket exhaust would be last on my list of power enhancers. Could you provide me with a link to prove the statement regarding "sound 100% better, look 23.5% better...". I suspect those figures are not verifiable. Sound 100% better? Come on!! That's a very inflated and totally subjective call on your part. 

There are no performance mods included in the GT/CS to my knowledge. The "hefty fee" was $2200 on my car, and includes: 235/50/ZR18 rubber, 18" premium alum wheels (the polished Bullitts), two-tone leather seats, different front/rear fascias, and 5 minor appearance items.

[evil_twin]

haha...

And so the mod debate begins.

One thing regarding cost.  I purchased the Borla CBs and got them installed for about $1060 out the door (taxes, everything in).  And Steeda has a package for a CAI and a tune onsite at their Milton shop for around $350 + taxes.  So you could certainly to both and still have money left for a pair of aviator sunglasses and a nice mullet-trimming.

[ovr50]

 

Only Camaro drivers have mullets.....

[Giant Dwarf]

Only Camaro drivers have mullets.....

...alright then, instead of the mullet trim, he'll have money left over to have his banjo re-strung then.

 


PS... The Borla does sound incredible on Evil_Twin's car.  Quiet it is not.

[ovr50]

Only Camaro drivers have mullets.....

...alright then, instead of the mullet trim, he'll have money left over to have his banjo re-strung then.

 


PS... The Borla does sound incredible on Evil_Twin's car.  Quiet it is not.

No doubt, I'm sure the Borlas sound great, that's one benefit of them. The other benefit is more open exhaust function, and since the stock exhaust is already very good in that area, the Borla power increase is minor or nil.

But the sound is tres wonderful.............

[Vmango]

Yes, I was of course being totally subjective. I haven't send out the surveys to verify my hypothesis 

Seriously though, the sound the Borlas produce is much nicer than stock. You are right, however, in that the stock sound from the Stang pipes is nice enough for most. The Borlas do look much better than the stock ones. But hey, different strokes for different folks.

My mistake on the CS - I thought it was the package that added some modifications and an intake, etc. There's one that Ford sells for an insane amount of money considering what one could purchase from the aftermarket.

[evil_twin]

Yes, the insane costing package is the Ford Performanc Racing Package (?? or something similar to that).  It's essentially the Borla CB, some sort of CAI, slight tune, some chassis components for about 200% more $$$ than they would cost you direct from their suppliers.

Thanks Ford!

Also, the Shelby GT (same as the GT-H they had at Hertz dealers but is now available for purchase by the public with a manual tranny) is INSANELY priced.  It costs like $10k (or more) over the price of my car, and comes with like $3k worth of upgrades.  What fool would purchase one of those???

[initial_D]

Yes, the insane costing package is the Ford Performanc Racing Package (?? or something similar to that).  It's essentially the Borla CB, some sort of CAI, slight tune, some chassis components for about 200% more $$$ than they would cost you direct from their suppliers.

Thanks Ford!

Also, the Shelby GT (same as the GT-H they had at Hertz dealers but is now available for purchase by the public with a manual tranny) is INSANELY priced.  It costs like $10k (or more) over the price of my car, and comes with like $3k worth of upgrades.  What fool would purchase one of those???

What fool? The kind that doesn't play Banjos?  Isn't Shelby a car fashion / brand name designer name now? 

[ovr50]

Yes, the insane costing package is the Ford Performanc Racing Package (?? or something similar to that).  It's essentially the Borla CB, some sort of CAI, slight tune, some chassis components for about 200% more $$$ than they would cost you direct from their suppliers.

Thanks Ford!

Also, the Shelby GT (same as the GT-H they had at Hertz dealers but is now available for purchase by the public with a manual tranny) is INSANELY priced.  It costs like $10k (or more) over the price of my car, and comes with like $3k worth of upgrades.  What fool would purchase one of those???

Evil has nailed it. The Shelby GT is priced crazy, considering you can do the same thing yourself for about $3K as stated. You are clearly paying a bunch of $ for the Sequential Number you get with the Shelby and the Shelby name on the car. 

Have either of Evil or vmango used the Steeda stuff at any time?

[ovr50]

vmango - "Seriously though, the sound the Borlas produce is much nicer than stock. You are right, however, in that the stock sound from the Stang pipes is nice enough for most. The Borlas do look much better than the stock ones. But hey, different strokes for different folks."

Well, I know the Borlas I put on the '94 Z28 did improve the sound a lot, and they did look far better than the pipes that GM had put on it stock.

I am sure that the Borlas on the GT would sound better than stock, and might even look a bit better (although an acquaintance here had an '05 GT that he put Magnaflos on, and you had to look very closely to see the difference - the average guy walking by would not likely see the difference).

I might do some stuff to the GT/CS but not this year. Maybe next or mavbe it may be gone on my next project (lusting after a new BMW 335i Coupe right now, but have no spousal consent to do anything this year  )