Goal and Purchase
The goal was to see if it's possible to build a 99+ Mustang capable of being a daily driver, be able to run sub 12's with stock street tires, and primarily be able to run in the Silver State Classic at 200mph average over 90 miles on a public highway. That sounds like a pretty tall order when you start out with a 260hp stock car that has to work hard at breaking 14. Since my budget was less than my meager knowledge of Mustangs and since I wanted a car with a warranty for the first 36k miles, I started with a Steeda 360GT. Since they had a lot of input into John Buscema's (www.200mphracing.com) car, I assumed they would be very helpful. I originally ordered a Cobra in 99. However, when the quality control issue cropped up and my Cobra was sitting on the dealers lot for 2 months, I ordered the Steeda. The final straw for me was when Ford wanted me to sign a paper saying I knew the car had QC problems but I should take it anyway and hope they fix them someday.
Steeda and Ford have a little known program that is similiar to Saleen and Rousch. However, in my opinion, Steeda's is actually better. You order your GT from the factory, it gets sent directly to Steeda, they add the parts you ordered and then it gets shipped to the dealer. I like the idea of having a menu of options from which to choose. I was able to keep my original purchase under $30k and I definitely like the dealer handling all the work. However, I added about another $4k worth of Steeda parts after that. Had I known then what I know now, I would have spent about $33k. That gets you a fully equipped Mustang with every option except leather seats and traction control. From the Steeda side, I got the vortech s-trim supercharger, Steeda radiator, under-drive pulleys, Steeda brakes, Tokico adjustable shocks, Steeda Tri-Ax shifter, and hood stabilizer bar. Given the same option today, I would have added the springs, upper/lower control arms, caster camber plates, and probably the rear sway bar, all of which I added later. I also added the Steeda exhaust with x-pipe and JBA headers and 3:73 gears later too.. If I was building a street only car, I wouldn't have added exhaust and gears. The exhaust is louder than the stock although it does sound great and is not loud at idle. However, the Mustang has a noisy interior anyway and this makes it worse. It is not as fun on long trips because of the noise. The gears also add a few rpm which adds to the noise. In addition, it puts the car at 2800 rpm at 80 miles per hour which is right where the s/c starts to kick in. This makes for a little surging that takes a minute to settle down. If you hit an incline, the surging starts again. However, I haven't had the car tuned since I added the gears and the exhaust and I'm sure the tuning is off so it's probably possible to get that surge out of there.
However, when you build a car that is supposed to go 200mph average for 90 miles, the stock exhaust isn't going to cut it. The gears are irrelevant since the whole tranny has to be replaced anyway at some point and the calculations start again. I put the 3:73 gears in for the last race since the car has trouble pulling above 135 which was redline in 4th gear with the stock 3:27 gears. The drop in rpm from 4th to 5th was about 2200 which made it hard for the car to pull. By dropping to 3:73's, the car pulled to 165 without any strain and probably would have easily hit 180. However, 165 mph is 5700rpm's. We ran that speed for 10 miles and then slowed down. Not bad for a stock block.
The other reason for the Steeda was that it was running at least 50 horsepower more than the Saleen or Rousch due to the centrifugal charger. Since I knew I would need at least 500hp, I didn't want a roots blower. I also didn't want to pay for a bunch of bodywork. Budget is a big issue. Since every penny needed to go to performance but I still wanted the warranty while I worked everything out, the Steeda seemed like the best choice. I got serial number 10 for the 2000 model.
Given all these parameters, I'll show you the choices and mistakes I have made, and hopefully save you a little time and money. At the very least, I might be able to provide some insight into the various issues so that you may make your own intelligent choices.