Originally Posted by FreeThinker
Blah, while I never owned a Stang, I had enough friends with them that I feel like I did the Mustang thing.....
Lightweight yes, good for drag.. sorta, but breaking blocks at 500hp is lame, you have to get a Windsor or Cleveland just to hang with the BowTie guys.
As much as I loathe GM, I would take a Camaro over a Mustang any day...
When it comes to drag racing Solid > IRS. No ands, ifs, or buts about it. A properly setup ford 8.8 will handle just as good as most IRS setup, but you wont have the problem with the tires cambering under load. Which is 1 thing a lot of you drifters suffer from aka, uneven tirewear. This is old a bad thing for drag racing since when the car launches and weight is transferred, the tire points in at the top, and now you lost quite a bit of contact patch.
And last I checked a 302 is a windsor block. No one really builds clevalands, due to the fact there is very little aftermarket support and they arent as easy to come by when you do break one. Chevy 350s also have their limit and its not much higher than a 302 or a 351. All the high horsepower chevy guys will fill their blocks or setup to a Dart/Merlin/GM Bowtie race block. Much the same for the Ford guys as we, they will buy a race block and call it good. With the new engines of the today, the cobra block and heads has gone well into the 7s in the 1/4, GT blocks arent as stout, but they will handle enough abuse for almost anything practical you want to do.
And btw, there are shitloads of 03-04 Cobra guys making 600-800hp are factory blocks.
And please dont pigeon hold to Ford blocks breaking out 500 hp, they arent vary many motors that can do it stock, let along built either. And if they can do it, they arent cheap motors, aka the 2JZ or RB26
Originally Posted by FreeThinker
It's always opinion, but get some subframe connectors, a good weld-in cage, and find a SHO V6 or even V8...
now that would be a rad domestic drifter.
That might be rad, but good luck on working that into a mustang. Plus the V8 SHO motors have well known problem if the pressed on cam gears rototaing after 60k and bending valves. Not Fords fault, Yamaha designed and built the motor for them.
When they designed the Mustang, driftablity was not a factor they put any thought into. Its a Pony car that makes 300 hp on 87 octane with a single over each head, that spends most of racing past time at the drag strip where the solid axle goes well with. It wasnt meant to be a Vette/Viper killer in handling, just a fun car that handles decently that understeers at the extreme.
The generla jist is, The mustang does well for what it is. You dont see me going into drag racing tech making a comment about how much the BMW IRS sucks for drag racing, due to the fact the BMW was designed to be a drag racer........