the only reason the green machine would be better than the mach is that it has a TON on low end grunt, granted the mach still has a little more than the 01 in the low end it is still based off of the 4v motor, it is the honda of the v8 world. the 2v romeo in the bullet was designed to keep up with the cobras because it had the low end, and if you compare a bullet and an 01 cobra they do make similar times at the track, the bullet gets better 60' and sometimes gets better ET in the 1/8th but at the end of the track the good ol' ford "vtec" for lack of a better term LMAO (sorry just wanted to say ford and vtec at the same time) just reels in the 2v and makes short work of it top end.

now as far as all that noise goes, i dont know that itwill make that big of a difference at the autox if, like leonard said, you can keep it in the powerband. as far as what i know about autox set up, my knowledge is mostly limited to wrong wheel drive where you want a fatter sway bar in the rear lol, however, i will try to ask kelly keiner, who was an FS/ESP GOD for a while, about set up. driving one of those is wierd (not sure about your mustang) I got a chance to drive one that was pretty well prepped (maybe not national prepped but very good locally prepped) and didnt adjust to the difference until my last run of the day. i know that with the stiffer suspension comes a whole new ball game with those. I know that in autox you want to try to brake in a straight line always, that said, I always drive my car a little hotter into the corner and a little deeper because i know how and when the brakes/ steering will respond. in the stang i was completely thrown by the fact that you CANNOT, i repeat, CANNOT brake in ANY kind of turn, you have to brake in a straight line and then coast through the turns then accel on the way out instead of coming in stilll under braking then moving straight from brake to accel and modulating throttle all the way through the turn. now dont get me wrong im not saying that this was a bad thing, im sure that given a little more practice i could be pretty good with the car it is just a little different.

my $0.02