Dino's Mustang 5.0L GT Site
Home | Free Mods | Intake | Ported Heads & Manifold | Exhaust | Gears | Transmission | Brakes | Parasitic HP | Fuelling | Interior | Weight | Performance | HP Gains | PartsOn 2nd February 2007 I became the proud owner of a 1995 Ford Mustang GT. I had wanted a Mustang for many years having first been inspired by the classic Steve McQueen movie "Bullitt" and later by the Nicolas Cage movie "Gone in 60 Seconds". Both movies have famous car chases where the Mustang was the hero.
My Mustang is deep forest green with silver Shelby racing stripes and comes with a 5.0L V8 engine coupled to a 4-speed AODE automatic transmission. I would have preferred a T5 5-speed manual but GT's with a 5-speed are very hard to find in Dubai. I bought my Mustang for a paltry $3000 in a private sale and spent a further $900 over the next month on several minor repairs, electrical fixes, servicing, wheel alignment, and a mini-restoration. For a total of just $3900, I had a beautiful-looking sports coupe with only 51000 miles on the odometer so I was very happy.
The engine has a big displacement and the vehicle only weighs a middleweight 3595lb or 1630kg (full tank of gas, 175lb driver) so you'd expect it to have scorching performance. Unfortunately the engine is rated at an underachieving 215hp @ 4200rpm and 285lbft @ 3400rpm from the factory (average is roughly 168rwhp/218rwtq on chassis dyno with the AODE), so the weight/power ratio is only 21.4lb/rwhp though the torque/weight ratio is a more respectable 16.5lb/rwtq. The engine's also handicapped by a slow-shifting AODE automatic transmission together with ludicrously tall 2.73:1 rear axle gears making the Mustang's performance mediocre in stock form. A 0-60 time of 7.9 seconds and a 1/4 mile in 16.03 @ 89.4 definitely isn't what you'd expect from a muscle car. Fortunately the engine's low state of tune allows it to respond very well to simple bolt-on performance modifications, and there's a plethora of aftermarket parts available to wake this beast up from its slumber.
My goal is to achieve a 1/4 mile ET in the high 12's with a naturally-aspirated 5.0L of displacement. Read the subsequent pages to follow my progress up the horsepower ladder to performance nirvana.
Rear View
I replaced the ugly factory horizontal three-bar tailights with these snazzy-looking "Altezza" Euro tailights that have the more classic vertical three-bar arrangement. The chrome look really gives the rear of the vehicle a lift.
The rear bumper and the rear decklid spoiler were repainted.
Front View
A previous owner had already installed Euro halo projector headlights at the front so the Euro tailights I installed at the rear were a perfect match.
The front bumper and side skirts were repainted, and the old broken passenger side door mirror was substituted with a good used junkyard replacement.
The wheels are '99-'04 GT five-spoke alloys shod with 245/45ZR17 tires, and the suspension is lowered by 1".
Interior
The leather in the front seats was torn so I had them reupholstered in half tan/half black leather to match the rest of the interior. The rear seats were still in very good condition so I left those alone.
The original steering wheel was in a very poor state so I replaced it with a good used version from a junkyard. This completed the interior restoration but as you'll find out on this page, I carried out further modifications.