Anthony’s 2000 V6 Mustang: 

It all started back in fall of 1999. It was my senior year in high school and my parents said I could start my search for a new car which would be my graduation present. I had been in love with the Camaro since my mom already had one but at that time, they weren’t making too many of them. A few options were looked at, but I decided I wanted a Mustang. 

We took our search to Sawgrass Ford. After some brief negotiations, it was decided that we would have to order the car from the factory with the options I wanted since they couldn’t find the color and feature combination I wanted. My parents said I had to get the V6 model since they didn’t want me to “kill myself” in a GT. I told my dad that I would make my V6 faster than a GT if they got me one. He responded with “yeah right”. 

It took a while to get the car in since it was coming from the factory. In November 99, we got the call to go pick it up. Unfortunately when we got there, I quickly realized that not everything was the way I wanted. The interior was grey instead of black and it was missing the Shaker500 sound system. The dealer told us they would give us a good deal since they messed up and they knew that selling a fully loaded manual transmission V6 Mustang was going to be difficult. That night I drove off with my new baby.

 I started “modding” by tinting the windows and installing a sound system. I also got an alarm installed. I didn’t do too much during my last year in high school as I didn’t want to attract too much attention to it. That next summer, I wanted to add some more bolt ons. I upgraded to a full Steeda suspension and added a cat-back exhaust. I went to the track a few times but quickly realized the car wasn’t that fast on the track. I looked at what my options were at the time and decided to add nitrous. I went all out and bought the purge valve, heater, remote bottle opener, and chrome bottle with 125 shot.

 This amount of power was something new to me. As soon as I turned that sucker on and floored the gas, anyone who was in my car was immediately thrust into their seat. I had so much fun with the nitrous and spent most of my time intimidating any competitors with the purge valve. Just imagine that you have a 5.0 and pull next to a newer model Mustang and give them a rev of your engine. Then imagine that person responding with a big plume of nitrous coming out of their hood cowl. This scenario played out on a daily basis and so did my weekly trips to Murray’s to refill my bottles.

 After a year or so of playing with the nitrous, I focused my desires to some kind of boost. At the time, Vortech had just come out with a bolt on supercharger but it didn’t come with an intercooler. Procharger also came out with a kit shortly after but it wasn’t compatible with V6’s with ABS brakes. After some research of others using the kits and modifying them to work, I decided to take the plunge and buy the Procharger tuner kit. It included the intercooler and the whole bolt on kit.  I also upgraded my injectors, fuel pump, MAF, and my tune. I was putting down 300hp to the wheels. Having the supercharger was more fun than the nitrous as it was available all the time and didn’t require frequent visits to Murray’s.

 After these new upgrades (around 2003), I started going to the track again. I went to Moroso and would also make trips to Bradenton. One track day on a cool December night, I got my best time of 13.0 in the ¼ mile. Now I must admit I’m not the best driver at the track and although I did go often, I still wasn’t a pro. A few weeks later I went back to the track at Bradenton, but while warming up the tires, I broke something in the rear end. I limped the car home and after found out that I trashed the ring and pinion gears. For those who don’t know, the V6 Mustang comes with a 7.5 rear end which was weak for the amount of power I had. Like most car enthusiasts, I took this time to upgrade something that was broken a bought a brand new Ford Motorsports 8.8 rear end and added 3.73 gears.

 Life picked up for me and my track visits declined. I was in college and also working a full time job. I still wanted more power for the Mustang. I did a lot of research on v6power.net, which is a very technical V6 discussion. In 2005, I bought all the parts I needed to build up another V6 engine. It would be an all forged 4.2L engine with all the bells and whistles. My dad helped me build the engine and we installed it over the course of a week at my grandfather’s house. I was breaking in the new engine by driving it very lightly during the 50 mile round trips to work. Half way through the week, on my way home from work, something went terribly wrong. I saw smoke coming out the back of the car and the engine sputtered to a stop. To make a long story short, I sheared off the valve stem at the retainer and one valve dropped into the #4 cylinder. I towed the car home and parked it. I decided I would get a new car for a daily driver and forgot about the Mustang for about a year.

 I renewed my interest in getting the new engine running in late 2006 while I contemplated the Silver Springs car show. My dad and I once again tore the engine out, replaced the heads and cam, and dropped the engine back in. This time I was sure I had the right combination of springs, cam, and roller rockers. I took the car to my buddy in central FL: Justin Starkey of VMP tuning. We were able to get 400HP to the wheels. The engine could handle more, but I was already pushing the fuel system to its limits by adding the boost-a-pump to achieve 400hp.  The car has pretty much stayed the same way since the engine was put back in. Many people don’t believe it’s possible that a V6 has 400+ hp, but my car isn’t the only one. There are V6 Mustangs that run 9’s and put out over 600 hp.

 Presently, my life is going in a different direction where modifying the Mustang is my no longer my number one priority. Buying a house, getting married, and starting a career will derail any large plans for modifying a car. I may get her back on the track one day as I still haven’t taken the built engine down the strip. I plan on continuing to enjoy my car and take her to shows whenever possible. Many people never thought the car would be this fast and as I mentioned before, my dad definitely didn’t. Sure I could have dropped in a V8, but what fun would that have been? Who knows that the future holds? Maybe one day I will get a new Mustang. Maybe it will be a GT500. One thing is for sure: I am a car lover and I especially enjoy the fast ones and appreciate when people do more with less like I did.

Modifications:

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