Performance Upgrades

[gra]

I am "new" to the US car scene ........ having only lived her a couple of years. I had an '03 Mustang Cobra...:banana2: :( ........ but it was such a "unforgiving" daily drive I sold it :( and bought an '04 MM. I love everything about the MM :up:but miss the incredible power of the Cobra. I see there are choices with regards to supercharging the MM. but I want balance as it must be my daily driver. I am interested to hear opinions on the following:

Supercharging (Which one)
Headers / Exhaust / intake
Handling .........
Brakes

The objective here is to be able to outrun (1/4 Mile) my old ladies C5 vette.......... or come pretty close to it, my best in her car (Auto) was a 13.4

I live in Houston, TX and realize that when I modify the car the warranty and dealer service goes out of the window, can any one recommend a good operation to perform the above work, and perform ongoing maintenance reasonably close to Houston............

Thanks.......... :burnout:

[03SILVERSTREAK]

I am "new" to the US car scene ........ having only lived her a couple of years. I had an '03 Mustang Cobra...:banana2: :( ........ but it was such a "unforgiving" daily drive I sold it :( and bought an '04 MM. I love everything about the MM :up:but miss the incredible power of the Cobra. I see there are choices with regards to supercharging the MM. but I want balance as it must be my daily driver. I am interested to hear opinions on the following:

Supercharging (Which one)
Headers / Exhaust / intake
Handling .........
Brakes

The objective here is to be able to outrun (1/4 Mile) my old ladies C5 vette.......... or come pretty close to it, my best in her car (Auto) was a 13.4

I live in Houston, TX and realize that when I modify the car the warranty and dealer service goes out of the window, can any one recommend a good operation to perform the above work, and perform ongoing maintenance reasonably close to Houston............

Thanks.......... :burnout: Gra-Welcome to the site .Lots of info here and Know-How people here as well...:up:

[FordNut]

I
Supercharging (Which one)
Headers / Exhaust / intake
Handling .........
Brakes

The objective here is to be able to outrun (1/4 Mile) my old ladies C5 vette.......... or come pretty close to it, my best in her car (Auto) was a 13.4

You can beat that time with a supercharger, come really close to it with a highly modded (all bolt-ons) n/a car.

Which supercharger? Not gonna touch that one. Each has its good points. They all work great. Basically even performance. They're all expensive.

Headers give you a couple of options, the Kook's mid-length tubular headers and Dennis' (DR) ceramic coated Cobra manifolds. Both are available with complete systems including high flow cats and x-pipe. Performance gains are pretty even (but I've got the Kook's and I think they have a slight edge).

Handling, pretty unanimous to use the Addco (or DR) rear sway bar. Some have cut the front springs a little, others are using Eibach springs. I like the stock springs with the sway bar.

Brakes, you've got a few options. Baer, KVR, TCE, others. You gotta do some searches of the forums, there is a ton of info in them.

[jspradii]

I am "new" to the US car scene ........ having only lived her a couple of years. I had an '03 Mustang Cobra...:banana2: :( ........ but it was such a "unforgiving" daily drive I sold it :( and bought an '04 MM. I love everything about the MM :up:but miss the incredible power of the Cobra. I see there are choices with regards to supercharging the MM. but I want balance as it must be my daily driver. I am interested to hear opinions on the following:

Supercharging (Which one)
Headers / Exhaust / intake
Handling .........
Brakes

The objective here is to be able to outrun (1/4 Mile) my old ladies C5 vette.......... or come pretty close to it, my best in her car (Auto) was a 13.4

I live in Houston, TX and realize that when I modify the car the warranty and dealer service goes out of the window, can any one recommend a good operation to perform the above work, and perform ongoing maintenance reasonably close to Houston............

Thanks.......... :burnout:
Check out Strictly Performance in Houston www.strictlypro.com (http://www.strictlypro.com). They can handle all the local work on the Marauder:banana2:

[Big Joe P]

ONE STOP SHOPPING with the Marauder-S package from Kenny Brown. I love it.

[BillyGman]

I I had an '03 Mustang Cobra...:banana2: :I sold it :( and bought an '04 MM. I love everything about the MM :up:but miss the incredible power of the Cobra.

The objective here is to be able to outrun (1/4 Mile) my old ladies C5 vette.......... or come pretty close to it, my best in her car (Auto) was a 13.4

:burnout:


If you want to atleast come close to the Vette, then you can do what I've done to my Marauder. Look at the list of mods, and my best ET at the track that are listed in my signature. Keep in mind though that the air temp that day was VERY cold. So in very hot weather my car is good for consistent 13.8 ET's. So you'll have to consider how cold or hot it was at the track when you ran the Vette. Oh, and BTW, my 13.5 ET was the same all day, and that was accomplished in Atco, NJ also.

Keep in mind that what I've found to make the biggest difference in ET reduction out of all the MODS I've performed to this car is the Stallion Torque converter (yielding a .70 sec reduction) w/the Kooks headers and entire exhaust package coming in a close second place(yielding a .60 sec reduction). But if you want to make the Marauder faster than the Vette, then you'll have to go w/the supercharger. It's as simple as that.

As always, w/any HP issue, it's all a matter of how much $$ you want to spend on your car. HP costs $$........for all the mods I've performed to my car, the total cost was right about half of what it would cost for a supercharger. The total reduction in my ET's from the bone stock configuration of the car was just a bit more than 1.5 seconds (it was turning a 15.2 ET bone stock) and I'm about one full second slower than most of the supercharged guys are. So it's all about $$........ I hope this info helps you and others w/your decision.

[blacksnake]

I am "new" to the US car scene ........ having only lived her a couple of years. I had an '03 Mustang Cobra...:banana2: :( ........ but it was such a "unforgiving" daily drive I sold it :( and bought an '04 MM. I love everything about the MM :up:but miss the incredible power of the Cobra. I see there are choices with regards to supercharging the MM. but I want balance as it must be my daily driver. I am interested to hear opinions on the following:

Supercharging (Which one)
Headers / Exhaust / intake
Handling .........
Brakes

The objective here is to be able to outrun (1/4 Mile) my old ladies C5 vette.......... or come pretty close to it, my best in her car (Auto) was a 13.4

I live in Houston, TX and realize that when I modify the car the warranty and dealer service goes out of the window, can any one recommend a good operation to perform the above work, and perform ongoing maintenance reasonably close to Houston............

Thanks.......... :burnout:
Hey gra,
As already posted, lots of options, lots of opinions...but there is no site with a more devoted following to the MM. My advice is to spend some time searching the threads and listening to others talking about their cars. You'll learn alot from alot of different people. After a while all the ideas will start to gel in a direction that suit your vision of what your car should/could be. Enjoy!

[gra]

Hey gra,
As already posted, lots of options, lots of opinions...but there is no site with a more devoted following to the MM. My advice is to spend some time searching the threads and listening to others talking about their cars. You'll learn alot from alot of different people. After a while all the ideas will start to gel in a direction that suit your vision of what your car should/could be. Enjoy!
:burnout: Thanks to all for the input.......... I will continue reading the "threads" and check out "stricly Pro" in Houston, and feedback what I have done......... But I do have a hankering for another supercharged motor...... Thanks once again to all who replied........

[Ross]

Welcome to the site. There are a number of us in and around Houston. Which part of town do you live in?

[Ray Snyder]

:burnout: Thanks to all for the input.......... I will continue reading the "threads" and check out "stricly Pro" in Houston, and feedback what I have done......... But I do have a hankering for another supercharged motor...... Thanks once again to all who replied........

If you want to drive mine and see what gears and a chip will do, your welcome to pm me.

[gra]

Welcome to the site. There are a number of us in and around Houston. Which part of town do you live in?
Mid town.........

Is there a Houston Club or thoughts about forming one?

[Cobra25]

Welcome to the site.