[Mr 5 0]

Unit:

You've raised an interesting issue. Here are my observations on the subject.

In a world of automotive performance - which is where most members of Mustang Works reside - it's a given that the fastest cars will always get the biggest share of attention and 'respect', although that term is ambigious and sometimes refers as much to the car as the owner.

When the ultimate goal of most Mustang owners (at least those that visit Mustang Works) is to go faster, then it stands to reason that the folks who have cars that run 12's and
below are going to garner a lot of attention and respect. We all know that it takes a lot of time, intelligent planning and cold, hard cash to get a mid-14 second stock Mustang down into the 12's or below.
If the folks who accomplish that feat don't warrant our respect - who does?

Obviously, the quality of a car's appearance is subjective and what looks 'kewl' to one person may look like a bad joke to another. There are tons of examples rolling down the street every day.

With that caveat in mind, I can say that I do find it annoying to see a six-cylinder Mustang all decked out with the accoutrement of a 400 HP car (huge tires, oversized wing suitable for a 200 mph vehicle, monster tach, etc) then hear the whine of a clearly unmodified six-cylinder engine coming out of a fart muffler with an oversized coffee-can tailpipe.

That doesn't get my respect.

Now, the Mustanger that simply adds that same tach, maybe a larger set of tires and a bigger wing but runs at least a V-8 and maybe has a few mild mods is perfectable acceptable to me. It's proportion that counts.

I respect all other Mustang owners regardless of engine size or HP. but those who bastardize their Mustang in order to 'look fast' without anything to back it up under the hood will always be ridiculed and rightly so.

As for your question; 'What is fast?' my answer would be; anything that's noticably better than stock performance. If most 5.0's run mid 14's stock, a 13-second Mustang is fast, or as my friends call it: 'quick'. We usually term a 12-second (or better) car as 'fast' but it's all subjective and a matter of semantics. To the average driver going down the road, my low-14-second LX probably seems real fast. It's all relative of course.

My response to your question of whether or not there is a 'trend' toward either having a 10-second crappy-looking car or a 14-second nice looking car is that neither is true. Most Mustang Works members have very good looking cars and most have some mods on them. That hasn't changed much at all in the five years I've been a member of the site.

Do the 12-second Mustangs get a lot of attention? Sure, but so do the fine-looking 'Stangs that only run 14's.

It's only the ricers and the guys/gals that want to put some absurd wing on their Mustang the minute they take delivery that get the negative comments. I'm not too impressed with those who buy a stock Mustang then immediately want to put an H-pipe and 1-chamber Flows on it so it'll 'sound fast'. I recommend doing some basics before messing with the exhaust and trying to sound like you actually did something to the engine to enhance it's performance.
I've beaten a lot of these 'exhaust-only' cowboys at stoplights with my very mildly modified LX and believe me, I didn't respect them for a moment. Laughed a lot, though.

In the final analysis it's doing what you think is best with your Mustang (or any other car). I would agree that given the absolute choice of either appearance or performance, the majority of Mustang owners would probably take appearance, as the stock Mustang isn't too shabby a performer, even bone-stock. That's why we buy them.

Trend? I don't see it, Unit, but thanks for raising an interesting discussion, as you often do.