So last night i raced one of my buddies with a 1990 mustang 5.0 with exhaust and gears, my mods are in my sig. Well we went out on an old country road thats straight for like a mile. So we stop and i launch with my launch limiter set at 5600, same as vtec. I spun way to much, should have feathered slower but o well, so we go and all the way down the road i was EXACTLY even with his driver door, ALL the way through 4th gear for me and he let off but i kept goin for fun but anyway he beat me but i was expecting to beat him because before the race he only said he had an exhaust and didnt mention the gears. Well i just thought you guys might like to hear that.

 

BTW it had 2.73 stock gears and he had 3.73s in it and some exhaust, he didnt say the brand.

 

You should mention that this wasn't a new Mustang 5.0 since the 2011 doesn't come with 2.73s

Edit: Or it could be a new 5.0 which could come with the 3.73s from the factory...

 

crap sorry i forgot about the new ones lol ill change it

 

I was pretty sure the OP was talking about a fox body Mustang, but yeah, it wasn't clear in the post. The follow-up mentioning the stock gear ratio clinched it - 2.73 was a standard economy ratio put in cars from the 80's. Really kills acceleration but made the EPA happy.

Nice runs BTW, OP. Do you know what year the car was?

 

1990

 

also idk how much difference it would but my top was down too

 

Don't take this badly but you must've been shifting like shit to lose to one of those. Even if you're stock you should've smashed him, gears or not.

And if you had some bolt-ons + a reflash you'd be pulling buses I'd think.

 

no actually i shifted very good, well as good as i could without power shifting anyway. I can shift very fast especially with my moddiction knob. My launch wasnt great but once i caught back up to him bout halfway thru 2nd, we were identically fast the rest of the way, so didnt have anything to do with shifting. This is a good looking car so idk if it might have been rebuilt or something but idk

 

They're pretty quick stock, for the era.

With shorter gears and an exhaust, yeah, it's not impossible to imagine a 90 Mustang GT keeping up or beating an S2000. The 5.0L V8 made more power with simply exhaust than you'd think. The engine made more power higher in the power band and it would rev higher. It became significantly faster because you could leave it in gear longer. You have to have traction to win with steeper gears, but it can be incredibly quick for the investment.