Hey, just recently bought a 2005 Mustang GT from my family, because I got tired of driving automatic. Don't know much about muscle cars and loving it so far, but already want to modify it. Do you guys have any ideas on what I should do for a new manual/muscle user?

 

Welcome to TMS. We need to know what you are looking for from a performance standpoint. Drag strip acceleration? Better handling in the corners? Street use or track use?

 

For now, I'd like to go with more of a street use.

 

I would first start by upgrading from the stock shifter to either the MGW or Barton short throw models. Either one will provide more precise and shorter throws vs the OEM shifter which is very sloppy and well known for missing 3rd gear when doing pulls. You may also want to consider upgrading to a cold air intake, SCT X4 tuning device which also includes new calibration tunes that will provide better throttle response and better overall performance vs the stock calibration tune. If you have the ability to datalog? I would highly recommend Lito as he's one of the best remote tuners when it comes to the 2005-10 3 valve Mustangs. Otherwise, you can get an SCT X4 tuning device which includes preloaded custom tunes from vendors such as JDM engineering, Steeda Autosports, VMP Performance and Lethal Performance. I would however stay away from Bama Performance, as their custom preloaded tunes are horrible along with their customer support. Meanwhile, I've included links below for the vendors mentioned and welcome aboard.

http://www.tudyno.com/
https://www.teamjdm.com/2005-2010-mu...x4-programmer/
https://www.vmpperformance.com/SCT-X...Tunes-for-FORD
https://www.steeda.com/steeda-ultima...ing-05-09.html
https://www.lethalperformance.com/5-...-vehicles.html
https://www.mgwshifters.com/shifters/mustangs
https://www.cjponyparts.com/barton-s...2010/p/MS46-V/

 

welcome to the forum

if you browse through the threads in this section, you'll see lots of discussion of all kinds of modifications . . . cause that's what we do!

if you pick up on a particular idea that you'd like to pursue, you can use the "search" feature to find more on that keyword / topic

and once you narrow it down a bit, to have some specific questions, feel free to post those . . . it's a very broad topic; some of the things that are often modified:

• wheels and tires -- both appearance and performance
• exhaust -- gotta love that V8 sound
• suspension -- lowering for handling and appearance
• big brakes -- really only needed for road track, but they look cool too
• "cold air intake" and a "tune" -- relatively easy "performance" (power) modifications
• all kinds of potential appearance or dress-up mods -- stripes, spoilers, under-hood, etc. etc. etc.

 

It's actually browsing through the threads in the 2005-09 sub-forums section to be exact lol.