fastest box?

[Mercracer]

With no detonation and a girdle, I have seen them take over 500HP. With a bad tune and detonation you can split one in half at that power level. The girdle will just hold the broken pieces in place. I have no worries making 450+ HP with nitrous.

[N A]

Count me in. (My GM has been sitting in the corner of my yard for years. This is a great reason to bring it back to life).

[Mustang Eddie]

Figure on 1000 more pounds than a Mustang. 100 more horsepower to run an equivalent ET. A stripped down Mustang weighs around 3000 lbs. A stock Crown Vic weighs around 4000 lbs. Even if you lighten it up, figure on worse weight transfer which can give you a worse 60' time, etc. If you figure 100 more HP you should be there. In order to run 9s in a Mustang it takes a pile of horsepower.

I thought the same thing until I actually did the HO swap in my Merc.I've come to find that even though the Merc is about 1000 lbs.heavier than my Mustang with the same parts in the Merc it ran over 2 seconds slower.Now my Mustang is a dedicated race car the Merc is still my DD so I know I've left a bit of performance on the table but not 1 second+.Just for comparison my Mustang went 12.7@104mph with the factory untouched HO with just bolt ons.The Merc went 15.4@88mph with the HO conversion.The Mustang went 12.1@111mph with the GT-40 top end & the Merc went 14.3@ 96.5mph.To get my Mustang in the high 10's required right at 500 flywheel hp & now it runs 10 flat making near 600 flywheel hp.Realistically IMO I suspect to get a box in the high 10's you'll need to make 700 flywheel hp.The AOD is a power robbing SOB & any full size box has the aerodynamics of um...a box lol. Not saying it's undo able but a little harder than you think.You need to be realistic & know that it's not going to be your DD to reach this performance goal.

[N A]

I take public transportation.

[87gtVIC]

The best thing I have done was purchase a slow car as a daily driver...now whenever I step into my Crown Victoria I feel like I am in a fast car. Works for me and is cheap! When dding the Crown Victoria I always wanted it to go faster and faster. Now with the addition of my Escort I am content with how the Crown Vic goes.

[1980c10]

Haha that's true whenever I would get out of the 2.3 ranger, the Marquis felt like a rocket ship compaired to the ranger.

[P72Ford]

I thought the same thing until I actually did the HO swap in my Merc.I've come to find that even though the Merc is about 1000 lbs.heavier than my Mustang with the same parts in the Merc it ran over 2 seconds slower.Now my Mustang is a dedicated race car the Merc is still my DD so I know I've left a bit of performance on the table but not 1 second+.Just for comparison my Mustang went 12.7@104mph with the factory untouched HO with just bolt ons.The Merc went 15.4@88mph with the HO conversion.The Mustang went 12.1@111mph with the GT-40 top end & the Merc went 14.3@ 96.5mph.To get my Mustang in the high 10's required right at 500 flywheel hp & now it runs 10 flat making near 600 flywheel hp.Realistically IMO I suspect to get a box in the high 10's you'll need to make 700 flywheel hp.The AOD is a power robbing SOB & any full size box has the aerodynamics of um...a box lol. Not saying it's undo able but a little harder than you think.You need to be realistic & know that it's not going to be your DD to reach this performance goal.

Do you have any pictures of your cars, Eddie? Both the GM and the Mustang, preferably.

I'm glad we have another new member here that has a good running GM (we need more folks with hands on performance experience, so I hope you stick around), and its also awesome that you have a 10 second Mustang!

I just like to see pictures of what folks have, whether its anything to look at or not (I actually prefer the sleepers). I have posted hardly any pictures of my white coupe, but thats just because it isn't done yet, and everyone knows what it looks like anyway.

I'd love to see some pictures of your cars, though.

[86VickyLX]

The best thing I have done was purchase a slow car as a daily driver...now whenever I step into my Crown Victoria I feel like I am in a fast car. Works for me and is cheap! When dding the Crown Victoria I always wanted it to go faster and faster. Now with the addition of my Escort I am content with how the Crown Vic goes.

But you love how my car goes though :p Faster Faster Faster!!!!!

[87gtVIC]

The pitiful gears are currently suppressing the WOW factor though...despite the car pulling nice as compared to what I am used to.

[mrltd]

Displacement is a variable when tuning the EEC-IV. Along with a few hundred others...


Eddie, were you running the same gears and trans in both?

[Mustang Eddie]

Eddie, were you running the same gears and trans in both?[/QUOTE]

Same gears ,Mustang has a stick the Merc an AOD hence the power robbing comment.I've been doing the 5.0 Mustang thing for almost 25 years & my past experience with that has showed me that AOD Mustangs run about a half second slower than those with sticks.I really felt that the Merc would run in the 14.4-14.5 range with the HO conversion & with the GT-40 swap in the 13.7-13.8 range & was sorely disappointed when it didn't.

[mrltd]

Yeah, I ran 15.5 with an HO and gears. I did get it down to 14.80's on a good night- after it was on a diet.

I was very happy to run a 15.5...Doing heads,cam injectors and ECU dropped half a second on my car.(16.03 with the lopo) Still slow, but I still pissed off all kinds of ponycars at the track. I think low 14's-high 13s could have been had with the GT-40 heads and intake on that car.

[Mercracer]

I thought the same thing until I actually did the HO swap in my Merc.I've come to find that even though the Merc is about 1000 lbs.heavier than my Mustang with the same parts in the Merc it ran over 2 seconds slower.Now my Mustang is a dedicated race car the Merc is still my DD so I know I've left a bit of performance on the table but not 1 second+.Just for comparison my Mustang went 12.7@104mph with the factory untouched HO with just bolt ons.The Merc went 15.4@88mph with the HO conversion.The Mustang went 12.1@111mph with the GT-40 top end & the Merc went 14.3@ 96.5mph.To get my Mustang in the high 10's required right at 500 flywheel hp & now it runs 10 flat making near 600 flywheel hp.Realistically IMO I suspect to get a box in the high 10's you'll need to make 700 flywheel hp.The AOD is a power robbing SOB & any full size box has the aerodynamics of um...a box lol. Not saying it's undo able but a little harder than you think.You need to be realistic & know that it's not going to be your DD to reach this performance goal.

Edit... I just noticed that the Mustang is a 5 speed and the GM an AOD car.
Define "bolt-ons". Did you take the same exact (equivalent) engine and electronics, etc from the Mustang and put them in your Panther? A factory Mustang LX ran 15s from the factory with an AOD. Gears and exhaust will put it into the low 14s. GT40P heads and Explorer intake will easily put you into the mid 13s. The first year of Factory Stock even the 5 speed cars were "only" in the mid to low 13s. Nobody was in the 12s. (I am going to verify this.) It took until 2001 for anyone to get down into the low 12s. Your times of low 14s are decent for a street CV/GM with GT40 heads/intake.

Same gears ,Mustang has a stick the Merc an AOD hence the power robbing comment.I've been doing the 5.0 Mustang thing for almost 25 years & my past experience with that has showed me that AOD Mustangs run about a half second slower than those with sticks.I really felt that the Merc would run in the 14.4-14.5 range with the HO conversion & with the GT-40 swap in the 13.7-13.8 range & was sorely disappointed when it didn't.

You are not comparing apples to apples. You didn't simply take a stock Mustang 5.0, bolt GT40 heads and intake on it and run 12.1@111. It took alot of work by the Factory Stock guys to get low 12s.

[P72Ford]

I don't see why you couldn't go high 14s with the Explorer engine. Especially when he has already gone 14.30s with GT40 top end (so, its not quite an 'Explorer engine'), stock converter, and 4.10s.

[1990LTD]

Doesn't merc91 run high 14s with his Explorer motor? I can't remember what he's done to it but it's not entirely stock...cam etc likely.