Bone stock 5.0's run mid 14's.You got to remember the last Fox body 5.0 was made 13 years ago. 5 years before there was a LS1 f-body. Its old tech now compared to the new cars now but back in the late 80's early ninties mustangs for the most part were the dominant late model car. Sure GN's and 'vettes were faster out of the box but you hardly ever ran into one of those.
Its was like what the LS1 F body is now.
Bob Cosby's car was set up for class racing. It may have a lot of stock parts and looked stock. But beleive me that car used every trick in the book to run that fast and still fit into the rules. I would'nt call the car "stock" by any means.
I know peole that run in NMRA factory stock. They run $2000 "stock unported gt-40 heads" fully blalanced and blue printed shortblocks, coated pistons and the whole nine yards.But it looks stock to the average guy.And they now run mid 11's at around 115mph .
_____________
'88 Saleen- 310cid,Novi 2000, Dynamic C4
best et- 9.67
best mph- 146.17

'00 tans am- bolt on's and 315mm DR's

 

Howdy. Just as an FYI, my 88 Coupe first ran a 12.9 back in 1989 with a few bolt-ons, slicks, and 3.73 gears. In 1994, it went 12.52 stock from intake to oil pan (again external bolt-ons, gears, slicks). It made 237 RWHP and weighed ~3150 lbs raceweight at that time. It was my daily driver - legit street car with stereo, heater, power windows, etc. In fact, I'd often drive it to the track pulling a trailer behind it with all must race stuff.

I only ran the 88 in NMRA Factory Stock trim for a couple of races in 2003 just before I sold it. By that time, it was MUCH farther from "stock", though it fit the rules of the class.

 

You've got some crazy legit secrets that the majority w/ stock 5.0's know nothing about since those ET's have never been mass produced.

 

No secrets at all. Everything I did to the car back then is shown on my old webpage. Others have done similar things, its just been so long ago that you don't hear about it much anymore.

Bob

 

Didn't hear/see others doing the same back then either... and that's when I was paying attention.

 

LOL. Ok. I have secrets. They are the same ones that Tony Defeo had (Cars Illustrated, Spring 88), Al Renkel had (MM&FF, Spring of 97), Ed Hohenberg had, Ben Wiechert had (Ed many years earlier, but he and Ben were in this one), and several others whose names escape me right now. We were all in cahoots to run 12's with bolt-ons and slicks.

Maybe you're weren't paying attention to the right things? And there are still some doing it today (reference the Drag Racing section of the Corral). It is not real common, but it is hardly unheard of, and there is no rocket-science to it.

Tell me...are you having trouble believing the 237 RWHP part, or the 12 second part? Or both?

Bob

 

Nope. I believe every bit of it. There's no magic to hp/weight ratio.

 

I don't mind being called out on this topic - isn't the first time.

I have no idea what my car made stock, as there was no such thing as a chassis dyno in 1988. I suspect it was probably ~195, as yours was. Adding ~40 RWHP in bolt-ons isn't really a big deal for just about any V8. Open up the exhaust, tune it, open up the intake tract a little, decrease parasitic loss. It all adds up, especially the little things.

Incrementals, 60 fts, etc can be found in the link to my old webpage from a few posts ago. Here's my best ever "stock internal" pass:



And there certainly isn't any magic to it at all. Correct gearing, aggressive driving, good air, and a good track can make a huge difference in both ET and MPH (most especially ET).

Bob

 

Bob Cosby in the Mustang world is one of the names you put in the same class as Evan Smith. People have been seeing too many ragged out 5.0's, burned out AOD cars and 16 year olds who could not drive their way out of a paper bag.
I properly tuned and free modded a kids AOD notch back in 1999 and it went from running 16.2's and 16.3's at 88 with him in it to running 14.5's at 95 with me in it. The car was an oil burning 130,000 mile 2.73 geared POS.

 

No sweat on my part SS - I enjoy the friendly banter. It really is a matter of well-placed mods, hard driving, and good conditions. I used to take pride in running as low an ET as possible with a correspondingly low MPH. Just one of those things. And believe me - there are others that have done similar things or better.

I do 100% agree with you though that the vast majority of "street" 5.0s are running 14's or slower.

BTW....are you USMC or former USMC?

Bob

 

Those are some great times Bob.Making the most out of your hp is what drag racing is all about. I needed heads,cam and intake for me to run 12.5's in a '89 steeda that I used to own.

 

I'm sorry but, if you were "paying attention" then you must have been part of the slow class - Bob Cosby's "secrets" have been well known and published for quite a bit of time.

As you have pointed out - it's simple power to weight ratio that gets the 'Stangs moving.

 

Thanks for pointing that out. I don't think I could've lived another day w/out your late input!
What I mean by "paying attention" is the interweb. I don't ever recall the information being readily available on the web at that point in time. And, believe it or not... I was actually considered "fast" at that point in time. Not no more though!

 

Your welcome

I don't remember the information on the interweb back then either - but then again - the interweb wasn't readily available to the public back then either so...... we had to rely on magazine articles - Cosby ruled the Ford mags back then.

My 'Stang (an 86) only ran 13.8's back in '91 but it was still "quick"

My how time flies.

 

My apologies for being unclear. I meant to say the info was not readily available on the net at the time I was paying attention to the internet some time ago.
Congrats on the high 13's in the early 90's! That's fantastically awesome!