I honestly had no idea what I was getting myself into with this exhaust install. I mean that in a couple of different ways, but it is all based off of the fact that I’m still a little import kid at heart. First of all, I didn’t truly realize how much audio awesomeness could possibly come from this monster when coupled with the new supercharger. I am accustomed to 4 and 6 cylinder turbo cars, which mostly sound pretty tame until they get way up in the RPM range. This 5.0 sounds like pure chaos with a hint of anarchy at anything above idle. I can’t really think of anything clever enough to say about the sound when I am winding it out, but I do know that a lot of other drivers and onlookers definitely take notice.

The Rumble

In case you can’t tell from the pictures, we decided to go with our buddies over at Holley for this exhaust install. They know that the name of the game here is pure muscle and power, so they hooked us up with a set of Hooker Blackheart long tube headers and paired them to a Hooker Blackheart header-back exhaust system. I feel a little bit repetitive here, but this system sounds gnarly. I just can’t harp on it enough. See, again I am used to the import scene where only other car guys really respect or even notice (at least in a positive light) when your car is modified. Yes indeed, tuner style cars are true dude magnets. For some reason, muscle is just still way more universally accepted, at least here in Georgia. The car is super loud, but still gets a ton of compliments. I guess it is more of a respect for the rumble than anything else. Speaking of which, this exhaust really livened up the sound of the supercharger as well.

Easy Enough

This is the first install on this car that we have not done in-house. We don’t have a lift and I just don’t like to risk tricky exhaust work with the help of just a few jack stands. We dropped it off at our buddy David Campo’s (who’s FD RX7 has graced our pages before) shop, and wished him luck. He got it all finished up without any help in under a day, but he definitely looked like he had been through a battle when it was all said and done. The actual exhaust was easy work, but I just really get the feeling that Ford did not want us to meddle with those headers. Almost everything on the underside of this car just seems to be really difficult to get to. That being said, the payoff is well worth the price. Just a few hours of work turned this car into a true fire breathing demon.

All in all this was a perfect modification to add to our new Mustang. It does a good job of really bringing every element to the table. It sounds great, looks great and definitely adds performance. The dyno results are coming in the next issue, but I can already feel a huge difference in throttle response and the overall power band. Like I said, the next issue will be our proving grounds for the mods done so far, so please stay tuned.

Written by Mike Sanders