Showing posts with label 1999 Mustang. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1999 Mustang. Show all posts

Thursday, June 23, 2016

The First Week's Best Posts

New to EverydayAutoEnthusiast and want to view only the must-see content thus far? Check out the best posts from the first week of the greatest auto blog of all-time. Here are some of the posts that will help you catch up with the rest of the EAE Community.

1. About Me- Learn more about the founder of EverydayAutoEnthusiast to see if you can relate or share some of the reasons you became a gearhead. Also be sure to check out the mission statement and method to the madness on the purpose page.

2. Why Do We Love Cars?- This post was focused on why us enthusiasts fall in love with our form of transportation and how it becomes so much more than that when we involve our loved ones with our hobby.

3. Top 5 Most Disappointing Car Powerplants- Lists some of the most promising concepts and other cars that were let down by truly dismal engines.

4. Top Gear Episode 4: A Retrospective- Check out this post that compares and contrasts fellow blog Autoblog's view on the "new" Top Gear series thus far. I also give my thoughts on why the current show has failed and what the producers should do to fix it.

5. 1999 Ford Mustang V6 Review- The review of my favorite car of all-time and what inspired me to create a blog for those that also believe that even the slowest of cars can put a smile on your face. Those familiar with the expression slow-car-fast will appreciate this review.


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Wednesday, June 22, 2016

1999 Mustang V6 Review

This is the one that turned me from a kid that played racing games into the lifelong enthusiast here today. Its been 5 long years since I grasped the wheel of this gem but I still remember the driving experience well enough to give you the most biased review you'll ever see. First, I'll give a rundown of what the Green Machine included from the factory and then I'll describe the mods my brothers and I tacked on over the 8 plus years we owned the car.


Engine: 3.8 "Essex" V6
Transmission: 5-Speed Manual
Options: Power Driver Seat...and that's about it
Mods: Pypes True Dual Exhaust, Bullitt-syle wheels, K&N Cold Air Intake

The first thing I will tell you about the '99 Mustang is that the difference between the base V6 and GT V8 is similar in magnitude as the difference between the space shuttle and a bottle rocket. There's a reason why people looked at the V6 model as the couldn't-afford-the-V8 model. While it worked fine for sorority girls and on rental lots, the V6 was hopelessly under-powered. So what did my brothers and I do when we realized that it wasn't going to win any stoplight races? We made it sound like the V8. The Pypes brand straight pipes were installed during my oldest brothers tenure and it transformed the mustang with trans-am levels of noise. The sound on start-up made all the right burbly noises and the crackle and pop on throttle down was insanely addictive. Next were the Bullitt-style wheels which were worth every penny spent on them as they gave it the deep-dish retro look of the 60's (and made it look like the GT model, which was important at the time).


So 0-60 felt like it took at least 8 seconds, how about the handling? The communicative nature of the hydraulic steering allowed even the smallest of rocks to be known to the driver and really did let you know when the traction limits were close. The handling was also better than you'd expect and while there was plenty of body-roll, the car was almost always neutral with oversteer possible if you were really aggressive with the right foot. The live rear-axle was really the only thing that could ruin your day as expansion joints would upset the car almost to the point of losing control. The long-throws of the 5-speed were straight out of the 70's and made it truly an effort to initiate a shift.

What made the '99 Mustang great was that it wasn't trying to be something it wasn't. There was something great about being able to hoon the mustang without having to worry about breaking the car or the speed limits. This goes back to the adage that its more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow. Being able to experience the limits of the mustang made it far more rewarding to drive than driving a Porsche at 50%. As you can probably tell, I miss the mustang more than I'll miss any car I'll ever own.

Fun: 10/10
Practical: 6/10
Fast: 5/10
Total: 21/30




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