1999-2004 GT Mustang Bolt-On Build-Ups

I'm Justin with AmericanMuscle.com and this is our Acceleration Pack Bolt-On Build-Up for all '99 to '04 Mustang GTs. Now the focus with this pack is of course acceleration, but in order to accelerate faster you need traction and lots of it. That's why the majority of the parts used for our build today are focused on getting us off the line much quicker, ultimately resulting in faster acceleration. But before we go over all the parts we have in store for our 2000 GT here let's get it out of the shop and do a quick 0 to 60 baseline run just to see where we stand now.

All right, before we go installing all our parts for the acceleration pack we're gonna do a baseline 0 to 60 run using my iTSX wireless tuner and my iPad here just to see where the car stands now. So hit start. Here we go. All right, so it looks like we just clicked off a 6.6 0 to 60 time with our automatic 2000 GT which is pretty average for this model car. Now we're gonna take our car back into the shop, talk a little bit more about some of the parts we have in store, and get them installed.

Since traction is the theme of the day what better way to get more of it than by using a set of these NITTO NT555R Drag Radials? Those large thread blocks paired with that real soft compound is gonna give us a ton of grip on the street and at the strip and it should really help our GT get off the line.

To further help our GT hook we decided to go with some vital suspension components from QA1 starting with these box style rear lower control arms. Now these bars are a variation of the classic traction bar design and basically help keep the rear axle from moving around under load and especially on hard launches, eliminating any excessive wheel hop.

We also decided to go with a set of these QA1 adjustable rear upper control arms that are fully adjustable while still on the car. Now these gonna be key to adjusting our pinion angle which is not only important for traction but also for driveline smoothness. These are really gonna help firm up the rear end of the car and eliminate any side to side sloppiness or wiggle making the car track a lot straighter and just making for an overall better driving experience.

Moving away from our traction and getting into another big contributing factor to our acceleration. That's right, our gearing. Now from the factory, our automatic 2000 GT came with 3.27 gears which is pretty weak for acceleration. Now that's where these Ford Racing 4.10 gears come into play. Now simply put, that shorter gear ratio is gonna help our car accelerate faster. And quite frankly, I'm really anxious to see how it's gonna wake up our two-valve motor.

So now that you know what we have in store for our GT we're gonna hand the car over to the crew and get everything installed. After they're all done we're gonna take our GT back out on the streets just to see how it behaves on the road and to see if we've improved on our 0 to 60 time.

All right, so we're out here on the street with our 2000 GT. We just had the acceleration pack installed by the guys back at the shop and we're just cruising. I mean, the car is very mild mannered. We're in overdrive. You'd never be able to tell there are gears in the car until you do a little squeeze on the throttle and man, does it go. It goes. It goes and it hooks hard too. I mean, we didn't even have a chance to heat cycle the tires right there and it just dead hooked on the street. Car is a little stiffer in the rear. That's attributed to the stiffer bushings in both the QA1 lower and upper control arms, but that's gonna be a good thing. That's gonna help keep the car straight going down the track. It's also gonna reduce our wheel hop as well and overall just improve our acceleration. So now that we had a chance to drive the car around on the street a little bit, see how it reacts in everyday situations, we're gonna put it to the ultimate test, get it back to the shop, do a hard launch and see if these parts work in lowering our 0 to 60 times.

All right, so we just finished up our second 0 to 60 run where we just clicked off a 5.9 second 0 to 60. That's over half a second off our baseline number so it's easy to see that our acceleration pack is doing its job and I gotta admit those radials definitely helped us dead hook on the pavement. So that does it for the acceleration pack. Be sure to check out our other '99 to '04 Bolt-On Build-Ups where we make our GT handle a little bit better, we give it some more power and dress it up a little bit.

Hey, everyone. I'm Justin with AmericanMuscle.com. This is our Appearance Bolt-on Build-up for all '99 to '04 Mustang GTs.

We took some of your favorite styling parts and paired them up with some of our appearance parts that we really liked to create a look that would totally transform any '99 to '04 Mustang GT. The result is what you see here with our 2000. We wanted to show you how good your ride could look using the same Appearance Pack.

For this Appearance Bolt-on Build-up, we were looking to combine some classic throw-back looks with a touch of modern styling. We put together over a dozen appearance and styling parts, ranging from some AmericanMuscle Graphics vinyl, some new lighting from Raxiom, and of course, a new set of wheels and tires to create what we think is the ultimate Appearance Pack for any '99 to '04 GT. Obviously, any one of these parts would be a huge improvement over their stock counterpart, but there are some of these parts that are responsible for making this car look the way it does here today. So, let's check them out.

We started our build with the number one way to completely change the look of any car, a new set of wheels and tires. We opted for a favorite of Mustang owners everywhere, using these 18-inch staggered matte black Bullitts. Now, that staggered muscle car look, paired with the deep lip of these deep-dish wheels, is going to give us that aggressive stance that will really set the tone for our build.

In keeping with the black on red theme we have going on with our 2000 GT here, we opted for the race-inspired matte black billet aluminum fuel door from MMD. Now, this is another one of those really cool and unique parts we've come to expect from MMD. With that billet construction, strong magnetic clasp, and steel striker plate, it really adds a nice touch of customization to an often forgotten about area.

Moving around to the back of the car, you'll find one of the big retro styling parts we've added to our build with this honeycomb deck lid panel. Now, this panel screams '70s muscle and really wakes up the rear end of our GT. The best part is, it installs easily in about 30 minutes using a 3M tape located on the back of each piece.

These last two parts are by far one of the highest-rated customer items for these New Edge Mustangs and were an absolute no-brainer for our build. I'm talking about this Mach 1 grille delete kit and this Mach 1 chin spoiler. Now, a lot of times, Mustang owners try to emulate the classic vibe of the '60s and '70s Mustangs. Not this time. These parts were taken from the '03 and '04 Mach 1s, and I can't tell you how many times I hear our customers saying that these parts should have been standard equipment on all '99 to '04 Mustangs. Seeing how it completely changes the look of our ride, it's easy to see why.

So, in stock form, these '99 to '04 GTs are pretty cool, but we wouldn't be car guys if stock was good enough. So, we totally transformed our 2000 GT using parts a lot of our customers really enjoy and that can easily be bolted on by anyone. In doing so, we created a look that totally separates our GT apart from the others. Be sure to check out some of our other '99 to '04 Bolt-on Build-ups, where we give our 2000 GT a serious boost in performance, work on our handling, and increase our acceleration.

I'm Justin from AmericanMuscle.com and this is our Handling Bolt-On Build-Up for all '99 to '04 Mustang GTs. Now the goal of this build is pretty simple. We're looking to take some basic suspension components, install them on our 2000 GT here in an effort to make it handle a lot better than it does now in stock form. Now individually installed each one of these parts should make a slight difference in your car's handling. However, when installed together like we're gonna do today they should make a substantial difference in our car's handling and should make our GT handle like it's on rails.

First up on the list of parts to install is this black strut tower brace that we have laid in the place just so we can see how it's gonna sit. Now this is a very popular first step for making your car handle a little bit better and it's gonna be pretty easy on your wallet as well. Now basically this is gonna firm up the front end and help reduce chassis flex and body roll. Now I have to admit that black powder coated finish is gonna look pretty cool under the hood as well.

The next mod we're gonna go with in our handling pack is a set of these QA1 Caster Camber Plates. Now these are gonna be very valuable for getting our GT's alignment back in spec after we lower the car. Now a properly set up alignment will not only help your car's handling but it's also gonna save your tires from premature wear.

Speaking of lowering the car, what suspension build would be complete without a set of lowering springs? We're gonna install a set of these SR Performance Lowering Springs which should lower our GT roughly about an inch and a half or so on all four corners. Not only will this help our ride handle a lot better thanks to that lower center of gravity but it's also gonna help our appearance as well by getting rid of that ugly wheel gap.

Last but certainly not least are these front and rear sway bars from Eibach. Now sway bars are one of the biggest factors to help reduce body roll and are a great tool for fine tuning your suspension. Now from the factory, most Mustangs have the tendency to plow or push through turns. This is referred to as understeer. By installing a larger rear sway bar and tweaking the front you're actually gonna get rid of that understeer and induce a little bit of oversteer which means the rear of the car is gonna come through the turns much quicker and actually make the car a little bit more fun to drive.

So those are the parts we have in store for our GT here today. Now let's get everything installed so I can get our GT out of the shop and onto the streets and see the difference this handling pack makes.

All right, so we just got our 2000 GT out of the shop and onto the street here and it took me all of five seconds to realize what a difference this handling pack made to our ride. Gone is the kind of floaty disconnected feeling that our Mustang used to have. And it actually now feels like a sports car. It feels like it should. Much more firm, much more planted even going straight. Obviously through the turns it's a lot better as well but the car just feels like it wants to respond to your actions a lot more making you feel like you're actually part of the car which is great. Even just slight turn to turn going straight here like I said, the car just reacts well to whatever you wanna do to it. We have a nice right-hander coming up. Let's see how the car reacts with our new mods installed.

All right. So much better. Car's just so firm and so planted going through the turns. That can definitely be attributed to those sway bars working with that SR Performance Strut Tower Brace to really reduce our body roll and our chassis flex. I got a nice left-hander coming up as well. Oh, yeah. You can totally come out of the turn now with a lot more speed and have much more confidence going through the turns. Now the nice thing about the springs too, obviously they lower the car, make it look a lot better and handle a lot better but it's also better for acceleration and our braking. The car does not wanna nose down now when you're hard on the brakes coming into a turn making it feel a lot more solid. Now those QA1 Caster Camber Plates are probably not gonna make the biggest difference in your everyday drive. However, it was able to get our car back into spec after we lowered it about an inch and a half just so we didn't chew up our tires and made for a lot better handling.

So there you have it. This handling pack really made a world of difference on our GT and really made our car a lot more fun to drive. So be sure to check out some of our other '99 to '04 Bolt-On Build-Ups where we work on our appearance, help get our GT off the line and give it some more power.

Justin: Hey, everyone. I'm Justin with AmericanMuscle.com, and this is our Power Pack Bolt-on Build-up series for all '99 to '04 Mustang GTs. With this Power Pack, we put together some products that we feel are great first-time mods and that would give any '99 to '04 Mustang GT a serious boost in power. So, we're going to grab a quick baseline run, and then hand our GT over to the crew so they can get started installing our Power Pack. Hey, what's going on, Mike?

Mike: Hey, man, nothing. Just finished the installation of our mods, and we're about to make another dyno run.

Justin: Very nice. Yeah, it looks great under here. What have you got going on under the hood?

Mike: Well, first we installed an AIRAID cold air intake kit that comes with a high-flow reusable air filter, so you never have to replace it. The AIRAID's going to increase airflow to the engine to allow it to breathe better and make more horsepower, and it's also going to help on fuel efficiency.

Justin: Yeah, if you could stay off the pedal, right?

Mike: Yeah.

Justin: I see we also got the BBK installed. What's up with that?

Mike: This is the one-piece throttle intake that incorporates a throttle body and the plenum. That way, you can have a bigger throttle body and not worry about restricting the airflow with the factory plenum.

Justin: Mike, I know, with this generation and with these mods, we shouldn't really need a tune, right?

Mike: Right. They don't require a tune, but we are going to install a BAMA Performance custom tune just to kind of tie everything together. Especially being an automatic, it's going to help with our shift permanence, our shift points, and the overall performance package.

Justin: That's awesome, man. Now, I know, in conjunction with these mods, we also have the Pypes off-road X-pipe going on, along with that Flowmaster American Thunder Series cat-back as well. What kind of numbers are you expecting from all these mods?

Mike: We should expect to see around 20 to 25 horsepower to the tire.

Justin: Sounds good to me, man. You ready to do another run?

Mike: Absolutely. Let's do it.

Justin: All right.

So, our baseline run on our automatic 2000 GT gave us 222 horsepower and 260 foot-pounds of torque. With our Power Pack installed, we made 249 horsepower and 295 foot-pounds of torque, giving us a peak gain of 27 horsepower over our baseline numbers, and gains of 35 horsepower and 54 foot-pounds of torque throughout the curve.

So, as you can see, we just finished up our second Dyno run, and we're definitely happy with the results. The best part is, all these mods are installed easily in just a few hours using basic hand tools. Now, let's get our GT off the Dynojet and onto the streets so we can hear that Flowmaster in action and see what these mods did for our motor.

All right, now that we got our GT out of the shop and onto the streets, and been able to put it through its paces a little bit, it's easy to see why these bolt-ons are such a popular first choice with so many Mustang owners out there, especially these '99 to '04s. Those bolt-ons really woke up our two-valve motor, especially paired with that BAMA tune, which has really firmed up our shifts as well.

So, be sure to check out some of our other '99 to '04 Bolt-on Build-ups, where we improve our handling, work on our acceleration, and dress up our GT a little bit.