Auto Racing: 1995 Mustang Gt 5.0, warm summer weather, mint shape

Question
Hey, I recently located and purchased a 1995 Mustang Gt 5.0 car which is the hot Opal Frost color.  The thing is I have been searching for this car for the past 3 years and I finally found one. This car is in better than mint shape, it honestly looks and rides like it is fresh out of the factory.  It has 20,000 miles on it and was only a sunday driver which never saw anything but warm summer weather.  Now Since I purchased the vehicle I have decide that it is going to be a road racer, and eventually turn into part of my antique collection. I have installed a Pro 5.0 shifter, 3.73 gears, Shorty headers, Magnaflow exhaust, and want to really make this car a beast for the local drag strip and the street.  What are your sugesstions for completely going nuts with performance but with a rerasonable budget? Because I don't have the knowledge like someone like you with cars, but I have seen many different modifications that I can do and want the best performance out of my car.

          Thanks,
              Dom D.

Answer
Dom-

 Well..."going nuts with performance" and "reasonable budget" don't really go together but I'll tell you what I'd do.  Thankfully you got a 5.0 rather than a 4.6 since the 4.6 is a lot more expensive to modify.  I'd basically build a motor with a turbo system in mind.  Start with a turbo kit from a place like Hellion Power Systems or Cartech and make sure you get a decent sized turbo and a good intercooler.  Then throw a forged 331 stroker kit into the block with roughly 8.5:1 compression and top it off with a good set of heads (like AFR 185s or Canfields) and a Holley Systemax intake.  If you don't want to get completely insane, the stroker motor itself without the turbo would still make decent power.  I'd beef up the transmission and rear end and then, for the suspension, a tubular K-member along with a panhard rod and torque arm.  Then again, I'm a little biased...that list of parts is a basic build sheet of my own Mustang.  But hey...it's been 5 years since I basically finished the project and it's been pushing a reliable 600hp all that time.  Can't argue with what works, I suppose.  Hope this helps.

Steve