All this talk has me thinking about dropping some money into my G8 again...
For the price you guys are spending on new stangs, I can get my G8 well over 500hp. I paid under $30k including tax for the G8, so I figure I have about $10k to spend before it costs as much as even a taurus SHO. And I'm starting with 361 poorly tuned hp and a cam designed to work with half the cylinders disabled.
Then again, my wife has been buggin me to start the kids' college fund... Still, some smart motor work would get me comfortably over 400hp even without a blower, and just $600 in tuning and intake work would get me about 390hp. The day the powertrain warranty is gone, I'm getting a good engine/transmission tune. The car handles absolutely neutrally and since it doesn't push at all I haven't been able to safely approach its cornering limits on public roads, so I don't think I'm going to touch the suspension. It handles very nicely for an overweight overpowered 4-door sedan 
But I'm really glad Ford finally got their act together on mustang performance. I grew up driving Fords and I came *this* close to buying a mustang cobra back in 1997-1998. I got my trans-am instead because it cost around $10,000 less and was significantly faster both on the drag strip and on road courses. It wasn't until somewhere around 2004 or 2005 that a "factory" mustang (ie. one you could get from a regular dealer without signing up for years in advance) could keep up with with a '98 f-body on the dragstrip, and based on SCCA autox national results they still have trouble keeping up when the track isn't straight. Putting that much power into the base GT is a great start though
yea, ford dropped the ball when they went from the fox chassis to the so called sn95 chassis. they added weight, added expense, and subtracted horsepower.
all of the fox chassis mustangs were quicker, and at the very minimum, equal to the camaro/firebirds in the handling dept. then just as gm improved the f body, for effed up.
at least they've finally reconciled themselves with the sn197 chassis mustangs. now, although they're still somewhat pricey, they are essentially the quickest, fastest, best handling, best cornering coupes you can buy brand new in their price range.
what'll be REALLY cool with your g8, if/when you start messin with it, is it'll be an ultimate sleeper. if this thread inspired ya to go ahead and do some work to it....then i'm glad. it doesn't matter, ford, chevy, pontiac, bmw.......all that matters is that we love our cars, and have fun makin em fast.
BTW....american muscle has a 6 banger supposedly street legal running 11.9's, and a supposedly street legal 2011 gt automatic running 10.9's.
almost forgot.....2004's were(i think) the last year of the sn95 chassis, and 2005 was the first year of the current sn197 chassis. both were 4.6 liters, and both didn't have the power that they could or should have had out of the factory.
also, if i recall, 97 or 98 was the year that ford built some cobras with IRS. those same cobras are why the mustang of today still has a live rear axle. i've known a couple people that owned those irs equipped cobras, and not a single one of them has anything good to say about them.
