Are are mods to SSP sacrilege

[ajstoys63]

Yes the brakes are an issue with me also... I am putting as much back to stock as I can however I would like to put the black rims and rear disc brakes on her even though the black rims were not on the '91. I like them!!! I still want everything stock appearing. My car doesn't really stand out like most of your beautiful marked units... But the black 10 holes look sharp on the black SSP. I have been buying all of the little parts and next is a complete strip and re-paint.

[NoDrama43]

ok.....I will weigh in......yeh i know it didn't last long.

I think Joe asks a very pertinent question here. I am sometimes amazed at the stuff people want to do to these cars. Not citing anyones specific post here but brakes are a perfect example.

These cars were put in service and driven 130 MPH every day. The factory brakes were fine then and they are fine now as long as you drive the car with some sort of common sense. Can we make the brakes better? sure we can. Hell I can make the brakes better on the GT500 but why would I?

I see no valid reason to feel the need to have rear disc brakes on an SSP car. Granted the brakes are not nearly as good as anything built within the past 5 years but in reality how many of us are driving these cars aggressively every day. Very few. Having rear disc brakes on a fox body mustang will NEVER look stock to anyone that knows how the cars were built. If you track your car then yes I can understand the need for brakes as standard fox brakes suck on a road track. But why beat an SSP on a race track anyway? I know some do and repectfully I will always 100% disagree with that practice. It's your stuff though so we can just agree to disagree.

Boring the engine 30 over on a 200k motor is perfectly fine IMO. If the stuff is worn out it needs to be fixed. Just don't try to convince me it needs a bigger cam, and then bigger injectors, after market headers etc.

My response to mods is if it is anything other than a stock NOS part or a stock replacement part...it ain't stock. Everyone can do what they want with their own car and I am not picking on anyone in particular. i think this site and our members all have a pretty good idea what we believe in when it comes to the cars. That is why we don't have any members with twin turbo FHP cars.

Given the fact there were milions of fox body non SSP cars built I will always sugest that you buy one of them if you want to "enhance" the vehicles performance qualities.

[ABN2060]

I did a rear disc conversion on my '93 GT and I used Turbo Coupe components which makes it appear stock. You cant really tell from the pictures but it looks OEM from outward appearance. I plan on swaping the conversion over to my SSP. To me that is completelly acceptable.

[NoDrama43]

again i would say that it will never look oem to have rear disc brakes on a fox. Ford never built them that way. When you swap it over to your SSP it will just look like another of the 9 billion modded fox body coupes. It will also take away from the value (to us SSP purists anway). Save the original rear end for when you sell the car.

Just my humble opinion.....

[ABN2060]

Originally Posted by NoDrama43

again i would say that it will never look oem to have rear disc brakes on a fox. Ford never built them that way. When you swap it over to your SSP it will just look like another of the 9 billion modded fox body coupes. It will also take away from the value (to us SSP purists anway). Save the original rear end for when you sell the car.

Just my humble opinion.....

Good debate. The only reason I planed on swapping it over is that I'm selling my GT and it appears I am going to have to more or less give it away. If I do that then off comes all the high dollar things I have done to it. I may just return it back to stock brakes and sell the conversion. I still really have not made up my mind.

[mustangretriever]

If it's better braking you're after then why not simply swap in a set of high-perfomance pads? That'll help you slow down from all those 120mph+ runs I'm sure everyone here does a daily basis.

[28HopUp]

Originally Posted by NoDrama43

again i would say that it will never look oem to have rear disc brakes on a fox.

Unless that Fox happens to be a '93 Cobra Mustang! (just razzin' ya there Jim!) Actually, my '85 SSP has the '93 Cobra rear with the 8.8" 3.27:1 gears and 4-lug disk brakes. I'll blame a previous owner in deviating from stock.

Ya know, asking about modifications on a forum dedicated to the preservation of SSP's is like going into a bar and debating politics or religion. But then again, maybe it's a good thing to talk about it here.

I have the utmost respect for members here like Joe and Jim who hold steadfast to maintaining the originality of these cars. It's folks like that who ensure that these cars will be around for the next generation of SSP enthusiasts. But SSP enthusiasts come in all shapes and sizes, and they will have differing opinions on how far away to stray from OEM with aftermarket parts or even Ford non-SSP parts (like a Turbo Coupe rear).

Other factors to consider are rarity/desirability of a specific SSP. Some cars are simply too valuable to not be restored properly. Show cars certainly have their purpose, and their preservation allows the public to see how these cars were outfitted by their respective departments.

But let's face it, other cars from departments with higher in-service numbers, missing documentation, or unknown history are less desirable to SSP collectors. These cars are better candidates IMO to stray away slightly from stock. SSP's like this can still be refurbished and driven, which also shows the public a side of our hobby and the enjoyment we get from taking to the road in our SSP's.

I've typed long enough for tonight. But I hope the discussion continues.

[ImEvil1]

Originally Posted by ABN2060

Good debate.

I'm glad to see it, also...because we are all sharing our opinions without being disrespectful (minor sarcasm from Eric aside) .

I've heard the "I want to improve X Y and Z" side of things before, but I'm definitely all about originality. However, like Bill said, I can see where the less-desirable car that's already been modded fits in. At least it's still in existence, and not being parted or junked.

I think our mission statement here is pretty clear...and it's definitely not about hot-rodding or tubbing out perfectly restorable SSPs.

[ssp91ssp]

well put, 28HopUp !
As we continue to chat on this subject ... Some of us are forced onto some of these mods ... on initial ssp purchase !
When i found my rare 88 CSP it had been a race car for some time with lots of mods !
I was not going to pass up the car because of the mods ,so with time some of the mods have already come off .
The mods will continue to come off as i find correct orig equip to put back on .
But in the end..ORIGINAL is the way to go ...
on the other hand , orig police equip is hard to locate so some of the stuff i have located for my CSP is NOT correct ..
will i be bashed for this ??? maybe .
I think me saving it from a race history was a major plus !
this is just my opinion

ssp91ssp

[ABN2060]

I'm starting to see the whole meaning behind keeping these cars all original. Time to rethink the direction I'm taking with mine.