AM Customer Nina's 2007 Mustang GT Build

Justin: Hey, everybody, Justin with americanmuscle.com, here with Nina and her '07 GT. Now, you've actually had a good head start on this car. You've had it for a little over a year now, and it's lookin' pretty rad so far. Tell us about some of the mods.

Nina: Well, I have a couple visual things on it right now. I have the Cervini Cobra R Hood and the ROUSH Front Bumper and, of course, the Gen5 Tail Lights, can't go without those, and a couple MMD parts, just miscellaneous things here and there. But I definitely wanna get a little bit more power out of it.

Justin: Absolutely. Well, we were talking about some of your goals here before we started this video, and we got a good game plan in mind. But, in addition to the power, you also wanna help out that stance, correct?

Nina: Yes, definitely. She's a little bit too much of a monster truck for me right now, so I gotta get her a little lower. But I wanna do something with the exhaust and a little something extra. I have the ATAK on it right now from Borla, but I'm definitely somebody that likes a little bit more bite to the bark. So I need something more there. Something's missing.

Justin: Very cool. All right, well, I think we have a few parts in mind to help Nina in her journey, of course, so we're gonna get you out of here. We're gonna get to work on the car. We'll bring you back in when we're ready to dyno this thing and see if you like it.

Nina: Great.

Justin: One of the things Nina is most excited about here with her build is us installing a brand new set of SR Performance Lowering Springs onto her '07. The 1-1/2-inch drop, thanks to the SR springs, is a great solution to get the car down a little lower. It's gonna look a lot better and handle a lot better in the process. Budget-friendly spring, they get the job done, and they ride great.

Now, she's gonna be using her stock dampers now. This thing's actually pretty low mileage, considering it's an '07. Of course, you always wanna make sure you have your spring compressor on hand before getting started. Believe me, it's one of those things where if you spend a few bucks more and get a good one, you'll definitely thank yourself in the long run.

So we're doing the springs here on Nina's rear of the '07 right now. And I wanted to point something out, something that maybe a lot of you guys at home already know, but maybe some of you guys aren't aware of this. Now, when installing a progressive set of rear springs, you wanna make sure the tighter group of coils here goes up towards the top. You don't wanna make the mistake of installing them upside down, so just wanted to point that out. We do have one more part to install here before wrapping this thing up underneath, so let's get to work.

Well, guys, this is what they call a little bit of a speed bump here. Now, as you can see, we have a busted bolt comin' off the bottom of the stock manifold here that connects to the mid-pipe, and this is the result of working on cars here in the Northeast. They tend to get a little rusty underneath. And even though we had this thing soaking in PB B'last all day long, I had my breaker bar out here, and it just proved to be a little too much for this bolt. But we do see a little bit of a silver lining in here, guys. We actually already talked to Nina. We told her we'd like to upgrade her stock manifolds in place of the Pypes Shorty Headers. That's what we're gonna install. They're gonna work perfectly with that Pypes Off-Road H-Pipe that we already have. And, best of all, it's gonna sound good, it's gonna look a little better under the hood, and it should fix our problem in the process.

And, with that last bolt, we are officially wrapped up with the H-pipe here underneath Nina's car and really excited to see how these things are gonna sound with the Borla ATAK axle-back that she already had on the car. Now, we got a couple more parts in the performance category before we get this thing over to the dyno, so let's get to work.

Of course, what would a build be without a brand new cold air intake. It's something we always do here on our build segment. So here it is, brand new C&L in place on Nina's 3-valve. Now, I've used a few C&Ls; in my days here at AmericanMuscle. They always fit great, they perform as expected, and, best of all, they're made right here in the US of A. In addition to the cold air, we are gonna bring the Bama Performance team in here. They're gonna write a brand new V2 tune for this thing. Now, we have one little part to do here on Nina's build, something small, but it's something that she really wanted to do. So let's check that out.

Well, guys, with the performance and suspension stuff pretty much wrapped up here with Nina's build, we do have one more appearance part to throw on before we get her car moved over to the dyno. Now, full disclosure, these builds are usually more performance-oriented, but you can't help but throw a little appearance at the thing from time to time. So Nina wanted to go with these MMD GT350 Style 1/4 Window Covers here in Matte Black. Should flow nicely with some of the black and red theme she's got going on with her car, and the best part is it couldn't be any easier to install. I'm gonna get to work finishing up this install. Then we're gonna get her car moved over to the dyno and see if this 3-valve's puttin' out any more power.

Let's talk about these numbers, girl. 253, 268, about what you'd expect out of a bone stock, roughly, 3-valve automatic car. But with the mods now, the car's making great power, 280, 286. That's a gain of 27 horsepower over those baseline numbers, 27 horsepower throughout the curve, and 21 foot-pounds of torque. I mean, that's awesome.

Nina: I love it. I can't complain. It's awesome.

Justin: There you go. Well, I guess there's really only one more thing to do. You wanna go for a drive?

Nina: Of course.

Justin: All right. All right, guys, so we're out in Nina's '07 here. Finally, we get this out on the road. It sounds great. I think you would agree with me there.

Nina: Yes, I love it. It's awesome.

Justin: Are you happy with the stance so far? Do you like how the car is sitting?

Nina: I love it. The stance is awesome. It feels really, like, extra smooth, like driving it, too, so that's awesome.

Justin: Yeah, and we used your stock shocks and struts, which, you know, sometimes you can do, especially with a car like this. It's low mileage, so they're not beat to hell. They're not all blown-out, obviously, and the car rides surprisingly smooth. Now, the car is an auto, of course, and with getting rid of the cat, sometimes you experience some drone, especially like at the cruising RPM or speed that we're at now. But I'd say, I think you'd agree with me, there's no drone whatsoever. It's just kinda whisper quiet.

Nina: Yeah, I don't hear anything.

Justin: I know.

Nina: Yeah, it's pretty quiet in here.

Justin: Why don't you lay into it a little bit and see how it feels?

Nina: Sounds good.

Justin: All right. Feels pretty healthy.

Nina: Yeah, it's very smooth, like I said. I mean, it feels great. Thank you so much.

Justin: All right, got some right-handers here. Why don't we take these turns and see how the car feels now with the new springs? That was pretty healthy, huh?

Nina: Yeah, it's really, really smooth. I mean, I'm honestly surprised at what a big change it is.

Justin: Absolutely. I mean, for just doing springs only, the car definitely feels like it's handling a lot better than it did before, I can imagine.

Nina: It is. It definitely is.

Justin: Well, guys, there you have it. Nina's obviously stoked with how the car turned out. Overall, we killed it. Thanks again. And, guys, for all things Mustang, keep it right here at americanmuscle.com.