Aftermarket Exhaust Systems- 5.0 Mustang & Super Fords Magazine

When you think of easy horsepower bolt-ons, K&N air filters and underdrive pulleys are near the top of the list, but nothing gives you the horsepower boost and the aural pleasure of a performance-exhaust system. Furthermore, the addition of a performance exhaust is the best way to prepare your Mustang for further modifications. The horsepower possibilities a performance exhaust affords are unmatched by any other modification, which is why we’re stepping up to an aftermarket system on our ’93 coupe.

To future-proof the little black coupe, we gathered new components from DynoMax, Tri-D, and MAC. We went against the single-company theme for a variety of reasons. We were mostly looking for components that looked good and those that would clear our Kenny Brown TracKit Plus suspension out back. What we ended up with were DynoMax ceramic-coated headers, a 2-½-inch step-up turbo, an H-pipe with cats from Redem/Tri-D left over from our H-pipe vs. X-pipe article (“Pipe Dreams,” Nov. ’99, page 80), and a 2-½-inch MAC after-cat system received from Parkway Ford.

The good folks at Parkway were happy to help us out with our exhaust needs, and they got the after-cat system to us at our Lakeland, Florida, offices within two days. We chose the DynoMax headers because of their anvil-solid construction and beautiful ceramic coating. And we liked the chrome tailpipes of MAC’s after-cat—not to mention the easy installations we’ve previously experienced with both of these parts.

Another reason we chose the MAC after-cat system was because we just installed a Kenny Brown TracKit Plus Panhard bar kit, among other KB suspension components. The TracKit Plus is available for stock and DynoMax exhaust, or Flowmaster and MAC after-cat systems. Our coupe had the TracKit Plus for use with Flowmaster or MAC systems. We still had to modify the mounting arm for the TracKit Plus, but the integrity of the arm was left intact. We also can’t wait to install Kenny Brown’s upper and lower control arms because doing so should give us more room to tweak the after-cat system to the most desired point.

We’re not sure why, but even with our exhaust upgrade the car is still too quiet for our tastes. We don’t know if it’s because of the MAC after-cat system; we’ve only heard one in off-road pipe form. The H-pipe we know to produce good sound. We’re not going to an off-road pipe because of emissions restrictions, so we may need to try different H-pipes to see how we can attain a powerful sound while still retaining emissions legality.