With the introduction of the 2005 Mustang, pony car fans where treated to one of the most powerful base V-8 Mustangs ever with 300 hosepower. Unfortunately-with us being horsepower junkies-300 horses is never enough.

Thanks to Ford's Technology Transfer Program, the aftermarket parts market had a TON of product by the time the cars where released. Ford has made a lot of mistakes in the past, but making sure the aftermarket parts industry had parts ready for the car at launch was one of the best moves they have ever made. Unfortunately, mods are not so easy with the latest Mustangs. The new computers are very finicky to modify; especially anything that might change the air-fuel ratio. That usually ends up tripping the Check Engine light. But, all is not lost as SCT has released the Xcalibrator II (Xcal II) for the '05-'07 Mustangs to help reprogram the ECU to compensate for the increased airflow.

SCT, with over 20 years of experience, has become the leader in Ford Performance Tuning for just about any fuel-injected Ford vehicle. Starting with this issue, we'll be using our 2006 Mustang GT as a project car, and we'll document the various upgrades and results with you. These upgrades will include the addition of a Glassback Roof, supercharger, suspension mods and various other go-fast goodies. To help quench some of our appetite for horsepower, we're going to add an S&B Cold Air Kit. S&B's kit, unlike many others, does not require a costly reflash/tune of the computer to compensate for the increased airflow, and will prevent a Check Engine light being tripped. S&B claims this kit will produce anywhere from 15-20 more horsepower at the crank without a tune. We're going to see if their claim holds true by slapping our car on a dyno. Their kit is made of plastic, which helps dissipate heat better than cold air intakes made of metal. Installation is fairly straight forward, as long as you follow the instructions. We first did a baseline dyno pull that put down 270 rear-wheel horsepower and 284 foot-pounds of rear-wheel torque. Those are very good baseline numbers, because normally you lose about 15 percent of power through the drivetrain. (Auto manufacturers rate their horsepower at the crank before the power loss through the drive train.)

Our next runs where taken with the S&B installed, and it did not disappoint with some very impressive numbers... 278 horsepower and 294 torque. Taking into consideration the 15 percent drivetrain loss, the numbers at the crank would be 319.7 horsepower and 338 foot/pounds of torque, which validates S&B's claim of a 20-hp increase. Since many cold air intakes for the '05-later Mustangs require a tune to run properly, we thought we'd give our car a tune to see how our baby would respond. The numbers were nothing short of impressive, with the car putting down 286 horsepower at the rear wheels and a 301 foot/pound torque figure. That translates into 328.9 horsepower and 346 foot/pounds of torque at the flywheel. And best of all, these units only costs about $200 and are 50-state legal, which means no worries with the smog lords.