New guy who wants a fox

Hello everyone, awesome forum you guys and gals have here. I'll just give everyone a quick rundown on who I am, what I have done.

I live in southern California and have been a gearhead since I was 13. Always been a Chevy guy all my life. But have grown to love all muscle cars as I got older, now 35.

I have built a couple of my own engines and have been racing 1/4 mile and roadcourse since I was 16. I have had old Chevys with stroked out 383's up to 6.0L supercharged 05/06 GTO's. Been out of the game for a while now. My truck is almost paid off, so I am not about to go and buy a new 5.0 Mustang (even though my sis just got a 12' v6 stang which is pretty awesome!).

So, I am here. I want to buy a fox body. I have always loved the fox bodies. Even though I was always a Chevy guy, with all my Chevy buddies, I had a secret place in my heart that no one knew about, that loved the fox body Mustangs.

Here are my goals:

I want to achieve 400+ rwhp. If I have to go forced induction, so be it. I was going to buy a decent looking fox for under 5k, if I can find one. Pull the engine out, have a reputable shop build me the engine with forged internals and go to town from there. The car must be a 5 speed, tired of autos. I will drag race once in a while, but not much. Just want a reliable street car I can still go cruising with, maybe even a road trip to Vegas once in a while.

My questions:

What would you guys do as far as the engine goes? I am not rich, but I make a pretty ok living.

What year fox should I be looking for? I was thinking 88-93?

Now for the big one.......the car HAS to be CALIFORNIA SMOG LEGAL!!!

Are my goals achievable?

Cobra912 said:

what's the budget as far as upgrades go? sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't but maybe buying a car already done might be the answer, if you add up all the costs for parts, machine work, and supplies it adds up quick!!!! I have built three motors in the past three years and I can tell you first hand it gets real expensive real quick

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I agree with you Cobra. I have nickle and dimed myself to death on projects before as well. I was thinking about a 3-4k budget as far as mods go. Or try to find an already modded one with 400whp under 6k.