Horse Sense: Paxton's Novi 2000 has proven equally at home on the street or racetrack. Despite a helical-cut gear design that makes it nearly silent on the road, the Novi is also capable of moving up to 2,200 cfm of air, at impeller speeds up to 55,000 rpm.
Between 1987 and 1993, the aftermarket had it relatively easy when developing 5.0 supercharger kits. Despite ongoing detail changes, nothing much changed or moved around in the Fox Mustang's engine bay during that span. Lift the hood on a fuel-injected Fox and you'd be hard-pressed to tell if it's a '93, a '91, or an '89.
Then, in 1994, the SN-95 came along and spoiled all that perennial packaging consistency. Its lower hoodline dictated many underhood revisions, especially when it came to engine front dress, and it was cluttered with items such as electric fan controllers and ABS brake modules. Though the 5.0 remained its hearty old self internally, much of the stuff that hung from it, or sat on top, had to be modified or moved around to fit. This sent centrifugal blower manufacturers back to their CAD screens and CAM stations to design and fabricate all-new mounting bracketry, ducting, and miscellaneous hardware-all this for just two model years of production. Luckily, the guys whittling out the superchargers thought it worth the effort (maybe because they didn't know the modular was just around the corner).
We happen to have one of the last of the 5.0s in our fleet, a handsome but porky '95 GT convertible. Over the years, it's been gradually improved with the usual bolt-ons including exhaust, heads, and intake, but always with an eye toward eventual forced induction-its weighty 3,650-pound carcass needs all the help it can get. This gave us a perfectly rational excuse to have Joe Silva at J&P Performance install the Novi 2000 kit that Paxton Automotive developed specifically for the '94 and '95 pushrod SN-95s.
As always, we can't overstress the importance of taking a realistic view of your Mustang's ultimate use in deciding a compatible combination. The upgrades previously installed on our topless GT included Edelbrock's Performer heads and intake (ported for the street by J&P's Paul Silva), along with long-tube headers and a 2.5-inch catalyst-equipped H-pipe, from MAC. All were chosen for both blower and emissions friendliness, and for the same reasons the car also retains its factory cam.
That said, our convertible's role in life as a street-going corner carver was also an important consideration when we chose its relatively mild 3.55 gears and curve-happy Torsen T-2R differential. In other words, this is certainly no drag car. In fact, it's probably been down the strip less than a half-dozen times in as many years. So our goal was to create pulse-raising power and throttle response in typical street-driving scenarios-but we had no desire for an undriveable pig, no matter how fast.
In view of this road-going lifestyle, serious consideration was given to going the Roots or screw supercharger route for the superb, low-rpm grunt the positive-displacement blowers exhibit. In the end, we just couldn't resist the expandability of the Novi 2000 centrifugal, which, as shipped, is said to huff out around 8 psi but has the ability to deliver way more boost pressure with the simple change of a pulley. You know-just in case we ever want to seriously test the limits of our 5.0's stock bottom end.
The SN-95 Novi 2000 kit includes everything necessary for installation on a bone-stock 5.0, including a larger in-tank pump and a fuel-control unit to trick stock 19-lb/hr injectors into delivering sufficient combustible juices. Our car, however, was already producing 285 hp at the wheels and had just about maxed out its stock injectors, so we opted for a set of ACCEL's 40-lb/hr injectors, together with a Pro-M 80mm plastic mass air meter to replace our existing 75mm Bullet. Thus equipped, we thought we were reasonably prepared, but you always forget something.