These days everybody is talking about the “new 5.0”, the Coyote mod motor that debuted in the 2011 Ford Mustang. But the original 5.0 is still out there making power and breaking records. And sure, the Coyote 5.0’s 412 naturally aspirated horsepower is impressive…but you’ve got to buy a $30,000 sports car to get one, or drop $10,000 on a crate engine. Meanwhile, a clean 5.0 Fox-body Mustang and a turbo kit won’t cost you much more than $10,000, and you can make mighty impressive horsepower.

Don’t believe us? Watch this video of a mostly-stock 5.0 Fox-body Mustang putting down 439 horsepower and 464 ft-lbs of torque to the wheels.

Okay, perhaps “mostly stock” isn’t really fair given what has been done to this engine. According to the video, this 140,000 mile Mustang has GT-40 heads, a Trickflow cam, and MP T70 turbocharger. But the internals are stock, and these days a used turbo kit won’t even run you $3,000, even with the intercooler included. The cylinder heads and camshaft may run you another $1,000, leaving you $6,000 to go out and find a gently-used Fox-body 5.0 Mustang (like those even exist anymore.)

For that kind of investment, you can have a car with over 400 wheel horsepower, but still capable of getting 25+ mpg on the highway (if you can drive it nicely, that is). And just listen to the sound of that old pushrod 5.0 revving up on the dyno. It makes a strong argument for going old school over the modern mod motors, don’t you think?