Possibly trading in Z...what to get?

Jeffblue

well that's great that you chose to mention the absolutely least productive and most expensive mod for a 335 in terms of power. The car comes with a 2.5" cat back. Most of these expensive exhaust systems just sound different, while providing relatively minimal gains.

The biggest gains come from a front mount intercooler and a tune, then downpipes. Power is cheap on the 335 to a certain point. Getting to the 375-400whp mark can be done for under 3k. Getting above that is quite expensive and requires bigger turbos.

car comes with 302hp/295tq at the crank (about 256whp/250wtq). With a FMIC and a tune (about 1500 bucks) you are at about 340-350 whp with similar torque. So thats about a 100hp gain for 1500 bucks? Wow that's expensive power

Saying that you can't make power inexpensively on a 335 based on the price of an exhaust and tune is like saying that the mustang doesn't make power inexpensively if you decided to buy a wing and a body kit and wondered why the car didn't go any faster after you spent 3-4k on body work, when obviously the simplest power on the 5.0 is intake/tune and you are over 400whp. An exhaust on a 335 has very minimal performance gains, its really more for sound and look. So i wouldn't base your judgements on how the 335 is as far as 'bang for the buck' performance gains based on one co worker who simply bought the wrong mods if he was expecting performance gains.

That being said, however, the 5.0 seems to be one of the best bang-for the buck cars as far as power mods are concerned.