lol... a 96 mustang with simple bolt ons. cams or a turbo are the only thing u can do to ur si. OR, if u want to do it for FREE u could take out everything in ur car u dont need. back seat, spare tire, the side panels in the inside, passenger seat, u would win if u did that.. i have a frined who had a 90 CRX stripped the thing down and it was fast as hell

 

yea get some dry ice and remove all the sound deadening material under the carpet, its like 25 or 30lbs of that stuff in there, back seats gone, spare gone. i had a 2000 ex with all teh sound deadener, seats, everything, sohc edlebrock turbo kit, cams, valves and springs, apexi vafc and some injectors and i whomped a 50 with straight pipes and header. but good luck with 2k budget. ide go with head work/

 

go for boost, doesnt matter if you beat that guy or not, if he is still being a dcik then lamp him one
then you can at least be loving the boost if i had some cash like that to just spend on my car i would go for boost, just because that is what i want not because i want to beat anyone elses car because no matter what you do to your car, there will always be someone with a faster car.... my two pence

 

boost

 

or you could doa long distance race the mustang will run outa gas or blow up becuase fords last for like 80k miles haha (at least in my experience)

 

Sell the eco car and buy a muscle car? About the only way I see that happening