Joe made me laugh
wow   
Anyway Jason, what Crash (Ben) said was pretty accurate.  I can't recall anyone being NEARLY this nice to a new guy coming in that has a car and dreams like yours.    
Now, we aren't saying to get rid of the probe, as it is very nice to be able to have a reliable daily driver, but to keep it reliable leave it stock.  An old saying from around here that I haven't seen anyone mention lately is "Fast, Cheap, Reliable; you can only pick two".  That's about as accurate as it gets.  If you are looking to go on the cheap, there are a plethora of late 70's through 80's RWD cars that you can choose from, and cheaply throw in a warmed over small block.  Foxbody Mustangs, 3rd gen f-body's, g-body's, whatever.  All of those can be had for a couple grand, throw another grand into the tranny and a grand into building a decent naturally aspirated motor, and you are going to have plenty of fun with it.  And those are high estimates, you could luck out on some of the stuff.