Other pro's and con's of the Performance Pack?

[Siggy550]

I've owned both GTPP and EBPP. I liked the suspension setup of the PPs, but after a year, here are my opinions:

Tires: Get ready to change every 15K-20K if you are driving nice. Less than 10K on rears if you do some burnouts, have fun, etc. I had 14K (highway miles) on my EBPP when I traded it back. It was going to need new tires soon all around. My GTPP has just over 5K and will need to rear tires soon.

Brakes: Brembos are impressive, but standard GT are good too (remember the EBPP has the GT brakes). Unless you are tracking, I think the base are more than enough.

Ultimate long-term mods or stock may be your real decision maker: I'm going to be changing springs, wheels, already put a spoiler, splitter on, etc. Springs will stiffen you suspension anyway and give you a better look than PP from ride height. Sway bars aren't expensive and you can improve or duplicate the PP suspension mostly. Aftermarket wheels look great on S550. PP have crap offsets and need spacers to look real nice on fenders. Also, staying NA or going FI? Most SCs require removal of strut tower brace. I want to SC my car (would likely go pro-charger or Whipple) long-term... not sure PP version was the right choice (gears, manual, etc.).

If you plan to not put much aftermarket in, PP is a great value! If you are going FI, changing springs, wheels, etc., think about which will be best for you long-term not forgetting transmission and gears choice for what you ultimately want.

When I bought, I thought the PP was the only way to go. Looking at it now, an auto GT/CS might have been perfect for me with my long-term goals. Oh well, I have a great performance car to start with... maybe just some lost $$ in my mods.

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[PonyGrrrl]

I have 14k miles on my PP and just replaced the tires on it (bubble in the front and line lock 2-3 times on the rear+ mileage) price is negligible however no one stocks 19in tires.. so it is a 10 day wait for them. The rear I got through Discount Tire and the front I ordered take off's and then had discount mount/balance them each time it took 8-10 days to get them. I now keep 1 of each size in my garage in case I have a blow out.. I can just pull the rim and have one mounted and order a new one. I plan on doing pads/fluid after the winter.

I just picked up PP tires on Tire Rack on clearance and they arrived in two days.

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[Evo_Rob]

I skipped through most of the posts. But if you plan on Modding the car, go with a base and have that extra money to do what you want. I only have about 4k in mods so far and the base is a different car. The brakes are on my to-do list after a whipple. I don't see the point of getting a higher model if you plan on changing a lot of the parts.

 

[strengthrehab]

I wanted a PP car but IDK how much I'll get to the road course so I may go with non pp car and upgrade the suspension, wheels and tires myself.

I'll still do some HPDE'S but after things are upgraded.

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[Roki187]

I skipped through most of the posts. But if you plan on Modding the car, go with a base and have that extra money to do what you want. I only have about 4k in mods so far and the base is a different car. The brakes are on my to-do list after a whipple. I don't see the point of getting a higher model if you plan on changing a lot of the parts.

How do u like the Viking shocks?

 

[Evo_Rob]

How do u like the Viking shocks?

They're working out very well. I'll get the front set when they're released. All I want is thicker sway bars and that's it for suspension

 

[Zerobar78]

I would have bought the PP but for various reasons it didn't work out that way but have no regrets over it. I could see if l was planning to track the car l would have certainly picked the PP car. For street use l can buy wheel/tire/suspension upgrades (same mods many PP owners end up doing) and have a better handling car vs. a stock PP car. The brakes on the non PP cars are excellent for street use plus you have two popular rear gear ratio's availble unlike the PP car.
As far as "most folks" regretting not getting the PP, l don't know that to be a completely accurate account.
l've heard quite a number mention they had regrets not getting the GT, probably the biggest regret brought forward on this forum. I've seen the posts of members saying they should have just spent a bit more for athe premium upgrade in lieu of the base model.
In my "younger years" l managed to experienced buyers regrets myself more than once.:doh:

Read the forums and you'll see plenty of regrets about it which is why I used the term, but choicely a relative term so trying to argue my point is futile.

 

[Moddiction]

Even if replacing wheels and suspension I think pp is worth it.

You still getter better rear end for all around performance. Better cooling, better brakes etc. you also get strut brace with cowel brace. Front splitter, gauges(fairly useless though)

Also if planning to buy wheels the pp wheels/tires can easily sell for $1000-$1200. No one wants non pp wheels.

Same if you plan to sell sway bars etc.

 

[paul123]

But doesn't the leather feel significantly better and last a lot longer than the fabric?

I am perfectly happy with cloth seats. I doubt leather lasts longer. But last longer will mainly be an issue out past 8-years or more, and if you keep the car that long, its not that big of a deal to get the front seats re-done in the covering of your choice.

If I bought a used car I would prefer leather seats because they are "cleaner" and usually less odor. And if the car was to be used as an Uber, which it won't be because its a two-seater, then vinyl / leather is better. And I won't explain why. :lol:

 

[paul123]

I got the PP specially for the gearing. Pros: rear end gear ratio

pros / cons to each of the gearing

3.73 is better off the line
3.31 is better at the top end in 5th gear

of course I won't say what that top end might be because you would be breaking the law doing that

 

[MaskedRacerX]

I wanted the wheels, brakes, suspension, and torsen rear.

Thought I would save a few bucks to make the base "mine", and do those things by myself.

Well, I don't know what I was thinking, I have 4 kid's 4 years old and younger and have no time to work on anything. So nothing is getting done. Should have just bought the car with everything done already.

Yep, same here, not much wrench time any more, and I wanted the car to be as close to perfect as I could get right when it rolled off the delivery truck Plus, you get a warranty!

PP is the way to go. Ams oil+mgw shifter= very happy mt-82. Shifts like butter

Maybe I have a lucky MT-82 or something. Shifts are very nice and smooth with zero issues. I'm coming from an S2000 as well which has arguably the best shifter of any car out there.

Mine feels good, but not as good as the S2000 (I'm an ex-S2K-er too if you recall), I'd say maybe on a 1-10 scale, where the S was a 9, the GT is a 7-7.5-ish, but in advance I knew 99.999% of that difference could be resolved by MGW and it's still very good in the interim.

Look around, most folks that don't get the PP regret it for the most part. It's a hugely cost effective package. Other than the gearing I see no real con to it myself. I wouldn't have bought mine without it and the Recaro's.

Yeah, I'd suspect if you compared PP regrets vs. not-getting-PP, the latter would be higher, I can't imagine there are many folks that did the research, committed to a PP car and decided later it was a mistake (unless they did something like moved into a nasty traffic area and now want an auto ...)

I just picked up PP tires on Tire Rack on clearance and they arrived in two days.

You have a '16 right? Are you already close to needing tires, or just storing them for [way] future use? I guess depending on usage that might not be all that long (if it was _too_ long, I might be concerned about tire degradation just due to time).

Personally, I've never had to replace calipers. Are performance level calipers something that wear out??

If not, I'm not sure why the cost was mentioned. That's why I had assumed it was pads. So for pads/rotars?

Didn't know if this was ever explained, but what the original quoted poster was saying is you could ADD the Brembo setup for ~$1300, IF you chose to not go with the PP (and some of the other suspension components are cheaply sourced as used parts). That of course doesn't factor in installation, warranty, setup/alignment, etc.

Side note: I didn't factor in the higher cost of expendables for a PP car, it's a performance car, it's not like it's not semi-costly anyway (in terms of tires, clutches, brakes, gas, even insurance). It's part of the TCO for this type of car

 

[Moddiction]

I surprisingly love the cloth seats. Fords leather is terrible. I checked out a couple very lightly used S550's before I bought my new 16 GT. They all had pretty visible wear on the leather already.
I actually bought some oem ford leather seats covers for front and rear thinking I wouldn't like the cloth but have not installed them. The cloth is so much more comfortable and much better for spirited driving etc.
I do think leather interior looks nicer but this car is strictly a fun car for me. Not a daily or anything.

 

[paul123]

I think the biggest downside to non-PP Mustang is you can't just look at the car and immediately tell its a manual transmission. And everyone knows all the cool drivers are in manual transmissions.

 

[Emt1581]

I surprisingly love the cloth seats. Fords leather is terrible. I checked out a couple very lightly used S550's before I bought my new 16 GT. They all had pretty visible wear on the leather already.
I actually bought some oem ford leather seats covers for front and rear thinking I wouldn't like the cloth but have not installed them. The cloth is so much more comfortable and much better for spirited driving etc.
I do think leather interior looks nicer but this car is strictly a fun car for me. Not a daily or anything.

That's interesting to read. Never knew that. I thought the leather would wear slower, feel better, and last longer. I guess I'll have to do some digging on that one.

I do agree that the leather....and the touch screen/toggle switches sure look a LOT nicer.

As for the performance pack, someone earlier mentioned that...if you aren't planning on modding the car much, it's the way to go...well that's me. I'm so tired of turning my wrench for maintaining our daily drivers that I don't need any extra projects. I just want a fun car from the time I buy it that needs no real work.

Now from reading the replies about how shitty the longevity is on the "summer tires"...I'm not sure what I'll do about that. Since the car I buy will have between 5k-10k on it...if they aren't changed out by then they'll need to be.

EDIT: I guess that's one thing I should budget into the purchase...just plan on replacing them. I think the $64 question is going to be...with what? Tires that might have a 60:40 split between longevity (which I care a LOT more about) and performance.

-Emt1581

 

[Roki187]

I've had my car since dec of 2014 and now at 2800 miles it gets used as it was meant to be (at the track). Love blasting through the gears, makes u feel alive and puts the biggest smile on my face. Last time I felt that, was in a 08 v10 m5 and that car was 3 times more $$$. There are many better cars out there than the gt pp. But not many that offer this much for around 35k new.

That being said....I would suggest against buying a perf. pack as a daily driver. Now a days a daily driver should have heated and cooled seats... We work too hard to deny ourselfs the small comforts in life.

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