The wait is over, she is here and I love her!

[Manders Mustang]

Well Carrera MK2 depends, could be 996.2 or 997.2 if its a 997.2 they are superb, but in a straight line a V8 should do him. But I did rate the 911 quite a bit higher on the handling side, but end of day a 911 with a nice specification cost 80-100k, the Mustang cost 35k, so on that front the Mustang blows the Porsche out the water, you can't even buy an entry level Boxster for Mustang money. ;)



P.S. Say hello back and tell him (Dan / Ekona) in fairness he is correct my 997 with PSE was a better sounding car than the Mustang stock, got them wrong way round, stock Mustang 7/10, 911 8/10, simply as stock Mustang is way too subdued on the outside, even though on inside it sounds OK, but a 911 has a lovely harmonic resonating throughout the cabin in the last 1500rpm and sounds great on outside. But the Mustang with exhaust, GAME CHANGER!

Ooo, I have no idea, i'll ask him and get back to you . He drives like a granny anyway.

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[Manders Mustang]

Ooo, I have no idea, i'll ask him and get back to you . He drives like a granny anyway.

[MENTION=13598]Gibbo205[/MENTION] he drives a porsche 911 997.2 Cs. :shrug:. Go wild!

 

[Gibbo205]

[MENTION=13598]Gibbo205[/MENTION] he drives a porsche 911 997.2 Cs. :shrug:. Go wild!

997.2 C2S is a superb car, 381BHP standard, around 315lb/ft and weighs in the region of 1375-1425kg depending on options.

0-60mph: 3.9s
0-100mph: 9.5s

Off the line it will win with ease and on a roll will be evenly matched with a V8. Handling wise the 911 will win every time, it has a more dynamic chassis, rear engine traction and of course weighs a lot less.

But you have to remember 911's are 80-120k cars brand new depending on options, though it is faster than the Mustang and incredibly capable, it is not twice the car.

Think along these lines:
35-38k for V8 Mustang.
2-4k for coilovers, suspension tweaking.
2-4k for some nicer/wider wheels with better rubber.
6-10k for supercharger kit, 675-800BHP.

So for 50k you can buy a brand new Mustang, add the above and have a car that on the road handles great, not quite 911 great but is vastly quicker in a straight line and more unique. On a race track however the Mustang will keep with that 911 in the corners, might even out corner it and come the straights with more than twice the horsepower well we all know what is happening.

But as a road capable car the 911 is like an EVO, it is pretty much untouchable, completely incredible car traction and handling wise.


The closest match to our cars is the outgoing E92 M3 V8, but I can tell you now I prefer how the Mustang drives factory compared to a factory E92 M3 V8, the only thing in my opinion the BMW has over the Mustang was the DCT gearbox option and the HUD option.

 

[Gibbo205]

Changed the colour of my puddle lights.

Before they were white, I've changed them to blue to match the interior and sill lighting as I've set all the RGB lighting in the car to blue so wanted these to match. Cost like £3 to do and is reversible in seconds and you can pretty much do any colour you wish.

 

[Ian whu]

Is that the vinyl?
I have it on mine, orange,
Don't look as bright as that

 

[Gibbo205]

Is that the vinyl?
I have it on mine, orange,
Don't look as bright as that

Its the ones from Zombie, $5.20 shipped.

 

[Gibbo205]

HI there


So today I made a start on improving the rear-end of the car. Though the car drives great as I already mentioned in my more detailed review it can get floaty and when you do power oversteer from a corner, though it is progressive and controllable, there is a floaty sensation coming from the rear.

So today I started by installing BMR Vertical Delrin/Spherical links, these are advertised as helping reduce deflection and wheel hop with no added NVH.

Removing the old ones is very easy, wheel off, undo the 18mm bolt and undo the 15mm bolt, they comes right off. To make my life easier I had a jack under neath the rear hubs to support it so once I removed the vertical links all remained in place.


Stock vertical link VS BMR vertical link

The first thing you can see is the BMR looks a far more solid and stronger item compared to stock. Yet it weighs less due to being made from billet and is vastly stronger and uses much larger bushes that fill the entire space.

I used energy suspension lube everywhere as I had heard of some people getting knocks/clunks after vertical link installations, but those were delrin/delrin version and I had gone with spherical/delrin to help eliminate any noise/NVH.

The instructions say put the supplied top bolt in first and then the original stock bottom bolt. Doing it this way round meant I could not line up the bottom bolt to go all the way through and instead of using pry bars and going wild. I removed the top bolt to give me some more wiggle room for the bottom bolt, worked and the top bolt went straight in. Top bolt tightened to 81lb/ft and bottom bolt to 129lb/ft and used blue loctite on bottom bolt for safety, no need on top bolt due it using a nylock nut.


Test Drive

First thing, no knocks, clunks and zero added NVH, to drive the car feels hardly any different. But putting power down in 1st gear, wheel hop is reduced, the wheels just spin instead with less hop/judder, but have to say grip seems improved. Power oversteer feels more direct and the car feels more planted in the rear. Were talking all minor improvements in here, but a change for the better indeed and again at £100 cost they are well worth the price.

Picture of one installed:

Set aside 1-2hr for install!













So then it was time for the Steeda differential bushing insert kit. When accelerating hard, especially if you get wheel spin the whole differential bounces around in its housing and typically give a bit of a sloppy feeling, it also no doubt contributes to the rear end bounce a little as well and wheel hop.

These are very easy to install, first just support the differential with a jack, then undo the two rear subframe bolts by about 2-3 full turns. Now undo the bolts in the rear differential, one at a time. Put the bushing insert into the void, it will only fit one way and then re-tighten, getting a socket on is hard due to lack of room, so a 22mm and 18mm spanner is very handy. Re-tighten to 129lb/ft and also re-tighten rear subframe bolts also to 129lb/ft.

The front differential bushes are a little harder, you need to support the rear subframe with a jack and remove the front differential bolt on one side at a time. Then remove the bolt and replace with a shorter bolt. Then insert the bushing insert on the opposite side using the short bolt.

As this is a fiddly job it will take you anywhere from 2-4hr in driveway.

These bushes fill the void and help prevent the differential having excess movement, keeping it under far more control. The kit comes with red and black bushes, black being firmer, I went with red ones as again they claim no added NVH.


Picture of an insert installed and one not:

You can see that the stock rubber bushing allows the differential to have a lot of movement, no doubt for comfort, but it does no favours for control and wheel hop. These kits cost around £70 so are great value for money!












Test drive with BMR Vertical Links & Steeda differential bushing insert system


Now things become more noticeable, but not in a bad way, ride comfort is practically as it was and again there is no added NVH, something I am very sensitive too.

These two combined together and really got rid of a lot of the rear-end slop and rubberized feeling the car had. To be frank the car feels bloody awesome now in the rear with just these simple modifications, it is far more direct, the car just feels a lot more sharper whilst still also being the great tourer as comfort and ride quality is un-changed. If anything for me it feels better as the car feels a lot more connected, it bounces less, wheel hop is practically all but gone and power oversteer now the rear-end no longer feels like it is floating and if anything the car is more controllable on the throttle.

These pair of modifications together are superb, if you also feel your Mustang feels a bit rubberized and sloppy/bouncy in the rear and you have wheel hop and/or traction issues. Well give these parts a try because they reduce all of those symptoms.

This car just keeps getting better and better!

Monday I am going local garage to get the springs and dampers fitted, plus an alignment.

 

[welsh treg]

Now that's what I call a review, Best I have read, makes the wait at the docks a little more bearable.

Nice colour as well

 

[SteveS]

Also the chrome horse, is gone, for me it was making the front-end not aggressive enough, so now it has being replaced with a new horse, a black pony and I am very happy with result, front of car looks a lot more meaner and aggressive whilst still remaining completely factory specification.

[MENTION=13598]Gibbo205[/MENTION] meant to ask; how easy did you find the grille emblem replacement? Have heard that it requires breaking off tabs, etc? How is the factory pony attached?

 

[Gibbo205]

[MENTION=13598]Gibbo205[/MENTION] meant to ask; how easy did you find the grille emblem replacement? Have heard that it requires breaking off tabs, etc? How is the factory pony attached?

They are held on by crappy thin nuts which are hard to remove, I only got one off, the other three snapped.

You can then re-use these to hold on the new one, but buy new ones from CJ Pony for like $2.99, they bite into the plastic hence hard to remove once off.

If you take the grill out, then you can probably do it without snapping any but grill out is bumper off job, I found it easier to just remove belly pan and reach up.

 

[stevec]

I get what you mean about the pony on the grill but I cannot bring myself to remove it. Infact I am looking into after market grills that I can refit the mustang to.

 

[Gibbo205]

I get what you mean about the pony on the grill but I cannot bring myself to remove it. Infact I am looking into after market grills that I can refit the mustang to.

I don't like the aftermarket options, they are all nearly straight lined grill like the CA50 special edition grill, which are nice until a Mondeo parks next to you with the exact same front grill. ;)

 

[stevec]

I don't like the aftermarket options, they are all nearly straight lined grill like the CA50 special edition grill, which are nice until a Mondeo parks next to you with the exact same front grill. ;)

I quite like these. Bit race car looking.

http://www.carid.com/2015-ford-mustang-grill/t-rex-upper-class-mesh-grilles-44642214.html

 

[Gibbo205]

Hi there


So tonight I fitted, the BMR CB005 cradle lock out kit which performs several functions as one kit such as:
- Rear cradle allignment, perfectly centre's rear cradle.
- Helps stop deflection in all directions of the IRS subframe bolting to factory locations.
- Vastly reduces / eliminates wheel hop.

So a little like the differential bushes, this kit uses solid aluminum pieces to fill the voids around the rubbers on the IRS subframe/cradle to the body and then helps prevent excess movement. It is very hard for me to explain, so let this video do the talking:

[ame]



Hope that explains it better.


So what are my findings:
- There is added NVH, but it is slight and not in the form of buzzing or annoying harmonics, just a little more tyre noise I'd say that shows itself generally at motorway speeds or on rougher roads, but it is slight, so if your on the motorway turn the radio up a further notch. ;)
- The driveling thud that these cars experience when taking clutch up has gone from a thud to a light clunk which I believe others found.

Those are the slight negatives, onto the positives:
- Way more feel for the car in the rear where grip levels are, communication in the butt dyno are improved for sure inspiring a lot more confidence to really push hard.
- Wheel hope is GONE!
- More traction!


So the car has more feel, more traction and the rear-end floatyness is even less so now, of course dampers should impact the this the most, but all these rear-end modifications have all helped reduce it and the rubberized feeling in the rear is now completely gone.

Car still rides really well, but response is vastly improved, when I steer the rear end is not catching up, it is now in complete sync, like I say the rubberized feeling/sensation is now completely gone in the car. So yes there is a little more NVH but it is the welcomed variety like the 911 had, feel and communication of grip. I shall report more on tyre roar at higher speeds in more normal driving when I am not driving with radio off trying to hear the slightest of noises, so yes I have to try to hear noise. ;)

So if you too feel the rear of the car is rubberized, suffers wheel hop and deflection and well feels a bit disconnected from inputs, the BMR vertical links, BMR cradle lockout and Steeda differential bushing inserts make a great transformation. Even better that all these parts combined cost less than £300 !!

Also to note the BMR CB005 cradle lockout does the job of three Steeda seperate parts that come to more than double the price and the jury is still out on those parts, yet CB005 is proven to work and for half the price!

Really hope to get dampers and springs on later this week and anti-roll bars following week, then that is it, POWER is next and with all this grip I now have I need more power for sure!





P.S. Picture of them installed, a fried has a 4 poster in his unit, made this job a lot easier!

As you can see I just put the energy lube everywhere, I do have an entire tub of the stuff though!

 

[Gibbo205]

So an update on CB005.

I will concede that the additional NVH I am hearing is no doubt due to the steeda differential bushing inserts transmitting NVH through the CB005 mounts, so install one and not the other and you will no doubt be NVH free.

However the NVH is absolute minimal, what I have noticed is:
- Differential whine/humm when driving slowly in traffic 1000-1500rpm, once over 1500rpm you don't notice it. I need to test motorway driving though!
- More tyre noise/roar above 70mph, but again needs more testing on different road surfaces.

It is minor but noticeable but I concede if I did not have the Steeda differential bushing inserts then I would probably not have the differential whine at low rpm for sure, tyre noise who knows.

But I think maybe a solution and I hope [MENTION=9985]BMR Tech[/MENTION] can confirm might be to simply remove the 4 upper solid mounts as circled in the below image:

Kelly/BMR if I remove those do you think that would help with the slight added NVH I am getting as then hopefully stock bushing will absorb the NVH, would you agree?

If I do remove those is CB005 still going to help reduce wheel hop and deflection or will it fail to function if I remove those four upper mounts?

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