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

Gibbo205 said:

Looks good!
So this removes the sound amplifier thing that sends engine noise to the cabin. Does it come with a bung?

Also great thing about this is in theory it means I could use the stock air box with the shelby 350 intake manifold and throttle body.



P.S. Got a link?

Click to expand...

Exactly

Hi there

The Eibach 15mm turned up today for the rear, as the 23mm were a trial fit and although fine for the front, they poked a little at the rear as shown in the images.




As always exceptional quality from Eibach only downside being I need to hammer old studs out and put these new slightly longer ones in place.


Also fitted the Velossa big mouth as its called:






If you look closely you can see how it works by forcing air directly into air box.

Fitment was poor, maybe a slight difference in UK/USA cars, but some modification to it and well got it to fit.

Previous intake temperatures would sit 6-9c above ambient once car has being driven for 30 minutes, with the device fitted they are now holding 2-4c above ambient. There is for sure a noticeable improve in throttle response which is welcomed and though it might be placebo the car feels faster than ever. This car accelerates incredible well for its weight and supposedly 415BHP, it feels much stronger, no doubt helped by there being nearly 400lb/ft stock.

Also roads were dry tonight, FINALLY, I got a real opportunity to try out the new suspension and as my initial thoughts, steering feedback and weighting is further improved, infact feedback on the front-end is really very good, can really drive the car in the dry right on its grip limits and oh my are those limits damn high! It really is way above expectations, its a big car but I was throwing it around like a go-kart tonight and the way the front-end bites and communicates is lovely and now rolling into throttle on corner exit you can take bigger liberities, the rear steps but now it feels planted, more grip, more progressive and the differential seems to be finding grip easier, no doubt due to better body control and less deflection from the rear. I am really quite surprised and how quick this car can corner, it is as if it makes its mass disappear, it is really quite agile for its size and weight, remarkably so, but you know the best thing of all it is absolute bucket loads of fun, said it before, I will say it again it is a true drivers car. I suspect on a track this thing would be incredible and no doubt even eat my M3 simply because it feels more planted and has more grip.

Very impressed will be interesting to see how the anti-roll bars effect things and the spacers, those are my only suspension modifications left.

Also I must note the transmission bracket I fitted, well I've not had a single issue since with a 2nd-3rd gear change at maximum acceleration at the rev limiter.

The car could do with a little more power as a handling car with a few more RPM, so I can only imagine how sorted Daves 350 feels as now the suspension is so as the Americans would say hooked up, 6500rpm peak power and 7000rpm limiter is not enough, I can imagine how much fun it must be winding the Shelby out to the 8000rpm and feeling peak power at 7500rpm. I am pretty much 100% set now on the Shelby intake setup in the interim to get the peak power at 7500rpm, but unlike the American owners/tuners who set 7800-8200rpm I shall leave it at 7500rpm. I don't care if its safe because my car runs the same engine/spec as BOSS 302 which had a much higher limiter, more rpm equals more wear, so I'd rather keep well within the realms of safety and might even get the uprated OPG/Billet gears done etc. even though the BOSS nor the Shelby run this, but at end of day I will at some point go super charged and well I'd like the peace of mind.

But the shelby intake and tuning can wait, UK tuners are now tuning these cars, already showing some great gains from just a remap, see for yourself:




I am happy to wait for them to perfect the maps and do mapping on some more different combinations or even when I get my Shelby parts instead of using a US email tune to just get the car custom mapped by someone like Dreamscience with all the bits on the car. But what I have planned should take car from Fords official 415@6500rpm too 475-490@7500rpm with around 30-40lb/ft more torque so very noticable, parts are around £1000 shipped, then tuning on top. I think that is good value for the gains.

Gibbo205 said:

The Eibach 15mm turned up today for the rear, as the 23mm were a trial fit and although fine for the front, they poked a little at the rear as shown in the images.

Click to expand...

Gibbo, can you confirm whether the 23mm spacers fitted on the rear with no fouling of the wheel? I think you said the stubs would require slight filing down?
Thanks.

SteveS said:

Gibbo, can you confirm whether the 23mm spacers fitted on the rear with no fouling of the wheel? I think you said the stubs would require slight filing down?
Thanks.

Click to expand...

It is too close to call buddy, as such I will take 2mm of the studs for safety to ensure no touching, though filing down would probably be fine, I don't want to drill back of wheel slightly as some have done. 25mm have zero issues!

Hi there


OK I know its the older model car, S197 chassis, but same engine as mine and I really enjoyed watching this, hope you do as well:

[ame]


That is the beauty of the new S550, it is the 5.0l from the 2012 BOSS 302 with forged rotating assembly and internals. What the S550 lost was the cobra jet intake manifolds, but now we know why, the engine was a little de-tuned to make way for more powerful 350 with higher rpm.

I won't fit cobra jet setup however, yes it does make more top-end power but it requires lowered engine mounts and it loses bottom end torque due to the runner design, plus you need a higher 8200rpm limiter to take full advantage.

The 350 intake is much better for a road car, there are no losses in power or torque anywhere and it shifts peak power nicely to 7500rpm with a good 30-40BHP gain over 6000rpm so with a tune should see power claim to 475-490BHP, the Cobra jet intake would take power well over 500 with rev limit around 8200rpm, but driveability and low down power/torque is sacrificed.

Gonna go the 350 route myself as it in my view is great value and well within running specification by Ford for the engine.

Couple of graphs of gains:

Tuned car with CAI VS same car with just 350 intake/TB added and tune re-vised to accomodate:




That is an owner who did the install themselves and dyno before and after, no company/marketing BS.


Here is what JDM tuning achieved from car with CAI and tune, to then changing to 350 intake and re-tuning:




To start, a Baseline Dyno Test was done with the Stock Intake Manifold, Airaid intake, Magnaflow Street Cat-Back and a JDM Engineering 93 Octane Street Tune.

They got 408WHP with stock intake manifold and a best quarter mile time of 11.9s at 117mph.

Changing to the 350 intake and TB, peak power was now 430WHP but with 60WHP gains at over 7000rpm.

Awaiting better weather for 1/4 mile but customers with the setup are running 11.6-11.9s at 124-126mph.


So great gains and using Ford parts. I cannot wait to do it, but I will have to wait until I have a few thousand miles on the engine, but it is good to see the great results others are having.

This project is coming along nicely, I'm glad you're so happy with the car

I need to sit down with one of you guys at some time and talk performance/handling mods!

I must admit, I never thought I would want to do anything to it but seeing all these graphs....that I dont really understand, is beginning to interest me.

I like the idea of dialling out the flat spot in performance I MAY have found but also. I like the idea of making the car safer as well.

Unlike Gibbo just described, I dont have the confidence to push the car into or out of corners and maybe some mods on the suspension will help that...but then if I have not felt the limits yet maybe stock will be all I ever need.

I think I was one of the main inputters to this forum when we were waiting for the cars but now we have them, you guys are streets ahead of my knowledge and experience!

stevec said:

I need to sit down with one of you guys at some time and talk performance/handling mods!

I must admit, I never thought I would want to do anything to it but seeing all these graphs....that I dont really understand, is beginning to interest me.

I like the idea of dialling out the flat spot in performance I MAY have found but also. I like the idea of making the car safer as well.

Unlike Gibbo just described, I dont have the confidence to push the car into or out of corners and maybe some mods on the suspension will help that...but then if I have not felt the limits yet maybe stock will be all I ever need.

I think I was one of the main inputters to this forum when we were waiting for the cars but now we have them, you guys are streets ahead of my knowledge and experience!

Click to expand...

If you're interested in what sort of mods are out there and what they do, have a gander at my old S197 website where I fitted pretty much everything available to it!

www.mustang-gtcs.info

Gibbo's great posts are far more relevant to the S550 of course, but there's plenty of similarities in terms of suspension/brakes/engine mods.

stevec said:

I need to sit down with one of you guys at some time and talk performance/handling mods!

I must admit, I never thought I would want to do anything to it but seeing all these graphs....that I dont really understand, is beginning to interest me.

I like the idea of dialling out the flat spot in performance I MAY have found but also. I like the idea of making the car safer as well.

Unlike Gibbo just described, I dont have the confidence to push the car into or out of corners and maybe some mods on the suspension will help that...but then if I have not felt the limits yet maybe stock will be all I ever need.

I think I was one of the main inputters to this forum when we were waiting for the cars but now we have them, you guys are streets ahead of my knowledge and experience!

Click to expand...

The stock car is great Steve no doubt of that, a massive leap on the S197 which to be frank from the factory was average at best, that car really needed to be modified to make it good but the right kit transformed the S197, Ford proved it with BOSS 302, but even the highlight of the S197 was outperformed by the out of the box S550 GT PP on track, even better the S550 rides far better, feels far better stuck together and is a far nicer place to be, the quality is in a different league.

The problem I found with the stock car was its floatyness and bounce near the limits and it could be a bit snappy and a bit vague of those limits in the wet especially. What I have done as turned up the communication from the car as to where grip levels are at all 4 corners dramatically but amazingly ride comfort has hardly being sacrificed, its a tad firmer at low speeds but over 40mph it rides much better than stock and the limits are communicated better, they are also higher and when you push into those limits the car feels a lot more controllable and predictable.

I would advice the following based on biggest impact on handling/feel:

- Steeda G-trac brace (tightens front-end up lovely)
- BMR Cradle lockout kit CB005 (reduces bounce & wheel hop, more traction)
- Steeda linear sport springs (great feedback online)
- If you lower, spacers are a must, 20-25mm front and 8-15mm rear.

The above three should be around $500-$650 shipped. They are probably your best bang for buck to transform handling, the sport linear springs sit about 10mm higher than the ultralite springs I have by the way, so you can get an idea of ride height.

If your not trying to save pennies, still buy the above, but also add in the FRPP dampers ($511 from Levittown).

I am yet to fit my anti-roll bars, to be frank the car is so awesome now I am little worried they might make it too firm, but lets see as the front FRPP bar is tubular and a lot bigger than the solid front GT PP bar. The rear FRPP is sold and just slightly bigger, which makes me believe the FRPP kit is aiming to achieve exactly the same as what BMW did with the CSL, they massively over-sized the front bar and made the rear bar only slightly bigger. The difference this made in confidence in the CSL was amazing and believe it or not having such a huge bar up front did not turn them into understeer machines.

Any questions you have, just ask here m8, I've being setting up cars handling wise for a few years now, learned so much with 911 and when I was building my M3, I even rebuilt the engine on the M3 myself but another cheap mod to try, get an alignment to my specification, which is:

Front:
Camber: 1:15-1:30 (1.25-1.50) (PP stock is 1.00) (Get some BMR camber bolts NEEDED!!!!)
Caster: Max it, 7:30 is bang on and should be stock!
Toe: 0:05 positive toe or known as toe in across the axle.

Rear:
Camber: 1:35-1:45 (1.6-1.75) (PP stock is around 1.45)
Toe: 0:26-0:30 positive toe or known as toe in across the axle. (0:23 stock PP)


The above settings are what I use, this is a good road setup for fast road, IT IS NOT A TRACK FOCUSED setup!!

The front will help with turn-in and grip at limits but maintain fantastic high speed stability and the car will keep straight.

The rear will feel a lot more planted, you will have more traction from the line and more traction on corner exit under power, more lateral G.

Find a decent alignment shop, will take 1-2hr to do as the front camber bolts are a pain, expect to pay £100-£250, but if you plan to do springs, dampers, then do those first before doing an alignment. ;)

I have watch a video on CJ pony parts of them installing 25 mm spacers on there car front and back . There cars looks very similar to the look you have and you are using 5mm spacers are US cars different than ours ?

Gibbo205 said:

The stock car is great Steve no doubt of that, a massive leap on the S197 which to be frank from the factory was average at best, that car really needed to be modified to make it good but the right kit transformed the S197, Ford proved it with BOSS 302, but even the highlight of the S197 was outperformed by the out of the box S550 GT PP on track, even better the S550 rides far better, feels far better stuck together and is a far nicer place to be, the quality is in a different league.

The problem I found with the stock car was its floatyness and bounce near the limits and it could be a bit snappy and a bit vague of those limits in the wet especially. What I have done as turned up the communication from the car as to where grip levels are at all 4 corners dramatically but amazingly ride comfort has hardly being sacrificed, its a tad firmer at low speeds but over 40mph it rides much better than stock and the limits are communicated better, they are also higher and when you push into those limits the car feels a lot more controllable and predictable.

I would advice the following based on biggest impact on handling/feel:

- Steeda G-trac brace (tightens front-end up lovely)
- BMR Cradle lockout kit CB005 (reduces bounce & wheel hop, more traction)
- Steeda linear sport springs (great feedback online)
- If you lower, spacers are a must, 20-25mm front and 8-15mm rear.

The above three should be around $500-$650 shipped. They are probably your best bang for buck to transform handling, the sport linear springs sit about 10mm higher than the ultralite springs I have by the way, so you can get an idea of ride height.

If your not trying to save pennies, still buy the above, but also add in the FRPP dampers ($511 from Levittown).

I am yet to fit my anti-roll bars, to be frank the car is so awesome now I am little worried they might make it too firm, but lets see as the front FRPP bar is tubular and a lot bigger than the solid front GT PP bar. The rear FRPP is sold and just slightly bigger, which makes me believe the FRPP kit is aiming to achieve exactly the same as what BMW did with the CSL, they massively over-sized the front bar and made the rear bar only slightly bigger. The difference this made in confidence in the CSL was amazing and believe it or not having such a huge bar up front did not turn them into understeer machines.

Any questions you have, just ask here m8, I've being setting up cars handling wise for a few years now, learned so much with 911 and when I was building my M3, I even rebuilt the engine on the M3 myself but another cheap mod to try, get an alignment to my specification, which is:

Front:
Camber: 1:15-1:30 (1.25-1.50) (PP stock is 1.00) (Get some BMR camber bolts NEEDED!!!!)
Caster: Max it, 7:30 is bang on and should be stock!
Toe: 0:05 positive toe or known as toe in across the axle.

Rear:
Camber: 1:35-1:45 (1.6-1.75) (PP stock is around 1.45)
Toe: 0:26-0:30 positive toe or known as toe in across the axle. (0:23 stock PP)


The above settings are what I use, this is a good road setup for fast road, IT IS NOT A TRACK FOCUSED setup!!

The front will help with turn-in and grip at limits but maintain fantastic high speed stability and the car will keep straight.

The rear will feel a lot more planted, you will have more traction from the line and more traction on corner exit under power, more lateral G.

Find a decent alignment shop, will take 1-2hr to do as the front camber bolts are a pain, expect to pay £100-£250, but if you plan to do springs, dampers, then do those first before doing an alignment. ;)

Click to expand...

As ever, great write up.

Your suspension mods are pretty much what I have been looking into. The only difference being the springs (was looking at BMR, just not sure yet which set - heard good things about the SP080s ).

stevec said:

I need to sit down with one of you guys at some time and talk performance/handling mods!...

you guys are streets ahead of my knowledge and experience!

Click to expand...

Completely relate to this. I feel quite fortunate to be able to read the posts of others on here and those who do them, I am very grateful for the free education.

[MENTION=13598]Gibbo205[/MENTION]

Did I just read 'wheel hop'?... Your turning American ;)

MyMilkshake... said:

@Gibbo205

Did I just read 'wheel hop'?... Your turning American ;)

Click to expand...

Well, now that it's IRS I suppose we can't really say 'axle tramp'