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Car and Driver - GT350 Long Term Test Wrap Up After 40k Miles

Strokerswild

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Cool photo locale, I've been to that shop in New Orleans. And the bar across the street, beware the Hurricane. :rockon:
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Nfs1000f

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It is the safe to say that Car & Driver beat this snot out of this car. I would venture to add that few 350’s have been driven as hard as this one. It used oil, within Ford’s guidelines, but most importantly the engine didn’t self-destruct. I say this proves the 5.2 FPC generally is not a ticking time bomb.
 

scoarm

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Is it me or the the rear springs are sagging like crazy.
My guess is that it is wide-angle lens distortion.You see the same effect on the vertical building lines.
 

Bladex10

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Thats probably the most positive/best review i've seen for the GT350 in a while
 

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Mspeedster

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Thats probably the most positive/best review i've seen for the GT350 in a while
I don't think I ever seen a less than positive review from a professional media outlet. I feel the C&D long term wrap up was quite balanced, highlighting the pros & cons. I believe for most GT350 owners, the pros greatly outweigh the cons.
 

chedder

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I take exception to their comments about having to fill up every 300 miles. My bladder needs a break by that time anyway. Awesome car.
 

95CobraR

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I have the magazine (it's cheap to get it by mail).

1) I am not sure what they meant about the damage from a tank-slapping ride into the loose gravel? I try to stay on the pavement as this is clearly driver error.

2) They say the spectacular handling is attributable to its aggressive wheel alignment. So, it is running a lot of negative camber and little toe-in in stock form? Yet, they replace only rear tires at 20K miles and wait until 23K miles for the front tires? This seems like good tire usage to me?

3) I don't understand why one loose lug nut could possibly cause damage to an entire shifter assembly, a failure of a rear wheel bearing, and the half-shaft, They say that they swapped rear wheels to fix it, but that seems to be a hope and a prayer to me.

4) I also disagree that their $60K car will depreciate to $21K in five years? I suspect it will be closer to $30K+.

I scanned and cropped the article. Here is the last page with the summary:
Vodoo3.jpg
 

DCShelby

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It was not a loose lug nut. It was the large nut on the spindle or axel arm that holds the wheel bearing bearing in. Least that’s what I think they mean.
 
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I have the magazine (it's cheap to get it by mail).

1) I am not sure what they meant about the damage from a tank-slapping ride into the loose gravel? I try to stay on the pavement as this is clearly driver error.

2) They say the spectacular handling is attributable to its aggressive wheel alignment. So, it is running a lot of negative camber and little toe-in in stock form? Yet, they replace only rear tires at 20K miles and wait until 23K miles for the front tires? This seems like good tire usage to me?

3) I don't understand why one loose lug nut could possibly cause damage to an entire shifter assembly, a failure of a rear wheel bearing, and the half-shaft, They say that they swapped rear wheels to fix it, but that seems to be a hope and a prayer to me.

4) I also disagree that their $60K car will depreciate to $21K in five years? I suspect it will be closer to $30K+.

I scanned and cropped the article. Here is the last page with the summary:
Vodoo3.jpg
3) It was two separate issues. The vibration from the shifter was one issue, solved by the replacement of the entire shifter assembly and bezel. (But there's also Auto Fanatic's youtube fix that is far easier to resolve this one.) The second issue was the clicking sound from the left rear wheel. Which the dealer thought was caused by a bad wheel bearing or axle nut that wasn't torqued correctly. But yet the sound remained, until the rear wheels were swapped. So I suspect that perhaps it was left rear wheel lugs that weren't torqued tight enough.

4) That kind of depreciation probably only applies to the C&D test car, which they beat the snot out of. LOL. :cwl:
 

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95CobraR

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It was not a loose lug nut. It was the large nut on the spindle or axle arm that holds the wheel bearing bearing in. Least that’s what I think they mean.
That does make sense, and I've never seen the assembly (anyone have a picture or service manual picture?). I'd say that those four nuts that join the half-shafts to the rear spindle should torqued properly? It would be behind the rear rotor so you must remove it first.

I'd think the vibration started long before they started looking for the cause? Do you think switching the rear wheels cured this issue?

They ran the 2017 GT350 car hard to get 40K miles on it in 16 months.
 

DCShelby

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My CTSVs were bad about clicking if some dirt or grunge got between the wheel and rotor hub and if you did not torque them to factory specs. If they simply took the wheel off, cleaned it’s hub surface and the surface of the rotor hub, then used the right torwue on the lug nuts, it probably would have quit clicking
 

madlag

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I thought it was a great article and a testament to the FPC engine holding up to serious abuse.
 

CAL Captain

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95CobraR

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My car is still on order.

I am not scared about the almost one quart of oil consumed every 1200 miles. I am also not concerned about the higher than normal depreciation.

Here is the third page:
Vodoo2.jpg
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