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New 2021 GT500 Initial Impressions

fishpick

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After all the drama - here's my initial impressions and delivery story.

Unexpectedly on 4/19 the phone rang and my sales rep told me the car was at the dealership. On a truck and covered in a car wrap. He said 100% they could turn it around for delivery in a few hours and wanted me to come get it so nobody would mess it up AND so I could get it home before it starts snowing today. Absolutely impressed with the dealership. Had them install the catch can, splitter and the wickers (cause the wickers look cool - I'll probably be taking them off for the road but wanted them on for delivery)

The dealer is 45 min away. We got there at about 4:30... It took about 4 hours for delivery. The place was an absolute packed nut-house for a Monday afternoon / evening. My rep alone had 4 deliveries after lunch. An amazing buddy and his girlfriend came over to the dealership and as we were waiting, dealing with the finance manager trying to sell extended warranty and stuff... and just waiting for things to happen since they had so much paperwork going through - he freaking detailed the car. I had (at the suggestion of folks here and the PPF guy I'm going to use) told the dealership NOT to detail the outside of the car... well my buddy is a pro and knows what hes doing... shows up with all the special washes and microfiber towels and everything... and as he's detailing we are making note of any blems we find.
Overall the car was very clean in terms of exterior paint - there were several spots where there were adhesive lines from the cover they had on it for transport and then below that some slight discoloration of the clear... might be able to get that off by scrubbing the area a little harder - but since part of the PPF process is a paint correction - all that twill come right out.
The passenger side hood corner is higher than the fender by maybe an 1/8" - they didnt want to try to adjust that for fear of damaging things... I don't know if my PPF guy can do that - if not it's noted and it will get addressed. Other than some other very minor clear scuffs - the whole car was in great shape, IMHO, all withing what I'd expect for a mass produced car off the back of a car carrier and noting that paint correction can't eliminate. But - I didn't buy her to look at her... I bought her to drive her...

First off - Transmission is the car. This was the single primary motivation to ditch the manual C7 Z06... and all I can say is - Un-Fucking-Believable. It's better than the PDK. Better than the Ferrari 488. Just amazing. It’s the feature I switched for and so over delivers over expectations I couldn't have imagined it better. Obviously I didn’t jam on it too hard on night one but this thing just pulls. The shifts are only perceptible by hearing them. The torque never lets up. For fun I took a sweeping corner at a decent speed not knowing the car and for shit grabbed a paddle... down it went and the balance of the car was not even impacted. Like no auto or rev-matched manual could ever hope to be. Pull both paddles under a bridge and rev - car next to you jerks because they think something exploded. And then right back to the car or you picking gears. Pull a paddle and upshift at about 3K and you get a satisfying pop almost every single time. Downshift approaching a light and it gets louder and angrier as the RPMS go up. And to my ears - this car has a sound...
And that sound is amazing. Lots of info about there about cylinder firing order and sounds - but the Predator is so much nicer than the LT4 in the C7 Z... it's musical. AND - it's so MUCH easier to enjoy the sounds...
Because on the inside the toggle switches make changing things easy (as well as buttons on the wheel) - want it Track loud - simple - toggle the exhaust... Get home and don't want to scare the neighbors horses (or kids I suppose) - toggle to quiet mode. Same for suspension and steering. While the C7 had all that - it was buried in a poorly designed touch screen and hard to do when underway... just very nice. The toggles themselves tho are just grey plastic...
And honestly the interior is a little disappointing in terms of lack of anything fancy - but I knew that going into it. The shift levers on the wheel - I thought were like a heavy beefy titanium kinda thing... I think tho they are just grey plastic things... not that it impacts the function in the slightest - but the tactile experience could be a little better. The carbon filer instrument panel is really nice - worth the $1K in my opinion because you see that every single time you are in the car - and it looks great! And without it the interior, I think, would be nothing special at all. I also opted for the heated / cooled "comfy seats" because I like to lift weights and the competition seats in my C7 were a bit uncomfortable squeezing my lats all the time making me drive like a hunchback. I have to say - the "standard" heated and cooled seats are absolutely awesome. I was concerned they were going to be like a lazyboy... but these things actually have decent bolsters and with a popper harness you aint moving laterally in these on the track. And OMG are they comfortable. They even look sportier than I thought they would - maybe not quite as "cool" as the Recaros - but I have sat in those - and these are just absolutely a superior option in every regard for my body type except for "looking at the car" - which - I cant see the seat when I'm in it!
As for interior disappointments (or not) - I was expecting the shift dial to blow the way people talk about it. I have already ordered the 5Spurs thing... now - I wish I had waited. I mean - yeah - it's not as sexy as the GT dial... but the dial itself is tactile without being too easy or to hard to spin. It's not sloppy - it's fine. AND in person it does not look like the crap everyone says it does - to me it fits the overall interior... maybe it's because I expected a pile of turnable dog shit from how people talk about it... but if I hadn't already placed the order for the expensive overlay dial - I might not now... AND the center console plastic - again same thing - I was ready to wrap that in alcantera - and yes it should have been that way... but it's nowhere near as bad in person as people make it sound... AND - it does match the rest of the parts inside... so there's that consistency as well.
There's a million little things I discovered on the trip home last night - like the spedo moves in 1 MPH increments as you accelerate... what I mean is - the C7 was "way more digital" had a HUD and all sorts of fancy stuff - but it seemed to sample your speed like once every 1/4 second... so if you were getting on it - it might be like 35, 40, 45, 50 in the display... this car shows every single digit in a blurry array of speed. As for speed - with 10 miles on it at delivery - I never got into it more than about 1/3 throttle - and this thing has guts... AND you can actually hear the blower... my old 2012 with a Whipple did that... the C7's blower was too small to hear... this one - whines. Not insane, but you can hear it, and I love it!

Inside there were a few minor and noted issues at delivery... one head rest seems to have the foam off center - if you mash on it it goes back to normal. So - it's noted and I’m hoping one hot day I can mash it into place and it stays normal... or I can also put a section of 3M tape up in there and mash it into that - like 1/4" off... nothing epic here.

Weirdest delivery detail...
Inside the car it looked like someone spilled a soda all over the B pillar. Some was on the seat too but it cleaned right up. I figure it was someone in the back of the car doing something and when they heard over the PA the plat was closing for a week - they yelled "yippee" and splashed their drink all over... and didn't clean it up. If it wasn't a soda... let me be clear - I don't want to know what it was, Ok?

SUMMARY: Clearly the history on the forum shows I was a basket case... and I was prepared for all sorts of issues. In the end it just worked out for me. And the car - it really does seem to be everything all the reviews say it is. The engine is a monster I haven't even begun to explore - I think the 160 more HP than the C7 Z will be mostly "eaten" by the added weight of the GT500... but it does not feel HUGE like others have said - it's setup so the car does kinda shrink around you. The DCT is just absurd. Ironically when I was dropping off my C7 last fall as a trade for this I thought "this might be the last time I ever drive a manual"... and while for sure last night I did left foot jam the dead pedal a few times out of instinct... the DCT is the asteroid to the dinosaur manual... I'm happy to never go back - it's really even better than the 488... The interior is fine - not luxury car - but I don't really think it should be or needs to be... that was always kinda a weird dichotomy of the C7... And the accessibility to the features you change the most through buttons and toggle switches is very well executed. Overall - this is a very well done vehicle in my opinion. Everyone says it's the best Mustang Ford has done - and I agree - with all of 50 miles on it. I'm very much looking forward to getting to drive this car and explore its potential - and get it on the track and see what it can do there... I have lap times in the C7 that need to be challenged :)
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fishpick

fishpick

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Most enjoyable read, Fish...well done. FTR, the paddles are Magnesium.

PS. EXCELLENT color scheme. <smiling>
I’m fairly competent at several things... metallurgy is apparently not one of them. I guess what I was thinking is I expected the wheel to be “thicker” and the paddles more like a Lambo in terms of “girth and feel”...

that said - I just realized what every girl I ever dated and my wife must all feel like...
 

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Agreed ... great read and fantastic reaction!!
Congrats!!
 

Tyler2386

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Great write-up. I can't wait to see what you share after the Track Attack experience -- it is an exceptional program!
 

Soulja4187

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Weirdest delivery detail...
Inside the car it looked like someone spilled a soda all over the B pillar. Some was on the seat too but it cleaned right up. I figure it was someone in the back of the car doing something and when they heard over the PA the plat was closing for a week - they yelled "yippee" and splashed their drink all over... and didn't clean it up. If it wasn't a soda... let me be clear - I don't want to know what it was, Ok?
It was probably whatever they use to sanitize the car before being shipped.
 

Cgouzoulis

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After all the drama - here's my initial impressions and delivery story.

Unexpectedly on 4/19 the phone rang and my sales rep told me the car was at the dealership. On a truck and covered in a car wrap. He said 100% they could turn it around for delivery in a few hours and wanted me to come get it so nobody would mess it up AND so I could get it home before it starts snowing today. Absolutely impressed with the dealership. Had them install the catch can, splitter and the wickers (cause the wickers look cool - I'll probably be taking them off for the road but wanted them on for delivery)

The dealer is 45 min away. We got there at about 4:30... It took about 4 hours for delivery. The place was an absolute packed nut-house for a Monday afternoon / evening. My rep alone had 4 deliveries after lunch. An amazing buddy and his girlfriend came over to the dealership and as we were waiting, dealing with the finance manager trying to sell extended warranty and stuff... and just waiting for things to happen since they had so much paperwork going through - he freaking detailed the car. I had (at the suggestion of folks here and the PPF guy I'm going to use) told the dealership NOT to detail the outside of the car... well my buddy is a pro and knows what hes doing... shows up with all the special washes and microfiber towels and everything... and as he's detailing we are making note of any blems we find.
Overall the car was very clean in terms of exterior paint - there were several spots where there were adhesive lines from the cover they had on it for transport and then below that some slight discoloration of the clear... might be able to get that off by scrubbing the area a little harder - but since part of the PPF process is a paint correction - all that twill come right out.
The passenger side hood corner is higher than the fender by maybe an 1/8" - they didnt want to try to adjust that for fear of damaging things... I don't know if my PPF guy can do that - if not it's noted and it will get addressed. Other than some other very minor clear scuffs - the whole car was in great shape, IMHO, all withing what I'd expect for a mass produced car off the back of a car carrier and noting that paint correction can't eliminate. But - I didn't buy her to look at her... I bought her to drive her...

First off - Transmission is the car. This was the single primary motivation to ditch the manual C7 Z06... and all I can say is - Un-Fucking-Believable. It's better than the PDK. Better than the Ferrari 488. Just amazing. It’s the feature I switched for and so over delivers over expectations I couldn't have imagined it better. Obviously I didn’t jam on it too hard on night one but this thing just pulls. The shifts are only perceptible by hearing them. The torque never lets up. For fun I took a sweeping corner at a decent speed not knowing the car and for shit grabbed a paddle... down it went and the balance of the car was not even impacted. Like no auto or rev-matched manual could ever hope to be. Pull both paddles under a bridge and rev - car next to you jerks because they think something exploded. And then right back to the car or you picking gears. Pull a paddle and upshift at about 3K and you get a satisfying pop almost every single time. Downshift approaching a light and it gets louder and angrier as the RPMS go up. And to my ears - this car has a sound...
And that sound is amazing. Lots of info about there about cylinder firing order and sounds - but the Predator is so much nicer than the LT4 in the C7 Z... it's musical. AND - it's so MUCH easier to enjoy the sounds...
Because on the inside the toggle switches make changing things easy (as well as buttons on the wheel) - want it Track loud - simple - toggle the exhaust... Get home and don't want to scare the neighbors horses (or kids I suppose) - toggle to quiet mode. Same for suspension and steering. While the C7 had all that - it was buried in a poorly designed touch screen and hard to do when underway... just very nice. The toggles themselves tho are just grey plastic...
And honestly the interior is a little disappointing in terms of lack of anything fancy - but I knew that going into it. The shift levers on the wheel - I thought were like a heavy beefy titanium kinda thing... I think tho they are just grey plastic things... not that it impacts the function in the slightest - but the tactile experience could be a little better. The carbon filer instrument panel is really nice - worth the $1K in my opinion because you see that every single time you are in the car - and it looks great! And without it the interior, I think, would be nothing special at all. I also opted for the heated / cooled "comfy seats" because I like to lift weights and the competition seats in my C7 were a bit uncomfortable squeezing my lats all the time making me drive like a hunchback. I have to say - the "standard" heated and cooled seats are absolutely awesome. I was concerned they were going to be like a lazyboy... but these things actually have decent bolsters and with a popper harness you aint moving laterally in these on the track. And OMG are they comfortable. They even look sportier than I thought they would - maybe not quite as "cool" as the Recaros - but I have sat in those - and these are just absolutely a superior option in every regard for my body type except for "looking at the car" - which - I cant see the seat when I'm in it!
As for interior disappointments (or not) - I was expecting the shift dial to blow the way people talk about it. I have already ordered the 5Spurs thing... now - I wish I had waited. I mean - yeah - it's not as sexy as the GT dial... but the dial itself is tactile without being too easy or to hard to spin. It's not sloppy - it's fine. AND in person it does not look like the crap everyone says it does - to me it fits the overall interior... maybe it's because I expected a pile of turnable dog shit from how people talk about it... but if I hadn't already placed the order for the expensive overlay dial - I might not now... AND the center console plastic - again same thing - I was ready to wrap that in alcantera - and yes it should have been that way... but it's nowhere near as bad in person as people make it sound... AND - it does match the rest of the parts inside... so there's that consistency as well.
There's a million little things I discovered on the trip home last night - like the spedo moves in 1 MPH increments as you accelerate... what I mean is - the C7 was "way more digital" had a HUD and all sorts of fancy stuff - but it seemed to sample your speed like once every 1/4 second... so if you were getting on it - it might be like 35, 40, 45, 50 in the display... this car shows every single digit in a blurry array of speed. As for speed - with 10 miles on it at delivery - I never got into it more than about 1/3 throttle - and this thing has guts... AND you can actually hear the blower... my old 2012 with a Whipple did that... the C7's blower was too small to hear... this one - whines. Not insane, but you can hear it, and I love it!

Inside there were a few minor and noted issues at delivery... one head rest seems to have the foam off center - if you mash on it it goes back to normal. So - it's noted and I’m hoping one hot day I can mash it into place and it stays normal... or I can also put a section of 3M tape up in there and mash it into that - like 1/4" off... nothing epic here.

Weirdest delivery detail...
Inside the car it looked like someone spilled a soda all over the B pillar. Some was on the seat too but it cleaned right up. I figure it was someone in the back of the car doing something and when they heard over the PA the plat was closing for a week - they yelled "yippee" and splashed their drink all over... and didn't clean it up. If it wasn't a soda... let me be clear - I don't want to know what it was, Ok?

SUMMARY: Clearly the history on the forum shows I was a basket case... and I was prepared for all sorts of issues. In the end it just worked out for me. And the car - it really does seem to be everything all the reviews say it is. The engine is a monster I haven't even begun to explore - I think the 160 more HP than the C7 Z will be mostly "eaten" by the added weight of the GT500... but it does not feel HUGE like others have said - it's setup so the car does kinda shrink around you. The DCT is just absurd. Ironically when I was dropping off my C7 last fall as a trade for this I thought "this might be the last time I ever drive a manual"... and while for sure last night I did left foot jam the dead pedal a few times out of instinct... the DCT is the asteroid to the dinosaur manual... I'm happy to never go back - it's really even better than the 488... The interior is fine - not luxury car - but I don't really think it should be or needs to be... that was always kinda a weird dichotomy of the C7... And the accessibility to the features you change the most through buttons and toggle switches is very well executed. Overall - this is a very well done vehicle in my opinion. Everyone says it's the best Mustang Ford has done - and I agree - with all of 50 miles on it. I'm very much looking forward to getting to drive this car and explore its potential - and get it on the track and see what it can do there... I have lap times in the C7 that need to be challenged :)
IMG_0753.jpg
Happy for ya brother. Remeber when I said the car would randomly appear? LOL Im glad you are whole now. Congrats bro!!!!
 

dps

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Congrats - beautiful car. And just so you don't feel alone - The passenger side hood corner is higher than the fender by maybe an 1/8" is the same on every S550 I have seen - there are other gaps and fit & finish items that I've also seen on every one I've looked at. Sounds like yours is better than most!
 

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fishpick

fishpick

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Congrats - beautiful car. And just so you don't feel alone - The passenger side hood corner is higher than the fender by maybe an 1/8" is the same on every S550 I have seen - there are other gaps and fit & finish items that I've also seen on every one I've looked at. Sounds like yours is better than most!
"nothin a block of wood and bigger hammer can't fix" as my old man used to say...
 
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Jmeo

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Congratulation! I wish you good luck on the weather straightening out so you can enjoy that thing.
 
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fishpick

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Congratulation! I wish you good luck on the weather straightening out so you can enjoy that thing.
Current situation out the office window... (and no - that's not a pot plant people!)
it's gonna be a while for the roads to be anything less than salted bagel status...


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GRStang

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Same here but nothing on the road. Then again my completed car has been sitting in Flat Rock since 4/6 so I don’t have anything to drive yet. Maybe one day the shipper will actually decide to go and get it. It would be nice to see it in the garage even if I can’t drive it.
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