Which mod should i go with first

[Nuked]

I run a staggered 285/325 combo and I am completely happy with it. If anything the car will understeer more with a staggered setup vs square. For me that is fine as I come from FWD/AWD cars, so understeer is something I am used to. It is mainly personal preference. Best times at any kind of track will be 90% driver dependent vs car dependent.

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[BimmerDriver]

Best times at any kind of track will be 90% driver dependent vs car dependent.

Driver mod.

See if there is a road course near you and take some classes.

Sensing a theme here?

I ditto the track time suggestion, as long as it comes with some instruction. OP is in Indiana, and there are plenty of good tracks within a few hours' drive. It ain't cheap, but unlike car mods, becoming a better driver will last for the rest of your life. Check with the BMW club, Porsche club, NASA, and of course, Mustang club.

As for the tires and wheels - yes, absolutely buy better tires. Tires are the most important factor, period. Without them you cannot accelerate, steer or brake. No reason you can't just use the OE wheels, but if you do want to go staggered or larger or both, check the classifieds here. Lots of guys are selling wheels. I bought a set of Bullitt take-offs with nearly new tires, including wheel centers and TPMS, for less than the cost of the tires alone.

If you absolutely must mod and have two functional ears on your head, upgrade the stereo. At the very least upgrade the speakers.

 

[ss27gogeta]

I run a staggered 285/325 combo and I am completely happy with it. If anything the car will understeer more with a staggered setup vs square. For me that is fine as I come from FWD/AWD cars, so understeer is something I am used to. It is mainly personal preference. Best times at any kind of track will be 90% driver dependent vs car dependent.

How well do the 325's fit in the back any extra modifications required I was interested in running the indy 500 tire as well they are nicely priced and seem to have a lot of good reviews. I was wanting to go with a 19 inch rim and in that tire they don't offer a 305 so I'd have to go up to the 325. Unless I went with a 20 inch rim but I don't like big rims so that's not really an option for me. also I've read in a few other threads that to run 285's on the front you need wheel spacers or at least it's recommended is that correct thanks.

 

[ctandc72]

The square vs staggered argument, in my opinion, is more about aesthetics and personal preference than anything else - for a S550 primarily driven on the STREET.

To see the benefits of a staggered vs square setup as far as handling - again on a STREET car - you'd be get more benefit talking about what type of tire (compound etc) rather than staggered vs square.

And again, where do you draw the line on a street car? How hard to you have to push a S550 on public streets to "prove" one setup is better than the other?

With 19x10 all around and General GMAX AS-05s (275/40/19) - which I'm sure many posters here would consider a "cheap" tire - I can traverse exit / on ramps and back road curves (without getting to the ragged edge) at speeds that will have me looking at taking the bus to work when they take my license.

As for the drag strip - if you plan on going more than a few times a year, a set of drag radial (automatic) or bias ply (stick) make more sense from a traction standpoint. I don't care what street tire you have, it doesn't take much to overwhelm them with 400 + HP.

I have a stock '19 base GT 6 speed. (I don't consider the H-pipe a performance mod) and it doesn't take a lot to overwhelm street tires from a traction / acceleration standpoint from a stop or rowing through the gears.

The 17" Bias ply tires I have for the track? They hook so well, the first time it happens, you'll think you broke something.

So for the street - one setup isn't "better' than another setup. Find what you like, at a budget you are comfortable with and go for it. It's your car and your money.

 

[ctandc72]

Sensing a theme here?

I ditto the track time suggestion, as long as it comes with some instruction. OP is in Indiana, and there are plenty of good tracks within a few hours' drive. It ain't cheap, but unlike car mods, becoming a better driver will last for the rest of your life. Check with the BMW club, Porsche club, NASA, and of course, Mustang club.

As for the tires and wheels - yes, absolutely buy better tires. Tires are the most important factor, period. Without them you cannot accelerate, steer or brake. No reason you can't just use the OE wheels, but if you do want to go staggered or larger or both, check the classifieds here. Lots of guys are selling wheels. I bought a set of Bullitt take-offs with nearly new tires, including wheel centers and TPMS, for less than the cost of the tires alone.

If you absolutely must mod and have two functional ears on your head, upgrade the stereo. At the very least upgrade the speakers.

Should be a warning in that post...........

I grew up racing dirt track, then some pavement stuff. Then life. Then I got back into sportbikes. After a bunch of track days, I stopped enjoying riding sportbikes on the street. It seemed so............mundane after track days. I've done some track days in different cars - not my Mustang.

The warning? Track days are ADDICTIVE, and they are EXPENSIVE. I use a good friend as an example. He took his Vette to a track day. A year later he had sold the Vette and prepped an older Miata and pretty much every weekend was a track session.

In the sportbike world, it was common to see riders on high HP liter sportbike push the ragged edge on track days, because riders with track dedicated smaller and "Slower" bikes were eating their lunch.

 

[rhexis]

ive got almost 500 miles on my 20 pp1 and so far have added in this order:
k&n air filter
catch can
jacking rails
30% ceramic tint in front 20% in back
25mm spacers all around

 

[m3incorp]

Make sure you are not confusing "Stage" with "Phase". Only cars that come directly through Roush are "Stages". The Phase 1 and Phase 2 refers to the Supercharger kits themselves.

I didn't know it was for Phase 2.

 

[Cobra Jet]

Most common quick upgrades over stock:

OPG - if the car is going to be modded for any type of timed racing event or say the occasional weekend warrior - definitely upgrade the OPGs, period. This recent thread has a lot of excellent info:
https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/mmr-opgs.156369/

Shifter assembly and clutch spring - some don’t like the stockers some do, it’s all a matter of personal preference here.

Depending on how you wish to use the Mustang down the road (N/A vs Forced Induction, daily driver or daily+track duty) and if you did or did not get the Performance Package, then rear gear ratio upgrade.

Exhaust - headers back is always an improvement. Long Tube headers is usually a preferred upgrade, but with all of the recent EPA nonsense those may be hard to come by depending on area and vendor inventory.

Cold air intake - many older threads on here contain much info about the stock air box performing better than most aftermarket CAI’s. Open air CAI’s are proven to be nothing more than HAI’s (hit air intake) - especially on a daily driver where under hood heat soak raises air inlet temps. So if you’re going to get a CAI, get one that has proven performance, not just for looks and not just because a sheeple bought XYZ to blend in with the herd.

Froo froo stuff - wheels, exterior body trim, interior parts, window tint, etc. it doesn’t support “go fast” intentions, those parts don’t serve any other purpose than not having that money to put towards the go fast goodies.

 

[Kleiss1]

Do hood struts first. Makes everything else easier.

 

[tcman54]

On my ecoboost, lowered sport suspension and great tires made all the difference, completely transformed the car.

 

[Shadow277]

My goals are a fun summer dd that can go to the track and put up decent times when I feel like it street/strip car.




I actually called a dealer that dose these installs. He said there is a waranty but it's kinda a gray area and ford could tell me to kick rocks if they deemed the repairs to be to much. But he did say he has had a guy blow the pistons out of his engine.

In addition to his supercharger he also had lth a full cat back and an e85 tune and ford sent him a new engine. I'm thinking I will go FI but I'd like to get used to this platform first do lots of research and see what's all out there before I add a ton of power to this car.

In the meantime I want to up grade things that will help utilize the power from a FI setup and increase reliability. To me there is no point in adding power if all I'm going to do is spin tiers more I want to be able to put the power to the ground.

I've been in mine for a year and a half and still am in the same boat as you. I'm new to FRs so I'm tracking it as stock for a few events. Maybe 5...

 

[Zelek]

Jacking Rails are #1 if you do your own car work.
Leave the stock intake in the car but add a drop in filter
Tune it!
Suspension\Tires (I like square setups so I can rotate my tires)
Headers \ Catback (Headers can be a pain if you have to pass emissions just a warning in advance if you're tuned)

Drive the car a bit and correct what YOU think needs to be corrected. Don't just throw a bunch of random crap at the car.

 

[Nuked]

The square vs staggered argument, in my opinion, is more about aesthetics and personal preference than anything else - for a S550 primarily driven on the STREET.

To see the benefits of a staggered vs square setup as far as handling - again on a STREET car - you'd be get more benefit talking about what type of tire (compound etc) rather than staggered vs square.

And again, where do you draw the line on a street car? How hard to you have to push a S550 on public streets to "prove" one setup is better than the other?

With 19x10 all around and General GMAX AS-05s (275/40/19) - which I'm sure many posters here would consider a "cheap" tire - I can traverse exit / on ramps and back road curves (without getting to the ragged edge) at speeds that will have me looking at taking the bus to work when they take my license.

As for the drag strip - if you plan on going more than a few times a year, a set of drag radial (automatic) or bias ply (stick) make more sense from a traction standpoint. I don't care what street tire you have, it doesn't take much to overwhelm them with 400 + HP.

I have a stock '19 base GT 6 speed. (I don't consider the H-pipe a performance mod) and it doesn't take a lot to overwhelm street tires from a traction / acceleration standpoint from a stop or rowing through the gears.

The 17" Bias ply tires I have for the track? They hook so well, the first time it happens, you'll think you broke something.

So for the street - one setup isn't "better' than another setup. Find what you like, at a budget you are comfortable with and go for it. It's your car and your money.

I agree with most of your post, I will say however that the tires/width is definitively an improvement over stock. My car in stock form (tires, no mods) had less traction than it does now with my mods and 325 Indy 500's on the rear. It is a night and day difference. Nothing short of a slick is going to handle clutch drops from a dig, but I get very little spin in 1st and it hooks from then on. Stock, with stock tires I could spin through 2nd easily.

Squared or staggered as an poster mentioned is more personal preference than anything. I would suggest nothing less than a 10" rim on the back with a 285 in a GOOD TIRE (speaking in 19" terms).

 

[Nuked]

How well do the 325's fit in the back any extra modifications required I was interested in running the indy 500 tire as well they are nicely priced and seem to have a lot of good reviews. I was wanting to go with a 19 inch rim and in that tire they don't offer a 305 so I'd have to go up to the 325. Unless I went with a 20 inch rim but I don't like big rims so that's not really an option for me. also I've read in a few other threads that to run 285's on the front you need wheel spacers or at least it's recommended is that correct thanks.

They fit perfectly fine. I have ran them with both BMR Performance Springs and now the Handling Springs. No need for a spacer on the front as long as you get the right offset (which most of the Mustang vendors offer). Only reason I went with a 325 was to get the Indy 500's, I previously had a 305 on the back in the Nitto and it was nowhere near as good as the Indy.

 

[Brombones]

If things weren't the way they are now, I would have recommended a good tune. It really woke the car up for me and made it perform like it should. Night and day difference. And then if you got it tuned for E85........

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