Project 2011 Mustang 5.0 - The "Evil Pony"

Background

I've been a gearhead since I was in high school. I chalk this up to two influences in my "formative" high school years: Gran Turismo 2 for the PlayStation and that amazingly horrible movie The Fast and the Furious. To that end, my first car ended up being pretty heavily-modified. It was a Plymouth Duster familiar to any members on here who also frequent Turbo-Mopar.com.

That car was set up for drag racing and car shows. It was very clean, very fun, and very quick. I took first place trophies in my classed in NOPI and the All-Chrysler Nationals.

I lived in Ohio for a while, 5 minutes away from Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, to be exact. The company I work for sponsored the track, and I received a free hot lap from the head driving school instructor.

I was now hooked on corner carving.

Unfortunately, it would be many years until I had the means to actually buy a car and start pursuing this new addictive hobby. Finally, last winter, I had saved up a LOT of money and was in the market for a new sports car. I narrowed down my choices to 5 cars and test drove them all in one day: 1. BMW 135i 2. Dodge Challenger SRT8 3. Chevrolet Camaro SS 4. Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 5. Ford Mustang 5.0

Finally, on Valentine's Day 2011, this found it's way into my garage:

Objective

From the beginning, I was planning on racing this car. Specifically, I wanted to start with autocross, as I had zero experience in corner carving and wanted something inexpensive, approachable, and safe, especially since the Mustang was my only vehicle.

About a month after I owned it, I went to my first autocross. And I was hooked.

To that end, my objective with this car was to make it handle better (it already has enough power), yet keep it comfortable and drivable enough for my daily 65-mile commute.

The first thing I did to this car was fix the problem of the rather quiet stock exhaust. Mustangs are supposed to be loud and frightening to small children. So, I ordered a cat-back system from Magnaflow. (Although it's called "cat-back," it actually replaces the exhaust from the H-pipe back.)

Stock exhaust. Note the temp tag. The Mustang had only 700 miles on the clock at this point.

Comparison of stock multi-diameter exhaust and Magnaflow 3" mandrel-bent exhaust:

Exhaust installed:

Magnaflow claims a peak gain of 17 horsepower with this setup. I didn't dyno it, but the power delivery seemed to be a little improved.

But most importantly, the Evil Pony sounded more like a Mustang now.

Very nice!

I drove around like this for quite a while, for two reasons. First of all, I wanted to learn to drive a stock car and "modify the driver" before the actual car. Second of all, I was broke after putting a down payment on a brand-new car and bolting on a nice stainless exhaust system.

However, I did order a strut-tower brace from Steeda. Brembo-equipped GTs came from the factory with a strut-tower brace. (My 'Stang is not equipped with the Brembo package.) I figured if an engineer was able to convince a bean-counter to put a strut-tower brace in, there must be some benefit to it. And besides, stock Mustangs understeer almost as much as Subarus and have a bit of body roll.

The Steeda piece is lightweight at only 5 pounds and beautifully crafted:

...It also did absolutely nothing for the body roll or understeer. It did, however, make the front end feel more "solid" and slightly improve initial turn-in response.

As I said initially, I didn't want to fall into the trap of modifying my car before I was ready for it. I needed to become a better driver first. That being said, the stock all-season Pirellis were screaming in protest after only a couple events. My skill level had already surpassed the tires.

The stock wheels and Pirelli all-season "P-Zero Nero" tires:

Don't get me wrong; those are GOOD tires, for the street. They are more than capable of handling anything you could legally throw at them on the road. (Hell, I even drove through 4 inches of snow with them.) They are not, however, a performance tire.

Sure, I could have purchased a dedicated set of track wheels and tires, but I still didn't feel I was good enough yet. so, I wanted a good summer tire with a decent treadwear rating. I also wanted some lightweight forged wheels that wouldn't break the bank. Fortuantely, I was able to work some overtime and had a little bit of cash to spend.

I bought a set of TSW Nurburgrings in 18x8 from AmericanMuscle.com and had them wrapped in Nitto NT555s in 255/45ZR18. These are ultra-high-performance summer tires with a treadwear rating of 300. They're much stickier than the stock tires, but will still last a while and won't cover up bad driving habits like R-comps would.

The wheels are rotary forged, weigh only 18 pounds each, are inexpensive, and just happen to match my car.

The difference in handling was utterly phenomenal. The first event after installing those wheels and tires, I just kept throwing the car harder and harder into turns, trying to find its limits...

More in-depth discussion of wheel and tire choice...

Being a former car-show/ricer type, I had to make my car look cool as well as be fast. So, I continued the "evil" theme by blacking out the 5.0 emblems, getting rid of the chrome faux gas cap and the chrome pony emblem, putting some tinted tailights on, etc.

My car stayed this way for about a year. Again, I didn't want to modify anything until I knew what specifically needed to be done. I needed to make sure it was "the car's fault" and not my being a noob who sucks at driving.

Unfortunately, driver skill could only go so far in taming the drunken-Subaru levels of understeer my car displayed. The factory limited slip helped with this to some extent, because it let me power out of corners using torque and rear-wheel drive. Even so, the Mustang had a tendency to understeer post-apex. This manifested itself as a drastic increase in slip angle in the second half of just about any turn taken at "enthusiastic" speeds and above.

How do you tune out post-apex understeer?

Stiffer rear shocks.

(Yes, I know those are front struts in the picture.)

To that end, I saved up money for a while and did a lot of research. I decided to go with the following equipment: -Koni "Yellows" adjustable shocks -Steeda Ultralite springs -Maximum Motorsports caster/camber plates -Evolution Performance adjustable panhard bar and brace

The springs were stiffer and dropped the car by a small enough amount to prevent drastic compromising of the S197 suspension geometry. The shocks allowed adjustability of rebound on all 4 corners, the camber plates allow correction of the McPherson strut's camber gain that comes with lowering the car, and the adjustable panhard bar allowed me to recenter the rear axle.

I took the car to Evolution Performance to have the new goodies installed an have an alignment done.

That is one sharp 5.0 tastefully done

I had Evo do an alignment and increased the caster by 0.5 and took the camber from the factory setting of -0.7 all the way up to -1.6*

The car was a bit lower than I expected:

But I certainly liked the "stance." But who gives a crap about that? How did it handle?!

Good looking Mustang! A friend of mine has a 2011 GT, and I've driven it a few times. It shocked me at how fast it was, how well it handled, and how comfortable it was to be in. I want one BAD.

And I knew that Shadow looked familiar.

Freaking. Amazing. That's how it handled. The body roll was much, much less, and bumping up the rear rebound completely eliminated that post-apex understeer. The car was now very neutral.

Gone was the "wallowing" feeling in fast transitions and the lead-sled-land-yacht body roll. This thing was tight. This car no longer felt like a "Mustang."

It felt like a true sports car.

Further Discussion

So, now that the car was capable of cornering faster than my noob-like reflexes could handle, I wanted to try to dial out some of that insufferable drive-by-wire throttle lag.

I had a gift certificate to AmericanMuscle.com and ordered AEM's intake. I got this one because I like AEM's build quality and I really like the fact that it doesn't require a warranty-voiding re-tune of the computer.

The stock airbox is surprisingly adequate. It pulls cold air from the bumper and even says "Cold Air Induction" on it. AEM even claims a gain of only 8 peak horsepower over this intake.

8 horsepower? REALLY? That sounds like a bloody rounding error on a motor with over 450 at the crank.

Stock airbox:

COLD AIR INDUCTION

Here's where the stock intake pulls air from:

The AEM intake has a nice feature that I really appreciate. It installs a new, sealed airbox to keep underhood heat out. That new airbox connects to the original airbox's initial intake snorkel:

The new intake tube seals to the box:

...and the cone filter goes inside that:

It's a nice-looking piece that also happens to match my car's color scheme!

There was a definite improvement in throttle response and awesome-sounding noise, but there is still a noticeable lag in the throttle as compared to cable-operated throttles. Planting your right foot still feels like it takes a split second to "register" with the engine.

So next in the power department (when I have the budget for it) is talking to my buddy who owns a Lincoln dealer about whether or not Ford Racing's re-tune (which is supposed to drastically improve throttle response) will void my warranty or not.

Thanks for the kind comments, folks!

I <3 your car.

Just one question: Autotragic?

Ranger50 wrote: Just one question: Autotragic?

I've driven a 5.0 automatic. While I would have still preferred a manual, the automatic was really quite good. Little TC delay, engine braked decent, etc. Really, my biggest complaint was "This doesn't feel like 430HP, which I attributed to the automatic.

Sky_Render wrote:

This shot is really, really good!

You make me wish I was less of a cheap ass.

Well, hopefully I get my GS430 in the next week or so and get to start playing with it. Once I've got the heads swapped I can picture myself trying to mimic this build with a luxury sedan. That would be fun.

Javelin wrote:

Sky_Render wrote:

This shot is really, *really* good!

Thank you! Photography is one of my hobbies.

And I am a cheap-ass, too--with everything not related to this car. That's why it takes me so long to do mods; I have to save up money and do a lot of research to make sure I get the right parts.

Damn, this makes me want to get to work on my 2013 V-6 Performance Package! I'm going to use the same spring/shock/strut/camber plate setup you have but with a Whiteline Panhard bar and brace. Unfortunately, those plans are on hold, but hopefully for not much longer.

RexSeven wrote: Damn, this makes me want to get to work on my 2013 V-6 Performance Package! I'm going to use the same spring/shock/strut/camber plate setup you have but with a Whiteline Panhard bar and brace. Unfortunately, those plans are on hold, but hopefully for not much longer.

You won't regret it at all. I can't believe how much of a huge difference it made, especially in the post-apex understeer. A friend who drives a very fast FFR Cobra Replica drove my car and was impressed at how neutral it handled.

The pile of parts for mine is getting deep. I'm pretty confident in my ability to get it to the 2800# minimum weight with relative ease. The JRZ shocks and struts have been checked out by SRP Engineering. I've got a Fays2 watts link setup ready to go on. Vorschlag camber plates. Still haven't settled on swaybars. Front will probably be Strano, rear will probably be custom. Custom on the rear as part of the efforts to make room for more tire. The plan right now is to section the wheel wells, including the upper shock mount, inward a couple of inches so that I can fit 345/35/18 Hoosiers on 18 x 12 rims, without sticking any rubber out past the original bodywork. I've got a 4.6 and 5 speed ready to drop in. It will get a few bolt-ons, but that's it - I've got stainless works long tube headers, a Roush CAI, CDMP deletes, and a Steeda underdrive pully setup ready to go, and the car came with an SCT tuner. In theory, this should get me ~330HP to the ground. Not at the top of the CP dyno list by a long shot, but not bad. The plan is to spend some time getting the suspension and chassis nailed down, and then when I feel like I'm at a power deficit, start building a high compression ITB equipped Coyote.

DILYSI Dave wrote: The pile of parts for mine is getting deep. I'm pretty confident in my ability to get it to the 2800# minimum weight with relative ease. The JRZ shocks and struts have been checked out by SRP Engineering. I've got a Fays2 watts link setup ready to go on. Vorschlag camber plates. Still haven't settled on swaybars. Front will probably be Strano, rear will probably be custom. Custom on the rear as part of the efforts to make room for more tire. The plan right now is to section the wheel wells, including the upper shock mount, inward a couple of inches so that I can fit 345/35/18 Hoosiers on 18 x 12 rims, without sticking any rubber out past the original bodywork. I've got a 4.6 and 5 speed ready to drop in. It will get a few bolt-ons, but that's it - I've got stainless works long tube headers, a Roush CAI, CDMP deletes, and a Steeda underdrive pully setup ready to go, and the car came with an SCT tuner. In theory, this should get me ~330HP to the ground. Not at the top of the CP dyno list by a long shot, but not bad. The plan is to spend some time getting the suspension and chassis nailed down, and then when I feel like I'm at a power deficit, start building a high compression ITB equipped Coyote.

Take a look at Whiteline's rear sway bar. It is a completely different setup than the stock one, although you might not be able to use the Fays2 Watts Link.

http://whiteline.com.au/product_detail4.php?part_number=BFR65Z

I've got a Fays2 sitting in my garage; I haven't decided if I'm going to install it or sell it and do something else.

I've been impressed with the 5.0 that I've driven that had one. In fairness, I never drove the car with a panhard bar, but the watts link does make for a very predictable ass.