There has been no slowing of installs done on our StangTV project Wild E. Coyote 2011 Mustang GT. Slightly over two months old and still equipped with the paper plate, the 2011 GT is nearing its first oil change. When we introduced the project, we had it on our DynoJet with a custom SCT tune from Brenspeed. This time we are back on the DynoJet as well as the Bendpak lift to install an Airaid cold air intake and Ford Racing’s adjustable handling pack.
The goal with the Mustang is to be able to run solid 10-second quarter mile times while being able to eclipse 1G on the skidpad. We can’t achieve the handling goal of the Mustang without a proper suspension, so we turned to Ford Racing for their 2011 GT Adjustable Handling Pack. If you think that the FRPP kit is designed to be used on stock production vehicles for the street only and not for track use, you would be sadly mistaken.
The FRPP kit comes with the strut tower brace that is tall enough to allow removal of the engine cover and also looks to be the right size to fit a BOSS 302 intake manifold under
Ford Racing’s Adjustable kit for S197 Mustangs was designed by Dynamic Suspensions – the same people that built Ford’s race proven FR500C suspension. The adjustable shocks don’t use ‘clicks’ but six full rotations of the adjustment knob to determine “full stiff” or “full soft” – allowing for fine adjustment when needed. Also, the kit comes with “P” springs that lower the Mustang approximately 1.0-inch, though we opted for the stiffer “K” springs for 1.5-inch drop. The kit also includes stiffer sway bars; the front being three hole adjustable and the rear is a fixed stiffness. It is all topped off with a FRPP strut tower bar, GT500 upper strut hats, and jounce stops modified for the lowered suspension.
FRPP Adjustable Handling Pack – M-FR3-MGTAA
• Adjustable Dampers M-18000-C
• Lowering Springs M-5300-K (optioned over 1.0 drop P springs)
• Sway bars M-5490-A
• Jounce Stops M-5570-A
• Strut Tower Brace M-20201-S197
• Front Strut Mount Upgrade M-18183-C
The beefy sway bar end links are even shorter than stock so they align better on the lowered vehicle. Also, a hallow factory bar is replaced by a solid version
The FRPP kit installs just like you would expect an OEM-quality piece should, with no cutting or grinding to get parts to fit properly. With the suspension set to full soft, it rides very close to stock on normal bumps on the street, but dramatically better in terms of body roll and brake dive. With the suspension set to full stiff, the handling and ride characteristics are further pronounced from the full soft setting. Regardless of the dampening adjustment, the suspension is surprisingly quiet, with only the slightest noise from the stiffer bushings being heard on very rough roads.
Unscrew the removable dust caps on top of the shocks and insert the included adjustment tool to change the dampening on both the front and rear shocks
Another great part about this kit is that there is no reason to have to disassemble your factory spring and shock assembly as this kit also comes with upgraded GT500 upper hats.
The stock 300 treadwear tires that are on the factory 18-inch rims weren’t going to cut it either, so we turned to Falken for a set of their redesigned RT-615K tires. By the mid 2000′s Falken had replaced the RT-215 with the RT-615. Many were upset and wondered why Falken discontinued a tire design that was so popular. Fast forward to earlier this year and the RT-615 was reborn again, though this time with a K behind it.
The RT-615K has been called the revolutionized RT-215, but even better. The tire technology behind the RT-615K makes the tire work like a 160-180 treadwear tire, with the 200 treadwear life. That means even better cornering and braking performance. Also with the new technology, Falken has figured out a way to keep the new K-series tires from getting slick when they are hot; now they heat up fast, and stay sticky. While the price of the new RT-615K has increased a bit, there is no doubt the performance is there to match.
Looks can be deceiving. The RT-615K may look like the original design, but underneath that tread pattern is a whole new tire compound.
We did this install for good reason – first we are writing a full tech article install that will show the installation of the kit, but we will also be taking it to Pro-Touring.com’s “Run to the Coast” road race event at the end of the month. We will report on how the suspension performed at the track and even have some unique video showing the suspension working during a run, and possibly a few more surprises to come.
With the new 18x9.5 SVT wheels and Falken RT-615K tires. We will get more into those later...can't spoil all the suprises coming up in our testing article!
Airaid MXP Cold Air Intake Install – Part Number 451-264
With the need for more power on our 2011 GT, we turned to Airaid for their high-flow cold air intake kit. Airaid spends their time on perfecting kits for specific, popular applications and not mass producing kits for every car on the road. Outside a basic set of hand tools, the kit comes with precise directions and all the parts you need to install the air intake system.
The molded intake box mated to the factory cold air ducting and sealed to the hood with the supplied weather stripping. It also retains all the factory mounting mounts from the stock air box for a perfect fit.
The MXP is Airaid’s new large, one-piece, rotational-molded air box and totally redesigned air intake tube. These new one-piece air boxes house Airaid’s exclusive SynthaMax technology air filter which, when combined with the CAD-designed intake tube, provides improved horsepower, torque, and MPG. The SynthaMax is an optional no-oil filter upgrade for their intake systems.
The kit comes with a molded air box that connects into the Mustang’s original cold air duct and seals tight to the hood to insure a minimal amount of engine heat makes its way to the filter. The molded intake tube has all the proper fittings to for the sound tube and crank case ventilation, and also an additional port for automatic Mustangs. In under one hour, the kit installed perfectly without any cutting or modifications.
While the Airaid MXP Mustang kit comes with a velocity stack so the kit does not require a tune, it is also removable when used in conjunction with custom tunes and more aggressively built engines. While we did do various dyno runs with and without the velocity stack installed, in the end we netted a total gain of 20 horsepower and 10 lb/ft or torque with the intake and custom Brenspeed SCT tune, for a total of 401HP and 380 lb/ft or torque. For the full installation and dyno details, stay tuned for our upcoming article.
Thanks to Airaid and our Brenspeed tune, we were able to crack 400 RWHP on our 2011 GT. Click the picture for a larger version.