So I was one of those guys who gave modern Mustangs a hard time. I always thought they were very cool but I thought they were primitive by today's standards. I always respected the 2011+ cars though because they had pretty good power plants at even better prices. I never thought I'd buy one though, especially not a V6. I wanted a cool car, with a stick, that had lots of modding potential and could get through the 1/4 in the 13s and be a ton of fun on a twisty road. I ended up with a very rare Saab 9-2x Aero 1,000 miles from home that had been previously modified. I loved it... at first. A very popular Youtube personality and S197 driver reviewed it (https://youtu.be/BXQ5BPCFos8) on my drive home (still 700 miles from home now), and it spun a bearing during the review. I replaced the engine and the turbo at enormous cost and detriment to my personal life. Then I realized my love/hate relationship with my car wasn't too healthy and I started looking at other options.



Though it was far from the top of my list (I was mainly there to see the Focus ST), I felt obligated to check out the new Mustang and I loved it. It was at this point I tried to buy an Ecoboost premium with sport package. That didn't work out too well... I ended up in a much much cheaper 3.7L '12 base model with the 6 speed. It was great on paper but at first, I didn't really like it that much, and I only viewed it as a stepping stone to the S550 or a coyote powered S197 when I could afford it later on. Eventually, I realized how much fun these things could be once you started driving them properly and stopped trying to drive them like an AWD turbo car. At this point I love my little V6 way more than I ever thought I would, so with that, let the mods begin!

This is the day I bought the car around late April of this year. I got a great deal on it and it was even a few minutes away from home. It had ~40k miles and was fully serviced (being sold at a GMC dealer) and I ended up paying a bit over 15k out the door. I didn't love the ingot silver, nor the basic interior, but I've come to terms with both lol.


Time to hit the track and get some baseline runs. I did 8 runs I think and by the end of the night I knocked out 2 14.3s in a row, followed by a 14.2, but my GF wanted to leave and she had been very patient with me so I honored that request lol. I'm confident the car had another 1/10th or 2 to give. It was still enough to worry this Roush Stage 2 3V haha. He only got me by about 1/10th (My RT was .2 better than his)...


Finally the "mods" begin. I got custom Boss 302 style gauges because I hate the overly retro design of the standard S197 gauges, a pretty standard JVC head unit with the Scosche dash kit, and I attempted to dip the decklid black instead of paying the 50 bucks for a panel. That didn't turn out great if I'm honest...


That concludes part 1. I'll post part 2 as soon as I get the chance but you can get the gist of it from my sig in the mean time.

This is great Gator!

These 3.7's are no joke and you can turn them into something that'll give GT's a run for their money!

What's next on your build list?

-Will

I'm still waiting on my drive shaft to get here but I can't wait to get that on. I just ordered an SCT X4 and a CAI as well. Once my return is processed at AM I'll order a SS clutch line and I'm thinking 3.31 gears. I plan to go FI in the coming months so I think 3.31s will offer a good mix of performance and highway manners. After that, Barton shifter, Koni yellows and Ford Racing springs, Borla headers and X, front LCAs, K member, rad support, and a procharger. And of course all of this is subject to change haha. I'll upgrade to lighter wheels and wider tires when my current set needs replacing. This is my daily so I think at that point I'll leave it alone and buy a new project, probably a '65 hardtop in memory of my mom.

the SVT style gauges are a nice touch. It looks a lot cleaner.

I really like your dash kit.

My car does not have climate control/heated seats. Would those new heat controls that you have be awkward without those options on my car?

Does your sync still work and all that? Steering wheel controls work?

Thanks! I love the look. Even though they don't really enhance the function of the car in any way I still think they were well worth the investment.

Now time for the real mods! First was the BMR LCAs and J&M Panhard. Stock the car felt a little sloppy both off the line and around bends and this seemed to help with both. 1/4 mile time improvement was minimal though. I had trouble getting the car off the line without bogging but I still got a 14.1 for an improvement of .1 seconds


The next step was to fix one of the other things I didn't like about the base model: the stereo. I had a 10" kicker sub sitting around for years after I took it out of my first car ('96 Acura 3.2TL lol).


Stealth mode engaged. I had to bolt a small piece of wood to the box so the speaker would clear the floor but it worked! Weight gain was minimal as this is only a 250W sub (maybe 25 pounds) and utilizing the spare tire well meant I could keep the weight low down and rearward and I didn't even have to sacrifice luggage space.


Next, I sold my beloved CBR because it wasn't very adept at the morning commute and it was absolutely overkill. Somebody offered me a few hundred bucks more than I paid for the bike over 1 year and 7k miles ago so I took it. The poor thing has probably been crashed into a ditch already.

Here's the replacement getting to know her new family:


This freed up enough money for many things. Among them: Wheels and tires. OEM GT 18s to be exact and Hankook Ventus V12 Evo2s


All cleaned up and on the car plus some hood hash marks from LMR that I needed to qualify for a coupon code lol:


Finally a Blowfish Racing shifter support bracket:


More mods are in the mail and I'm headed to the track tomorrow to try and break into the 13s! I'll keep you guys posted.

Thanks! My only complaint is that it does put the head unit in an awkward location. I don't have any of that stuff either though but I believe sync and steering wheel controls should still work. That's independent of the dash kit though, there's actually a little blue control box that connects to the wiring harness that you would use with your new head unit. As for the climate controls, you can actually go in and select what options your car has in the settings so it only displays the controls you need and none you don't. Hope this helps!

I went to the track with my new tires and saw no improvement on my previous times. I suppose grip was not my limiting factor on the strip but the handling is much improved. I installed the JLT CAI and an SCT X4 tune, along with Accel coils, and a Steeda shift knob. Overall, I'm very happy with the improvements and I can't wait to get back to the track and see if I can break into the 13s.

Everything installed:


Financial mistake:


Small changes can be some of the best:


Fuel economy has definitely improved and the added sound at WOT is fantastic. Next on the list is to install the aluminum drive shaft as soon as it gets here, gears, and a leather wrapped wheel.

Should have saved your money on those Accels. OEM COP's are far superior especially for a bolt on car...live and learn!

What gears do you have? You need some 3.55s...that will put you in the 13s range for sure (13.8s or lower in my opinion)....

A large part of the reason I bought them was a dyno test I saw on a procharged car. He gained 8whp with the Accels and I'll probably procharge sooner or later. I only paid 310 for them on sale so if I can get 8hp out of them, even down the road some, I think it will be worth it. That said I would have waited on them if I had realized they would be a pain in the ass, and I would have much preferred to have put the money towards gears as I'm sure they would be a much more noticeable improvement. I'm leaning towards 3.55s now but 3.31s are still an option. I got 14.1 pretty much stock so I'm hopeful I can break into the 13s as it is with CAI, tune, coils (whatever that's worth), and drive shaft (if it ever ships lol). My goal with gears would be to be consistently in the 13s, with my best times in the mid 13s. I'm not sure how close I'll get to that but hey, goals are supposed to be high lol.

Don't expect too much gain from a driveshaft; however, these V6s need an upgraded driveshaft anyway so not a worthless mod. I just don't see much gain in the quarter mile though...

Gears and tuner should be next in my opinion.

8whp from coils alone....I have my doubts...

Your car is looking right smart, really good.

Thanks IceBlue!

My driveshaft finally arrived yesterday but it was too late to make it to the track with it. My goal was to break into the 13s and I came very very close to that but it will have to wait for another day. I know the car has 13s in it, it's just a matter of getting everything right. My best time ended up being 14.017@101.04 shaving almost 2 tenths off my previous best time of 14.190 and trapping consistently about 1 mph higher. My next step is obviously installing the driveshaft, but after that I'll probably get a tune before doing gears. I have a feeling a tune from MPT is going to be my best performance per dollar improvement I can make right now. Gears will be next and a PnP for the throttle body and intake manifold. Then the 1/4 mile will be on the back burner for a while and I'll try to make the car handle as well as I know it can.

Time slips from last night:


My driveshaft has arrived!


And I installed the SR Performance stainless steel clutch line. One of the clips popped out on me so I had to improvise until the new one arrives at the dealer:

More progress! I finally installed my aluminum drive shaft from Dynotech. It took about 3-4 hours but that includes getting the car in the air and modifying my shifter support/driveshaft loop after slight clearance issues. The stock driveshaft weighed in at 29.6 pounds and the 4" Dynotech was 20.2. There's definitely a big difference with the new driveshaft. I doubt it will shave off .2 seconds 0-60 like AM claims but it should be worth at least the 0.018 seconds I need to break into the 13s haha. In addition, I ordered a custom email tune from MPT which just arrived today so I'm excited for that. It may be a few weeks before I can make it to the track unfortunately but I'll get out there as soon as I can. Gears are next on the list and I'm planning on getting that done in the next 2 weeks or so, and if I have left over money in my mod budget (or I'm just feeling financially reckless lol) I'll go ahead and have my machinist port and polish my throttle body. There will be an autocross event out here in September though so I'll be shifting my focus to brakes, suspension, and handling shortly.

Going in:


With the shifter support/loop installed, I had slight clearance issues when the suspension was all the way at the bottom of its travel so I took a grinder to the bolts and removed a few millimeters from the 4 bolts up top:


The finished product: