orange3.9stang

David's tires (and anyone else who has a V6 Pony or MCA pkg) are the same W Speed rated / 168 MPH 18" Pirrelli P-Zero's as used on the base GT.

It kind of stinks that the V6 Camaro when equipped with W Speed rated tires ... std. on 2LT base and 1LT / 2LT with RS Pkg ... gets a bump in the speed limiter (145 MPH I think) but the V6 Mustang does not.

What is the point in a 160 MPH Speedo, if the limiter is set at 114 ??

Ford may as well given the V6 a 120 Speedo which is easier to read !!

Doug

hi5.0

Nice! Save the Boss 302/LS for next year, and maybe by then Ford will rectify the speed limiter silliness on the top-shelf V6 for a retest.

PTRocks

With the 500$ drop in MSRP, the base 2012 GT will qualify for the LL1 class.

JimmyM

Nice.

Was the GT tested with Brembos? Because the V6 was tested with the Performance Package. Not sure how much of a difference a bone-stock GT would run

Double-EDad

I bracket the Boss 302 on the fast side by the Corvette Grand Sport, which ran a 2:58 last year and has similar power, but better suspension and less weight. Obviously it should be faster than the GT, maybe even faster than the GT500 on that track (given the shifting issues they had w/ the GT500). So my guess would be something like 3:02 to 3:03. I would be amazed (but happy) if it broke the 3-minute barrier - that is some REAL fast company! Can't wait until next year to see what it does!

Double-EDad

Yes, per this video, the regular GT that was tested was a BB car:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pan3N8qdyrE

SD6

Maybe this is a dumb question, but since it is electronically limited does that it can be bypassed by reprogramming kind of like the way skip shift delete is done on many tunes?

Juice

I read the magazine article and looked at the times through the various sections. I think they left a lot on the table with the Mustang GT. Why slower than the v6 on entry and exit? I'd like to see what the car would do with some better drivers than the C&D hacks.

Double-EDad

Good point; In C&D's video they stated that the GT added almost no extra weight over the V6, so especially with the Brembos you'd think they dive deeper into the turns and exit the turn with more velocity.

YSUsteven

As with all other moden cars, yes...

Ministang

Hacks? LMAO. I suppose you could do better? Just so you know, many of the C&D writers have held competition licenses and have road raced competitively, I've seen some of them on track, and they (at least the ones I've seen) are not hacks.

conv_stang

if given more time with each car im sure they could cut the times down a bit. Pretty dang good considering the number of different cars the driver drove in short succession...Every car is so different no way to get the extreme best time out of the car with a couple laps. The driver obviously has some skill to be a professional driver. Just like the people who talk about how bad some professional sports player is when last I checked we couldn't cut it where they are

hi5.0

Yes the limiter can be electronically removed. However, IIRC these vehicles are supposed to be tested in the LL comparison as-delivered from the manufacturer with no modifications, electronic or otherwise. Show what the cars are capable of "out of the box".

Double-EDad

Agreed. And that's related to another point of contention with many: some cars are penalized by the crappy tires they come with, so why not put the exact same brand/model tire on every car that's tested? C&D basically says "we test 'em exactly the way the manufacturer sells 'em!"

Which is fair enough, but it can sometimes distort relative performance between cars. For example, the CTS-V comes with Michlin PS2 tires, which I think maximizes the car's capabilities compared to similar cars that don't run PS2s. OTOH, there are multiple opinions about tires out there too, so never mind....

orange3.9stang

Well hopefully with these V6 track results (as well as others in the last 8 months) Ford will at least consider "uping the speed limiter".

At the very least they could do it on the Performance Package model as it already has special computer tuning via the AdvanceTrac "Sport mode" that regular V6 models do no get.

Doug

SD6

Sorry I didn't mean about removing it for the LL comparison; I meant just removing it in aftermarket. The Lightning Lap specifies that they're unmodified production cars, so definitely wouldn't be removed for the test.

Since one of their comments on the V6 was

I was curious if the limiter could be removed in the real world since I haven't seen any mention of limiter removed in the tunes I've been reading about.

hi5.0

Ah, got it. Don't see why it's not possible to remove the speed limiter aftermarket if electronic tuning lets you alter just about everything else in the ECU (depending on tuner).

Ministang

I think that would make perfect sense. That would be similar to what BMW does with the Sport Package option on some of their cars. IIRC BMW limits the standard 3-series to around 130 mph, but raises the speed limiter to 150 mph on the Sport Package cars. I think part of it is a tire issue, but the tires on the Performance Package V6 cars should have that covered since they are "W" speed rated (168 mph).

M3hunter

In this two points mentioned about the GT, How can you solve both issues:
"The GT exhibits a little more body roll than the GT500, which makes the side-to-side-in-your-seat banging around less intense and more tolerable. Still, the GT would benefit greatly from a more heavily bolstered seat."

Lancel

V6 sounds like it could have been right up there with the GT if it didn't have the speed limited, at least from what we're seeing here. I do wonder though if they got everything out of the Mustangs, the GT actually did worse than the V6 on some of the stages. In one stage the GT actually did the worst in class.