here is my deal with the whole "same car for x money" deal i am a suspension and x pipe away from having the upgrades of a sgt. but here is what i did
the power pack uses a cheap tuner and intake that just doesnt look nice or work well. i have a bama program and c&l intake, spintech exhaust. The exhaust sounds better, looks better, and is of much higher quality. the tuner is just the best on the market, the C&L is a much better intake. I have the same hurst shifter and love it. i have stripe and ugly body kit delete which makes my car look a world better. and in the end i have a car that works better for less money.


now the article. that rx8 is an awesome car, except that engine is still kinda poopy. i would take the dynamics and interior of the rx8 over the 350z any day, but that vq power plant is awesome, aside from the awful sound it makes stock. the shelby gt, kinda unfair comparo, although the brakes in our cars do kinda stink.so who knows, i dont agree or disagree with this article at all. because for the shelby premium, it should be an even better car than it is

 

I stand corrected....BUMMER...I woulda bought one..

 

+1+1+1+1+1 Well said. It should have better brakes, and an aluminum driveshaft for the $$, and the intake/tune should be after-,arket standard, as you pointed out, not substandard. And I wonder if for the real world the stock suspension, with a stiffer rear sway bar, isn't actually better than the FRPP handling pack?

 

well i am going to do an eibach tokico d-spec with sways kit because i want to lower my car, or i might get some steeda coilovers. we'll see

 

When you do it, could you let me know how much stiffer the suspension is, and if the ride deteriorated significantly? I would do the lowering d=thing with springs/shocks (and a poanhard bar so that the axle doesn't move out to the right), but I don't want to sacrifice too much ride and end up with a buttload of rattles in the car...

 

Actually its $8390 not $9000. And the gas guzzler tax is included in that price. So actually they are getting $7390 for the conversion. And you can find them for $1000 under MSRP or $500 over invoice. If you drove one you would be pleasantly surprised.

 

I probably would ( I just noticed one in my neighborhood....maybe I'll ask the dude for a ride).

Yes I stand corrected on the price (and already stated it above, I think). I actually think the cars you're referring to at MSRP or less started to appear after I bought mine in Feb, because prior to my purchase date I was looking pretty thouroughly at eBay offerings, and Ford dealers in Texas and Kansas.

The conundrum as I see it, had I managed to get one, is that while it has some nice upgrades, like the suspension for example, it is still lacking in some respects, and the fact that it is a Shelby and therefore has some sort of value as a collector car makes it a difficult decision to modify/improve, because you're arguably destryoing the collector value in the process.

Specific examples are:

• the CAI and premium fuel upgrade is questionable at best...the canned tunes from Bamachips with a C&L CAI are delivering significantly better results, not to mention a dynotune, and that's with the stock H pipe!
• I mentioned the suspension earlier: while it is nice to know that the dampers and spring rates were tuned by Multimatic (and they know they're stuff), was an adjustable panhard bar used to re-center the rear axle? Was the pinion angle re-adjusted on the DS/rear axle to prevent pre-mature wear and ensure longevity? I assure you the answer is no on both counts, which makes me more comfortable doing the suspension upgrade myself to ensure these ancillary matters are properly addressed. (EDIT NOTE to SGT owners: measure to see if you rear axle is centered....I bet the driver's side tire sticks out further than the pass side; given how the panhard bar rotates)
• The same thing applies to brakes: our brakes (the SGT's are the exact same thing as a regular GT) are not up to the task of stopping this car effectively: a pad/rotor upgrade, at the very least, is necessary for aggressive driving.
• This also applies to additional mods: UDP's, CMDP's, Air/Oil Separators, subframe connectors, LT headers, etc, etc

Now, if the car is to be used in the manner that 95% of Mustang GT owners use it, or be a garage queen, then the SGT is adequate as is.
So, the SGT is a nice car for those of us that are willing to drive it like it is, that don't yearn to make improvements to it, because those improvements negate the inherent value of the car. For those of us that want to take our cars to 500 hp, with a suspension set up that is compliant enough to be used as a DD but provide a less sway than the stock setup, and have the correct adjustments made via panhard bar and DS pinion angle, and be able to stop more effectively, and still have the looks of a SGT, there's the other option, that of a GT/CS with á-la-carte mods.

 

Marc, good post. Especially the pan hard rear axle part. Theer is a discussion about that same thing on the Shlby forum. I havent seen a official response yet from Shelby. Waiting to hear what it is. There does appear to be a centering issue. Ill let you know what we find out

 

Most of the stuff you are talking about can be upgraded via Shelby authorized parts. They even upgrade the registery to reflect that your Shelby has those parts.

http://www.shelbyautos.com/parts/mustangparts2.asp

Here are some of those parts that are available now. I just came back from visiting them and I can tell you they have a lot more on the way. You stated most of the reasons why I went with my Shelby GT, not as common as a regular GT, retains value, AND the list of mod parts that I could add to make the car more of what I wanted. All with it retaining its value and some warranty. (Not that I really care for the warranty)

I am getting a supercharger, upgraded brakes, and a lot of other stuff. Some of which they are not even showing yet. Am I waiting on this stuff, yes I am and longer than most. Deploying next month so the Shelby guys made me a deal I could not pass on. My car is staying in Las Vegas to be in the Shelby Autos museum while I am gone. Brad and Scothew will have more details later on this so I will wait to post more.



I did get to drive the basic Shelby GT and I can say it far exceeds my expectations. It was a blast to drive and looks even better in person. I put over 500 miles over 4 days in Vegas. If I had more time I would have put a lot more!

It is not the car for everyone but I can say it is definitely the car for me. I get to mod the car with practically everything I have wanted since Brad had the first pic's of the 2005s up until now. In addition to it being registered and "official" from the "factory" like it is. It was a win win for me.

I hope whatever choice you go with you get to enjoy many years of fun times driving, showing or racing it. I know I will.

 

Hi Webba, please restate, I missed the question here...thanks


Amy

 

Read this C&D story.
My first impression was that comparing the Shelby to two actual sports cars, TT & 350z and the RX-8, whatever the hell it is, was like comparing a fighter aircraft to a battleship.
Machines built for two completely differently markets.
Currently there are no other cars on the market comparable to Mustangs/Shelby's. At least not until the new Camaro's come out.
To even consider the Shelby a sports car or the others a "muscle" car is
completely stoopid. C&D dropped the ball on this one.

 

Read this C&D story.
My first impression was that comparing the Shelby to two actual sports cars, TT & 350z and the RX-8, whatever the hell it is, was like comparing a fighter aircraft to a battleship.
Machines built for two completely differently markets.
Currently there are no other cars on the market comparable to Mustangs/Shelby's. At least not until the new Camaro's come out.
To even consider the Shelby a sports car or the others a "muscle" car is
completely stoopid. C&D dropped the ball on this one.

 

i know its been a while since i was on this post, but wanted to respond. I am probably looking at the end of the year, or possibly a month or two into next year before i have anything done to my suspension. I have a two wheeled fix to get out of the way first.

 

Thanks for the response, and good luck with the other speed fix!

I think I'm gonna do a rear sway bar (Roush) to see how much I can reduce the body roll w/o compromising underside clearance and ride quality. Relatively inexpensive, too.

I'll let you know how that goes.

 

The real question is the ride barable? I mean in the C&D review they said they could hardly stay in a straight lane with a bumpy road. I hate to break it to everyone but American roads, esp in North Texas, suck. Is the ride as bad as they say or are they full of it?

 

**** good question Kevin, and one that I'd like answered as well. What I've ordered the BMR rear sway bar (which won't stiffen the ride quality), and what I've tentatively decided to do is to get the mild drop Roush springs (slightly stiffer than stock), and Tokico D-Spec shocks/struts, which are infinitely adjustable between the max soft and max stiff setting, by turning a screw in the top of the shock (a 3 minute job). That way I'll reduce the body roll, slightly lower the car, and get better corner carvin ability while being able to make the suspension softer when not autoxing. Springs $200, Tokico's $560, BMR $200. I think this will be a much better setup than the FRPP suspension, which is more setup for the road race (Multimatic Motorsports tuned the steup).

 

I test drove a SGT back in April and intentionally took a bumpy road. While it was a little firmer than the Mustang GT, it wasn't that bad. I would describe it as feeling a little more solid than the stock ride, but not unreasonable. I know I could live with it and I am probably more sensitive than most on this issue.

 

I used to drive an 04 Audi S4 which had a pretty stiff ride so I'm definitely not a whimp when it comes to stiff rides but the way they made it sound was as if your spine would crack on rough roads. The roads around me are terrible and am so thankful for the stock's suspension absorbing them. C&D do complain about how stiff the ride is a lot on many cars.. Maybe I'll try to find a Shelby to test drive.

 

Great, please post your impressions/opinions. It's not the stiff ride itself that I fear, I've had cars with stiff rides too, but I fear the rattles and squeaks that may result in the process.....I may buy other cars, but I intend to keep this car ad eternum.

 

While ride comfort may be an issue to some, I think a more important consideration -- for a performance car -- is ride compliance, i.e., the ability of a suspension to keep the wheels firmly on the ground over less than ideal (read: typical) roads. This is a critical distinction where us IRS adherents often get misrepresented by SRA mavens: that cushy comfort is the only real benefit an IRS offers. In reality, and on the majority of the rough and tumble roads in the US, the real benefit is performance and the ability to maintain a high level of handling performance off the artificial confines of a test track.

It seems the Shelby GT has made the typical big-three mistake of simply bolting on a bunch of very stiff springs, shocks and swaybars -- mated with fat tires -- to generate heroic test pads numbers that quickly disintegrate when challenged by real world roads. Sure, the ride might be flinty, but the real problem, as noted by C&D, is the serious collapse of handling performance on the roads most of us drive on. What good is a .90G skidpad cornering capability when in reality, your forced to tiptoe around most of the roads driven on lest the car get bucked off into the weeds.

So perhaps a go-cart stiff suspension is not the best approach to actual real-world, off-track performance but rather, something a bit more capable and resilient like the RX-8s, which seemed to, at least in the eyes of C&D, make up for the Shelby's prodigious straight line performance.