Tantal

As far as the Shelby GT grille, you cannot really tell it's a two piece affair unless you crawl down and get real close. It is very hard to catch it in an image. Maybe if the hood is raised and light is shining on the internals behind it to backlight the entire grille area? The grille slats are so close together I would think that alone would cut down on airflow enough to keep the hood from fluttering at high speeds.

But I'm not crazy about the Shelby grille anyway., I'm going to swap my Shelby bling-pimp grille with a Bullitt grille as soon as possible.

These modern Mustangs have way better underhood sealing than old cars did, there's just not enough air escape exit channels under that hood to release all the air pressure from these retro big-*** grille openings, so they had to close some off. Years ago that big grille had to cool that big radiator down, now the big grille is for styling. Catching all that air under the hood also craps out your gas mileage.

A lot of guys that race have commented here and elsewhere that when they get up around 100 MPH, the aluminum hood can often flutter on the back end. There's not much gap there for airflow.

goesfast

The Bullitt's ride is much more "compliant" than the Shelby GT's to make it more street friendly and useful as a daily driver. If you drove around my neighbourhood you'd be thankful of that. And the Bullitt's suspension is lowered, by a whopping 6mm over a standard GT's by using different shocks, struts and dampers tuned especially for the Bullitt. It's a far cry from the FRPP handling pack of the Shelby GT's, but maybe that's a good thing.
To the best of my knowledge, Ford is still using what they call a "composite" hood on the Mustang. Not aluminum, but a mixture of resins that become more or less, plastic and fiberglass (heavy on the plastic). All aluminum hoods have a tendency to "bounce" at speed because of weight, (misdirected) airflow, and latching problems, not to mention early problems of paint adhesion which was corrected by using zinc-chromate primer.
To the fellow that has the GT-H, you can upgrade your hood pins to the more-secure ***** that come with the 2008 Shelby GT's. They don't rust and there's no play in them like the 2006-2007's. Contact SAI and ask for John or Bud in customer service if you're interested.

RCSignals

Actually the Bullitt is lowered but not by much, about 1/4"

Tantal

The old hood was indeed composite but these new cars have aluminum hoods. If the Bullitt is 6mm lower, that must be with a full tank of gas. I think that spec was a pre-production notation. Maybe they are lower, it just looked higher to me sitting beside a new GT.

The Shelby suspension is very comfortable, I really doubt most people would find it to be harsh or rough feeling, and above all not noisy as someone suggested. It is certainly tight and solid. I think anyone who would find it anything but "compliant" would have to be used to driviing a four door Cady.

I love the new Bullitt, don't get me wrong. But I don't want my car to sit as high as a Bullitt, though. The Bullitt has uniquely chosen parts, but the reason for this is because they wanted to keep the car comfortable so they could not go low or as stiff as the Ford Racing stuff.

If you don't lower the car, center of gravity stays high but then you don't have to use the stiffer stuff since you have more suspension travel. Lap times? That would depend on what kind of laps you are making.

Anyway, they need the ground clearance to make all those high speed chase jumps, hehe!

RCSignals

I think there may be something wrong with that black Bullitt at the SF show.
It shouldn't sit higher.

Tantal

I know on a standard GT, a full tank of gas will lower it by more than 6mm, over a low tank of gas. So in actuality a stock GT with a full tank could and would be equal to or even slightly lower than a Bullitt with an empty tank, if 6mm is the only difference. I'm sure they take specs with a standardized loading, say with driver and 1/2 tank or something like that.

That might explain why they look higher than the specs seem to indicate. Or maybe we just expect them to be lower looking, with all the extra scrutiny and so forth..

Whammer

Ford says the lowered the Bullitt 6mm (which I agree is not a lot), but I don't think they are playing with numbers by measuring with a full tank of gas.
Speculation is the Bullitt at the SF auto show was really a black GT made to look like a Bullitt.

But regardless- all info seems to indicate that the Bullitt is the best handling Mustang Ford has made.

VAiN

Do you think that just swapping out the springs would be enough, or would that offset the balance of the car?

goesfast

I heard that all pre-production Bullitts were green, so the black one was obviously done up to look the part. Plus no one was allowed to open the hood or sit inside the vehicle, so that is telling us something. Sorta like the presentation envelope with nothing inside.
I've also heard that it is quicker around the track than a Shelby GT.

black_bullitt

it's nice to finally see some pics of a Black Bullitt... of course i am biased, but whatever, lol

+1 on the comments about the shoddy prep work
+2 on the comments that it's probably just a GT with badging... don't know if it's been said yet, but the tires shown aren't what are advertised for the new Bullitt either

Tantal

It would depend on how far you went with the spring loading. The stock struts are pretty good, but it does not take much to overpower them with stiffer springs, and then they start to bounce on you. My old '06 GT was horrible until I got the total package done, the stiffer struts made all the difference in the world.

If you lower the car, that means you need stiffer springs to compensate for the lack of suspension travel, and if you get stiffer springs you have to stiffen the struts or you are just creating a heck of an out of balance, rough riding and very bouncy feeling car.

If you meant swapping springs only, to lower a Bullitt, I bet you might be able to get away with that, since the Bullitt struts are supposed to be better, i.e. stiffer, than the stock units. Might also have better rebound specs, less fade, etc.

The Bullitt might get a better overall 'lap time" than an SGT, but that might depend on what sort of laps you are doing, i.e. Nascar or Formula One style, hehe.

wally05

The word on the street is that it was beating out the SGT at the Ford Racing track at Miller MotorSports Park. That's all I know.

GTJOHN

I prefer Black, and I think the car looks great in that color, but if I were to buy one, I may have to buy it in Highland Green because it is a "Bullitt" after all.

bar

Silverback

I want a black one. No green. Black. Green. Agh!

VAiN

Yeah, that's what i was thinking - put a nice set of Eibach Pro-Kit, or the Ford Racing springs to get rid of the 4x4 look. I would think the stock shocks & struts could handle it since it wouldn't be slammed...

Tantal

Yeah, I think it would be on the good side of marginal. I had the Eibachs on my '06 GT for a while with the stock GT struts and springs and it was marginal on mostly smooth roads. However, eventually the bouncing out back really bugged me so I wised up and installed the Ford racing struts/springs and that was like night and day.

I can only guess that the Bullitt setup is someplace in between stock GT and Ford Racing as far as spring rates, and would be fine for most people using the Eiback Pro kit/FRPP springs. That would get rid of the 4x4 look and make this Bullitt a real sinister looking beast.

on d bit

have you seen the bullitt in person, sitting next to a mustang gt?



lowering the car is not the answer! lets face it, on a car that retails below 20k you are not going to find the best suspension geometry. this means besides the obvious limitations of weight and balance the mustang is not designed with sports car specific suspension geometry such as that under the 997! lowering the car, adding new shocks and struts, will not fix the poor geometry(off the wall handling) the mustang is built with!
your statements concerning handling are null inviod because of this fact! yes it will determine the look of the car. yes it will determine the stiffness and the travel of the stock suspension. no it will not make the car handle significantly better!

Tantal

What the heck are you talking about? Below 20K, where? Have you even driven a new Mustang GT? It's no 997 Porsche (who said it was?), but it can outhandle a large margin of the cars on the road today.

Lowering the car and adding the right suspension items can significantly increase handling, response and stabilty by a large margin over that of the stock vehicle, especially a base-line V6. That's almost true of any car, though. I know that from my own experience.

Your comments make totally no sense at all. I see you don't own a Mustang, maybe you should stick to 4x4 vehicles?

wally05

I have to agree with Tantal. Owning both a GT and v6, I will tell you that a few small suspension components can turn the car into one heck of a handler. Comparing it to a Porsche is a little rediculous. It's not even the same market or price range.