1. Does anyone know for sure if 155 is truly the top speed? That has to be electronically limited. Car has the gear, power and aero to go much faster.

2. How many are planning to basically leave their Boss alone, at least initially? Considering the non-LS outran an M3 and an Audi R8 at Laguna in MT's latest track test, the car sure sounds well sorted-out. As much as I want to mod, there is this part of me screaming "leave it the hell alone until you know first-hand what it can do."

 

Except for changing out the headlight bulbs to brighter H-13's, I'm leaving it alone....suspension and performance wise. I have a track car already.

I've done the "modify this and swap out that" route with Porsches and MINIs............you're never done!

Drive it and enjoy it..................factory engineered, built, and tested.

 

I'm leaving it as it comes from the factory, except adding TracKey, front splitter and brake ducts. So, pretty much 'stock'.

Seeing that cloud9 hits 160 in his GT500, he'd be one to discuss the 155 limiter question.

 

The speed is limited electronically, I can't remember if I read somewhere that the Trackey eliminated the 155 limit, but I doubt it. Any aftermarket tuner can remove the 155 limit.

 

Correct. All of the aftermarket tuners I've seen turn off the speed limiter in the tune. I haven't seen anything from Ford turning it off in the TracKey tune and I'm sure it's building in a margin of safety for what the car's aero, tires, driveshaft, suspension, etc. can handle with an acceptable probability of failure.

My concern is if you run a smaller track wheel, are you lowering it even further than 155 due to the speedometer reading higher than you are actually travelling. Another benefit of an aftermarket tune is the handheld tuner allows you to correct for these changes. We are just going to have to wait and see what the aftermarket tuners offer. It could be something as simple as asking them to turn off certain parameters. e.g. If some people opt for an off-road X pipe, they'll need O2 sensors shut off. My guess is you could just order a tune from a tuner that turns off the speed limiter in the TracKey tune and leaves everything else alone.

 

For the track I'll still swap wheels/tires, rotors, pads, fluid, add the cooling kit (used on the test cars) and trans scoop. I'm not going to touch anything else though until I see how it does. The MT article is very encouraging. If you track the car, Ford even recommends most of the mods I listed (except wheels/tires). They also even recommend adding the LS front splitter which wasn't used on test cars as far as I could tell.

 

Thanks for the replies - that's what I thought on the speed limiter.

I do as well plan on pads, brake fluid, tires and the Boss goodies you mentioned like the brake duct coolers and trans scoop. I will wait on the splitter until someone else finds out definitively how much of a PITA it's gonna be taking it on and off at the track :-P

 

So don't buy TracKey from Ford, wait until an aftermarket company has copied it and removed the speed limiter. Looks like a solid plan to me.

 

1. for the street: I wouldn't need any more performance, I'd just want the darn stance issue resolved. ie. lower the car a bit.

2. for the track: suspension modding all comes down to stuff that inspires confidence. won't know until I try the car as is. I'm inclined to go with they gave us. a related point - when it comes to mods for the track, I go back to old wisdom that says the order in which you mod for the track should go something like this:
1. safety
2. brakes
3. safety
4. brakes
5. safety
6. suspension
7. power

and on power, it power-to-weight that matters. adding power only helps in one direction, subtracting weight (or adding lightness, as the Lotus guys like to say) helps in all directions...forward, braking, cornering, everything.

Seeing that brakes are also a safety item (and the fact that it's the only weak link we know of on the boss...and any street car that's tracked hard, for that matter)...seems that that's the right place to start.

 

I change out all my cars to Sylvania Silver Stars. I ran around countries with winding mountain roads that had no street lights for years and swear by them. Just plug them in and go.

Outside of that I will be doing a spoiler, louvers and other small appearance type work but not being a true racer I will leave the rest alone for now. There is nothing wrong with leaving it alone, Ford did a great job on this car.

http://www.sylvania.com/ConsumerProd...lacementGuide/

 

Brilliant, couldn't agree more.

 

Looks like I'm on the right track in my plan as well. Now let's get the cars so we can find out!