See pics. Can anyone comment on whether or not the rear diffuser on the GT base and premium are different?

 

I can tell you they are very different. Base unit is one color unit. The Premium has a Matte framing and a body color diffuser in the center. You can also tell the difference because the base units don't extend on the rear quarter panel where the Premium units extend on the bottom of the quarter and are matte black.

You can tell now in the photos you posted.

 

Premium, easier to see in yellow...

 

Angle view

 

Base

 

Side base

 

The premium is a two part bumper (actual bumper cover and plastic lower valence). The base is one solid piece. The upside to the premium is that you can swap the gray valence for aftermarket valences like for a quad tip exhaust. AmericanMuscle.com is currently selling a lower valence attachment for the base model now though (I plan to ****** that up along with a few other things &#128526.

 

I have a 2016 (base) GT with the single piece rear bumper cover. I wanted a "no frills" car (only options are track pack and Recaro sport seats) and did not realize that the base and premium had different rear bumper covers. You can replace the base one piece with an OEM two piece through American Muscle (and perhaps others). The premium "two piece" is a bit of a misnomer because you can also replace the diffuser portion with after market items. I have talked with the folks at American Muscle about the bumper cover differences and what, if anything, might be available for the one piece.

I honestly do not like either the single piece or the two piece even with the various after market tweaks that are available. If you follow the flow from the front "splitter" to the (black) side pieces, you expect something different at the rear. I plan to mock up something in cardboard to better match the front and side. After that I will decide if I want to spend the $ for the OEM two piece (about $550 primed).

Does anyone know why Ford choose to have two different bumper covers and why there is nothing in any of the literature (that I have read) or on the Ford web site that mentions this difference?

 

Is the base single piece and premium bumper the same unit like our 13-14's were for GT vs Shelby (and CS)? Those were the same bumper that was just trimmed for the CS, Boss or Shelby lower valence. They were even make on the back by Ford where to cut and drill for the lower valence.

So, are the base bumpers marked for trimming to convert to premium, or are they truly two separate units?

 

I do not know but I believe that they are two different items and stock numbers. If you think about the way the two covers would attach to the car and how the lower valence unit for the premium chassis must attach to the bumper cover ... If it were as simple as cutting the one piece I suspect that most after market sources would mention that.

Certainly worth a few phone calls to look into this further. Those thinking about converting from the one piece to the two piece (for whatever reasons) would save a lot of $ if all that was required was some careful cutting (and maybe a little epoxy)