Deposit May 2014 and today I took delivery, oh my, what a...
Discussion
The best $100 I've spent.
The Steeda shifter base bracket and bushing with the transmission stiffening insert.
The stick is now solid, with smooth transition between 2nd and 3rd especially. Now I have made this change, I don't know what I thought was so good before.
When the stick is in its neutral position, it should be central between 3rd And 4th gear. However, when changing up between the gears from left to right, the stiffness (or lack of) the whole shifter mechanism with the original bracket, could result in missing the gate into 3rd.
With the new bracket fitted, the movement of the complete shifter mechanism is eliminated. Resulting in aligned gear entry and crisp changes.
1st & 2nd push to the left. (in my case as its left hooker)
Release and push directly up or down for 3rd & 4th
5th & 6th pull towards you for top speeds.
This change makes the whole acceleration much easier and more comfortable. The power changes are now smoother and progressive. If you are going to daily drive with some spirited road driving, rather than track use.. I would seriously consider this change over many others
The Steeda shifter base bracket and bushing with the transmission stiffening insert.
The stick is now solid, with smooth transition between 2nd and 3rd especially. Now I have made this change, I don't know what I thought was so good before.
When the stick is in its neutral position, it should be central between 3rd And 4th gear. However, when changing up between the gears from left to right, the stiffness (or lack of) the whole shifter mechanism with the original bracket, could result in missing the gate into 3rd.
With the new bracket fitted, the movement of the complete shifter mechanism is eliminated. Resulting in aligned gear entry and crisp changes.
1st & 2nd push to the left. (in my case as its left hooker)
Release and push directly up or down for 3rd & 4th
5th & 6th pull towards you for top speeds.
This change makes the whole acceleration much easier and more comfortable. The power changes are now smoother and progressive. If you are going to daily drive with some spirited road driving, rather than track use.. I would seriously consider this change over many others
Gibbo205 said:
I have above on mine, trans mount works great!
Bushing insert even with a hole drilled in it caused NVH for me.
NVH when..? Changing gear, general driving, or at speed.. I haven't put much mileage on mine yet so the Jury is still out.Bushing insert even with a hole drilled in it caused NVH for me.
The mechanical clunking and noise is still there during changes, but that's part of the car itself.
bridgdav said:
NVH when..? Changing gear, general driving, or at speed.. I haven't put much mileage on mine yet so the Jury is still out.
The mechanical clunking and noise is still there during changes, but that's part of the car itself.
All the time as its transmission harmonics being transmitted into the cabin.The mechanical clunking and noise is still there during changes, but that's part of the car itself.
Some may like this due to race car feel but I dislike NVH big time and am sensitive to it.
Hi there
OK so some might remember Iceman mentioned a week or so ago about having a titanium gear knob and raving about the quality.
Well mine arrived today, install very easier and it has a grub screw and comes with supplied key, makes installing easier, no need for a jam nut or loctite.
First thing, I was hoping it would be a bit shinier as its a bit dull, of course being brushed titanium and made by hand in a lathe works. But colour aside it is twice the weight of the stock item and believe it or not this makes changing gear even nicer. It also has a lovely texture/feel to it and does not suffer from being freezing cold when you first get in the car. The quality is outstanding, I am not going to attempt polishing it as it could spoil it, lovely bit of kit. Thanks Dave aka Iceman!
Today my air-oil-seperator arrived, an official Ford Performance part to help with engine health, power etc.
As expected OEM kit, fantastic quality and for £125 well worth it as it will help keep engine healthy, clean and ensure maximum horsepower. Fitment is very easy as it uses OEM quick release hoses! Shall fit it tomorrow in daylight!
In short performs same task as an oil catch can, but this part was specifically designed for the Coyote/Voodoo engine so should be one of best designs on market and of course it maintains that o.e. look.
Today I had my decals/stripes fitted along with the wiring loom recall performed by Ford, but no photos sorry, will try to grab some tomorrow.
OK so some might remember Iceman mentioned a week or so ago about having a titanium gear knob and raving about the quality.
Well mine arrived today, install very easier and it has a grub screw and comes with supplied key, makes installing easier, no need for a jam nut or loctite.
First thing, I was hoping it would be a bit shinier as its a bit dull, of course being brushed titanium and made by hand in a lathe works. But colour aside it is twice the weight of the stock item and believe it or not this makes changing gear even nicer. It also has a lovely texture/feel to it and does not suffer from being freezing cold when you first get in the car. The quality is outstanding, I am not going to attempt polishing it as it could spoil it, lovely bit of kit. Thanks Dave aka Iceman!
Today my air-oil-seperator arrived, an official Ford Performance part to help with engine health, power etc.
As expected OEM kit, fantastic quality and for £125 well worth it as it will help keep engine healthy, clean and ensure maximum horsepower. Fitment is very easy as it uses OEM quick release hoses! Shall fit it tomorrow in daylight!
In short performs same task as an oil catch can, but this part was specifically designed for the Coyote/Voodoo engine so should be one of best designs on market and of course it maintains that o.e. look.
Today I had my decals/stripes fitted along with the wiring loom recall performed by Ford, but no photos sorry, will try to grab some tomorrow.
Hi there
So today was a very early start, the plan was to fit:
FRPP Dampers
Steeda Ultralite linear springs
FRPP toe knuckle bushes
FRPP air-oil seperator
Set car allignment up to my own settings.
So I arrived at XJK Jaguar early morning to crack on, put the Steeda Ultralite springs on the FRPP front dampers which look a little wonkey but was advised by Steeda and others this is indeed correct. The install went quite smoothly for the front being a typical McPherson setup, took around 1hr and with the cars weight on the front the springs/dampers as adviced by Steeda and other users did indeed straighten.
Next we moved onto rear, removing rear dampers is so easy, talking 5 minutes per side, but getting the rear springs out what an absolute nightmare, most of the rear suspension needed to be dismantled and giant pri-bar to give the clearance required to get those springs out, achieving it in my driveway would of bring near impossible. This took at least 2hr.
The FRPP bushes although simple in practice, the original ones were a little stubborn to get out and the new ones always wanted to go in at an angle so took several attempts, so again more time taken because we were being perfectionist and ensuring everything was done carefully and nothing just cowboyed in with force. Eventually it all went together.
Then put the car back together and tighten and torque all bolts to specification with the suspension loaded.
Next stop the allignment, the next nightmare was about to begin.
Ford factory specification is:
Front camber: -1.03
Front total toe: 0.00
Rear camber: -1.50
Rear total toe: +0.23
Ford Racing/Handling specification for circuit / auto X is:
Front camber: -1.55
Front total toe: 0.00
Rear camber: -1.98
Rear total toe: +0.23
As most of you know I've being researching parts for a year and settings so I knew the Ford Racing specification was truly only for track and not ideal for road as a few users had reports using such settings on the road impeded the cars performance, did not improve it.
So I went with following settings:
To translate that into American it reads as following:
Gibbo's recommended settings for UK roads:
Front camber: -1.33
Front total toe: +0.05
Rear camber: -1.55to1.65
Rear total toe: +0.26
So a little more aggressive than the Ford Performance Pack settings from the factory, this will give a great balance of wet handling on roads along with good sporty driving in the dry.
Now onto what the stock suspension adjustments offer:
Toe front and rear, you can dial in easily with stock components.
Rear camber: IT IS ADJUSTABLE, once lowered you can get -1.00 upto -2.50, just undo the upper camber arm bolt, it is slotted, and has a good 2-3 degrees of adjustment available.
Front camber: Camber bolts are an absolute must, there is practically zero adjustment available for front camber, so bolts or top mounts an absolute must. I used BMR camber bolts, they work very well and cost £20.
Some pictures from the install, starting with the giant Brembo brakes, my are they a work of art and the calipers for how big they are are so light.
The stock toe knucle bushing on the left and on the right is the FRPP bushing a clear difference and a spherical bearing.
Ride height before we started, with nearly 80-100kg of suspension and tools in the boot:
Now the results with no tools/suspension in the boot:
Here is a picture of the decals I fitted, sorry the car is so dirty, but oh well snow, grit and rain with daily usage makes it hard to keep clean always:
I also fitted the FRPP air-oil separator, an incredibly easy install taking about two minutes and looks completely stock because it is an OEM part:
I cannot give you any driving feedback until maybe later or a few days, that will follow!
So what is left?
1. Fit spacers & mud flaps to prevent paint from stone rash.
2. Fit tubular FRPP anti-roll bars.
3. Change colour of wheels to a shade of grey, un-decided.
4. Maybe de-chrome car.
5. POWER!
6. New wheels/tyres once these tyres are shot.
So what I had planned is very nearly completed.
P.S. Car has 6" ground clearance to front splitter.
P.S.1 I trial fitted the 23mm rear spacers, they took the rear of wheels meaning about 1-2mm needs removing from studs, 25mm fit fine.
So today was a very early start, the plan was to fit:
FRPP Dampers
Steeda Ultralite linear springs
FRPP toe knuckle bushes
FRPP air-oil seperator
Set car allignment up to my own settings.
So I arrived at XJK Jaguar early morning to crack on, put the Steeda Ultralite springs on the FRPP front dampers which look a little wonkey but was advised by Steeda and others this is indeed correct. The install went quite smoothly for the front being a typical McPherson setup, took around 1hr and with the cars weight on the front the springs/dampers as adviced by Steeda and other users did indeed straighten.
Next we moved onto rear, removing rear dampers is so easy, talking 5 minutes per side, but getting the rear springs out what an absolute nightmare, most of the rear suspension needed to be dismantled and giant pri-bar to give the clearance required to get those springs out, achieving it in my driveway would of bring near impossible. This took at least 2hr.
The FRPP bushes although simple in practice, the original ones were a little stubborn to get out and the new ones always wanted to go in at an angle so took several attempts, so again more time taken because we were being perfectionist and ensuring everything was done carefully and nothing just cowboyed in with force. Eventually it all went together.
Then put the car back together and tighten and torque all bolts to specification with the suspension loaded.
Next stop the allignment, the next nightmare was about to begin.
Ford factory specification is:
Front camber: -1.03
Front total toe: 0.00
Rear camber: -1.50
Rear total toe: +0.23
Ford Racing/Handling specification for circuit / auto X is:
Front camber: -1.55
Front total toe: 0.00
Rear camber: -1.98
Rear total toe: +0.23
As most of you know I've being researching parts for a year and settings so I knew the Ford Racing specification was truly only for track and not ideal for road as a few users had reports using such settings on the road impeded the cars performance, did not improve it.
So I went with following settings:
To translate that into American it reads as following:
Gibbo's recommended settings for UK roads:
Front camber: -1.33
Front total toe: +0.05
Rear camber: -1.55to1.65
Rear total toe: +0.26
So a little more aggressive than the Ford Performance Pack settings from the factory, this will give a great balance of wet handling on roads along with good sporty driving in the dry.
Now onto what the stock suspension adjustments offer:
Toe front and rear, you can dial in easily with stock components.
Rear camber: IT IS ADJUSTABLE, once lowered you can get -1.00 upto -2.50, just undo the upper camber arm bolt, it is slotted, and has a good 2-3 degrees of adjustment available.
Front camber: Camber bolts are an absolute must, there is practically zero adjustment available for front camber, so bolts or top mounts an absolute must. I used BMR camber bolts, they work very well and cost £20.
Some pictures from the install, starting with the giant Brembo brakes, my are they a work of art and the calipers for how big they are are so light.
The stock toe knucle bushing on the left and on the right is the FRPP bushing a clear difference and a spherical bearing.
Ride height before we started, with nearly 80-100kg of suspension and tools in the boot:
Now the results with no tools/suspension in the boot:
Here is a picture of the decals I fitted, sorry the car is so dirty, but oh well snow, grit and rain with daily usage makes it hard to keep clean always:
I also fitted the FRPP air-oil separator, an incredibly easy install taking about two minutes and looks completely stock because it is an OEM part:
I cannot give you any driving feedback until maybe later or a few days, that will follow!
So what is left?
1. Fit spacers & mud flaps to prevent paint from stone rash.
2. Fit tubular FRPP anti-roll bars.
3. Change colour of wheels to a shade of grey, un-decided.
4. Maybe de-chrome car.
5. POWER!
6. New wheels/tyres once these tyres are shot.
So what I had planned is very nearly completed.
P.S. Car has 6" ground clearance to front splitter.
P.S.1 I trial fitted the 23mm rear spacers, they took the rear of wheels meaning about 1-2mm needs removing from studs, 25mm fit fine.
Gibbo205 said:
Next we moved onto rear, removing rear dampers is so easy, talking 5 minutes per side, but getting the rear springs out what an absolute nightmare, most of the rear suspension needed to be dismantled and giant pri-bar to give the clearance required to get those springs out, achieving it in my driveway would of bring near impossible. This took at least 2hr.
I guess this isn't how you did it then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLDfDgDACMg#t=12m1...Hopefully the weather is good this weekend so I can get all my subframe bits fitted but I'll be waiting till I get it on a ramp before tackling the springs.
The vid makes it look relatively easy but your description has me wondering now....
Liking those stripes though!
Edited by Centurion07 on Thursday 4th February 21:51
Centurion07 said:
I guess this isn't how you did it then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLDfDgDACMg#t=12m1...
Hopefully the weather is good this weekend so I can get all my subframe bits fitted but I'll be waiting till I get it on a ramp before tackling the springs.
The vid makes it look relatively easy but your description has me wondering now....
Liking those stripes though!
Was not keen on completely removing subframe, did remove the two rear bolts for extra clearance. Hopefully the weather is good this weekend so I can get all my subframe bits fitted but I'll be waiting till I get it on a ramp before tackling the springs.
The vid makes it look relatively easy but your description has me wondering now....
Liking those stripes though!
Edited by Centurion07 on Thursday 4th February 21:51
Gibbo..
What Mud Flaps are you fitting..? Not many options that I am aware of.. And massively ovepriced on the ones that are..
The cars do suffer from a lot of rash, particularly behind the Doors (edit: Dorris) where the rear quarter starts to bulge.
Also, I would recommend adding some 3M clear door protection tape to the front and rear edges of the arches.
I have a set of the RPI guards, but am yet to fit them.. $50 for a basic cut out flat ABS plastic flap. Half the price of others though. I have been waiting out for others to be released.
http://www.rpidesigns.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=54...
What Mud Flaps are you fitting..? Not many options that I am aware of.. And massively ovepriced on the ones that are..
The cars do suffer from a lot of rash, particularly behind the Doors (edit: Dorris) where the rear quarter starts to bulge.
Also, I would recommend adding some 3M clear door protection tape to the front and rear edges of the arches.
I have a set of the RPI guards, but am yet to fit them.. $50 for a basic cut out flat ABS plastic flap. Half the price of others though. I have been waiting out for others to be released.
http://www.rpidesigns.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=54...
Edited by bridgdav on Thursday 4th February 23:23
bridgdav said:
Gibbo..
What Mud Flaps are you fitting..? Not many options that I am aware of.. And massively ovepriced on the ones that are..
The cars do suffer from a lot of rash, particularly behind the Dorris where the rear quarter starts to bulge.
Also, I would recommend adding some 3M clear door protection tape to the front and rear edges of the arches.
I have a set of the RPI guards, but am yet to fit them.. $50 for a basic cut out flat ABS plastic flap. Half the price of others though. I have been waiting out for others to be released.
http://www.rpidesigns.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=54...
Yes I have RPI on the way. What Mud Flaps are you fitting..? Not many options that I am aware of.. And massively ovepriced on the ones that are..
The cars do suffer from a lot of rash, particularly behind the Dorris where the rear quarter starts to bulge.
Also, I would recommend adding some 3M clear door protection tape to the front and rear edges of the arches.
I have a set of the RPI guards, but am yet to fit them.. $50 for a basic cut out flat ABS plastic flap. Half the price of others though. I have been waiting out for others to be released.
http://www.rpidesigns.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=54...
Gibbo205 said:
LukeSi said:
Car looks lovely, got a massive soft spot for the yank stuff and these have really piequed my interest. No chance of affording one any time soon but eventually maybe. Noticed your very local to me, one of the pictures is XJK in Newcastle isn't it?
Don't suppose there is any chance of a cheeky ride / nose at it at some point? Lovely lovely cars haha.
Yes XJK are superb guys!Don't suppose there is any chance of a cheeky ride / nose at it at some point? Lovely lovely cars haha.
I work at www.overclockers.co.uk feel free to visit any time, pop in our shop and ask for me and I shall show you around the car no problem.
Sorry for off topic, great work with the car.
Gandahar said:
When I started reading this post I thought of that Gibbo, or Don Gibbo should one say, off the forum and you are the same. Thanks for always trying to get the video card info out whilst keeping the manufacturers happy. When is the next NVidia range due now? My 970 is getting a bit long in the tooth with it's 3.5GB RAM .. grrrr, NVidia monkeys short changing me.
Sorry for off topic, great work with the car.
Nothing really being confirmed by NVIDIA, expect to way a few more months yet, might see a Fury X2 from AMD in the meanwhile but again no confirmation of dates sorry. Sorry for off topic, great work with the car.
Hi there
Tyre is no longer partially hidden in the rear arch now car is at normal load.
As you can clearly see the desired gap between tyre and arch is now present. Car artificially still looks lower in back than front, I say artificial as front is actually sitting lower, 1" drop in rear and 1.25" in front. The illusion is due to lack of spacers, the front can easily accomodate upto a 25mm spacer without poking. The rear however only needs a marginal spacer, I'd say as low as 12mm to be honest, as such I believe my 25/23mm spacers I will not use as they will give to much poke with my allignment settings. So I shall try a 8-10mm in the rear and look at a 15-18mm for the front.
If anyone is interested in the 25/23mm spacers let me know, probably best quality spacers out there.
So I can confirm ride comfort is improved, road noise even seems less and I have no idea how to explain that, but nonetheless is improved. Steering weight is increased so normal mode now feels like sport mode with the added benefit are increased feel, steering really is now super spot on, its got great feel and superb weighting in comfort and normal mode, sport mode is now pretty damn heavy.
All bounce, jiggle is eliminated and the car feels glued to the road at higher speeds, I've not really tried pushing the handling yet but in short more grip everywhere, car is more responsive to inputs, feels lighter on its feet, it feels like a proper sports car now it really does. But I just can't get over how well it rides, I have never lowered a car and had improved comfort, now it just glides over bumps and at higher speeds it is like they are not there. Hitting bigger holes/dips in the road have a slightly more firmer feel, not really a negative but maybe to some.
But hard to test in rush traffic but wet roads and car is simply turning in better, has way more traction on corner exit and feels faster (its not) but being closer to ground no doubt helps with that, though it is still super refined. Of course all of this may not be simply down to fitting of new parts, the alignment could be playing a big role and I spent a long time experimenting with camber, caster and toe on the M3 to see how they impact road and track driving. Hence to some my alignment settings for the Mustang might look a little tame, but that is because I want the car super capable on the road, even in the wet. This is not a track setup but is setup purely for maximum road performance and it seems to be working well, but like I say I cannot let you know how much is down to my alignment settings and how much is down to new parts.
In short the car has improved in every area from what I did yesterday, no negatives at all, will be interesting to see how the lighter and larger anti-roll bars impact handling and ride comfort. Because the stock roll bars do seem to be working very well with the lower suspension as body roll is vastly reduced and braking dive is all but gone.
Super impressed!
Tyre is no longer partially hidden in the rear arch now car is at normal load.
As you can clearly see the desired gap between tyre and arch is now present. Car artificially still looks lower in back than front, I say artificial as front is actually sitting lower, 1" drop in rear and 1.25" in front. The illusion is due to lack of spacers, the front can easily accomodate upto a 25mm spacer without poking. The rear however only needs a marginal spacer, I'd say as low as 12mm to be honest, as such I believe my 25/23mm spacers I will not use as they will give to much poke with my allignment settings. So I shall try a 8-10mm in the rear and look at a 15-18mm for the front.
If anyone is interested in the 25/23mm spacers let me know, probably best quality spacers out there.
So I can confirm ride comfort is improved, road noise even seems less and I have no idea how to explain that, but nonetheless is improved. Steering weight is increased so normal mode now feels like sport mode with the added benefit are increased feel, steering really is now super spot on, its got great feel and superb weighting in comfort and normal mode, sport mode is now pretty damn heavy.
All bounce, jiggle is eliminated and the car feels glued to the road at higher speeds, I've not really tried pushing the handling yet but in short more grip everywhere, car is more responsive to inputs, feels lighter on its feet, it feels like a proper sports car now it really does. But I just can't get over how well it rides, I have never lowered a car and had improved comfort, now it just glides over bumps and at higher speeds it is like they are not there. Hitting bigger holes/dips in the road have a slightly more firmer feel, not really a negative but maybe to some.
But hard to test in rush traffic but wet roads and car is simply turning in better, has way more traction on corner exit and feels faster (its not) but being closer to ground no doubt helps with that, though it is still super refined. Of course all of this may not be simply down to fitting of new parts, the alignment could be playing a big role and I spent a long time experimenting with camber, caster and toe on the M3 to see how they impact road and track driving. Hence to some my alignment settings for the Mustang might look a little tame, but that is because I want the car super capable on the road, even in the wet. This is not a track setup but is setup purely for maximum road performance and it seems to be working well, but like I say I cannot let you know how much is down to my alignment settings and how much is down to new parts.
In short the car has improved in every area from what I did yesterday, no negatives at all, will be interesting to see how the lighter and larger anti-roll bars impact handling and ride comfort. Because the stock roll bars do seem to be working very well with the lower suspension as body roll is vastly reduced and braking dive is all but gone.
Super impressed!
looks really good, wasn't a fan when they first let the design slip but given a little time i am now a fan of this shape. saw a red one come against me in traffic last week and i did stop and stare, if they continue this and start introducing a boss or similar in a rhd i might come back to the ford side in a few years.
Gibbo205 said:
Gandahar said:
When I started reading this post I thought of that Gibbo, or Don Gibbo should one say, off the forum and you are the same. Thanks for always trying to get the video card info out whilst keeping the manufacturers happy. When is the next NVidia range due now? My 970 is getting a bit long in the tooth with it's 3.5GB RAM .. grrrr, NVidia monkeys short changing me.
Sorry for off topic, great work with the car.
Nothing really being confirmed by NVIDIA, expect to way a few more months yet, might see a Fury X2 from AMD in the meanwhile but again no confirmation of dates sorry. Sorry for off topic, great work with the car.
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