[Shelby Cobra]

Girls and Guys I am here to ask your opinions on a few minor mods for my gt500. I just got my 2012 saturday and it was not planned at all so I never did any research on the car. I am coming off a 2010 2ss 6sp camaro and knew everything about what mods to buy. Now I am starting over and don't know which is the best.

I am looking at keeping it simple because I already have a drag car, 2 new car payments and a boat so nothing to crazy in the mod department. I am going to purchase before spring a cold air intake, exhaust, pulley possibly, possible gear change(if it helps to move up to 3.73)and if needed a better drive shaft.

First question is will it be worth it to put a full exhaust on? I had full kooks on my Camaro but wanted to go back to SLP loudmouth. I had that on a previous car and loved the sound but then that would only be axle back. If there isn't much hp gain then I have no problem going with axle backs. Also what cold air intake is best? I appreciate any suggestions and hope everyone enjoys there Thanksgiving.

 

[Mainn]

I'd just go with axlebacks on an otherwise stock car. There is no point getting full exhaust just yet I don't think.

The best CAI in my opinion is the JLT 123mm. Reasonable price yet delivers a lot of power for the money.

Also, you will need to buy a tune. Good tuners are Jon Lund and VMP. Take a look at VMPtuning and RevanRacing, the two forum sponsors, they are a great help.

Also, welcome to the forums! Everyone here is nice and helpful, you'll get loads of great advice.

 

[Black2012 gt500]

For the air intake, I personally have the non oiled airaid filter.....the other stuff I have no clue on as mine is still pretty much all stock ha

 

[Goose17]

I think the exhaust on the 11+ is great straight from the factory. Also, the car has a cold air intake on it already. I think the $ would be better spent on pully/tune.

 

[topsales]

The pulley, intake, tune combo is fairly reasonable considering it delivers close to a 90-100rwhp gain, the package can be had for 900-1000 bucks.
Full exhaust wouldn't be necessary as there wouldn't be a real rwhp gain with a catback system, so I would just go with your axle backs
Brand wise, JLT for intake, VMP's stock look pulley and an SCT tuner-I run a Lund tune and I've bought everything from Van at revanracing.com

 

[007snake]

A lot of pepole on here have done the axle back and then ended up removing the cats and deciding it was too loud. All the cars I hang around with have the off road h pipes and my axle back was not aggressive enough sounding. So, you can listen to sound clips or better yet maybe check out cars local to your area in person, I would suggest going to an off road h or x and leave the stock axle back on....just something to think about so you do not have to do anything twice. The search feature will help you a lot, I have spent countless hours on here researching my purchases. Welcome to the forum, you will love the wealth of information and enjoy your bad ass car!!!

 

[Shelby Cobra]

Awesome thanks everyone and I will begin figuring out what I want to order now!!

 

[Ray Lucca]

Congrats on the New ride, you are going to love it:
Does your '12 have the SVT Package?? If yes, you have 3.73 gears
You have a factory cold air system. Order the Ford Racing "Resonator Delete" for better flow and Blower whine. Most also buy the Airraid Non-oiled Filter in Blue or Red
No-drill Hood Struts from Redline or NXT
Write down the Vin# and any Ford Dealer can run you a Free "Oasis Report", which will give you the full history on the car.
Exhaust: Start with Axlebacks, Ford Racing, Borla, and I especially like the MMS Axlebacks from Mackenzie Mustang over on the Team Shelby site. They have a deep muscle car sound.
Drive it, get used to it, then contact Van at Revan Racing and BJ from VMP Tuning for Pulley, Idler, and Tune options....
The BEST time of the year to buy Mods is this week-end.... Good luck....

 

[Catmonkey]

I agree with Ray. Nothing wrong with the OEM intake once you get the resonator delete from Ford Racing. You're in no danger of pegging the MAF with the stock supercharger.

 

[Mctag]

2.59 pulley and 90 idler & Tune from VMP or Lund

Airaid blue filter

Res delete from frpp

MGW shifter

CR Dual fan heat exchanger from revan racing or check out the new one from Steeda that is 20% off with free shipping on Black Friday.

Better rear tires.


Sent from my iPhone using AutoGuide.com App

 

[PNSTPS]

SLP Loudmouth w/muffer deletes is sooo choice..........

 

[69bossnine]

I like Mctag's simple but effective list best.

Since you placed an emphasis on spending money wisely, don't spend a dime on exhaust. The HP/$$ ratio stinks, and I've yet to hear an aftermarket cat-back that doesn't make the car sound more truck-like. All it is is louder, but not better imho.. You lose the crispness of the factory sound. Now with your Camaro, sure, you wanted to do exhaust because the factory system is way too subdued. There's nothing subdued about the stock sound of your GT500, so SAVE YOUR MONEY.

I also find the driveshaft upgrade a strange choice when budget is key...

3.73's will just exacerbate your traction issues, you'll just be less-effective on the street. The 3.73's in the SVTPP is nothing more than a mathmatical adjustment to counteract the taller wheel/tire combo on the rear of the SVTPP cars. The EFFECTIVE ratio isn't that much different between the cars, so just keep your stock ratio unless you're planning to mount up slicks and hit the strip... But you already have a drag car, right?

So for pure bang-for-the-buck, not a dime squandered, hit up a pulley/tune option, along with a res-delete and a decent filter (although I went back to the stock filter because I didn't like the way the mesh filters subtly confuses the air flowing past the sensor, there's no screen at the exit of most aftermarket filters).

Congrats!!

 

[Colleton]

OK, I'll be the contrarian...

Take 6 months to drive the car and get to know it for what it is before spending a dime on it. You may decide that you don't need to mod it at all.

You already have a drag car, and the '12 GT500, AS IS, is an exceptional street car. Any power mods you make are just going to make it harder to drive on the street. Just relax and enjoy it for what it is.

My 2¢...

 

[69bossnine]

Any power mods you make are just going to make it harder to drive on the street.

??... I'm at 660 rwhp with the TVS, and it's street behavior is indiscernible from new/stock. Of course, the further you push the pedal, the crazier things get. But for normal driving, the car is just as smooth and seamless as it was before a single bolt got turned..

With the right choices of mods, you can have immense power without sacrificing one ounce of "NVH"..

Pulley/tune doesn't change anything with regard to how the car behaves.

It's nothing like modding a GM, where cam swaps are most common and streetability suffers.

My car is as tame as a kitten and as refined as Queen Elizabeth.

 

[grayghost]

OK, I'll be the contrarian...

Take 6 months to drive the car and get to know it for what it is before spending a dime on it. You may decide that you don't need to mod it at all.

You already have a drag car, and the '12 GT500, AS IS, is an exceptional street car. Any power mods you make are just going to make it harder to drive on the street. Just relax and enjoy it for what it is.

My 2¢...

Colleton is 100% correct. The GT500 is absolutely perfect as-is for a street car, except for the rear tires.

All the other mods mentioned have extremely low value on the street because the existing power is more than the current tires can handle. Until you change the tires, everything else is useless.

Next is rear suspension. Again, because there is more power than the car can really handle, you're likely to experience wheel hop. So replace the rear lower control arms for the most cost effective mod to fix wheel hop during hard launches.

Next is exhaust. You only need an axle-back exhaust for a better Shelby sound (stock is weak). Sound is essential to enjoying a Shelby. There is no point changing anything else yet in the exhaust area because again - the car is street perfect as-is. I have 750HP at the engine and I haven't done anything to the exhaust except for the axle-back.

Next is cooling. Get a dual fan heat exchanger. It is not necessary for the street, but it is if you want to ever take it on a track or strip. This is the first and most important mod because the GT500s experience heat soak and you're going to lose power. Forget about the tune/pulley like the others suggest - again you have more power than you can handle right now - you just need to get the power to the ground, and prevent yourself from losing power.

Next are brakes if you are ever going to track the car. First get brake cooling ducts, then get better pads, then get dot4 brake fluid. The GT500 brakes experience brake fade in stock setup.

Next is transmission. GT500s experience the 1-2 shift grind, like all cars with the Tremec 6060 (Viper, Covette, Camaro). It's annoying but can be avoided by pausing for a fraction of a second when shifting into second. Fixes are: Joe Heck clutch line, Mobil 1 ATF transmission fluid and some aftermarket shifter.

Once you've done the above - THEN do power upgrades, and all other associated mods like driveshaft, fuel pump, MAF, air filter, spark plugs, tune, headers etc.

Once you've done power upgrades - THEN do suspension upgrades like coil-overs, torque arm, watts link.

To summarize, your mod order should be:

1. Tires
2. Rear Lower Control Arms
3. Axle Back Exhaust
4. Cooling
5. Brakes
6. Transmission
7. Power
8. Suspension
9. Weight Reduction

Numbers 1-6 are to fix what I believe are flaws of the GT500. 7-9 are the gravy.

 

[69bossnine]

All I've done are tires (Pilots)... And my 660 at the rear wheels plants great on the street (spin in 2nd on certain surfaces is manageable and car still digs), I have zero wheel hop (I've never had wheel hop with the SVTPP, but can't attest to non-SVTPP), and I think the notion that all of that nonsense should come BEFORE adding some cheap and easy horsepower is horse-hockey.

If you're not going to add any power, then just leave the car bone-stock and buy some better tires when you've gotten annoyed-enough with the Goodyears.

As for exhaust, it's a personal opinion. I just don't like anything that's too loud. Why advertise, it's like walking around in public shirtless...

Sounded to me that the OP just wanted to get a recipe for best bang/buck without getting into big-ticket stuff... You spend (I'm ballparking) $3700 of his dough before you get to step 7 Grayghost. I doubt that's the advice he was seeking...

 

[Colleton]

69bossnine: How's 1st gear working for you with the TVS? :cowsmile:

Stock GT500s have enough of a problem putting the power down without blowing the tires off. Power mods make this even more problematic. You can do suspension mods to mitigate it, but that's even more $$$.

JMO, no offense intended.

 

[Madlock]

First of all, take a deep breath and thank whatever deity you pray to for getting your mind right and dumping that road-going turd. Having already taken your first step toward recovery, I'll save you the rigmarole about what you were thinking (or smoking) when you decided to endorse failure at the expense of every legitimate car maker.

Second, realize there are almost literally as many unique GT500's as people who own them. SVT engineers did a phenomenal job of creating a very PC-like open platform you can make into anything you want but they've ALSO created one hell of an airtight package with phenomenal shelf life.

Unless there's something cosmetic you want to personalize, I'd STRONGLY suggest owning and driving your car for a year or more before bolting on everything the aftermarket thinks it did better. Then, and only then, begin researching them one at a time, weigh the opportunity cost versus leaving the car as-is, and go from there, but ONLY if there ALSO happens to be a specific outcome you like to achieve.

For example, the first thing many people want is to do whatever they can to make their live axle car behave like it doesn't have one. To others, the live axle is the whole point and taking away the ability to steer the rear of the car using the throttle as you steer the front with the wheel would kill just about everything that makes their cars worth owning.

You mention you'd like 3.73 gears. Does your car not have the SVT Performance Package? This a whole new ballpark in terms of torque. Even cars with 3.73 gears from the factory come with a 28" rear tire that effectively negates the quicker gearing because there's so much torque to spare, and they use an entirely different type of tire to keep them from vaporizing.

The very last thing you're going to want for is any kind of performance modification option. They're everywhere. Unlike other cars, this is one you must actually drive if you intend to use any of the performance that differentiates a GT500 from the GT or 302. Very little is numbed out or nannied away. Even WITH ESC, you need to take a far more active role in putting the spurs to THIS particular car than any other and it's important to know what you've got before deciding what you want it to be.

If you don't care about any of that, go ahead and buy the razziest exhaust and as much billet and carbon fiber as you can drill holes to bolt on and go.

With that said, two kinds of performance improvements will benefit ANY type of car - brakes and tires. You can upgrade to the front brakes to the 2013s' 6-piston 15" brakes for about $1,500 soup to nuts. Add some braided lines and Super DOT4 fluid and you're state of the art short of spending about $4K more to do the rears and add proportioning valves to share more of the load, but you'd be FAR better-off doing the rears after owning and driving your car for a considerable period in all sorts of circumstances.

As for tires, there are as many opinions as a-holes, but two facts hold true. Ford's OE tire choices are miserable, and can even be unsafe, until they fully heat-up and don't provide nearly enough traction to manage ALL the available torque when they do. Doing whatever you must to get at least 305's behind you will be a huge improvement if you also proportionately increase the front tires' width. So will a good set of UHP All-Season tires like Continental ExtremeContact DWS or Michelin PilotSport A/S that ALSO provide HUGE improvements in wear, comfort, and everyday street driving.

In fact, unless you happen to live where it's perpetually hot and intend to drag from every red light that stops you, I'd recommend making the UHP A/S tires your primaries and maintaining either the stock wheels and tires or a set of specialty wheels and tires for whenever you intend to use them rather than burning through a set of tires every 8,000 miles as the car rides like hell for more than half of them.

Not only can a full set of 19's or even 18's be had for a song, you'll probably enjoy your car one hell of a lot more while saving enough in tires you WOULD'VE chewed through to pay for just about anything else you'd ever want to do over the life of the car.

Once you DO start making modifications, stick to Ford Racing and then Shelby Performance, whenever you can.

Now that you've got your head squared away, just make sure it stays that way before you start thinking GM again and end up with an "Intervention" episode named after you. Enjoy.

 

[SilverSnake]

I am with the crowd that says leave the car the way it is for a while. For a street car, the 2012 is a monster in stock form. I have no idea what I would do with more power. I also happen to like everything else about the car just the way it is. I even like the Goodyear tires that everyone else hates. I also agree most people I see on the street should not be allowed to walk around in public shirtless.

 

[GregS]

I have an 11....that I love. Its a great car in stock form. I would drive it for a year or at least 6 months before you start moding.