LOL, all I remembered was that you had non-Hotchkis...

 

I test drove a new Mustang GT 6MT today, with the 3.55 rear gears.

Interesting car. Both awesome and cheap as ****... at the same time. Not at all worth the $42,000 sticker.

 

Yeah, not really worth more than 35k to me.

The interior is nice for what it is but the performance is definitely worth it. I prefer the package with 3.73 gears and really like the look and feel of the toggle switches.

 

Switches actually have a cheap feel to them, but they look really nice.

In fact, that kind of sums up the entire car: Cheap, but looks nice. There were so many fit & finish fails on the car. Hood was rubbing on the fender corner, trunk was literally 1/4" out of alignment. Panel gaps were HUGE. And those stupid hood creases are OK enough from the outside, but from the driver's seat it looks really, really dumb. From the inside, the car felt awkwardly long and flat. With a beltline at your freaking ears, just like the (horrible) Camaro.

Seats had very little thigh and side bolstering, without adjustment. Seats felt fat compared to our sport seating. However, having cooled seats in the summer time is such an awesome thing. Kind of shocked to experience that in a Mustang.

Shifter was good, although tacky looking. And you really need to shift hard to make the gears without mis-shifting (that could just be me, LOL). Clutch was way too soft, and engages immediately at the top. Didn't like the clutch pedal at all.

Power was undeniable, however. Absolutely faster than our cars, in every single gear at every speed. And given all the settings for comfort/sport/track, I can't see any reason why you would drive it in anything other than track, except for a long highway commute. The non-Track settings seemed pointless.

Oh, and the exhaust note was only so-so, until put into track mode. Then it was quite nice... but still not as nice as the Fast Intentions exhaust note. Not even close.

 

As long as I feel like I'm in a fighter jet.

Well, for the performance you get you have to let some of the other things go.


Recaro's or bust.

I like the gear shifter but its something you have to get used to. The trans in the gt500 is better though.

Murica.

Yup, but a simple $400 axelback and you got great sound unlike us where we have to spend $1500 and it still doesn't compare.

 

Sounds like you've got a compromise ready-made for every consideration. And yes, that simple axle-back sounds amazing... can't deny that.

All I wanted to do was stop in and see the car. The salesman is the one who offered the test-drive. And I didn't have any negative preconceptions. On the contrary, I expected to like the car a lot more than I did, considering how sweet it looks from the walk-around (before you look close-up at the lack of build quality.)

Truth is, although my G is unquestionably slower, it doesn't matter. It's a more appealing drive to me. When I got back into my Infiniti, I distinctly felt like I had the better car...

...which is completely opposite of my experience with the Jaguar F-Type S. The Jag made my car feel both slow and cheap.

 

So, I put on my Invidia Q300. Man, am I disappointed. Car is OEM quiet and I don't notice a single performance difference. Oh well, I guess ART pipes will come sooner.

 

Yeah, most catbacks (aside from the GTHAUS) are pretty subdued until you free up the cats bottleneck. The price we pay as sedan owners.

 

The Invidia is probably the quietest catback. It will get a little louder after it breaks in.

If noise is what you're after, slip a couple thin washers in between the flanges of the mid/tail pipes

 

Well, getting the most out of my tune is what I was after plus how great the setup looks. I got am extemely good deal on the catback and r2c intake.I figured whatever I do to my cats will make me happy in the sound department.

 

Similarly, if all you have are resonated cats with the OEM catback, the sound will remain relatively the same. Although you will experience more power gain with aftermarket cats only, vs aftermarket exhaust only. (Non-resonated cats are louder. Just are.)

The best bolt-on sound is when you mod both components of the exhaust. And the best overall sound is when you do both of those in combination with a tune.

 

So would anyone have an opinion on sound of say a cheaper Top Speed axle back compared to the Invidia Q300? I see that the Invidia has the y pipe. How would that change the sound? Looking for something with a deeper rumble no really louder.

 

You could try an intake like R2C.

 

For the price the TopSpeed has very good sound, deeper tone, no rasp, but the typical drone in the 1500-1800 rpm window. Been a great purchase for me, had it for 4 years + IIRC.

 

Finally picked these bad boys up yesterday, and since weather was holding up I figured I'd slap them on. Took maybe an hour to install (I decided to clean the area where they go) I am very satisfied with the JDM tails, I love the way they break up the red in the rear, simple yet effective!!