This is no ‘67! 2015 GT Auto premium, Ruby Red

I was reading your previous note about the larger brakes needing more inside rim clearance. That was interesting. I figure in 10-20,000 km from now (10 covid summers) I will be looking at a full brake kit all around. All good info to know as I prepare. Not in need of major stopping power for what I do but do not mind a little better quality in parts so they last longer without redoing the work sooner. Thanks again.
 
Finished alignment and updating the computer just after 5.
Went for little shake down run.
Even small town Grand Falls has a bit of a rush hour at that time of day.
So not able to really push.
That’s ok because brakes not beded in yet and new gears in diff so taking it easy is de rigueur.

Sound is amazing.
Docile and passenger friendly at idle but authoritative and, yah, a good loud on the boil.
No drone at all.
Highly recommend these mufflers, available cat back or axle back, for 2015 and newer GT’s if you want passenger friendly and good loud under power.

Brakes feel great.
I already had stainless braided lines.
Very easy to modulate.

Transmission shifted great.
No issues related to new gear ratio.
Did one WOT pull in sport mode to see if the shifts would occur at or near redline, as they should with the tune.
Happy the report the shifts went off smoothly right at 6500 redline.
Victory!

Did not get on the brakes enough or find enough corners to carve to comment on the cowl extension or the K member brace.
But if it’s going to be anything like improvements on my 06 with similar mods, I have no doubt they are going to make an appreciable difference.
 
MC Stanger said:
I was reading your previous note about the larger brakes needing more inside rim clearance. That was interesting. I figure in 10-20,000 km from now (10 covid summers) I will be looking at a full brake kit all around. All good info to know as I prepare. Not in need of major stopping power for what I do but do not mind a little better quality in parts so they last longer without redoing the work sooner. Thanks again.
Click to expand...

You’re welcome.
I’m not trying to push anything but your comment is timely.
Is your car an ecoboost by any chance?
Reason I ask is because the base GT brakes are a very good upgrade for non PP ecoboost models.
In fact, the brakes that come on ecoboost PP models are the regular GT brakes.
If you don’t plan on track days, you will not come close to the limit of the GT brakes on an ecoboost.
In fact, if no track events, even GT’s won’t reach the limits of their base brakes.
They are very good.
I upgraded because I will attend track days.

All this to say I would like to see my old brakes re-used/re-cycled.
I would sell at a good price.
As you can see in above pictures, they are in excellent shape.
Rotors and callipers alike new.
Pads also in excellent shape.
I kept the rear pads for future use.

You would just need an 18 inch or bigger wheel.
Just putting it out there.
 
This is the alignment print out.
Last year I had 1.4 neg. camber on left side and 1.2 on tight side.
I wanted to address this to have 1.4 on each side.
This was easily achieved with the Maximum Motorsport caster-camber plates.
The tech said they were smooth and worked well.
They moved easily to dial in the desired camber.
So easy in fact that he did not realize that they do caster and camber at the same time.
In his concentration to get the camber spot on he missed the fact that caster went up a bit on left side from last setting.
Up to 7.5 degrees from 6.9.

He is used to setting my 06 alignment and on those CC plates, the caster and camber adjust independently of each other by loosening different nuts.
He thought these were the same so he did not pay attention to caster.

I only picked up on it when he handed me the pictured printout once he was done.
He offered to re-do it but it was late and it is still all well within specs so I decided to try it out first to see how it was.
It drove quite well actually.
Responsive, so I’m good with it.
It’s staying.

D38C6EE8-04B1-477B-9A6F-37758FAF1C3F.jpeg
 
Note on extra weight of new diff.
If it is 30-35 lbs heavier, that is pretty much equivalent to the weight savings of deleting the resonator on the exhaust system.
Advertised weight savings of that is around 30 lbs.
So pretty weight neutral between those two items.
If anything, final result may be more neutral weight distribution by removing 30 from under driver’s seat and adding 30-35 to rear axle.
 
Thank you both.

Left it at dealership last night
Tech wanted to make sure no leaks anywhere.
Brakes and diff all good this morning after shake down run yesterday and sitting overnight.
Put it on lift first thing this morning and all is good.
Coming home tonight. ?
 
Hit some curves on way home to get a feel for front end.
Feels very good.
Confident.
Felt smoother on rough spots.
Like less vibration or harmonics through the chassis.
Steering felt stable.

Still very happy with the sound.
Very mild at low rpm but good character on acceleration.
Deep sound with the H pipe

Paid attention to gears.
They make a difference.
Accelerates quicker. Pulls harder.
Especially from 2nd on up.
Nice feeling. ??
 
Went for little cruise today.
Took this video of cold start before leaving garage.
Sorry I don’t have a before but I love the after.
The before was quite tame.
Resonator delete only with OE mufflers.

This is H pipe resonator delete with Ford Performance by Borla touring mufflers as documented above.

Very pleased with result.
Very occupant friendly once warmed up at idle, sitting in traffic or steady speed cruising.
Not much louder than stock.
But come alive with nice authoritative sound when stomping hard on the go pedal.
Not as loud as long tubes but definitely noticeable in and out of the car.

 
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I got a personalized plate for the car.
Could have made it interactive by holding a pol beforehand but I would not have abided by it unless my choice got the most votes.

But maybe we can have a bit of fun before I reveal it.

Obviously, there were the usual choices of year, model and or colour plates such as:
15RBYGT
RUBY GT or
RUBYRED

There were also choices based on the vastly improved handling abilities of the car since the work I did on it.
Taken from the fact that it’s an accomplished Corner Carver:
GTCARVR
PNYCRVR
CARVNGT or
CRVNPNY

Then there was this unique plate I had seen years ago in Ontario or BC.
I forget which actually.
Thought it was cool and if it was available in NB, why not?
That plate was:
WRKD4IT

I whittled it down to a short list before I consulted my wife and son for final decision.
15RBYGT
CARVNGT
CRVNPNY and
WRKD4IT

Do any of you care to venture any guesses as to which one I ended up going with?
I’ll reveal tomorrow.
 
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