MAV
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I took delivery this week, and the car was everything I thought it would be...and more! It's really an interesting combination of muscle, refinement, technology, grit, beauty, and brutality. To me, the most accurate description of this car can be summed by the elegance of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt when she said, "America is all about speed. Hot, nasty, bad-ass speed." 
For example, this car is completely full of loud, raw, mean, ugly power when you want it to be, and then you can shift into 6th, and cruise down the interstate at 70 and be just as comfortable and quiet as you want to be.
The car is smooth. Smooth like warm butter. Smooth like a baby's ass. Everything just feels so tight and firmly connected, and that translates into smoothness in the connection between the driver and the car. There's no "jerkiness" in throttle response - the power just rolls on in such a linear fashion. Even with that jump at 3500-4000 RPM, it doesn't occur as abruptly as the graph would have you believe.
And then there are the brakes...the car just stops when you get on them. Just stops. Instantly. Period. No drama, no shudder, no complaining. And then you have to scrape your eyeballs off the windshield.
Body roll is non-existent. I mean that. Some reviews talk about how it's there, but it's so gradual you don't notice it. Well, if you don't notice it, then it's not there. IF..and that's a big if..IF the body were to roll into a turn, by the time you notice it, you're already through the turn. So just forget about it. It's a non-issue. Next topic.
Bumps, yeah you can feel them, but again, the car is so solid that the entire car absorbs the impact, so you're not feeling like it's all being hammered into the front suspension. You feel small imperfections in the road, but you aren't bothered by them. The car handles them for you, and gives you a subtle feedback letting you know that "I've got this" for you.
A minor niggle, which isn't even the car's fault, is the wandering it wants to do in cupped pavement. The wide tires want to ride in those ruts, and that is manifested in some twitchiness in the steering wheel, but it's not unsettling, and again, it's a function of the tires, not the car.
The sounds are incredible. You can get loud in Sport exhaust mode, and then you can select Normal mode and be just as quiet and docile as your grandfather's Buick. It really is a night-and-day difference. I didn't think I would be interested in Sport mode as much as I am, simply because loud for the sake of being loud usually isn't my thing, but at highway speeds, dropping a gear and hammering it for a few seconds is simply intoxicating.
I put it on my lift last night to change the oil and install the front splitter. Both were challenges. I can see why so many dealerships are screwing up the splitter install. It's not as easy as the Ford video makes it out to be (not impossible, though), and I was thankful for my shop lift last night as I did it. I'd hate to try to do it crawling around on the ground.
Changing the oil is straightforward, but the filter location is hampered by the belly pan. You can reach it easy enough, either from the door located in the pan, or from the driver's side reaching above the pan. However, there is simply no way to keep oil from getting *everywhere* when you loosen the filter. And the bad part is that any that gets caught by the belly pan is going to immediately spread throughout the top of the pan, and you can't reach all the places it goes to wipe it up.
I tested the torque needed to remove the factory-installed filter. It took 30 ft-lbs of force to get the filter to move initially. Well above the recommended torque specs printed clearly on the top of the filter. I haven't had a chance to cut the filter open to see the initial crapload of crap trapped in it, but I'll try to get to that this weekend.
Some other observations I noticed while under the car: the rear diff cooler does utilize an electric pump (there was some question about this somewhere previously), and the cooling radiator is a long, thin device that gets cooling from two air ducts in the rear pan. If Ford Performance ever offers an aluminum center section with 4.09s preloaded that will withstand the extra power of the 5.2, I'll probably get one. The cast iron carrier must be extremely heavy.
Overall, I just don't think I could be more pleased - or have been more surprised by how pleased I actually am - with this car. When you read reviews in the car rags, you assume they're just praising a car that was already praiseworthy to begin with, or otherwise it wouldn't be the focus of an article in a magazine. In this case, they all got it right. I've had the privilege of owning some decent cars over the years, and none of them are as good as this car, even by half. I can't believe Ford is the one that finally got it right! :ford:
For example, this car is completely full of loud, raw, mean, ugly power when you want it to be, and then you can shift into 6th, and cruise down the interstate at 70 and be just as comfortable and quiet as you want to be.
The car is smooth. Smooth like warm butter. Smooth like a baby's ass. Everything just feels so tight and firmly connected, and that translates into smoothness in the connection between the driver and the car. There's no "jerkiness" in throttle response - the power just rolls on in such a linear fashion. Even with that jump at 3500-4000 RPM, it doesn't occur as abruptly as the graph would have you believe.
And then there are the brakes...the car just stops when you get on them. Just stops. Instantly. Period. No drama, no shudder, no complaining. And then you have to scrape your eyeballs off the windshield.
Body roll is non-existent. I mean that. Some reviews talk about how it's there, but it's so gradual you don't notice it. Well, if you don't notice it, then it's not there. IF..and that's a big if..IF the body were to roll into a turn, by the time you notice it, you're already through the turn. So just forget about it. It's a non-issue. Next topic.
Bumps, yeah you can feel them, but again, the car is so solid that the entire car absorbs the impact, so you're not feeling like it's all being hammered into the front suspension. You feel small imperfections in the road, but you aren't bothered by them. The car handles them for you, and gives you a subtle feedback letting you know that "I've got this" for you.
A minor niggle, which isn't even the car's fault, is the wandering it wants to do in cupped pavement. The wide tires want to ride in those ruts, and that is manifested in some twitchiness in the steering wheel, but it's not unsettling, and again, it's a function of the tires, not the car.
The sounds are incredible. You can get loud in Sport exhaust mode, and then you can select Normal mode and be just as quiet and docile as your grandfather's Buick. It really is a night-and-day difference. I didn't think I would be interested in Sport mode as much as I am, simply because loud for the sake of being loud usually isn't my thing, but at highway speeds, dropping a gear and hammering it for a few seconds is simply intoxicating.
I put it on my lift last night to change the oil and install the front splitter. Both were challenges. I can see why so many dealerships are screwing up the splitter install. It's not as easy as the Ford video makes it out to be (not impossible, though), and I was thankful for my shop lift last night as I did it. I'd hate to try to do it crawling around on the ground.
Changing the oil is straightforward, but the filter location is hampered by the belly pan. You can reach it easy enough, either from the door located in the pan, or from the driver's side reaching above the pan. However, there is simply no way to keep oil from getting *everywhere* when you loosen the filter. And the bad part is that any that gets caught by the belly pan is going to immediately spread throughout the top of the pan, and you can't reach all the places it goes to wipe it up.
I tested the torque needed to remove the factory-installed filter. It took 30 ft-lbs of force to get the filter to move initially. Well above the recommended torque specs printed clearly on the top of the filter. I haven't had a chance to cut the filter open to see the initial crapload of crap trapped in it, but I'll try to get to that this weekend.
Some other observations I noticed while under the car: the rear diff cooler does utilize an electric pump (there was some question about this somewhere previously), and the cooling radiator is a long, thin device that gets cooling from two air ducts in the rear pan. If Ford Performance ever offers an aluminum center section with 4.09s preloaded that will withstand the extra power of the 5.2, I'll probably get one. The cast iron carrier must be extremely heavy.
Overall, I just don't think I could be more pleased - or have been more surprised by how pleased I actually am - with this car. When you read reviews in the car rags, you assume they're just praising a car that was already praiseworthy to begin with, or otherwise it wouldn't be the focus of an article in a magazine. In this case, they all got it right. I've had the privilege of owning some decent cars over the years, and none of them are as good as this car, even by half. I can't believe Ford is the one that finally got it right! :ford:
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