Need more speed? Mustang upgrade has that and more
Ford Mustang owners aren’t the only ones who love late nights in the garage working to wring more speed out of their pony cars. So does the engineering team that developed the 2018 version of the world’s best-selling sports car.
The result: Performance Pack Level 2, a $6,500 set of options engineers developed working after hours and grabbing unused minutes in Ford wind tunnels to take the Mustang ’s handling and grip to new levels.
It’s the second major performance upgrade announced for the Mustang in a week, following a new GT package that accelerates to 60 mph in less than four seconds. Both should help Mustang compete against its archrivals, Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger.
Performance Pack 2 is less about straight-line acceleration than steering, braking, grip and aerodynamics. It has a six-speed manual instead of the mainline GT’s 10-speed automatic, so it won’t be the fastest Mustang to
60 mph, but it should take the
460-horsepower GT’s handling on road courses closer to the 526horsepower, 5.2-liter Shelby GT
350.
Mustang fans can order it on a Mustang GT with a 5-liter engine now for delivery next spring. There’s no rush, because PP2 in- cludes Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 “streetable track and competition” tires, which are street legal but designed for use on tracks in dry weather and temperatures well above freezing.
The package also includes specially tuned antilock brakes and stability control, MagneRide adaptive shock absorbers, redesigned front splitter and rear spoiler, stiffened springs and stabilizer bars.
The new splitter and spoiler increase aerodynamic downforce on the car to keep it stable at high speeds. At 80 mph, they generate
24 pounds of downforce, the exact opposite of the aerodynamic lift some vehicles develop at speed.
The engineering team used a
3-D printer to make prototypes of the spoiler and other parts that ended up in the PP2.
Ford’s formal plan for the 2018 Mustang didn’t include any of the features in Performance Pack 2, but like countless Mustang fans before them, the engineering team didn’t know when to stop.
“A passion to create something special is what really drove this project,” Mustang vehicle engineering manager Tom Barnes said. “That really showed in the off-the-clock way we went about doing our work.”
Key members of the team included tire and wheel expert Chauncy Eggleston; aerodynamics specialist Jonathan Gesek; and dynamics boss Jamie Cullen.
“It will just beg you to go faster,” Cullen said.