My Impressions So far....LOOONG

[CAP1]

The little sixers like Dicho's MCA and mine come in at 305HP starting in 2011.  2010 GTs came with 310. The 2004 made 260 off the showroom floor. You can drive off in a base V6 Mustang coupe in the "teens" cost wise. For that money you're packing more power than the 2009 GT.

They're good performers and while I don't think they'd overwhelm a new driver they are definitely peppy. Enough that I've been to the track a few times now and for what I paid I can't feel at all bad about the performance I'm getting. Going back to the track tomorrow

Goal on street tires with zero mods in my convertible is 13.xx which should be around 103-4 mph.  Not bad for a sixer that pulled 30+ mpg on my trip home to Ohio last week.  If I had a coupe with taller gears (3.31 vs the 2.73s I have) and stickier tires (same as Caps) it would be no problem. The verts aren't made for that but if it went any faster I'd need a roll bar which is something I'm not going to do. No point cutting it up for that speed.

When the 11-12 GT500s are in the mid 30's then I've got my track day car.

(puts the tangent train back on the tracks)

 good points.

 the 80's gt's only were in the 225hp range. my 89 from ford was just that. my 83 5 liter was a screaming 175 or so.....and ran a blistering 15.5 at around 89mph bone stock.

 you're right to not cut anything up. the more i look at mine, the more i decide to just leave her as she is. there is nothing to change at all. same(in my opinion) goes for yours, and dichos. they are perfect cars.

 hey.....next time you're down this way, we gotta get pics of these cars together, then email em to dicho, so he can add his in. 

[Dichotomy]

I'd like to take mine out to a road course so I could bet a better feel for her than I get on the streets here.  I'm not willing to risk a ticket to find that out on public streets.  Not to mention that people are so unpredictable I don't want to splatter somebody in the attempt to satisfy my curiosity.  

Get them against a light solid background and I can probably ps all three of them together Cap

[Gman]

Well, as stated, I'm back from touring the Ford dealerships in town.  Not a lot of 2011 GT's on the lots at the moment.  I found one 2011 GT that is red (the Viper is red, and I don't want another red car), and unfortunately also a convertible, which I HATE.  I priced out and almost ordered a 2012 GT equipped exactly how I wanted it, and it came to 46,500 before federal tax/delivery/etc.  I nearly pulled the trigger on it until my sales girl (26, average looking, but REALLY knows her ess ech eye tee when it comes to the Mustangs) told me of a demo driven 2011 Shelby GT500 with 400+ KM (about 300 ish miles) on it in the back of one of their other dealerships.   She went and pulled it around and after looking it over, mulling it over, and reading for a couple hours about the Shelby's, I decided my first foray into the Pony cars after 38 years of being all about General Motors, Camaro's, Vette's, a couple Firebirds, and yes, a couple Mopar's thrown in here and there for a change - should begin with the best of the best.  

Deposit put down to hold it for me until tomorrow to give me a night to convince the missus that her new summer car for next year was too good of a deal to pass up.  We were 99% certain it would be a new Camaro, as I haven't had one of those since my 2002 Firebird ram air, but change can be good. For 1000$ more than the 2012 GT I had ordered up, I'm losing a model year, but I went in looking for a 2011 anyhow, and for 48000$ incl taxes, I'm now officially -at least tomorrow morning I will be joining the pony car ranks.  3.73 read end and the 5.4....Again, very much not what I thought I'd have been going with, but I'm more than happy, particularly with the deal they cut me.  I do have some concerns about how it may or may not have been driven for the first 425 km, but I was given pretty much the max warranty, and I'll follow my own personal break in schedule and hope for the best.

More/better pictures to follow tomorrow.  I'm so excited about this car I can't begin to tell you.  Yes, it's going into the storage garage with the Snake and my bike for probably the next 5 or 6 months, and driving the Duramax instead of the new pony today isn't doing my exercises in patience much good today..but what the hell!   .  My first emoticons too, haha.

edit - The shaker 1000 system is actually better than I expected for a factory jobby.  I'm reading through the manual right now.  I'm jealous that I'm not going to be getting nearly as much time to drive it as the wife due to my health issues....she might just end up with that Camaro, maybe even the V6 one (hahaha) and I'll take this one.

[Dichotomy]

AWESOME!!! Welcome to the club sir <S>

[CAP1]

Well, as stated, I'm back from touring the Ford dealerships in town.  Not a lot of 2011 GT's on the lots at the moment.  I found one 2011 GT that is red (the Viper is red, and I don't want another red car), and unfortunately also a convertible, which I HATE.  I priced out and almost ordered a 2012 GT equipped exactly how I wanted it, and it came to 46,500 before federal tax/delivery/etc.  I nearly pulled the trigger on it until my sales girl (26, average looking, but REALLY knows her ess ech eye tee when it comes to the Mustangs) told me of a demo driven 2011 Shelby GT500 with 400+ KM (about 300 ish miles) on it in the back.   She went and pulled it around and after looking it over, mulling it over, and reading for a couple hours about the Shelby's, I decided my first foray into the Pony cars after 38 years of being all about General Motors, Camaro's, Vette's, a couple Firebirds, and yes, a couple Mopar's thrown in here and there for a change - should begin with the best of the best.  

Deposit put down to hold it for me until tomorrow to give me a night to convince the missus that her new summer car for next year was too good of a deal to pass up.  We were 99% certain it would be a new Camaro, as I haven't had one of those since my 2002 Firebird ram air, but change can be good. For 1000$ more than the 2012 GT I had ordered up, I'm losing a model year, but I went in looking for a 2011 anyhow, and for 48000$ incl taxes, I'm now officially -at least tomorrow morning I will be joining the pony car ranks.

More/better pictures to follow tomorrow.  I'm so excited about this car I can't begin to tell you.  Yes, it's going into the storage garage with the Snake and my bike for probably the next 5 or 6 months, and driving the Duramax instead of the new pony today isn't doing my exercises in patients much good today..but what the hell!   .  My first emoticons too, haha.

edit - The shaker 1000 system is actually better than I expected for a factory jobby.  I'm reading through the manual right now.  I'm jealous that I'm not going to be getting nearly as much time to drive it as the wife due to my health issues....she might just end up with that Camaro, maybe even the V6 one (hahaha) and I'll take this one.

(Image removed from quote.)

DOOOOOOOODDDDDDD!!!!

 i think i'm jealous now.

 you're becoming a snake keeper, huh? viper, and not cobra. 

 friggin sawwweeet dood. i think i can say i speak for most all of us when i say we expect pictures soon. 

 

[Golfer]

Nice Gman. This game of one upping is getting pricy!

[Gman]

Hah, I certainly wasn't going for a one up thing Golfer, please don't think that's my intention at all, this just fell into my lap and was meant to be I think.  Like I said, I went out today looking for a 5.0, but the wife REALLY liked this Shelby and the deal was too good, like 15K almost from a new 2012 for an almost new car(300 miles and still unregistered status).  I've been really blessed this year financially which still hasn't made up for the crap kicking I've taken the last 2 in the health department, so things like this are the end result.  Cap's excellent report/write up and his pics were just the little bit to push me over the cliff and go out looking, the Shelby as I said just felt like it was sitting there waiting for us to come take her.  In my sunset years here I've started to believe less in coincidence and more into things like this, hah.  I only have room for one more car in our storage facility, so I'll be VERY selective for the last spot, or pass our 76 vette stingray on to another family member that can drive it and appreciate it more than I can, as it was something I inherited.

Overall I was really impressed with Ford as a company (no bailout etc) and how ALL of their cars are pretty cool right now.  Heck, that eco-whatever engine in the F150 is something I had no idea about until going in today.  My truck's are and always will be diesel, but going with that rocket ship power train in an F150 and trading in our 2008 Durmax is something I'm sitting here thinking over right now, lol.  Anyhow, adios until tomorrow.

[Skuzzy]

Ohhhhh, I am sooooooo envious Gman.  You got yourself a heck of a deal on a very unique car.  Congratulations!!

[Shuffler]

Hah, I certainly wasn't going for a one up thing Golfer, please don't think that's my intention at all, this just fell into my lap and was meant to be I think.  Like I said, I went out today looking for a 5.0, but the wife REALLY liked this Shelby and the deal was too good, like 15K almost from a new 2012 for an almost new car(300 miles and still unregistered status).  I've been really blessed this year financially which still hasn't made up for the crap kicking I've taken the last 2 in the health department, so things like this are the end result.  Cap's excellent report/write up and his pics were just the little bit to push me over the cliff and go out looking, the Shelby as I said just felt like it was sitting there waiting for us to come take her.  In my sunset years here I've started to believe less in coincidence and more into things like this, hah.  I only have room for one more car in our storage facility, so I'll be VERY selective for the last spot, or pass our 76 vette stingray on to another family member that can drive it and appreciate it more than I can, as it was something I inherited.

Overall I was really impressed with Ford as a company (no bailout etc) and how ALL of their cars are pretty cool right now.  Heck, that eco-whatever engine in the F150 is something I had no idea about until going in today.  My truck's are and always will be diesel, but going with that rocket ship power train in an F150 and trading in our 2008 Durmax is something I'm sitting here thinking over right now, lol.  Anyhow, adios until tomorrow.

Ford? No Bailout? lol  They got money too.....

Car looks good except from that view. The backend is just so "what were they thinking". Side and front look good.

[CAP1]

Ford? No Bailout? lol  They got money too.....

Car looks good except from that view. The backend is just so "what were they thinking". Side and front look good.

 not that we should go there, but ford took ZERO bail out money. none. nada. zilch. zippo. all they did was sell product. 

[pipz]

Looks great!! Cant wait till ya hand ME the keys so I can take it for a test drive!!!!

Oh dont worry Ill leave ya the keys to the Monte Carlo in case ya have to go anywhere. 

[curry1]

yikes!!! a cr-v will go that fast? that is a frightening thought to me. 

I was rather impressed.

[eagl]

All this talk has me thinking about dropping some money into my G8 again...

For the price you guys are spending on new stangs, I can get my G8 well over 500hp.  I paid under $30k including tax for the G8, so I figure I have about $10k to spend before it costs as much as even a taurus SHO.  And I'm starting with 361 poorly tuned hp and a cam designed to work with half the cylinders disabled.

Then again, my wife has been buggin me to start the kids' college fund...  Still, some smart motor work would get me comfortably over 400hp even without a blower, and just $600 in tuning and intake work would get me about 390hp.  The day the powertrain warranty is gone, I'm getting a good engine/transmission tune.  The car handles absolutely neutrally and since it doesn't push at all I haven't been able to safely approach its cornering limits on public roads, so I don't think I'm going to touch the suspension.  It handles very nicely for an overweight overpowered 4-door sedan

But I'm really glad Ford finally got their act together on mustang performance.   I grew up driving Fords and I came *this* close to buying a mustang cobra back in 1997-1998.  I got my trans-am instead because it cost around $10,000 less and was significantly faster both on the drag strip and on road courses.  It wasn't until somewhere around 2004 or 2005 that a "factory" mustang (ie. one you could get from a regular dealer without signing up for years in advance) could keep up with with a '98 f-body on the dragstrip, and based on SCCA autox national results they still have trouble keeping up when the track isn't straight.  Putting that much power into the base GT is a great start though

[Spikes]

Why your parents just going to buy you a $35,000 sports car for your first vehicle so you can crash it?

Oh! you must be talking about the mini-van...

Zing!

[CAP1]

I'd like to take mine out to a road course so I could bet a better feel for her than I get on the streets here.  I'm not willing to risk a ticket to find that out on public streets.  Not to mention that people are so unpredictable I don't want to splatter somebody in the attempt to satisfy my curiosity.  

Get them against a light solid background and I can probably ps all three of them together Cap

 i will in the spring time be taking mine to milleville raceway, and going to a driving school there, so i can learn to make her do the things i know she can. i'll probably do my damdest to get golfer to come along down there too. and now that i think of it doesn't nipsy live here in nj?