🔧 BUILD New car aquired: flat plane crank edition

General Information

2 long years of selling my V8 Fiero and beater OBS Ford 7.3 powerstroke, and searching on the internet for one of these things that was; 1 - no stripes and red 2 - sticker price or better 3 - tech package, have come to an end. Picked this up a couple weeks ago. I think because of the track package equipment (dif and trans coolers) as standard now on the 2017 the 2016's have come down in price. Which is fine for me because i don't intend to track it.

My driving Impressions: I'll spare you a lot of the obvious stuff, yeah its fast, revs to the moon, handles well, brakes great, blah blah blah. I was shocked at how comfortable and easy it is to drive and drive hard. I drove it from St. Louis non-stop and was really impressed by how effortless and quiet (exhaust in normal mode) it was on the highway. Seats are extremely comfy. Clutch is extremely light, wife's WRX is a much heavier clutch than the one on the Shelby. I was a bit worried it'd be finicky and a little hard to drive. Not the case at all. Can drive it very hard and not very easily feel like you're in trouble. Very very composed. Steering is very communicative. Braking is like nothing I've ever driven before. exhaust note is just beautiful, youtube videos don't do it justice. I like to downshift 2 or 3 gears, just to hear it.

Negatives I have are the clutch is a bit too numb and light for my liking.The point where the clutch bites is a little bit to high in the pedal travel for what I like. Steering has great feedback but on an uneven or bad road, you will find the low points and crown in the road and feel them in the steering wheel for sure. oh and pebbles and rocks get stuck in the body pretty easily. Guzzles gas, EPA weren't bullshitting with the 14 MPG rating.

Couldn't be happier. This thing exceeded my expectations. If you read the reviews, yes it is that good.
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10thSVT_03

DRRRT PROSPECT
Feb 28, 2009
2,153
50
flat plane crank is what makes the voodoo engine what it is really. the counter weights are all in a flat plane 180 degrees apart vs. a cross plane crank that has the counter weights 90 degrees apart.

Flat plane cranks naturally rev higher and faster. Also due to the flat plane crank ford uses a different firing order than a cross plane crank.

The model flat plane cranks like the OP has were sold with the purchase of a GT350.

https://www.google.com/amp/jalopnik...nk-and-why-is-it-so-loud-an-ex-1659688239/amp

Stop being so engineer-like and just say it makes it go vrooooooooom
 

MEATeorite

Addict
Apr 10, 2016
889
4,898
Plano IL
I went to Ford Performance racing school in Utah(included with purchase of every Ford performance variant of focus, shelby, fiesta, and raptor) back in August. It was such an incredible experience. Ford treated us like celebrities. Catered food, plenty of one on one time with the instructor. All their instructors are the real deal, and come from racing career background. Nice guys too, great advice and very encouraging with the ride along portion. Classroom time covers everything from seat postion and posture to cutting apexes in the corners. I learned a lot. I got to make around 20ish laps around their 2.2 mile course, i thought i was fast. It was really rewarding, my first couple laps I'd hit the straight away at 70 mph, by the 20th lap i was 110ish and braking much much deeper in the first turn. Then at the end the instructor takes you for a hot lap with him driving... fuck man. This frail dude in his mid 70s had to have been every bit of 20 seconds faster than me, looking calm as can be while doing it. He was a former LeMans driver and has balls of steel. Also made it very clear that this cars capabilities are so overkill for my driving skill. I forget the braggery statistics of this car like only a sec slower than ferrari 488 around Nuremberg ring or whatever, riding with the instructor i can believe it. gotta upload my video. Had the go-pro on the dash. They also had a professional photographer following you around and they give you a USB stick with everybodys photos on it. Top notch experience. Pics to follow.
 
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Intel

TCG Elite Member
Oct 28, 2009
5,889
3,357
Palatine
I went to Ford Performance racing school in Utah(included with purchase of every Ford performance variant of focus, shelby, fiesta, and raptor) back in August. It was such an incredible experience. Ford treated us like celebrities. Catered food, plenty of one on one time with the instructor. All their instructors are the real deal, and come from racing career background. Nice guys too, great advice and very encouraging with the ride along portion. Classroom time covers everything from seat postion and posture to cutting apexes in the corners. I learned a lot. I got to make around 20ish laps around their 2.2 mile course, i thought i was fast. It was really rewarding, my first couple laps I'd hit the straight away at 70 mph, by the 20th lap i was 110ish and braking much much deeper in the first turn. Then at the end the instructor takes you for a hot lap with him driving... fuck man. This frail dude in his mid 70s had to have been every bit of 20 seconds faster than me, looking calm as can be while doing it. He was a former LeMans driver and has balls of steel. Also made it very clear that this cars capabilities are so overkill for my driving skill. I forget the braggery statistics of this car like only a sec slower than ferrari 488 around Nuremberg ring or whatever, riding with the instructor i can believe it. gotta upload my video. Had the go-pro on the dash. They also had a professional photographer following you around and they give you a USB stick with everybodys photos on it. Top notch experience. Pics to follow.


Sounds awesome. If you have any interest in coming out to a track day with the TCG crew we have an event coming up on a monday. It is always crazy to see what a real driver can do in your own car.
 

MEATeorite

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Apr 10, 2016
889
4,898
Plano IL
Sounds awesome. If you have any interest in coming out to a track day with the TCG crew we have an event coming up on a monday. It is always crazy to see what a real driver can do in your own car.
I'd be interested in that for sure. Please PM me.
I was really jealous of the Raptor guys program they had. They started off in an off road park (hills, rocks, sand, etc) then drove up a mountain through an old mining trail they had there, then had lunch on their tailgates on top of the mountain. We were next the Fiesta guys on the track and even that looked like a blast, they were doing J-turns at about the same time we were doing slalom course.
I took the rental car out to Bonneville salt flats and pegged the speedo at 94 mph. Advice for anyone who does this; wash the car good before returning it, atleast Thrifty had a 400 dollar salt damage fee.download_20170823_130132.jpg20170821_100432.jpg20170821_072859.jpg20170820_090924.jpg
 

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