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Hey guys.

Welcome to this episode of Hot Lap.

In this episode, we're gonna be looking at what we call the top five starter mods.

I get a lot of questions from you guys about having a new car and what I would recommend

the person purchase as their first few mods.

So, here it is.

We're gonna look and discuss what I would personally suggest as the most popular and

beneficial first few mods that people tend to go with once they have their new S550 GT

Mustang.

Of course, these are just suggestions and you always have a ton of different options

when it comes to brands and even specific mods.

It all depends on what you like best and what exactly you want from your car.

But, if you're having a hard time figuring out where to start or you're just curious,

then stick around and see.

So I've picked out five mods, one of which I'll show you is on my own personal car.

We'll show you an example of each mod, just so you can get a good look of a before and

after and see how it can change your car.

With that said, this video is more for those of you with a stock 2015-2017 GT.

Whether you've had it for a while and you're ready to start modding now or you're just

getting into the car.

I know it's only getting easier to pick up a 2015-2017 with the arrival of the 2018s.

You can get a great deal if you plan your timing right and you take advantage of the

release of the 2018, and that's not a bad thing if you ask me.

If anything, it leaves you with a little bit of wiggle room and some extra cash to start

modding with, right?

So here are some of my suggestions in no particular order on what you should consider doing to

your car first.

The first mod that we'll start off talking about is one that a lot of Mustang owners

choose to do early on and that is lowering springs.

When it comes to lowering springs, they can be hard to shop for.

You have a ton of different choices on the site and a handful of different brands.

And so you have to shop with your end goal in mind.

Some people shopping for lowering springs just want to get the car as low as possible.

Some people want only a little bit of lowering, but they're looking more for handling performance

instead.

Some people want both the looks improvements and the handling benefits and some people

just want a drag spring.

These springs are the Eibach Sportline Springs and they lower the car about 1-1/2 inches

in the front and 1.3 inches in the rear.

That makes them one of the most aggressive springs you can pick up when it comes to drop.

It doesn't really get much lower than this from a lowering spring.

Eibach Sportlines tend to be the go-to spring when it comes to getting your Mustang as low

as possible and customers love them.

These have a progressive spring rate which helps keeps a nice ride quality, so even though

you're lowering the car with a heavy drop, you don't have to worry about too rough of

a ride quality.

These springs are firmer than the factory springs of course, and you can expect a change

in handling right away just from the springs alone.

You can thank the lower center of gravity and those firmer spring rates for that.

So you're getting both benefits here with the lowering springs, looks, and performance.

You're looking at spending a little over $250 bucks for these.

And the install for lowering springs on an S550 isn't too difficult.

You will need a spring compressor for the front springs so you can disassemble the spring

and strut assembly and you'll need to lower the subframe in the rear so you can get to

those rear springs.

It might sound a little crazy for a first time wrencher, but it's not bad.

The IRS subframe lowers, along with the rear shock mount and you can slide the springs

out.

And of course, you should always get a fresh alignment after you install springs.

Take a look and see what a difference the drop makes in the car.

The next big mod that's usually at the top of the modification list is exhaust.

And on this car, we have the Kooks Axle-Back.

Take a listen to it quick so you can hear what it sounds like.

Once again, you have a product category that has so many different options.

You have sound to consider, materials, and of course, price point too.

Sound is usually the most important to people and of course, that is subjective.

The Kooks Axle-Back is my choice here because I think that it's an axle-back that has a

good balance.

It's got a balance of volume and tone and by that I mean it's louder, but not too loud

and it has volume and tone without being too raspy.

Plus, I really like the mufflers in this axle-back.

I have a Kooks Cat-Back on my own personal car.

The Kooks Axle-Back is made from stainless steel with 3-inch round race mufflers, 4-inch

exhaust tips, and I would say that it's in the middle when it comes to price.

You have less expensive options and more expensive options but you're looking at spending about

$620 bucks for the Kooks Axle-Back.

Installing an axle-back, any axle-back on an S550, does require some cutting.

You'll need to mark and cut your stock axle-back with a Sawzall, pull the stock mufflers down,

swap over your hangers, and just clamp the new axle-back up and into place.

You'll just want to measure for your cuts and make sure you don't cut away too much

or else your mufflers won't sit right.

Next, I'm going to move over to my car and show you guys another modification that I

always recommend.

All right.

So now we're in my own personal car and I remember when the 2011 started to rain down

on the MT-82 parade.

Needless to say, the MT-82 and the shifter in the S550 Mustang was kind of a big talking

point.

And at first, there wasn't much out there on the market in terms of shifters that help

with the remote shifter location and lockout.

And let's just call it MT-82 blues.

Luckily, that didn't last too long and Barton came out with the Hybrid 3 Shifter for the

MT-82 that confronts head on the remote shifter design and all of the downfalls in the stock

shifter set up.

This shifter is expensive, but it's worth every penny in my opinion.

You're looking at spending about $475 bucks for this shifter, but I'll say once again,

that it's worth it.

This is the only shifter upgrade on the site that gives you a completely upgraded unit,

rather than just the handle that will require you to transfer over of some of the stock

components that give you trouble with a stock transmission.

Barton went into the shifter and literally upgraded everything.

We're talking CNC-machined billet aluminum, stainless steel, weather-tight seals, and

a solid stainless front bushing and rear bracket that are made to stop vibrations and deflection

that lead to shifting issues.

This is an entire replacement that has sealed contained shifter components, not just an

arm with a linkage.

The other big thing with this shifter and what really makes this shifter different than

the others, even the original Barton Short Throw Shifter is the mounting options and

the three bushing system in the linkage.

You can mount this shifter directly to the trans or directly to the body of the car.

You have an option here depending on what you like better.

If you mount it to the trans directly, that means you can run the solid linkage.

Then there is a mounting block that bolts directly to the trans, which eliminates the

tie to the body of the car.

This means that the shifter will move with the trans under load and everything will be

directly in line.

If you mount it to the body, you'll use a different bracket and the upgraded linkage

allows the shifter to be remote but still keep accurate shifts.

I will say that I personally have my shifter trans mounted so I don't have to worry about

the body of the car and the trans moving separately.

The install is involved.

You'll need to drop the trans down some in order to make the swap complete.

In my case, we completely dropped the transmission since I was doing a clutch upgrade anyway

but you don't necessarily have to do that yourself.

There is so much to talk about with this shifter but this video isn't really about going into

every detail about each product.

So if you want to know more about the Barton shifter, and I'll tell you there is a lot

to know, make sure you check out the product page where I go into more detail about this

thing.

So we have three down and two more modifications to discuss.

The next mods I'm going to talk about are kind of a combo mod and that's a cold air

intake and a tune.

Back over on our black car, we installed a C&L Street Cold Air Intake with an SCT X4

Tuner and VMP Tune, and of course, threw the car on the Dyno to get numbers results.

Our baseline run with our 2017 automatic GT gave us numbers of 358 horsepower and 348-foot-pounds

of torque.

Then we installed the intake and gave the car a 93 octane tune and the numbers changed

to 386 horsepower and 373-foot-pounds of torque.

That makes for a peak gain of 28 horsepower and 25-foot-pounds of torque and more importantly,

curve gains of 35 horsepower at 6500 RPM and 25-foot-pounds of torque at 4200 RPM.

I always like seeing low-end or mid-range torque gains like this because that's what

you're going to notice as you're driving.

I always recommend paring a cold air intake with a tune, and I always tell people to put

a tune towards the top of their mod list.

The S550s respond really well to a little bit of tuning.

And once you tune your GT, you'll have a totally different car that will be a lot more fun

to drive, even if you aren't personally chasing down big horsepower numbers.

But looking at the details with the C&L Intake and the VMP tunes, of course, this is very

easy to install.

You're looking at the install taking an hour or less.

You'll only need a few hand tools and all that's really gonna happen is the C&L here

will take place of the factory air box.

You'll pull your stock intake tube and airbox and wiggle the new airbox into place.

From there, you can clamp on your intake tube and tighten things down.

Next, you'll load your tune, which is only gonna take about 10 minutes total and it doesn't

require any tools.

This intake and tuner combo cost a touch over $830, but remember, you're getting two modifications

here.

You get your tunes from VMP and you get the C&L Cold Air Intake.

And just like most other things when it comes to shopping for the S550, you have a few different

choices when it comes to both cold air intakes and tunes.

You don't have to purchase a tuner and cold air intake combo if you don't want to.

You can always pick up a cold air intake by itself and then a tune later or go the other

way around.

I just picked the combo mod to talk about here since it is an option and these two items

go hand in hand.

As far as tunes go, you can choose from a number of different tunes and devices.

This item comes with an SCT device that's loaded with VMP custom tunes.

You just send it some information about your car and any current mods and VMP will have

a calibrator write a custom tune file for your car.

And of course, the same thing goes for cold air intakes.

You have a few different styles to choose from.

The C&L here has what I consider to be one of the designs with the most going for it.

You have a closed air box that keeps the direct cold air feed from the grill of the car and

that's more of a true cold air intake set up.

Some after-market cold air intakes have an open element airbox or eliminate the cold

air feed from the grill.

Other cold air intakes just have a shield.

You also have tune-required intakes and no-tune required intakes.

This one here does not require a tune so you can install this without a tune and the car

will run just fine.

Once again, all of this is gonna come down to personal preference.

So if you want a cold air intake that keeps the outside air feed, that has a closed airbox,

and that does not require a tune, the C&L could be a good option for you.

Like most intakes, it comes with a larger reusable air filter that you can clean and

reinstall when you need to.

All right, guys.

So those are my top five starter mods for the 2015-2017 GT Mustang.

You've got a little bit of looks and a lot of functionality and just overall improvement

with these mods between the lowering springs, exhaust, shifter upgrade, cold air intake,

and the tune.

It's a well-rounded starting point or platform for any build.

As always, these are just suggestions though, but I hope that they've helped in some way.

Let me know what you guys think in the comments below on what exactly you would modify first

on your own Mustang.

Make sure you subscribe.

And for all things Mustang, keep it right here at americanmuscle.com