This shows the car's configuration near the end of its tenure with us.. It couldn't have been more than about two years, but I found time and occasion to:

• Buy some

  "...this little improve-ment..."

  GT take-off "Bullitt-style" 17x8-inch wheels and retire the original 16x7s to a corner of the back yard, where they reposed until May, 2010, when I sold them for $37.50 each, via Craig's List, to a very happy purchaser.
  
  
• Install a set of GT take-off anti-sway bars ("stabilizers", in the shop manual). Night and day, as the V6s have a skimpy front bar and none in the rear. For a while this car carried the Steeda adjustable front bar and bracket braces, and the H&R 26mm rear bar, in which configuration it was a slalom monster (comparatively); those three items eventually found their way onto the 2009 coupe.
  
  
• Have a set of Steeda Sport springs installed. They lowered the front by about an inch, the rear by an inch and a couple tenths. Improved handling considerably, and the appearance a great deal. They also caused a slight deterioration of the semi-cushy ride characteristics.
  
  
• Have the Tokico D-Spec adjustable struts and shocks installed. With judicious adjustments, the good ride was (almost) recovered, and the handling could be tailored from mild understeer to essentially neutral.
  
  
• "Win" a set of Saleen Parnelli Jones Edition Minilite-like wheels on eBaY: 19x9 for the front, 19x10 for the rear (remember when we would kill for rims seven inches wide?). Put on a set of Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 275-35 tires that look, stick, and travel good. Their $1,600 price tag brought this little improvement up to about $2,600 total. Worth every penny. They look good on the High Performance White GT/CS, too—but I'm getting ahead of my story ...
  
  
• Buy and install a set of Ford Racing SVT "Fanblade" 18x8.5 wheels with mounted Bridgestone Potenza RE-01R 245-45 sticky tires. About $1,500 for this step, which was designed to make my little V6 effort at autocross more rewarding. Didn't really work, as we'll see later on.
  
  
• Have installed the Ford Racing Performance Parts V6 dual exhaust system. This is a great setup, with an "X-pipe" configuration and the M-5230-GTA axle-back mufflers, just like on the Shelby GT. They sounded good (<-- two links) and balanced the audio and visual aspects of the car. Turned out they were a little loud for the convertible, and I took them off to be replaced by a set of GT take-offs I'd bought off eBaY as "GTAs". That made it just right.
  
  
• In the best configuration, the V6 automatic turned a 10.000 through the Qualcomm Stadium eighth-mile drag strip, with a highest trap speed of 72.23 MPH.

• Pending (Actually, this might be the place to emphasize the first paragraph of this page: the V6 car was traded on the black convertible GT/CS; gone since 04-17-2009; 8,379.9 miles in two years)

  "...To Be Continued..."

  
  
  

  "...More anon..."

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