Attention Vette Lovers

My wife tells me I should buy a newer car, but I like my 2006 GT. I understand the car's electronics and I can work on it in my little garage without special tools. I've already figured that I will put Ford's "Hot Rod Cams" in it and likely supercharge it in the future, just for my own personal fun....even if it won't beat my next door neighbor's Lamborghini Urus SUV.

The Urus is a 650 horse 4.0 Litre V8.
My civic is an 07. Pushing 200k on the clock. Still runs just fine. Since I retired a year ago I went from 15000/year to barely 2000. So while I’d love getting something newer and with my wife having a 2019 SUV…. I’ll most likely just keep driving this one till it pukes.
 
Here's a fun thing to consider...

My 2006 Mustang GT is nothing compared to what you guys have, but it's such an incredible car in so many respects. I have 245,000 on the original drivetrain (I bought it at 54,000 miles) and it's driven daily here in Los Angeles.

20211103_185145.jpgIt is lowered a full 2.5" front and rear with a factory Ford Motorsports Lowering Kit. I aligned the front end myself (with a bubble gauge and tape measure) because none of the local shops could get the lowrider onto their lifts. I am running 35 series 20" tires and I am getting about 34,000 miles out of a set of rubber.

It's totally stock except for these tiny stainless Flowmaster Replicas a chum and I made for it. Look how clean the 4.6 3-Valve burns. Ford moved the upper ring very close to the piston corwn and rediced quench distance between head and block. They were able to omit (2) catalytic converters when they switch to the 3-valve cylinder head.

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I swapped around sway bars to get the car to handle in a very neutral manner. On the rear, I went from the stock Ford 20mm Solid (2005-2010 GT) with a rate of 96lbs/in to a Ford 22mm Solid (2011+ V-6) 147 lbs/in and up front, I used the 34.6mm Boss 436 lbs/in bar in place of the 34mm '05-'10GT/GT500/'11 V6 sway bar with the stock rate of 385 lbs/in, This allows very high cornering speeds with no tendency of rear end "break-away" in a hard turn, or the notorious Corvette/Camaro "side-step" jump when rolling over irregularities in a tight turn.

I put brakes on it in 2016 using "Prefect Stop Exact Spec" and those brakes now have 191,000 miles on them and they are still not worn to the reject groove. To me, that's just amazing. I started putting Perfect Stop (made by Bosch) on everything and even my Parent's can't believe how long they last.

Look closely. There's almost a 1/4" of friction material left after 191,000 miles.

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I went through the differential to address a leak from the pinon seal. I installed new clutches in the posi unit, all new bearings and Ford Motorsport 4.30:1 gears. This car was ordered with HD differential. It has the 31 spline F150 axles which make bearings a challenge to find.

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A stock dyno run netted 270.75rwhp @5500 and 288.99rwtq @ 4400. If you do the math, this works out to 308hp 325lbft at the crank. The factory ratings are 300hp @ 5750rpm & 320lbft @ 4500rpm. I obtained a handheld tuner and wrote my own tune. The results were 281rwhp @ 5500 and 310rwtq @ 4400.

In the future, I will probably supercharge it with something like 7-10 psi opf boost, making about 450rwhp, but I am in no rush to do it. The Vortec cut requires no cutting of the body to mount the intercooler and it has a blower with self contained lubrication, so no external oil lines...

 
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Ill just leave this here.........................1000hp .................................................................... HEMI
I used to own a Challenger too. Seems like this is a crate engine option only, not available in new cars being sold.
 
Everything in this car has already been done. Mid engine, flat plane, everything. Even the styling is copied. GM has made a knock off of other makers technology. I won't even comment on the engine reliability issues.

Horsepower??? I am so jaded from my experience. A car just has to have more to offer.

What does it give you??? Copy-cat styling, pronounced understeer with snap oversteer and braking issues sufficient to mandate a stop sale order.


For some folks, this habit of GM trying to copy what other builders have done for decades and try somehow to call it their own is cool.

It just doesn't resonate with me...no matter how cheap they can make it.

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It's a good thing that the fix for the brake pedal was fixed last year.
 
I am Vette-less now. Sold mine during the summer. I won't be buying another one. If I ever get another hot rod it will be from the 40's or 50's.

Something of this nature...

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I've always loved the '32 Ford Vicky
1932-ford-vicky-street-rod
 
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