Having completed the exhaust install I started to enjoy the car on the road. I was practicing my heel-toe and just having fun while the engine broke in. I also started itching for more mods and the lack of mustang led lights was a problem, incandescent lighting sucks!

Mile 320: JLT Catch Can

I heard a lot about how much oil these cars like to dump into the intake. Many blame the direct injection featured in this Coyote engine. I decided a catch can was a must and that the Oil Separator by JLT in satin would do the job. The quality was superb and the fitment and installation took literally seconds. Oil collected quickly, I could see filling the catch can up half way within a couple of thousand miles, though it slowed down after engine break-in. Eventually I took the JLT catch can off when I supercharged the car. However, I will likely re-introduce catch cans soon.

Mile 438: Mustang LED Lights & Shift Knobs

I started to get annoyed with the amount of incandescent lighting on this brand new vehicle, it’s 2016 people! Yes, the factory introduced lots of nice mustang LED lights here and there and sure the bi-xenon HIDs are decent enough despite their blurry cutoff. However, there were still tons of incandescent lights, which were very weak providing very few lumens. The interior lighting was essentially unusable from the factory. You couldn’t possibly find or read anything with it. Hey, it’s a V8 for under $40K, what do you expect?

Browsing American Muscle’s site, I noticed Raxiom’s Stage 1 Interior Mustang LED Lights kit and ordered it. This replaced all the interior lighting including glove box, vanity, and overhead lighting. It was easy enough to install, just a few little tricks needed to reach certain bulbs. While shopping for the LED kit I was also thinking about how the wide sticky tires and factory Brembo six piston brakes were powerful. Almost too powerful, because if I accidentally braked too aggressively I’d nearly get hit in traffic.

Rear Brake Light Flashers

This tremendous performance started to condition me to brake earlier in traffic. The car stops so quickly without any effort or drama, but its caused SUVs to go into the shoulder to avoid hitting me on at least three occasions. This got me pretty freaked out at how poor other driver’s reaction times and brakes were. I decided that getting a rear brake flasher is a good idea. You know how people tap their brakes when they want you to notice their braking? These devices do it for you by flashing your middle brake light when you first press the brake pedal. You’ve probably seen these in action before. Since I was browsing Raxiom gear on American Muscle’s site while purchasing the LED kit I also saw that Raxiom offered a 3rd Brake Light Flasher.

This install was also easy, the hardest part was crawling into the back seat. I am a big guy so there’s no way I can actually sit back there. Other than that, super easy and it worked without any fuss. I noticed people paid more attention, however I started to brake earlier to avoid accidents too.

Shift Knobs

The last update for this “Mile” is a shift knob that I tried. I love the cue ball shift knob look and I saw this really cool MMD by FOOSE Retro Style 6-Speed Shift Knob and ordered it from… You guessed it, American Muscle! The install was very easy, a child could do it. However, the quality was suspect. The nut inside the shift knob unstuck itself from the plastic knob quickly. Furthermore, the knob was very light. It weighed just 3 ounces! This is no good for smoothly engaging gears, and it resulted in missed shifts. The factory knob weighed more at 5oz, still light but much better! I would not recommend this mod and I later replaced it with a much cooler weighed knob which I’ll feature further down the road!

 

Mile 481: My Sexy GT350R Steering Wheel!

This mod is one of my favorite cosmetic mods. I’m sure everyone and their mother is doing it, but it’s awesome! The steering wheel from the Ford GT350R is a direct install on the GT. You’re talking about half an hour with most of the time being spent transplanting the buttons and air bag into the new wheel. Easy enough that anyone can do it! The looks I think are awesome, I love the red stitching and the alcantara suede.