Yahoo Autos 2018 Ford Mustang GT Performance Package Level 2 at Lightning Lap 2018
Lap Time: 2:53.8
Class: LL2 | Base Price: $44,685 | As-Tested Price: $51,770
Power and Weight: 460 hp • 3843 lb • 8.4 lb/hp
Tires: Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2, 305/30ZR-19 (98Y)
Shelby. Mach 1. Cobra. Boss. In the 54-year history of the Mustang, there’s been no shortage of speed-soaked, track-worthy badges. Yet Ford’s newest road-course beast is a horse with no name.
The Performance Package Level 2 kit builds from the ground up, starting with a set of Michelin’s track-magic Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires-same size at each corner-that stick to the pavement like duct tape. The Mustang hammers through Turn 1 at 1.13 g’s, cornering harder than the McLaren 720S, Porsche 911 GT3, and Ford’s own supercar. It turns in instantly, steers with perfect clarity, and changes direction with the kind of neutral balance you wouldn’t expect from a front-engined car. Magnetorheological dampers rein in body motions. Six-piston Brembos gnaw on upsized front rotors for indefatigable braking. In taming VIR, the Mustang GT PPL2 trades American brashness for the world-class manners of a Porsche GT car.
The revised 460-hp V-8 found in all 2018 Mustang GTs now redlines at 7500 rpm and, with the $895 active exhaust, finally sounds properly pissed. Funneled through the Level 2’s shorter-ratio Torsen limited-slip diff, the furious 5.0-liter leads this Mustang to a lap that’s just two seconds off the pace of the Shelby GT350R in 2016, which packed another 66 horsepower and a base price of $63,495.
In addition to the aforementioned, the PPL2’s $6500 upcharge over a base GT buys a front splitter, a unique spoiler, a larger radiator, a trio of chassis-stiffening braces, and retuned suspension, steering, and anti-lock-braking logic to play nice with the Cup 2 tires. But with no differential cooler, the rear axle overheated every time we took the Mustang out, often in as few as three hot laps, and even with easy laps staggered between them. So there is one thing it needs besides a proper name.
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