Sway bars, LCA's, shifter

I had all my parts installed yesterday. The Ford Racing sway bars definitely made a difference. The car is much more stable in cornering. It also exhibits a little less of a tendency to fish tail. Unfortunately I have rather sucky tires at the moment so it doesn't handle as well as it could. I will remedy that situation very soon. I don't know how well the LCA's work since I haven't had the opportunity to driver the car much yet. The Hurst shifter is very nice, if a bit stiff at the moment. It's a much more precise shifter which is very good and it's definitely a much shorter throw than the stock shifter.

I also had MAC shorty headers installed. The car has a deeper sound all the way through the rpm range. I had to reflash my computer back to stock because my SCT2 was defective and needs to be replaced so I can't really tell if the headers made any additional power or not. It does seem to give a little more kick at around 3000 rpms than it did a few days ago but beyond that sound is the main improvement. I like the way the headers make the car sound. I'll post a sound clip of it as soon can.

Hopefully I'll get my replacement SCT2 in soon and can then put the performance tune back on and get the car dynoed. I'm curious as to what my hp & tq is with the Steeda CAI, duals and headers. Next up after new tires will be 3.73's and LSD, hopefully but the end of may.

It's still hard get into 2nd and 3rd with the Hurst shifter though it does seem to be getting a little easier. I'm still getting used to it. I'm so used to how long a throw the old one had that I sometimes slam it into gear a bit harder than I should. I'm getting better with that. I just need some more practice.

The one thing I have noticed that I don't like is that there is more tranny noise in the cabin with this shifter at least about 3500 rpms anyway. Below that it sounds the same so I can live with a little extra noise.

The headers are also louder when I gun it than it was before, especially at high rpms, though it's no louder otherwise than before.

I love the suspension mods. The sway bars are great especially on wet pavement. There is a bigger difference on wet pavement than on dry pavement. I think that's because of these sucky tires I have. My tires do still have a tendency to spin off the line unless I take off like a granny. The good tires should help that as well.

On another note for the guys that live in the DC metro area what tracks do you go to and do they require a crash helmet. If so where can I get one. I would like to take my car to the track soon just to see how it runs. Even though it's back to the stock tune and air box while I wait for my new SCT2, my old one was defective, I would still like to make a couple of runs.