Got this car a couple years ago and immediately wound up with other things stealing all my money. I had plans to do a million mods and all I did was a trailer hitch that I later removed. So finally after a year and a half of ownership, I installed a 2.75" BBK X pipe* and a 3 inch MBRP exhaust. Personally, I love the sound. Nice and powerful, a good roar at WOT, no drone on the highway. My wife hates it.
It has only minimal options. Leather seats, no Brembo package, Mach 500 sound system. So for a 2012 GT it's somewhat lightweight. Ultimately I would like to remove the awful factory leather seats, that are extremely heavy, and replace them with the factory Recaros so I can keep the in-seat airbags. It has those god awful 18X8 rims that I hate, and narrow 235 tires that break loose constantly, but I don't have cash for rims right now so I just painted the factory ones black two weekends ago for a grand total of $13 ($10 for two cans of rustoleum for the face of the rims, $2 for two cans of cheap Lowe's spray paint for the back/inside of the rim, $1 for a deck of cars to go around the edge of the rims while I painted them). Currently I'm saving up and keeping my eyes open for the factory 19" track pack rims, as they can often be found for a steal. Those will also get painted black. And then I want to lower the car a touch and tighten up the handling, and then upgrade my front brakes to the factory Brembos. Oh, and I need to tint my windows. So here's where we're at right now.
In the future I would also like to do an Airraid intake and a mild tune. If I get the track pack wheels then I'll most likely run a square 275 setup; if it takes me a while to get them I plan on stuffing some 255s on these 18s that I'm running, since my back tires are pretty low. The paint is bubbled and chipping on the front edge of the hood, which is pretty common for these cars because ford did a e36m3ty job of priming/painting the aluminum, so touching up that paint will happen soon. Possibly a boss 302 front spoiler and GT500 rear spoiler.
And then if I decide to keep this car for a while, there's a strong chance of me buying a paint gun and painting the whole thing candy apple red with ghost flames.
OjaiM5
New Reader
6/19/19 12:33 p.m.
Looks clean and you have some great ideas for it. I can't believe it has a 235 out back. 275 with square would be awesome. The GRM project 2012 mustang GT might have some really good ideas as well.
Thank you. I read a lot of project threads, also all the Vorshlag ones. Got a lot of good ideas from those. Also learned a few things, like as much as I want long tube headers on this car, that'll most likely never happen due to the price of them and how much of a pain they are to install on this gigantic engine with limited space.
Yeah, stock the non track pack version comes with 235/50R18s all around. They're awful, have no traction, and if the road is even slightly wet they're downright dangerous. So either squeezing 255s on these ugly rims or getting the track pack ones and 275 will help a lot. The good thing is it's just parked in the driveway for now, as my wife and I carpool in her Prius. So it's not an immediate need.
Sounds like a great project, I look forward to reading your updates!
infinitenexus said:
They're awful, have no traction, and if the road is even slightly wet they're downright dangerous.
lol, yeah, we've noticed 
I don't know much about tires, but wider tires will be even worse in the rain/wet, correct? Not that that should change your mind on getting a meatier tire for the dry!
From what I've read a taller, narrow tire is better in the rain. Going any narrower than a 235 would be suicide though. I'm pretty sure a wider, high quality tire would be fine in the rain. Ideally I wouldn't be driving this much in the rain at all though. I'd love have a 305 in the back, but that starts to get expensive.
my '05 had factory Pirelli 235s on it. When new they hooked ok but once broken loose were really hard to get 'em stuck back down. I've been running square 275 for a few years and it's much better, even when wet.
Fortunately I just found a set of the track pack 19" wheels with tires for $250, so next paycheck those will be mine. They'll be getting sprayed black, as I'm not really a fan of the dark bronze color. Then I'll just have to figure out what to do with my current 18s, save them for a future SN95 challenge car, or sell them cheap.
Sweet.
I had a 2011 GT 6 spd with lots of suspension stuff, a mild tune and off road x pipe. Car ran 12.90's with a terrible 60ft time (meaning it was capable of well into 12's with a better driver).
Look at LMR.com (late model restoration) for good, cheap wheel options.
The non-Brembo brakes on your car will really struggle to do the job at higher speeds. So keep an eye out for upgrading those too down the road.
You likely have 3.31's in the rear which are probably not doing you any favors either.
OjaiM5
New Reader
6/20/19 9:20 a.m.
In reply to GarageGorilla :
One of my next mods will be upgrading to the factory Brembos. These stock ones I have now just plain suck. Still unsure what springs and shocks I want to get. I doubt I'll ever track this car beyond maybe one or two autocrosses, so I'll probably go for something that just drops it an inch and is still pretty comfortable. My future challenge car will take care of my racing itch. Thanks for the tips!
Had a bit of free time this weekend and I wanted to take a break from working on the house, so I decided to pull of my, uh, coil covers? Not sure what they're called. Anyways, I washed them, and painted them metallic silver and then shot some trans red over it, for a sort of candy apple red look. Here's a crappy picture before I put any clear coat on them. The color is smooth and even, but in the picture it looks kinda blotchy. I'm letting the paint cure for a week or so, and then I'll put them back on the car and take another picture. And then I'll decide if I want to do the intake manifold cover or not. Right now I'm thinking no, I don't want it to be overkill.
Picked up some of the 19X9" track pack wheels with tires for $250 yesterday. The tires are Perelli P-zeroes, and the fronts are still good and the backs are a little worn, but still much better than my current tires. So there's a win-win. 255 wide right now, I may squeeze some 265 or 275s on the back some time soon. The rims are in good shape, only a few little edge dings on them. The guy that was selling them is turning his car into a race car (drag racing) so he's getting rid of parts for cheap. Now I just need to decide if I want to keep this silver color or paint them black.
Put the uh, spark plug covers (?) back on. I don't know what to call them. The covers on top of the valve covers. This is a crappy picture, but I like how they look on the engine. However I've realized I really hate that big plastic cover that goes on top of the intake manifold. Yes, it hides some ugly fuel lines but it looks cheap and awful, so I think I might just leave it off. I like seeing the intake manifold anyways. I may try to find a 2018 one and polish the outside of it and swap it on. That would look nice.
Anyways, the $8 candy apple red turned out really nice in person, but a crappy cell phone picture doesn't really show it. They just look red in this photo.
And here's the new rims! I am very pleased with both how they look and how the backspacing/offset is perfect, so it fills the wheel well nicely. From the side, they're just about flush with the edge of the wheel well. Once these tires wear out I do plan on squeezing some 275s on all four corners, but for now the 255s are a nice improvement. I am still strongly considering painting these rims black. I like them, but I'm a fan of silver cars with black wheels and window tint (still need to tint my windows). And running 19s makes it painfully obvious that I need to lower this car a little. I'd like to drop it an inch.
After some thought, I'm not going to bother lowering this car until after I move to Florida. The roads up here are horrible, so I'd rather keep the softer suspension for now. Next round of mods will be new brakes (most likely just new stock rotors/decent pads/good brake fluid), window tint, and I'd like to save up for a Boss 302 front fascia and GT500 rear spoiler. And I have an oil catch can I need to install, and also do the intake sound tube delete.
84FSP
SuperDork
7/1/19 9:31 a.m.
Great score on the OEM take off's!
The car has been sitting for a few months since my wife and I commute in her Prius. With the quarantine I now work from home, but we both started doordash and PostMates for some extra cash. So I have been driving my car again and enjoying that coyote v8. I picked up a GT500 spoiler and put it on today. Just need for the clear coat to finish curing so I can buff the overspray off. I also bought some 285s for the rear of the car, just waiting on those to come in the mail.
That’s the before. This is with the GT500 spoiler. Once I get the wider tires in and installed I’ll post some more pics. And I’ll wash it haha
After the rear tires I think I’ll save a bit and get some more 285s and put them on the front. Or maybe I’ll swap the 285s to the front and put 295s on the rear. Probably that. I really really want to lower it an inch but these Baltimore roads suck so badly I don’t think I can.
Oh, I also did the intake sound tube delete. Took me 5 minutes and it’s the best mod I’ve done. Almost completely eliminated all exhaust drone, the cabin is quieter, and the exhaust note that does reach the interior sounds better. Zero downsides
Got the 285s installed on the rear. They fit on the factory 9” wheels no problem, and fill out the wheel well a little better. And I finally have some traction! Here’s a horrible picture 
