The Black Sheep, a 2014 Mustang thread.

The Black Sheep seems like a good name for a 2014 V6 Mustang. Some of you may have noticed that I was looking at one. If not well, here you go. I brought it home today. 

This is a 2014 Mustang V6 Premium with the 6-speed manual transmission. As it sits, it's my least favorite color but the price was right. It is in fairly good condition with 166k miles on the clock. The engine is pretty much silent other than what sounds like a cat back exhaust system, the suspension is tight, the transmission shifts very well. I bought it to replace the G35. It will be a track rat and autocross car. Plans, for now, include mounting the G35 wheels and tires and an oil change and fluids check so I can take it to an autocross Sunday. Up for consideration are better brakes, bars, lowering springs, shocks, an LSD, and possibly a gear change. I will have to get it on track and see how it does and decide from there what I want to do and how much I want to put in it. 

The interior.

I've driven it about 10 miles so far. Initial impressions are it's more comfortable than the G35. Mostly because it's built for a larger person. Seat of the pants says it's a little quicker than the G35. I think this V6 is going to have to stay above 4500 RPMs to make power. I don't think it is going to handle as well as the G35 without some help. The G35 was sitting on lowering springs, adjustable shocks, and a much stiffer front bar. That may be all this needs to be close to equal. It does look like parts are significantly cheaper than G35 parts. It also looks like it's going to be much easier to work on. 

This thing is going to be a ticket looking for a place to happen. At 70 mph, the engine is ticking over at 1600 rpms. There is almost no noise to be heard. It's going to be way too easy to speed without noticing. 

More to come. 

 Congratulations on the new purchase. I'm looking at Mustangs too as parts are so available especially compared to a car like the G35 (which I also like).  Also your car looks great, regardless of color. 

The name is great!

Nice!  Congrats on the purchase.  I'm confident she'll serve you well.

Nice pick up.

Check the lug stud sizes between the G35 and the Mustang before you pull the wheels off. I put some Mustang wheels on my G70 for snow tires and realized the Mustang wheels were drilled for M14 while the G70 was M12. I was able to use some extended lug nuts to keep everything concentric but going the other direction wouldn't work.

In reply to karplus2 :

I'll probably have to buy lug nuts but Motegi says they should fit. 

I'll know tomorrow. 

Toyman! said:

In reply to karplus2 :

I'll probably have to buy lug nuts but Motegi says they should fit. 

I'll know tomorrow. 

 

If it has the OEM Ford lugs, I'd replace them no matter what. Ford uses two-piece lugs that corrode and swell. The first thing I do when I buy any Ford, new or used, is get a set of Gorilla lug nuts for it.

Congratulations!!  As the owner of a 2008 Mustang GT, I'm a huge fan of the platform.  I've always thought that V6/manual combo was a good one and would do well at the things you want it for.

There are SO many takeoff parts from GTs and GT500s that are available for the taking.  You'll no doubt get a lot of fun out of it!

The 3.7L V6 cars already have factory LSDs. 

I highly recommend koni yellows and not to go too crazy with lowering.

If you want to go lower at all, an adjustable panhard bar is basically required.

More than 1.5" if you're interested in it actually handling better, you are going to want to go through the front and rear suspensions with front roll center correction ball joints & bumpsteer correction kit, as well as rear LCA relocation brackets and and upgraded UCA at least.

Tubular/stiffer rear control arms and poly bushings all around also help greatly. Keep an eye out for the rear upper control arm bushing on top of the diff, they tend to crack. 

In reply to bumpsteer :

Thanks for the info. 

I spent some time with this beast this weekend. Saturday I got a load of fresh oil and the fluids checked. Sunday it hit the autocross course. 

First impressions are positive. It's similar to the G35. The power comes on a little higher in the RPM range and the delivery is smoother but the engines behave and sound similar. 

The car seems a little more eager to turn in than the G35. That could be due to the power steering. The Mustang system is boosted more than the G35 system. It is also a little twitcher than the G35. Probably due to worn shocks and a stick axle. A set of good shocks will be at the top of the list. The body roll was pretty controlled on this weekend's course. The only slalom was 3 cones but it felt surprisingly good going through it. 

Ergonomics are similar but the Mustang is more comfortable and the layout on the G35 was a little better. HVAC controls in the Mustang are a bit of a reach. Surprisingly, the shifter in the Mustang is also a bit of a reach. That could be because a lot of my height is in my legs so I tend to run the seat further back. The dash on the Mustang being farther forward is probably why it feels larger than the G35 on the interior. I like the dash layout on the Mustang better. The orange and yellow colors of the G35 dash always seemed dingy to me. The Mustang gauges are much easier to read and the info screen in the center is pretty cool. All the functions are accessed by steering wheel buttons and it is very straightforward and user-friendly. It even has track apps. I'm surprised they put them on the V6 version. 

The fuel economy of the Mustang is superb. So far, around town, I'm getting 22 mpg compared to the G35 at 15 around town and 19 highway. I will be interested in seeing what I get on the highway. If the Mustang will hit 31 mph as advertised, this may turn into my long-distance cruiser. 31 mpg would beat the Touareg by 2-3 mpg and it burns cheaper fuel to boot. That's better than my wife is getting out of her Miata. 

Today's autocross course was painful due to several tractor-trailer rigs that were left on the lot. What should have been a fairly open course turned into a super tight course with the last two turns requiring almost lock-to-lock turns of the steering wheel. I was wishing for a speed knob. My first run was 35 seconds, my last was 32.03. That would have been good enough for first in FS if I had run that class. The car is pretty easy to drive, even on all-season tires. All in it was a fun day and I don't regret the purchase.

CC is Cookie Class. It's a raw time class and the winner brings cookies to the next event. 

I've got to find my GoPro so all you get is a cell phone video. 

The OEM shift knob had been glued back together at some point and fell apart at the autocross last Sunday. 

That problem was solved today.

Much better. 

The VW is headed to the shop next week for a leaking oil cooler so this is doing some DD duties. It's really a good car. Comfortable, easy to drive, nice radio and really good fuel economy. I don't think I would want it as my only car because of the stick, but as an occasional daily it does very well.

I need to make an out of town run tomorrow so we will see how the hwy economy is. 

This morning I covered 140 miles. Most of it with the cruise control set to 65. 

The fact that a 300hp, 3400 pound car can average 31.5 mpg is pretty amazing. 

That is honestly really impressive.

In reply to Toyman! :

I figured you’d get that.  I’ve seen just over 26 on a tank a couple of times in mine on trips.  That middle display is cool, didn’t have that in 2011.  

Dang it why did you do this......the "V" is sick you're having a bunch of FUN with this ....I've never owned a Ford ever.......as he wanders off pulling his hair out......ok ok ok how are the seats....lumbar? oh and CARVANA in the B'Ham area has WAY too many of these with crazy low mileage for 2014's.

In reply to 759NRNG :

Toyman’s is a premium, the interior looks very similar to my 11 GT so I’d think his is the same. Driver and passenger seats in mine are power with lumbar and heat, I think they’re very comfortable even after several hours. 

In reply to 759NRNG :

The seats are very good. Better than the G35 seats were. I'm pretty impressed with the overall build quality as well. This one has a pile of mileage on it but doesn't drive like it does. I also paid about 1/3 of what Carvana is asking for the white one with 9K on it. At that price, I think it was a pretty good deal.  

With the Touareg in the shop, I needed a road trip machine this weekend. Since the Mustang gets pretty decent fuel economy it got the nod instead of the Suburban.

I put about 900 miles on it loaded with 3 adults and luggage for the weekend. It was comfortable. It drove well. The twisties in the mountains were fun. It would pull 98% of the grades in 6th gear. The trunk is cavernous and it averaged 29 mpg. Not bad. 

My only complaint is the road noise on old asphalt is pretty significant. New asphalt is pretty quiet. Better tires may help but I'm probably going to use up the all seasons that are on it before I spend the coin on something better. 

My wife did end up in the back since she is 5' and my son is 6' but both seats were pretty comfortable. The wife's only complaint was it was a bit of a PITA to get out of the back seat. 

The wife is headed to Knoxville TN with it this morning. That will put another 1000 miles on the car by the time she gets home. 

Ford did a pretty darn good job of putting this car together. I'm impressed. 

I might have to change the name from The Black Sheep to Black Beauty. 

dark horse

/ˌdärk ˈhôrs/

noun

1. a candidate or competitor about whom little is known but who unexpectedly wins or succeeds.

   "a dark-horse candidate"

Well, bad news. 

The wife was apparently a little hard on the clutch on her trip to Knoxville and back. I was going to drive it to work this morning but the clutch isn't disengaging enough to get it into gear without forcing it. 

I'm not sure what she did. It could just be a matter of bleeding it, or it could be a damaged pressure plate or disk. There is no telling how many miles the clutch has on it. It may have just been time.

I will probably be sending this one to the shop. I really don't feel like crawling around under a car and pulling a transmission. I'm getting too old for that to be considered fun.

More to come.

hehheh you said little hard on

Did you check the fluid level?  Seems like it might be worth a quick bleed to see what happens.  
 

you could use a large syringe to push fluid in from below - it's a one-man operation and if there is air in it, it's up by the master anyway.   
 

glad the car is being enjoyed!

In reply to jfryjfry :

I took a quick look this morning. It looks like it shares fluid with the brakes. I've got too many other things to work on so it's going to the shop this afternoon. 

I wish Ford had expanded on the 'Mustang' nameplate with a 4 door version with the same interior and drivetrain instead of that gross hybrid/electric crossover abomination.  

I really like the V6 / manual combo and would make a great sedan.....and the 5.0 / manual would have gone right at the Chargers.