2020 Shelby GT500 | Modding and Testing VMP's Project Snowbird

2020 Shelby GT500 | Modding and Testing VMP's Project Snowbird

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I know you guys have been waiting for this. The 2020 GT500 has already proven to be a supremely impressive addition to Ford Performance family of vehicles. But this is SVTP, you know we never leave anything stock for long. So we teamed up with the supercharger experts at VMP Performance to cover some up the preliminary build up of their project Predator. When we arrived, the car was already equipped with a ported supercharger courtesy of Jokerz Performance. Other than the blower, the car was stock.

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The 2020 Shelby GT500 is Ford Performance's ultimate expression of S550 Mustang prowess, and it looks like they left the aftermarket plenty of room to play.

So the first order of business was to strap the Twister Orange Mustang to rollers and set a baseline. He above setup netted us 680 RWHP, but the interesting thing we noticed was the power starting to drop off once the engine reached 7,700 RPM. VMP’s Justin Starkey believed it was due to restriction in the suction side of the intake tract. We would soon find out just how true that theory was. We decided to ditch the factory airbox lid to see if that freed things up a bit. There’s been a rumor that opening things up could make things interesting. Check out this video:



Stock Tune Vs Stock Tune No Lid.png


Just removing the air box lid gave the GT500 a 65RWHP increase over our baseline, and power was continuing to climb past 7,700 RPMs.


From there we bolted the intake lid back on and VMP played with some played around with some mild tuning. Justin’s software of choice was HP-Tuners due to their support and speedy load times. With some minor adjustments (though still running a lot of safeties) the car picked up 46HP/21TQ to the tires. Looking around VMP’s shop, we found one of their 105mm Throttle Bodies that just happened to fit the inlet of the Jokerz Performance ported supercharger perfectly. It’s a very nicely made piece. However, at factory boost levels we saw negligible gains. I suspect the 105mm TB will pay dividends once the supercharger is pulleied down and flowing more air. Check out the video of these tests:



Base 680 Vs Tune Only 715.png


The major take away here is that the car picked up power everywhere across the RPM range.


Finally, it was time to test the air box lid delete mod in the real world. I had my doubts that the massive gains we saw on the dyno would translate into the real world, and there’s no better real world test than knocking off a few ¼ mile passes. So we loaded up and head over to Orlando Speed World for a little test-and-tune time. One thing that is instantly apparent when looking at the time sheets is that the car is insanely consistent. However, it appears that my theory on ripping off the lid was correct. There’s not much value in it on the street or track. This video details the runs:



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Hard to argue with these back to back passes. Perhaps the results will be different once we add a few more PSI to the mix.


Overall, we had a great couple days playing with Ford’s latest and greatest Pony Car. We performed a lot more tests than what’s posted in this thread. However, the videos go into much greater detail on all the changes we made; so I suggest watching them. If you have any questions of what to see more dyno sheets just let me know. We’ll keep posting them up in this thread. One note though, we did happen to receive prototype JLT Performance Cold Air Intake the last day we were on the dyno. I’ll be posting up those results tomorrow, so keep an eye out for that.

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Not since the 'snorkel' silencer on the Terminator have we seen a factory intake tract piece rob so much power.


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Pulling the lid leaves you with an air intake that looks remarkably like the one found on the Shelby GT350 Mustang.


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There's just a little bit of difference here. Stock 92mm vs VMP 105mm. I'm betting we see significant gains once we add about 4#s of boost.


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This photo isn't exactly straight on, but it gives you an idea of just how close Jokerz Performance ported inlet is size matched to the VMP 105mm throttle body.


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This is not a bad way to spend a Tuesday.

-SID297
 
Looks as though that NOW you have spent a lot of money for very very minimal gains...The ET means nothing to me with MPH meaning everything in drag racing/roll racing...The ET is tires and driver...Looks like Ford has done a phenomenal job stock...I saw another guy on here going 10.66 @ 132.8 BONE STOCK...The guy keeps quoting temperature vs DA, what gives with that...Just my .02 worth.

Greg
 
Good stuff Travis.

I wonder if the IAT's show why there may have been no real world benefit or some other analytical correlation.
 
Why not enlarge the front grill opening for the intake? If removing the lid had that large of a change with the hood open wouldn't the logical next step be that the intake port in the grill is too small for the volume of air the motor is trying to pull? Look how small this thing is. Just cut that thing out of there - like swapping to the 13/14 grill on the last gen GT500.

VMP_GT500_011.jpg
 
Why not enlarge the front grill opening for the intake? If removing the lid had that large of a change with the hood open wouldn't the logical next step be that the intake port in the grill is too small for the volume of air the motor is trying to pull? Look how small this thing is. Just cut that thing out of there - like swapping to the 13/14 grill on the last gen GT500.

View attachment 1624375

Might be something to try in the future.
 
I'm wondering if it is torque management. I would think hp gains across the board under normal circumstances would net et gains if traction isn't an issue.
 
Why not enlarge the front grill opening for the intake? If removing the lid had that large of a change with the hood open wouldn't the logical next step be that the intake port in the grill is too small for the volume of air the motor is trying to pull? Look how small this thing is. Just cut that thing out of there - like swapping to the 13/14 grill on the last gen GT500.

View attachment 1624375

My guess is the airbox pressurizes at speed, so it wasn't so much a "gain" they noticed on the dyno as it was the removal of a loss. Really no amount of dyno fan is going to replicate 100+ MPH of pressurized air.
 
My guess is the airbox pressurizes at speed, so it wasn't so much a "gain" they noticed on the dyno as it was the removal of a loss. Really no amount of dyno fan is going to replicate 100+ MPH of pressurized air.

Pretty much this. Now when you start moving more air through the blower than the factory intake can provide that's a different story.
 
Great write up and video's. Thanks to both Sid and VMP for making this happen. Look forward to more of this in the future
 
Anyone test removing the Gurney flap from the ‘swing’ and seeing if trap mph improves?
About as easy as swapping out the air lid cover.
I second opening up the grill, good catch.
Cmon TCM tuning! Let’s get this fat girl leaving harder on some bias plys already :)
-J
 
Is it just me but do those times seem very mediocre? Ported blower, tuning and 105 throttle body netted nothing better than stock times and mph. Not worth it in my opinion. So far, pulley and freeing up exhaust and tune seems the best bang for the buck.
 
Is it just me but do those times seem very mediocre? Ported blower, tuning and 105 throttle body netted nothing better than stock times and mph. Not worth it in my opinion. So far, pulley and freeing up exhaust and tune seems the best bang for the buck.

I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and say they are still just testing and identifying things. If a 105mm throttle body does nothing, then the stock one wasn't a restriction at that point. If porting the blower doesn't gain much, it's not a restriction at this point... I think they're just being methodical and experimenting with the powertrain.
 
Is it just me but do those times seem very mediocre? Ported blower, tuning and 105 throttle body netted nothing better than stock times and mph. Not worth it in my opinion. So far, pulley and freeing up exhaust and tune seems the best bang for the buck.

Below VVVVV

I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and say they are still just testing and identifying things. If a 105mm throttle body does nothing, then the stock one wasn't a restriction at that point. If porting the blower doesn't gain much, it's not a restriction at this point... I think they're just being methodical and experimenting with the powertrain.

Pretty much this ^^^^^^

The TB and blower isn't really a restriction at low boost levels. When a pulley gets thrown into the mix I suspect things will change.

The TCM tuning is a bit of a hold back too.
 

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