We flog a bevy of bolt-ons from Lightning Force Performance
Ford’s affect on the performance mustang community was two-fold when it released the supercharged Shelby GT500 Mustang in 2007. It gave SVT product the balls to kick some major tail on the street, but it also showed the aftermarket and its consumers how much the Modular motors prefer forced induction and how that allows for great strides in performance.
Lightning Force Performance (LFP) in Houston, TX. offers the Shelby GT500 owner numerous products to improve all aspects of a Shelby’s performance, so we procured a suitable test subject and pounded the dynamometer for some results.
Said test vehicle came from the stable of LFP’s son Jesse Sims who also boards a supercharged 2000 SVT Lightning. The 2007 Shelby GT500 isn’t Sims’ daily driver, but he wasn’t looking for maximum power, just a little more to give him that thrill he got when he first purchased it.
That being said, we called LFP and asked Mark what he recommended. Obviously, a pulley and cold air combo was a given, and Silvestri suggested we start with an LFP 2.60 Upper Pulley Kit (Shelby Pulley’s) and a C&L Cold Air Kit (Shelby GT500 Intakes). He also suggested we try LFP’s new billet aluminum lower control arms for more stability at launch. (Shelby GT500 Suspension)
With increased boost come increased air-charge temperatures, so we installed LFP’s Extreme intercooler heat exchanger (Shelby GT500 Cooling) its larger-than-stock capacity will provide more fluid for the transfer of heat, and its construction offers more cooling fins per inch than the stocker for increased efficiency.
While you can get away with adding a cold air kit and pulley to a naturally aspirated Ford Mustang, the Shelby GT500 requires some tweaking to the ECM due to the additional airflow created by the LFP 2.60 Upper Pulley Kit and C&L Shelby GT500 Cold Air Kit. LFP has you covered with pre-tuned dyno tunes which can be pre-loaded into an SCT Xcal 3 tuner for your convenience.
Our subjects ’07 Shelby baselined at 411hp and 353 lb-ft of torque at the wheels. After installing the Shelby Pulley Kit and GT500 Intake, our subjects GT500 increased to 11psi of boost resulting in a quick and easy 505hp and 431 lb-ft of torque. This could not be achieved without properly modifying the Shelby with a custom tune from LFP.
Things were looking great so far, and after we bolted on the GT500 C&L Cold Air kit, power and torque improved once again to 565hp and 516 lb-ft of twist. We were on a roll and not quite finished with our mods.
Increased boost pressure means the air-intake charge is compressed more and thus heated more. The LFP Extreme Shelby GT500 Heat Exchanger holds fluid than stock and features more cooling fins per inch than the factory piece. We saw an average decrease in intake-charge temps from 12-16 degrees depending upon engine RPM. After draining the intercooler fluid, bolting up the Shelby Heat Exchanger is a simple remove-and-replace process. This is a relief due to the complicated routing of the Shelby GT500’s plumbing.
More Shelby GT500 Parts and Accessories can be found on LFP’s GT500 section on their online web-store.
For further information please log on to http://www.lightningforceperformance.com
