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Boss Exhaust Pics and Impressions from SJ Auto Show

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My family and I drove 280 miles round trip to check out a black Boss LS at the San Jose auto show. I saw the silver LS in person at the Sacramento show last November but I didn't get to sit in it and I didn't make up my mind to buy one until after the show. Now that I have one on order I wanted to check out the interior. When I arrived the car was locked and I asked the product specialist to open the car for me to sit in. He stated it was sold and he couldn't open it. When I told him I had ordered one he directed me to the head guy who said he'd get the keys and meet me over there. The product specialist guy showed up a few minutes later and let my family and me sit in the car for about 10 minutes. Both guys were very friendly and helpful.

Here are my impressions of the car:


The Recaro Seats
: I didn't pay attention to the cloth the first time I saw the car. But after sitting in them I like the cloth a lot. Photos of the cloth can look like it's smooth nylon. It's not. It reminds me of ballistic nylon if you know what that is. As someone else told me it's very appropriate for the car and should wear well. For the record I'm 6'2" and weigh 200 lbs and they are a nice fit for my size. I do think it's great that Ford offered an appropriate seat for the Boss.

The Dash:
The aluminum plates on the dash are darker than on the current GT500. I think I like the GT500 a touch better but both look very cool. The same aluminum trim from the GT500 is in the Boss and adds a touch of class to the interior over the regular GT's chrome. Overall the interior looks exactly like you'd expect a modern Boss to look.

The Clutch:
The clutch feel is a fair bit heavier than a GT. It's not overly heavy but it will take a little effort to depress it. There was a Corvette Z06 sitting a couple of cars away and it's clutch was like butter compared to the the Boss clutch. The shifter also had nice short throws.

The Exhaust:
I have been somewhat critical of the exhaust turndowns, thinking if they were really focused on keeping the car light why did they include them? From everything I've read there is no performance increase from opening them up so their inclusion is somewhat gimmicky from my perspective. I have no doubt they will sound bad a$$ but again if there is no performance improvement including them doesn't fit with the overall goal. Anyway here's some photos of the exhaust that you might find interesting. I have not seen these shots anywhere else. As you can see the resonator (or whatever it is) hangs pretty low and is easily the lowest point of the car. I'm sure the first radical speed bump you go over will damage them. Let's hope production cars have tucked them up higher.

I saw another photo that looked like the exhaust tip was welded over the original GT tip. From these photos they are not.

BTW the black paint job on this car was really nice, like it was poured on. It reminded me of an Acura NSX paint job. Let's hope the production cars look this good.

Let me know if you have any questions. I also posted this on TMS.

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Good post! That was very cool of them to open it up and let you really check out the car thoroughly. I agree with your assessment of the seat material. Very fitting of the cars purpose.

As to the exhaust, items that enhance the driving experience are the furthest thing from gimmicky. I'm sure the extra pipes do add a little weight but let's not kid ourselves, this is a 3600lbs car. If those two small pipes and the 10lbs they add are a gimmick, what does that day about the 50lbs the car picked up having a dual exhaust vs. a high flowing single? The quad setup allows Ford to circumvent regulation and produce a v8 that sounds like god intended.
 
s197ford over on The Mustang Source just posted in two threads commenting about my photos of the pre-production exhaust system. He's the guy posting the exhaust videos on YouTube and he's obviously very close to the R&D of the Boss. The good news is he stated there will be some improvement from uncorking the side pipes. So they are not gimmicky after all. ;D The bad news is the GT exhaust tail pipes will be used with 4" pipes welded over them. Here are his quotes:

"The sidepipes are pre-production parts. The production parts look quite a bit different and do not hang so low. The press photos show the same pre-production hardware (production parts weren't available when the show cars were built.) This sometimes happens on show cars. Take a look at the pictures of 2005 show cars that were used at the unveiling in Detroit and you'll find many non-production items on that car (it didn't have a hood liner, the model of 18" tire shown were never used in production, grille honeycomb is wide open, etc...)

Removing the plates in the sidepipes does indeed result in a backpressure reduction. I do not know the power improvement, though. I'm sure someone will have a car on the dyno the first week they are in customer hands and will let everyone know "

and

"Those are pre-production (incorrect) parts shown in the picture. The production tip is similar to the 2011 GT automatic with a 4" tip welded over the 2.5" outlet pipe (for appearance). To meet exterior noise requirements, tailpipe sound has to be slightly reduced to allow room for the additional sound that comes from the sidepipes. That's why the big, full-size 4" tip is not used in production on the Boss. Hope this clears it up. "
 
Is there going to be a button in the car to remove the plates off the side exhausts do you can easily do it when at the race track? If not, are they hard to remove I might be doing some street driving without them to make my car sound like a beast around town. :D
 
Giancarlo said:
Is there going to be a button in the car to remove the plates off the side exhausts do you can easily do it when at the race track? If not, are they hard to remove I might be doing some street driving without them to make my car sound like a beast around town. :D
s197ford has previously stated that without the plates the exhaust is very loud. I just asked him if there are any aftermarket electric dump valves in the works. I'll report back if I hear anything.
 
Alright thanks, appreciate it. I got another question, is there an option to add Brembo brakes and if so what is the cost?
 
Alright, cool. I'm supposed to get called from the salesman these following weeks concerning my detailed order on the Boss.
 
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Is the attenuation disc slotted? It looks like you don't have to remove the two bolts, just loosen them enough for the attenuation disc to fall out, and then retighten the two bolts. If so, this is much easier than I thought it would be.
 
I don't know if this is a repost but heres the exhaust on the 302 Boss in a video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reyU8XsGfcI[/youtube]
 

atrain1975

Anybody know if a spacer would need to be inserted where the attenuation disk is removed? The disk looks to be 1/2 inch thick.
 
5 DOT 0 said:
I found another photo of the exhaust from a later pre production Boss. This car was one of the pace cars at the Ford 400. It looks much cleaner than the one I took photos of.

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Glad to see they have several cutouts for jack stands along the pinch weld. I was wondering how I was going to work around the side exhaust.
 

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