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GT350 News and Predictions

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*****Breaking News!!*****

If you didn't already have enough reasons to be at Mustang Roundup V 2015, we have one more! Be one of the first to witness the 2016 Shelby GT350 in its natural environment!!

Ford confirmed today that Motorsports Park Hastings will be a great place to see the new GT350 in action September, 2015! It will be worth coming just to hear that flat plane crank at work!

https://trackmustangsonline.com/index.php?topic=8842.0
 
I wanted to update my predictions now that some of this is out but not official. I'm adding one prediction and see my revised predictions below in blue.

Weight
The biggie is the GT350R should weigh in around 3,500 lbs. with it possibly being below that! The SVT team is really getting after this one. 8)

NFSGT350 said:
Ok here's the latest on the GT350 program.

Names:
I'm now completely confident that name will be GT350. The race car versions will follow the same naming convention for the FR500 and Boss 302 programs. This is a SVT car and will also have the Shelby name on it although Shelby America will not be involved. There will be four models:

GT350 – the base GT350 similar to the Boss 302.
GT350 B/PR – similar to the Boss 302 Laguna Seca. This is the higher performance GT350 or street legal track day special. B/P stands for SCCA B Production and pays homage to the original cars. The original GT350 won it's very first B/P race and went on to capture the SCCA 1965, 1966 and 1967 B Production championships.
Turn Key Race Cars
GT350C - for IMSA CTSCC GS class racing, the enduro racer. Updated
GT350S - for World Challenge GTS class racing, the sprint racer.

Ok I was reaching on the B/P name and trying to be creative. But I still got most of this right.


Availability:
The GT350 will be announced at the 2014 LA Auto Show most likely on November 21st the first public day of the show. Look for GT350Mustangs.com to be there for the live announcement. The first we'll see the car at a race will be in the CTSC GS class at Daytona in January 2015. IMSA let Ford race the Boss 302R before production began as they did with GM and the Z/28. Look for the production cars to be available at the earliest in Summer 2015 most likely as a 2016 model. It could be a 2015 model but who really cares?

I'm sticking with this one to the letter although we might see a press release or event prior to the LA Auto Show.


Engine:
Sorry but no flat plane crank. Wrong! I know there's lots of rumors on this but it just doesn't make sense for the price point or for the production class racing. If Ford is working on a FPC look for it in a Mach 1 or GT500 a couple of years down the road. What the engine will have is 520 HP in a 5.2L engine with a redline of 8,000 RPM's. While the Boss engine has been pretty bullet proof the weak link has been the valve springs. Look for improved flow in the heads with hardware that can take 8,000 RPM's during the durability testing. To feed those heads there will be a new intake similar to the Cobra Jet intake but with a few tricks added to it to take advantage of the increase flow through the heads and larger bore. A new larger throttle body will be paired with the intake. Shorty headers will be stock but with slightly larger primaries to take advantage of the increased flow. The really big news will be the GT350 will be the first Mustang with direct injection.

The FPC Voodoo engine is real but I don't have a lot of details. I'm bumping up my initial HP guess to 550 HP. So somewhere between 520-550 and the redline could be 8,500 or higher.


Brakes:
We've already seen mules with carbon ceramic brakes with 15" rotors in the front and 14" rotors in the rear. They will be matched with six piston front and four piston rear Brembo calipers. This time around the B/P will have more track oriented brake pads compared to the base GT350.

No changes here. Look for the CC brakes to be stock on the GT350R and an option on the GT350.


Wheels and tires:

The GT350 will have Michelin Pilot Super Sport in 295/35/19 and 265/35/19 on 11" and 10" wide wheels. This will open up larger rubber on the stock wheels come replacement time.

The big news is the GT350 B/P will have Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires. It's possible they could show up with Pirelli P Zero Trefeo R's but it will depend on what manufacturer Ford contracts with.

We now know the wheel sizes are 19x10.5F and 19x11R for the GT350 with the R getting 19x11F and 19x11.5R. And as I posted last week the R will have carbon fiber wheels and most likely made by Carbon Revolution as previously shown in the Leno's Garage video. WOW this is huge! Make sure you leave plenty of room on your credit card for replacement wheels. ;) Tires are as I previously predicted but with larger sizes. 305/30/19F and 325/30/19R

Listen to what the guy has to say about an OEM deal at the 4:00 mark. :p
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gWiTky3zZXQ

Suspension:
The cars will have Multimatic dampers with DSSV technology. The base GT350R and B/P will have different valving but will be identical otherwise. The beauty of this is you can upgrade the base dampers with the B/P cartridge for more damping control. Yes I know the Z/28 has them too but Multimatic uses the same technology in F1 cars so think of it in those terms. The R and S cars will also have DSSV dampers with remote reservoirs on them. The street dampers will have nothing in common with the race dampers other than using a DSSV cartridge and being made my Multimatic.

I don't have any further information on this other than Multimatic has two of the GT350R(S) cars they are prepping for IMSA next year. So for now I'll stick with my original prediction.

Differential:

No electronic controlled diff like the new Stingray. Look for a Torsen similar to the Boss 302.

No change here.

Transmission:
Sorry but the Getrag MT82 remains the stock transmission. Look for improvements in durability and smoothness. The transmission will have an auto blip feature.

I'm beginning to think I'm wrong here and hope I am. Frankly the sky is falling mentality about the MT-82 is unfounded and the clutch on the Boss 302 is the main problem.

Clutch:
Look for a twin disc clutch similar to what Ford uses in the GT500.

No change here.

Driveshaft:
It will have a carbon fiber driveshaft similar to the current GT500.

No change here.
 
"we never get phone calls"
Who has their phone number?! ;D

Kind of interested to see if the CF will make it to production, and how it holds up at the track. I think if CF was a good solution, F1 would have been using it by now, which I don't think Ive seen any teams use CF yet (unless there's a F1 rule that restricts wheel material/weight).
 

four-walling

Kerry, San Diego
The description of the carbon fiber wheel sounds as though some "non carbon fiber material" is used a base and then wrapped in carbon fiber. That would probably make the price somewhat reasonable.

For example, HRE "real" carbon fiber wheels are about $20-25,000 for a set of 4.
 
Here's a render with the CarbonRev wheels on it. Ford is testing 7 spoke wheels. I know there's lots of speculation on this but there's no speculation. The only question is if the wheels make it past the durability testing and I expect they will. Also note the CF hood. As I've previously mentioned expect to see other CF pieces on the GT350, besides the driveshaft, at least on the R version. Expect the GT350 to be 200 lbs lighter than the GT 5.0.
 
*Multimatic confirmed on their website that the Road Atlanta CTSCC winning BOSS 302R was the first race the DSSV technology dampers have won. Check. Let's hope they make it onto the production GT350's as I've predicted. 8)

"Road Atlanta provided DSSV damping's first victory in CTSCC competition."

Scroll towards the bottom.
http://multimaticmotorsports.com/photos/2014-mustang-boss-302r-road-atlanta/

**Also I received a blast email from Multimatic and it included the info below. Clearly they are working on their two cars and they should hopefully be ready for Daytona in January.

http://multimaticmotorsports.com/

Multimatic Victorious In Swan Song for BOSS 302R Mustang at Final CTSC Race of 2014


ATLANTA, Georgia (October 3rd, 2014) - The longest winless streak in Multimatic Motorsports' 22-year history was finally snapped by Ian James and Billy Johnson at Road Atlanta with a victory in the final round of the 2014 Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge (CTSC).

James qualified the #158 Multimatic Motorsports/Miller Racing Mustang a solid P6 with only two flying laps available before a red flag curtailed the session. He started the race conservatively on a damp but drying track and kept the car out of trouble and safely in the top five before handing over the spotless Boss302R to Johnson with an hour and a half remaining in the race. Johnson, who had won the 2013 season finale at Lime Rock Park and was motivated to repeat the achievement in 2014 didn't waste any time getting to the front, passing the #6 Camaro for the lead with 25 laps to go. After briefly losing out to the Stevenson Chevy on a messy restart, Johnson made a spectacular outside pass at corner five with three wheels in the grass to retake the lead and ran the final 17 laps without challenge, winning by a margin of 2.186 seconds and taking the first checkered flag for Multimatic Motorsports in over three years.

On top of this streak-busting win, Scott Maxwell, in the #15 Multimatic Mustang, set the fastest time by a wide margin in second practice, qualified Q2 a scant .040 seconds off the pole in the abbreviated session, took the lead in the first corner of the race, in damp conditions, and proceeded to dominate for the first hour before handing off to co-driver Jade Buford. Buford, who had the championship battle to worry about, kept the #15 in the top seven and out of harm's way. With half an hour remaining, all challengers for third in the championship had suffered mechanical issues and Buford was given the green light to race. He brought the #15 home in P4, making a spectacular outside move down the hill on the last lap, and solidly secured third in the team championship with 273 points. Maxwell and Buford earned nine top ten finishes, four top fives and one podium at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (CTMP) during the 2014 CTSC.

James and Johnson had a tough season of bumps, shunts, fires, wrecks and mechanical failures but the pair still managed to accumulate three podium finishes and end the season with a big win. Coming into the final two rounds of the championship the #158 was sitting outside of the top ten in points but with a third place at COTA and the 35 championship points secured at Atlanta the driving team managed to finish the season in seventh.

Multimatic Motorsports' efforts with the aging Boss 302R resulted in Ford finishing third in the Manufacturers championship, a scant two points behind Chevrolet who had the advantage of campaigning four of the highly touted new Camaro Z/28s. The team and manufacturer now look ahead to 2015 when they will campaign the new model Mustang which will more than level the playing field in the muscle car battle. When and where the new car will debut still remains a tightly held secret but expectations are high. The Boss 302R, now in its final days of competition, has accumulated 9 wins and 22 podium finishes in the CTSC since 2010 (all of the wins can be attributed to either Billy Johnson or Scott Maxwell).

Highlights of the season include:
Jade Buford scored pole position for the opening round of the season at Daytona driving the oldest car in the field. The 'school-bus' yellow #15 Boss 302R, chassis X1A, had been last run by Multimatic during the 2011 season spending time in museums and on test tracks since its last race.
The Multimatic Motorsports crew secured a double podium at CTMP, the team's home event. Billy Johnson and Scott Maxwell brought the #158 and #15 home second and third respectively for the team's first podium finishes of the season.
At COTA, the Multimatic Mustangs owned the front row in qualifying, with Johnson taking his first career CTSC pole and Maxwell setting the Q2 time. In a race that saw extremely variable weather conditions, Ian James managed to finesse the #158 past the #6 Camaro in the closing laps, on dry tires in extremely wet conditions, to claim a third place finish. Buford, driving the #15, was one of the few competitors to opt for rain tires, which resulted in a three or four second advantage per lap. Making up for an earlier fuel issue and a minor collision Buford carved through the field to finish P5.
In the final event of the season James and Johnson scored Multimatic's first win since 2011 and Maxwell and Buford claimed third in the championship with their P4 finish.

Multimatic Motorsports Team Principal, Larry Holt, commented: "This was a tough season of highs and lows that ended on an extreme high. I can't thank the boys enough for the tremendous effort they all put forth through the tough periods. We knew going in that competing with the Boss302R would be tough against the more recently engineered Z/28s and M3s but we only just missed beating Chevrolet to second in the manufacturer's championship which was a fantastic achievement. Of course losing a brand new car at Laguna due to that spectacularly idiotic move by the Aston was a massive setback which in retrospect probably cost us that second place in the championship. But the team rallied and built a third car in a month and it all came good at Mosport (CTMP) when we got both Mustangs on the podium. From then on the team had the results we should have enjoyed all season, owning the front row in Texas and winning at Atlanta. If the rest of the year had gone like that then the outcome would have been the biggest upset in series history. The Boss302R has served us well but we now are looking forward to racing the newer and much improved 2015 Mustang. Stay tuned."
 

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
Moderator
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Arizona, USA
NFSBOSS said:
Here's a render with the CarbonRev wheels on it. Ford is testing 7 spoke wheels. I know there's lots of speculation on this but there's no speculation. The only question is if the wheels make it past the durability testing and I expect they will. Also note the CF hood. As I've previously mentioned expect to see other CF pieces on the GT350, besides the driveshaft, at least on the R version. Expect the GT350 to be 200 lbs lighter than the GT 5.0.

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Grant 302

basic and well known psychic
Thanks for the update...can't wait to see it in person! 8)

NFSBOSS said:
I think $60K for the B/P maybe a bit higher but well below the Z/28. Similar to the 13/14 GT500.

You've been right about many of the predictions, but I'm guessing just under $60k for the base price...because no added cost for the SC and the GT500 base was about $55k. Best case, maybe even under that.
 
Note the "vehicle debuts" for Ford at 11:05 on Wednesday during the press schedule. Probably a standard slot and the GT350 will be out of the bag by then but who knows that else Ford has planned. The first day of the show open to the public is Friday the 21st and BMO will be there with their crack photographer.

http://laautoshow.com/press-conference-schedule/

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