Project Coyote - AmericanMuscle's 2014 GT Mustang Build

Justin: Hey. I'm Justin with AmericanMuscle.com, and welcome to stage one of our 2014 GT Project car build known as Project Coyote. So the idea with this project car series was to mix things up a little bit and introduce a second car into the mix. So while I'm getting my hands dirty with the '14 here, my buddy, Dave, is gonna be doing his Project car thing with the '06 GT. So essentially, doubling our fun here at AmericanMuscle.com and a number of videos coming home to you guys. Of course, we're gonna throw in a friendly competition of a quarter mile drag race at the end because why not? Now, assembling two cars can be a bit of work, so that's why Dave and I handpicked two teams of Mustang experts from the offices at AmericanMuscle.com to help us with some installs along the way and a few part selections as well.

Before we got to work on Project Coyote, we did grab our baseline dyno run and track run. At the dyno, we put down 361 horsepower and 344 pound-feet of torque. While at the track, we managed a best of 12.9. So it's safe to say, stock for stock, the boys and I have a sizable advantage over Dave in the '06 GT power wise. However, with a name like Grabber Boost, we have a good idea what's coming up for us down the road, which got us thinking a little bit. Now, we can add a power adder to our 5 liter here, but we don't think that would be fair to them and their three valve motor, so we figured we'd exploit the capabilities of our Coyote motor here, hence the name Project Coyote, and battle their boost with some all motor four-valve power. With the basic plans laid out, my team and I are gonna get to work installing some of the performance and appearance basics just to get the ball rolling a little bit before we start getting into the fun stuff.

Mike and Laz are under the hood putting the finishing touches on a BBK throttle body and an Airaid cold air intake combo. All right, guys. Looks great under the hood. Tell me a little bit more about the combo and what we got going on.

Mike: Well, we just got done installing our Airaid intake along with our BBK 90 millimeter throttle body. The throttle body is gonna help us out a little bit right now being that it's bigger than stock, but down the road when we try to pull out every ounce of power from this naturally aspirated Coyote motor, it's really gonna help.

Justin: Mr. Lazarus, that Airaid?

Laz: Well that Airaid is a huge cold air intake, and it's gonna suck ton of air down in that intake manifold. Now, paired with BBK's 90 millimeter throttle body, we should be seeing some pretty sizable gains on this. Now, you do need to know that it does need to be tuned. So I think Ryan's in there working on that as we speak.

Justin: Awesome, man. Well, I'm gonna go check on him, but first, I couldn't help but notice you guys snuck in that SR Performance oil separator on me, which I think is awesome, man. That's gonna keep all these oily vapors and just all that other junk from entering our intake manifold down the road. So again, good work, boys. In the meantime, I'll leave you with that, and I'm gonna go check on Ryan.

Well, like Laz said, in order to run that race intake from Airaid, we are gonna need to upload a custom BAMA tune, which it looks like Ryan is doing right now. Now, you guys all know the deal with a tune by now. It's pretty much essential whenever you start adding the big mods into the hood, and it's only gonna make the most out of those bolt-ons down the road. Well, if you're all buttoned up in there, man, you wanna get the car in the air and start working on the exhaust?

Ryan: Yup. Let's do it.

Justin: All right. So to wrap up the performance bolt-ons here in stage one, we're gonna install Flowmaster's Outlaw series axle-back. Now, my buddy Ryan here actually does all of our installs for the exhaust vids, and he actually picked this exhaust out specifically for Project Coyote. Ryan, why did you go with the Flowmaster?

Ryan: This is actually one of my favorite exhausts systems. The straight through design allows for greater airflow while making the car sound angry.

Justin: Hell yeah, man. With stage one performance stuff out of the way, it's time to give our '14 a much-needed facelift before we head down to the track. MMD has also supplied a ton of cool parts for stage one here. In fact, Mike and I are just finishing up with this ducktail spoiler, which is actually a new addition to the MMD lineup. Now, Mike, you're a big fan of this spoiler, aren't you?

Mike: Absolutely. It's a great spoiler. MMD took a really subtle approach to the ducktail design, which really pays tribute to the late '60s iconic Shelby cars.

Justin: Moving on, it looks like Laz is putting the finishing touches on a set of louvers here. What you got, buddy?

Laz: Well, Justin, these are gonna be the classic window louvers by MMD. They're a really cool retro throwback style part. It's gonna work nicely with our pre-painted side scoops and some of the other vinyl that we had Steve putting on here.

Justin: Ryan, what you got over here, man?

Ryan: I'm installing a set of MMD's retro style mirrors. We felt that the stock mirrors didn't match the body lines of the car very well. Plus, we also wanted it to match the new black roof decal and also the other black vinyl that we're putting on the car.

Justin: You didn't think we'd make it through an entire appearance build without adding a new set of wheels and tires, did you? The boys and I were unanimous on this one. We went the 2013 GT500 style wheels in charcoal along with some nice sticky rubber from Sumitomo. So my team and I pretty much rocked stage one. I mean, our car is looking great. All of our bolt-ons are installed. I think it's time to get it strapped to the dyno one more time and see if we have improved over our baseline numbers. Again, our baseline run with Project Coyote gave us 361 horsepower and 344 pound-feet of torque. With all of our stage one modifications, we put down 384 horsepower and 373 pound-feet of torque, giving us a peak horsepower gain of 23 and curve gains of 32 horsepower and 31 pound-feet of torque. So with everything wrapped up here in the shop, it's time to take Project Coyote down to the track and meet up with the Grabber Boost team and see where both cars stand after their stage one mods.

All right. So we're down here at Cecil County Raceway. We are at the end of stage one to see how Project Coyote and Project Grabber Boost are gonna make out. And, Dave, I have to say, man, the car looks awesome.

Dave: Thank you, and as does yours. I really like...I just like everything you've done. What's your plan for your car?

Justin: Well, you know, at the end of this stage, we're hoping mid to low 12s after stage one, but we'll see. How about you guys?

Dave: Oh, no, we're hoping to knock a few tenths off as well. We're hoping to get down out of the 14s, for sure. Same thing. Good clean passes.

Justin: Right. So obviously no surprises here. We're expecting, you know, Project Coyote to do a little better than you guys for now.

Dave: Yeah. For now.

Justin: But with your name, Grabber Boost, we know what's coming.

Dave: What? Nothing coming.

Justin: Well, hey, if anything, I like the color.

Dave: Well, thank you.

Justin: Nice choice.

Dave: Yeah. It's a good choice. Well hey, let's get to it. I wanna see how these things run.

Justin: All right, man. Let's get to the line.

Dave: Best of luck to you guys.

Justin: Right to you as well.

Dave: Hey, we finished our runs here tonight. Got some real good track time in. The '06 Project Grabber Boost, we started out at 14.0 and tonight, knocked off a full half second and got it to 13.5. Hey, and you guys did pretty well tonight, too.

Justin: We did. We did, Dave. Not quite as good as you guys. We started out as a 12.9, bone stock with our '14, respectable for a stock car, dropped that down four-tenths tonight to a 12.5, so the car is feeling good. I think we're gonna get ready for the big showdown now. It's that time.

Dave: It's coming up next. Well, hey, look, stay tuned as we continue with Project Grabber Boost to hit on to our stage two.

Justin: And stay tuned for stage two of Project Coyote coming at you very soon. Shall we time out?

Dave: Shop time it is.

Justin: All right.

Dave: Let's get out of here.

Justin: Hey, I'm Justin with AmericanMuscle.com. Welcome back to the shop and Stage 2 of Project Coyote. Now, if you saw Stage 1 or if you've seen any of our project car vids, then you know we're in the process of creating yet another bad-ass street car that can also throw down at the track when the time comes. This time using our '14 here.

However, this project car series features a little bit of a twist. While my team and I are building up the '14, Dave and his team are gonna be building up '06 GT at the same time, and we're gonna meet at the track after the end of each build to see who comes out on top. Now, we had a great time at the end of Stage 1 hanging at the track with Dave and his team, but, obviously, now it's time to get back to work. So before we lay out our plans for Stage 2, let's recap what we did in Stage 1.

Appearance-wise, we called on companies like MMD and Raxiom to give Project Coyote a style and lighting overhaul. Of course, the crowd favorite '13 GT500 style wheels were added for the final touch. We then moved on to some performance basics, installing an Airaid Race Cold Air Intake and BBK Throttle Body, along with Flowmaster's Outlaw Series Axle-Back. And using our Diablosport InTune Tuner, we've tied it all together with a custom BAMA tune.

When we finished Stage 1, Project Coyote put down 384 horsepower and 373 foot-pounds of torque on the Dyno. And at the track, we ran 12.5, knocking 4/10ths off our baseline run. After driving the car on the windy back roads and at the track, we noticed a couple of things. Our car definitely needs a drop, and it needs some help gettin' that power down on the ground because, honestly, man, right now it's spinning all over the place. So that's why my team and I are gonna focus on our suspension here in Stage 2, which will dramatically increase our handling abilities and our ability to get out of the hole when we're at the track.

All right, that stance we left you with at the end of Stage 1 needed to be addressed because, let's face it, nothing can kill the awesome look of a new set of wheels and tires like having the stance of a 4x4. So we figured these SR Performance Lowering Springs and Koni Adjustable Shocks and Struts would be an excellent choice. The SR springs are easy on the wallet, compared to other springs on the market, and they're gonna drop our '14 about an inch and a half on all four corners, which should, hopefully, give us the perfect stance we're lookin' for, along with those 19s.

Now, we actually noticed a good amount of body roll when we were takin' some turns, especially at high speeds, which, let me tell you, can get a little sketchy. Even though we do have a lower center of gravity working for us, in addition to the firmer ride, thanks to the springs and shocks, the one way to really fight this is by adding an aftermarket set of sway bars. So stickin' with SR Performance, we're gonna go with their Front and Rear Sway Bar Set, fitting all 2011 and newer Mustangs. Now, Mike, if I'm not mistaken, man, weren't you the one that picked this out for our build?

Mike: Yeah, these were mine. And, like you said, the best way to prevent excess body roll is by gettin' a set of sway bars. The front has an adjustable 36-millimeter bar, and the rear is a 25-millimeter styling, so it's really gonna help us out.

Justin: Now, we do actually use a similar setup, a lot of times, in our bolt-on build-up cars. And I'll be the first to tell you, man, usually a good set of sway bars, along with a set of springs and shocks, really a good way to wake these live axle cars up, you know, handling-wise, right?

Mike: Yeah, absolutely. It's really gonna help us out at the track and especially when we hit those back roads.

Justin: All right, before we get out from underneath the car completely, I did wanna touch on, real quick, on some of the other parts we installed. Now, rounding out the trio of parts from SR Performance for our build, the boys and I selected their Adjustable Panhard Bar. Of course, a great live axle mod, it's gonna help keep the rear end in check, and that full adjustability's gonna be great for helping us dial in our optimal settings. Finally, we installed Whiteline's Rear Lower Control Arms and Relocation Brackets, which, again, will help us get it out of the hold and help reduce some of our wheel hop in the process.

You know, we, as car people, tend to get caught up in the performance side of things, of course, making our car go faster, look better, handle better. But we can't forget about one of the most important areas of our car's performance, our braking. So the boys and I are installing Power Stop's Front and Rear Kit for Project Coyote, which do include these awesome cross-drilled and slotted rotors, which are gonna help with pad bite, initially, and cooling. But, most importantly, they're gonna look pretty bad-ass behind our GT500 style wheels. They also include the performance pads, which, again, we are installing now. And Ryan, you can tell us a little bit more about these, can't you?

Ryan: Yeah. We're using the ceramic pads. They're gonna give us a lot less brake dust that'll get all over our wheels, so we don't have to clean them as often. They're also gonna give us better stopping power at the track and, more importantly, on the street.

Justin: Yeah. And hey, Laz, I think you actually suggested the Power Stop over those other big brake kits, man. Why is that?

Laz: Well, Justin, we're gonna go with this kit here because it's gonna be a fraction of the price of any of the big-name kits, and it's gonna give us just as much stopping power as they would as well. Now, when we factor in these Russell Stainless Steel Lines, it's gonna give us a really nice, firm pedal feel, so I think we're gonna bleed these up and get going.

Justin: I like it. So with all of our Stage 2 parts installed, again to improve our suspension and handling capability, it's time for me to get out on some back roads around here to see how Project Coyote feels now.

All right, so we're out in Project Coyote with all the Stage 2 mods in place. Now, we've thrown an arsenal of parts on the car. We might as well put them to a test with a big right-hander, shall we? Come up to it, rip the down shift, and hold on, man. The car really, really reacts well now to these mods.

First things first, let's get one thing out of the way. This car was brand new when we started on it, so obviously everything was nice and tight. It wasn't as rough around the edges as the '06 GT, for instance. That being said, there was definitely room for improvement.

Now, the parts we used, the springs, the shocks, the sway bars, our panhard bar, the lower control arms, you know, hard to pick apart each part in terms of what it's doin' for ya. But working together as a whole, it's safe to say it's greatly improved our performance handling-wise and even ride-quality-wise. Just feels tighter all around. Now, in the meantime, Stage 2 is always one of my favorites. Really makes the car feel a lot more alive and a lot more fun to drive.

And that's gonna do it here for Project Coyote in Stage 2. Keep it right here for Stage 3, though, comin' up very soon, where we really start exploiting the power of our Coyote motor.

Justin: Hey, guys. Justin with AmericanMuscle.com here back at the shop along with my team to put the finishing touches on Stage 3 of Project Coyote before our big showdown with Dave and Project Grabber Boost. Now, this is it, man. Our part selection is all done, all of our mods are pretty much bolted up. Now, it's just time to see if we gave Project Coyote enough motor cojones to hang with the boosted '06 GT down at the track. Now, before we get into our Stage 3 modifications, let's recap all of the mods we've done to our '14 GT so far.

In Stage 2 we replaced just about every single component of our 2014 suspension starting with Koni's adjustable shocks and struts. The SR Performance lowering springs helped lower our stance and the front and rear sway bar kit along with the panhard bar reduced some body roll and increased our cornering capabilities. We added Whiteline's rear lower control arms and relocation brackets to help Project Coyote get off the line better and eliminate some wheel hop. Finally, we swapped out the stock pads and rotors for Power Stop's kit along with the braided stainless steel lines from Russell. As we've been saying all along, we wanna make this an interesting race given the obvious power advantages of having the Coyote motor on our side. Now, my team and I are well aware of the fact that a boosted stock block 3-valve 4.6 has a safe power limit to about 450 to maybe 500 horsepower before you have to really start worrying about breaking things. So, if we can get the '14 GT above 400 at the wheel, I think we'd have a hell of a race on our hands. So, that's our goal.

Now, we've already picked up some pretty decent gains with all of our Stage 1 bolt-ons, but we were leaving a lot of power on the table with those stock headers and mid-pipe in place. They had to go. Mike and Laz, tell everybody about the new setup.

Laz: Well, Justin, we swapped out our factory exhaust manifolds because they're pretty restrictive and in place, we put these Pypes polished long tube headers. Now, they're gonna help Project Coyote breathe that much more efficiently higher up in the RPM range. Now, aside from looking the part and being a little easier on the wallet comparison to some other long tube header brands, they should really make the car scream.

Mike: If you're going with long tube headers, they're gonna be longer than stocks, you're gonna have to go with a shorter mid-pipe. So, we stuck with Pypes and went with their catted X-Pipe, which bolted up no problem, and since they have cats, we're gonna even stay emissions-friendly.

Justin: I definitely cannot wait to hear how they're gonna sound with our Outlaw Series axle-back. Nice work, gentlemen. Now, what you guys can't see is our Exedy Mach 500 Stage 3 clutch and lightweight flywheel that we already installed here in Stage 3. And Ryan is here to tell us all about it.

Ryan: The Stage 3 clutch is great for a daily driver who likes to go to the track on the weekends. You can see here that the surface area is a lot larger than the stock one. It also has bigger torsion springs to give you a lot less slop when you re-engage the clutch.

Justin: Yeah. I felt that pulling the car in. The clutch felt good, it didn't feel too strong but you knew it was ready to handle some serious power. What's going on with this lightweight flywheel?

Ryan: The flywheel has a lot of excess metal machined out of it. So, it's lighter and as you put that into the drivetrain, it's gonna deliver a lot more power from the engine to the rear wheels.

Justin: And I know that should help along with that lightweight driveshaft we already installed too. Our driver at the track really had some issues banging that second to third shift last time we were down there. So, we wanted to eliminate that problem altogether. Mike actually installed a shifter to help us out. What's up, man?

Mike: Yes. We went with the really popular combination of the SR Performance short throw shifter and the bracket. This is going to get rid of some of the factory slop and make sure that our driver doesn't miss a shift.

Justin: Well, Mike's got the shifter combo all squared away. He's gonna help me get the car off the lift and back onto the dyno. I guess we're gonna see if we crack that 400 mark. At the end of Stage 1, our 2014 put down 384 horsepower and 373 pound-feet of torque. With all of our Stage 3 modifications, Project Coyote is now putting down 414 horsepower and 395 pound-feet of torque at the rear wheels, giving us a peak horsepower gain of 30 and gains of 31 horsepower and 39 pound-feet of torque throughout the curve. I don't know, man. I think we had a good chance. What do you all think?

All: Definitely. Yeah.

Justin: All right. That's what I like to hear. Well, I'll tell you what, let's get this thing down from the dyno, pack it up, and let's go kick some butt.

Dave: Well, we're back here at the track for the final showdown. As you can see, Justin and I brought both teams, Project Grabber Boost and Project Coyote. It's gonna be a great day for a race.

Justin: That's right, man. It's the best of three showdowns. We've had a long road with these cars, we've spent a lot of time building them up, but I think their end result has been great. You're making over 400 horsepower about 10 pounds of boost, we're making over 400 all motor. So, all motor versus boost, again, similar power. I think we should have one heck of a race on our hands.

Dave: I can't wait. It's the best of three showdown, correct?

Justin: Best of three. Yes, sir.

Dave: That's the plan. So, hey, are you guys excited?

All: Yeah.

Justin: All right. Let's get it on. Yes, sir.

Man: Who do you think is gonna come out here?

Justin: We're gonna tear them up, man. Honestly.

Laz: I don't know. They're under pressure. I think we've got the motor for it. Time will tell.

Mike: We're gonna be the victor.

Steph: I'm worried about the 60-foot and hooking.

Dave: That's always a concern, it's a Mustang. You get the hook, you're gonna win.

Dave: That was a heck of a good run.

Justin: Yeah. It was all launch in the '14.

Dave: We're gonna hope for a little more tire smoke, get these burnouts rocking. This could be an even closer showdown, but great run.

Justin: Well, as you can see we had our first wheel issue down here at the track. It's a little sad, little scary but luckily, we kept it off the wall. We actually broke an axle or something like that coming out of the eighth mile and cut a tire. Not too pretty but either way, we did manage a best of 11.9 on our first run. You guys got a 12.3 in the books.

Dave: Twelve three. Yup.

Justin: So, I think what we're gonna do, just to keep it fair, we're gonna let the '06 run one more time.

Dave: Excellent.

Justin: Think you guys could maybe take down that 11.9?

Dave: It's our goal. Certainly, we've got the power so let's just try. Let's get this off the track. 

Justin: Yeah.

Dave: Let's go drive.

Justin: Get things cleaned up and patched up and I'll see how we do.

Laz: Well, it's looking like we got some work to do.

Steph: We got more.

Mike: What was the number we had to beat?

Justin: Eleven nine.

Steph: Wait, 11.9? Oh, wait.

Mike: That's 11.

Steph: Oh, that's 11..

Mike: Sixty-nine.

Laz: Sorry. It's okay. Get the camera out of my face.

Man: If you want us to sign your shirt, you know, "Grabber Boost," just let me know.

Laz: I like it. All right. Thank you.

Justin: Well, what a day racing.  We had a car almost hit the wall and it broke, but we had a couple of 11-second passes. As hard as it is for me to say, congrats on your win, guys. You definitely earned it. All right, man?

Dave: Yes. Thank you. Congrats to everybody behind me. It was really great just getting out of Project Grabber Boost, going against Project Coyote. We had a 13.5 last time we were here and we dropped it all the way down to an 11.6.

Steph: There's one more. There is more in there.

Dave: It might be, but...

Justin: It was commendable.

Dave: ...I admit you guys had a good run too.

Justin: We had a great run. We had 11.9 down from a 12.5 last time on our first run. Still think the car has more in it personally, but that's not the case. We broke, we lost fair and square. So, we admit that but we are gonna fix this beast, we're gonna come back and show what it can really do.

Dave: Good. Honestly, it was great watching and being a part of it. So, thank you for watching the videos here at AmericanMuscle.com. Justin, again, congrats you guys for being down here. Give me your A game, man.

Justin: Yeah. All right. Tell me about it. Well, hey, if you guys wanna watch more project car vids, just click on the link below to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Man: Good job.

Justin: And hey, thanks for watching all of our videos here at AmericanMuscle.com. Thanks.