A key part of the of the FRPP SuperPack upgrade is the calibration. It's included with the kit, but it doesn't come in the box. Once you receive the kit, you have to register for your Pro-Cal tool at www.fordracingparts.com/userreg/welcome2.asp. You provide several details about your car, then the fine people at FRPP select the proper calibration, load it into the Pro-Cal tool, and overnight it to you, so plan ahead; don't fill out the form on Friday night and hope to have the tool in time for your Saturday morning install. FRPP is quite emphatic about how much testing goes into its calibrations to ensure they're safe and powerful, and there's a lengthy description of this effort in the '08 FRPP catalog. Though the Pro-Cal tool doesn't allow for adjustments, it does allow you to restore the stock calibration should you want to put the car back to stock.
Once the testing of the SuperPack kit is complete, Rick Anderson flat-backs the SVT1 muffler swap while the GT 500 is still strapped to the dyno. Again, this is a simple remove and replace job, and we were pleasantly surprised with the results.
As you know, we previously tested the FRPP SuperPack kit on a modified GT 500 in the May '08 issue ("Factory-Backed Boost," p. 186) with impressive results. That car had previously been equipped with a K&N cold-air, a full Bassani exhaust, and a DiabloSport tune. Still, we gained nearly 75 hp and put down close to 630 hp at the tire. Impressive to say the least, but would we be impressed with the results on a bone-stock GT 500? You bet.
As you can see, our car, which hit the dyno for break-in with 8 miles on the clock, registered 437.92 hp and 434.81 lb-ft (the graph has a much higher resolution of data points than our comparative, 100-rpm-increment chart) in the 65-70-degree air. Installing nothing more than the SuperPack kit with its included Pro-Cal tune, our rear-wheel numbers jumped to 545.15 hp and 516.66 lb-ft, with peak gains as high as 108.81 hp and 102.07 lb-ft at 5,600 rpm.
We know the stock exhaust on GT 500s is good, so we weren't sure what we'd see from FRPP's more conservative, 50-state-legal SVT1 mufflers, but we're always up to test out parts. Surprisingly, the simple muffler change had the car pulling harder across the rpm range, with peak numbers jumping to 560.71 hp and 523.93 lb-ft. Keep in mind that this car sounds stock, pulled in nearly 22 mpg on my long drive to Florida, and still sports a warranty.
When I said that the GT 500 headed straight to the dyno for break-in, I was only half kidding. The Anderson crew is comprised of a bunch of old-school racers, and they definitely have their ideas on how to properly break in an engine for more performance. Danny Biggs, Anderson Ford's everything guy (warranty administrator, Dynojet tuning technician, and motorsports service coordinator), is in charge of the break-in process. "That's how my dad taught me years ago," Danny says. "Mileage has little to do with it. It's cylinder pressure, load on the motor, and varying rpm that seats in the rings." By varying the load and rpm on the dyno, Danny explains that he fast-tracks the process. He keeps breaking it in until it stops making more power; then it's time to tune it. "When you do it this way, in less than 20 miles you're ready to hammer it without the fear of hurting it."
So there you have it: My GT 500 is broken in and boosted, and if you buy into the typical 15 percent drivetrain loss, that would put the car at 659 hp at the flywheel.