For 2018 Mustang buyers have a choice of two performance packages and we're here
with both of them. The performance packages are wheel, tire and suspension
setups that change the track ability of the Mustang. Performance Package 2 is
clearly a more attractive package than Performance Package 1, but how much
faster is it and is it worth it and that's what we're here to answer.
The biggest difference between the packages isn't horsepower because
they're identical at 460 horsepower but you see the big difference in the wheels
and tires. Performance Pack 2 wears one and a half inch wider wheels front and
back with a track day competition Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires. The Cup
2 tires are one intensity level up from the Performance Pack 1's pilot sport
4S tires. The Sport Cup 2 tires are wider, stickier and with fewer tread
blocks are more suited for track duty than street duty. The tires on PP2 are
matched with stiffer suspension components in standard fancy MagneRide
shock absorbers. These are the trick shocks that use electric current to
alter shock fluid viscosity for varying stiffness. The parts that are on the car
are essentially if you had a Mustang, wanted to go faster and threw these kind of
parts on. Stiffer, wider, stickier tires. The money shocks are optional on PP1
which our tester was equipped with but they're fine tune in PP2 along with
quicker steering tuning, unique anti-lock brake and stability system tuning.
So here's the deal with the two Performance Pack cars we are testing.
Performance Pack 1 has the ten speed automatic transmission so it's not
exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. But the ten speed is not out of place on
the track. Once you're in track mode it's really good. It down shifts quickly, it
down shifts a lot of the time to the gear that you wanted to. There are only a
few times at GingerMan where, yeah, you know I wanted one more gear, but it is
really smart. It rev matches on down shifts. Overall, that 10 speed is not
much of an hindrance to having fun on the track because honestly in the
Performance Pack 2 I mostly just stayed in third gear anyway. But the ten speed
it's kind of a slouch on the street in regular mode. It's a little sloppy. It
shifts slowly. The car with these tires and with the Performance Pack 1
suspension package, it works out here. It's pretty good. It's something that can
split daily drivability and an occasional weekend track day if it's
something that you want to get into. Is it the car that you want to do a track
day every weekend in? No, but that's where the Performance Pack 2 comes in
Whereas the Performance Pack 1 is a nice daily driver that you could take the
track days, the PP2 is the car that you want to take only to track days.
It's driveability on the street is questionable. The super wide tires do
not track well. The car is really high-strung, really a handful but here on
the track is where it makes the most sense and this is a track package after
all and it is just so good it feels like a completely different car. You can feel
the difference between Normal, Sport Plus and Track in the PP2 and not so much on
the PP1 car. It's much more noticeable when you're in track mode in the PP2
car. It hunkers down, it corners flatter, it's more responsive in the corners. It's
very, very much at home on the track. While the brake hardware isn't any
different than the Performance Pack 1, the wider tires in the front and the
different ABS tuning makes a big difference in how this car breaks during
high-performance driving. When you're at the limits the ABS is less intrusive.
It's smoother and it feels like you have more control over the brake pedal. The
PP1 car is a little erratic under braking and that's something that these
super wide tires and that ABS tuning has smoothed out completely. For Cars.com
comparisons we always invite an in-market consumer to help us judge these
cars but that didn't seem quite appropriate for the Mustangs. So we have
Hollie Heiser from CGI motorsports with us who is an instructor for high
performance driving and she is the GingerMan track ace. She has many miles and
hours here in various vehicles so let's see what she has to think about the
differences between these two Mustangs. These Mustangs, they share a lot of
similar parts, same engine, there's really not a whole lot of big changes but the
little changes that they made seem to be huge on the racetrack.
Yeah I agree. Yeah especially in the brakes. I had a lot more confidence in braking
I just had a lot more bite when I was coming into those you know turning zones
it had a lot more bite I like that. And yeah having an automatic versus a
manual was interesting. But it was good I really liked the manual, but I thought
that the automatic worked really well for what it was. I didn't have a lot of
problems. I wish it would have downshifted like when I came out of the
corners into the straights one more gear but otherwise they felt pretty good. So
this Performance Pack 2 car is $46,000 the PP1 that we have is a $52,000
Mustang. It is the nicest Mustang that you can buy right. It has leather, heated
and cooled seats and the automatic transmission the optional MagneRide
suspension and you know it's very expensive Mustang.
I think you get a lot but for $46,000 what this can do out there is really impressive.
Yeah if you want a car that you're gonna actually be driving on the street and then be able
to take it to the track, do some laps and drive it back home this is a really good
value. I think and this one would be good too it's just a little bit more money so
if you want more comfort on the street because you want that maybe 50/50 so you
got 50% you're gonna be driving around the track and
50% on the street it might be better to spend a little bit more money and get
a car that's a little bit more comfortable when you're out driving on
the street but that still performs pretty well on the track.
So how fast was Hollie? On GingerMan's 2.14 mile long course, PP2 was
significantly faster than PP1. Outpacing it by nearly four and a half seconds
with a one minute forty four point nine second lap time versus one minute forty
nine point three seconds for PP1. And PP2 was essentially faster everywhere with
higher cornering speeds and being able to dive deeper in the corners. The only
place where it wasn't faster was on the straightaways where it was nearly
identical between PP1 and PP2. On the drag strip the role of who was
faster than who was flipped with the PP1 being the ten speed automatic and
putting a big gap between the manual transmission only PP2.
We've ran as fast as 11.9 seconds in this exact PP1 in the quarter-mile but
the hotter and more humid weather kept us solidly in the 12s this time with a 12.2 second
quarter-mile time. We don't apply correction factors for weather to
our testing. PP2 was a full second slower with a 13.3 second quarter mile
time and we kept getting faster and faster and faster until we lost the
track after rainstorms. The thing was this was already the backup day for our
testing after initial rain storms washed us out the first time so we just didn't
get a chance to get it any faster than 13.3 seconds
in the quarter mile. In our braking test of sixty miles an hour
the PP2's gripper tires really slowed the car much quicker than PP1 with six feet shorter distance of a
109 feet compared to 114.7 feet
which is a massive difference for not having any physical changes to the
hardware in the braking system. The Performance Package 1 is a perfectly
acceptable car to take on an occasional track day. Maybe once a year you've got
some buddies who have more serious cars, you want to tag along. That car is just
fine out there on the track but if you're thinking to yourself, I have a
five-point harness at home and I'm not sure if it's gonna fit in my next car
then this is the car for you. This is an extremely capable track package. It's got
near racecar tires on it but you just want to make sure that your local race
track isn't too far from your garage.
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