This past Friday I finally fell in love with this car. I finally got it off the city grid and highways. I went out to the Olympic Peninsula and drove up to Hurricane Ridge, though late at night (got to the top at midnight) which made it a bit white knuckle. Put lots of high quality miles on the car, including gravel and tarmac rally stages
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Only got two check engine lights! One was an EVAP code because I forgot to plug the electrical connection for the new purge control valve in. The second was a code about something with the PCV system being disconnected so I popped the hood and re-seated every quick-connect vacuum fitting. Cleared codes with the accessport (now I see the value of keeping it in the glovebox) and everything seems fine now. The 2015 purge control valve kit is the way to go, and I think it's the cheapest of the 2016+ intake solutions. I think the left/right aiming of my headlamps may be off. Like my driver side one is pointing too far to the right. It was awkward on switchbacks, lefts were very dark/dangerous (even with the high beams on) but rights were ezmode.
Now that I know the handling characteristics of the car better, I'm thinking about more mods. I ordered the 6 point chassis brace and strut tower brace from Pierce Motorsport, hoping to enhance turn-in feel at higher speeds (like over 50). On the sound side, I'm impressed with how the cp-e exhaust is virtually silent at highway speeds --even on roads with good pavement, which don't make the star specs scream. I figure I can enhance the sound more without impacting that so I ordered their resonator delete pipe from Whoosh.
I think I need to look at brake cooling, as my front brakes were smoking really heavily halfway down that mountain ridge and I was in 2nd engine braking when not accelerating. Not sure if it was from excessive torque vectoring on the way up --it was a paved road but tons of loose coarse sand and gravel from rockslides. I always drive in sport mode, so Ford traction control off and Stratified/Cobb (doesn't use the brakes) on. I'd love a limited slip but that'll come later, if I do it it'll be a bigger project with clutch and flywheel at minimum. It would most likely be done concurrently with a big turbo. I'm not actually planning any of that just yet, I'm thinking about a second car instead.
a few photos from the trip: