Project S550 Mustang GT: Aero Upgrades & Finishing Touches

• March 5, 2021
• Story By
  Mike Garrett

The last time I gave an update on my S550 Mustang GT Project, I covered some of the bolt-on power upgrades I did to extract a little more power from my car’s naturally aspirated 5.0 Coyote V8. It was a fine way to compliment some of the other upgrades I’d already done to the car’s suspension, brakes and chassis.

Finally, there are a handful of other parts that I fitted that have really helped round out the package in terms of both performance, appearance and even convenience.

Here's a rundown -

Steeda Front Chin Splitter

Let's begin up front where I fitted one of Steeda's front splitters. Being equipped with the factory Performance Package, my 2016 Mustang GT already had an OEM front chin spoiler to improve aerodynamics, but Steeda's piece takes things even further.

Rather than replacing the factory chin spoiler, the Steeda piece compliments it—reducing lift and keeping air flow from going under the car at speed.

The spitter is designed specifically for the 2015-17 Mustang GT with Performance Pack and the install is simple, as it's a direct replacement for the factory plastic belly pan. Find it here. 

Steeda Functional Race Wing

Next we move to the rear of the car where I added Steeda's Functional Race Wing. A nice balance between factory rear spoilers and the huge GT wings you see on many track-only builds, the race-proven Steeda wing brings a healthy serving of down force while still being fully reasonable on a street car or daily driver. 

It's also designed specifically to work with cars with racing style splitters like the one I just mentioned. And like the splitter, the install is pretty simple using two mounting points from the factory spoiler (along with two you drill yourself).

Out of the box, the wing comes in an unpainted black, and I like how the raw finish looks against my car's white body. This one fits all 2015-2021 Mustang coupes—GT, EcoBoost or otherwise. Find it here.

Steeda Coolant Expansion Tank

Now we move back under the hood—not for a power improvement but for a cooling upgrade with Steeda's aluminum coolant overflow tank. This is a direct replacement for the factory tank, delivering better heat resistance and improved capacity. 

And aside from those functional improvements, the most common reason S550 owners upgrade to tank like Steeda's is because it's simply a higher quality and much better looking piece than the plastic, jug-like tank that Ford installed from the factory. Find it here.

Steeda Hood Strut Kit

 Finally we get to another under hood (literally) improvement on another place where the S550 was cheapened out on from the factory - hood struts (or the lack thereof).

Steeda's gas struts and zinc plated brackets are the perfect replacement for the factory hood prop rod, and overall give things a much more solid feel, and of course, more convenient operation of the hood. And they don't take more than about 30 minutes to install. 

Whether its installing new parts, doing maintenance and often in my case lifting the hood to cool the engine bay after a track session, the Steeda hood struts will be used often and it’s easy to see why this is one of the most popular upgrades for nearly and type of S550 build. Find it here.

There you have it. That wraps up the entire selection of bolt-on upgrades I've installed on my S550 Mustang in recent months. I'll be back soon with some impressions on the whole package—but spoiler alert, I couldn't be more happy with how the car has been transformed.