So it's been awhile since I've updated the progress so here goes! It's going to be a long one! It's been a busy last few months! Got married, bought a house, and now the home projects begin!
I forgot to take pictures as I added stuff, but the part image should suffice for now.
RTR Trunk Mat
Man is this carpet nice, it's THICK. Way better than I expected.
RTR Floor Mats
These too were heavy duty mats, had a nice spiked backing. My previous GT embroidered ones did not have the nicer backing and is considerably thinner than the RTR mats.
RTR Shift Knob
So this one I was a little disappointed with, but it's a little bit my fault. So I wanted to get this since it's part of the overall theme. The problem is that it's alot smaller than I anticipated, but I didn't read the measurement. This shifter ball is 1 3/4" and it's tiny. The current one I have is 2 1/8". I have a decent sized hand and the larger one is nice. The RTR knob is almost silly in the palm of my hand. I may just keep it for originality sake.
Magnaflow Tru-X Catted X-Pipe
So I finally bit the bullet and got the mid-pipe. I chose to go catted to avoid the inspection issues, but I'll get to that in a moment. Install appeared it was going to be a breeze, but luck was not my friend that day. There are a total of 8 nuts that need to be loosened and I was able to get 5 of them off. I only have the use of ramps and the nuts on the stock cats were refusing to come off. After burning myself and rounding one of the nuts, I decided it's time to have someone with heavier duty tools and a lift to work on it. So my mechanic was able to do the work, unfortunately had to cut one bolt off, but the new cats came with new hardware anyways.
I'm so happy with the sound. The RTR Axlebacks I have are awesome but before the midpipe and high flow cats, the exhaust note tapered off after 3500 rpm. Now with the new addition it's a tad louder (still neighborhood friendly) and after 3500 rpm it sounds like pure racecar. It puts some "stank" on it when you wind it out.
Now for the inspection portion... So my intention was to get the high flow cats and have it pass inspection without issue. Unfortunately it didn't go as planned. When I took the cat's out of the box originally, there were a few fins missing from the mesh that makes up the intake end of the cat. I didn't see it as a problem, but I've come to find out the Check Engine Light came on anyways saying the driver side cat is not efficient as it should be....(well duh, of course!) So I'll have to tune it in the winter when it's due and go from there. I don't have any intentions of taking it off, it sounds great.
So my goal since day 1 has been to have an RTR Spec-1. For intents and purposes its mostly a styling package with minor improvements to power and handling. There is a Spec-2, but that's more track based (panhard bar, sway bars, etc) and is more than I'll ever need.
Originally this is a dealer installed package, similar to Roush packages with numbered plates and everything. So at the time when I purchased my '14 GT I wasn't able to find an RTR in my color and at the time didn't have the cash to purchase the package myself and have it installed. As money became available I've bought the parts that are in that package.
Up until recently, there were many parts that were not available outside of the package. Now I'm only missing a few pieces:
- Numbered dash plaque
- Interior badges
- Exterior fender badges
- Faux Gas Cap RTR badge
Since you cannot buy those anywhere, I contacted a few registered RTR dealers and one has at least been responding to my messages. I've asked how I go about making it official and getting the last few pieces and so far I'm still optimistic. Currently the RTR brand is experiencing some manufacturing delays on the kits and expected availability is not until the end of fall at minimum. I believe this as I've had trouble in the past locating parts. Hopefully now that American Muscle is now their distributor, things may pick up. So while I haven't received an official "NO" to my request, I think I still have a shot at making it an official RTR Spec 1. It'd be nice not having to put "RTR replica" at car shows and the like.