I picked up the new to me 2013 SHO PP yesterday and here are my first thoughts:
-The dealership that picked me up from the train station sent the salesman out in a 2012 BMW 535xi. As soon as I spent five minutes in the SHO, I felt that the two cars were very comparable from fit and finish to overall luxury amenities. This is saying volumes about this car when you can compare a Taurus to a 5-series.
-I am a tech guy and there is nothing lacking in this car. The customizing of the (3) three displays is nothing short of wonderful. The Sony audio is a little lacking, but got better after I turned off the surround and the speed sensitive volume. The navigation flacked out a couple times on the way home by saying I was off route when I was definitely still on I-95.
-I had the cruise set at about 80mph, got stuck in city traffic and had a couple of blasts to test the performance. Even doing that I returned an impressive 24.6mpg for the 189 mile trip home. This is a huge bonus as I averaged 14.2mpg in my Jeep SRT-8 the night before doing the same trip.
-The performance of the car is very stout even in stock form. The ride is very quiet and smooth and the cruise control is the only thing that is going to save me from a bunch of speeding tickets. I was definitely more impressed by the top end acceleration as the low end is a little lacking in pull and the shifts were kind of slow.

So the vehicle will be stock all the way until this Wednesday, then it begins:
-H&R springs
-Airaid CAI
-170 T-stat
-Livernois Tune

The tune will make the biggest impact to overall power and shifting.  Yeah, they are nice cars. 

I'm considering at a Livernois tune for my 2013 SHO which is a DD...  Which one are you planning?... and why? 

Congratulations!  I'm glad the day finally came.  I know you will enjoy your new SHO. 

Glad you found the 535 and SHO so comparable, a very nice compliment to Ford.  That dealership certainly has style!  A feature I would love to have is a user-controlled (on/off etc) announcement of speeds over the current speed limit.  Probably not feasible until more tech goes into the limit signs.

Also needs to be noted that it is almost criminal how quiet the exhaust is. Trying to figure out best options but I think a custom approach will be worth the investment.

you could always get the exhaust cutout from ecoboospowerparts.com!

Quote from: SHOdded on November 02, 2013, 06:10:23 PM
you could always get the exhaust cutout from ecoboospowerparts.com!

I am doing cutouts but with a little different method.

Very good review. Thanks for posting.

Be sure to romp on her as much as you can now, including, and up until Wednesday, so you can get a good feel for the difference(s) between stock form, and the results of the initial mods you've listed thus far.

Then report back.

I think you'll agree with everything you've been reading here about how receptive this Ecoboost platform is to modding, tuning, etc.

Enjoy your SHO!   

Quote from: SRT82ECOBOOST on November 02, 2013, 05:06:32 PM
Also needs to be noted that it is almost criminal how quiet the exhaust is. Trying to figure out best options but I think a custom approach will be worth the investment.

One of my first mods back in 2010 was a couple Magnaflow mufflers to replace the stock ones... Perfect sound fluff...

Down pipes and removal of the 3rd cat help HP, but any other exhaust mods are personal noise generators.  Fluff...Fluff..Fluff...

As for the stereo...it is very mid range heavy and it sucks all the power from the lows and highs...

There is an easy solution however...

Crank mid range all the way down, adjust highs and lows then add in a touch of mid till it sounds right.

I recently installed the 93 octane tune from LMS on my stock 2013 SHO and I am very happy with the performance, the gains are definitely more than I expected from just a tune. At this point I feel zero need to do any additional mods to the car, plenty fast for a DD as it sits.

I have been running 93 tune from LMS for 11K miles.  I hate going back to stock. Tune runs much better for.daily driving and WOT.   I've had a TSB axle washer and another wheel hub issue fixed by ford under warranty without any is issues.

Good review and I too thought how well the SHO compares to the BMW 5-series. I think Ford does itself a disservice by not upping the ante and REALLY going head-to-head with the BMW 5-series.

I am really hoping that the tune will fix the rather disconnected throttle response from the go pedal. Just seems like it is dead for the first couple of inches of travel.