Even though sometimes it knows best, we don't like it when a car's electronics gets between us and WOT, so when we heard that Lokar offered a drive-by-wire throttle pedal for GM and Ford applications that would give us better throttle response, we were interested. We called up Lokar, gave them the colors of the wires in our existing pedal harness, and the company supplied us with the correct connector for our GM E-Rod crate-engine application. (PN DBW-GM02, $329.99 at SummitRacing.com
Installing the wiring was simple: We just disconnected the battery, removed the old pedal, and clipped in the new harness. The only difficult part was fabricating a new mount. Because the pedal has more travel, you'll have to be careful that it reaches full throttle before it bottoms out on the floorboard or trans tunnel. For manual-transmission cars, getting the right pedal position for heel-toe shifting is also critical. Our first try at a bracket didn't work quite right and required additional spacing from the firewall. Luckily, the pedal has a splined shaft that's almost infinitely adjustable, so there is some wiggle room in regards to getting the proper angle.
The extra travel allows for more precise control, and yeah, the pedal looks cool, but the real benefit is that we don't feel like we're cutting through electronic red tape before we get to feel the result of mashing the throttle. The throttle response is noticeably snappier, making this a nice inclusion for your next engine swap. The Lokar drive-by-wire pedal is available in black or in a brushed-aluminum finish and can be optioned with a number of different pedal styles. It's available for '11–'12 Ford Coyote engines, '07-up GM truck engines, and '06-up Corvette engines.
