Vorshlag 2011 Mustang 5.0 GT - track/autocross/street Project

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So that's the class we ran, and my pre-made list of excuses... always have to cover the bases in case we lose badly; Glad I got those in there. We were in SMod and were prepared for a whipping. No worries, we were there "just to have fun" and to support our local region, plus to test the new bits added since our last autocross in 2012 - comparing times to classes like SS, ESP and other similar classes. If either of us got beat in SM too badly we could always compare our PAX times to other classes, using the old ESP PAX factor.

The Texas Region SCCA folks gave Amy and I our usual work assignments: she worked Control (radio) and I was the Announcer in the 2nd heat (of 4). In the 2nd heat we worked we got to watch an epic battle in the "X" pro class (full of our regions National Champions and other uber-competitive drivers), which only counts the first 3 runs and is ranked via PAX. Then we had another break for heat 3, and finally got to run in heat 4 at the very end of the day. It was sunny and into the mid 90°F range by then, with temps 20+ degrees hotter than the earlier runs (where we usually find the best grip on A6s). But the course was cleaner with more cars running before us, so that evened things out a tick. By the 4th heat it was just getting so hot that the A6s might have trouble. Having been gone from Solo for 6+ months, I forgot to load the tire sprayer in the trailer - a stupid mistake.



The Mustang was already sporting a used set of 315/30/18 Hoosier A6 tires, left over from the NASA @ NOLA TT event, and I had another set of Hoosier tire winnings on order for our next TT event, so... we just left those old ones on for this autocross. We left everything on the car identical to the last NASA TT event, actually, except it was extra clean from the Five Star Ford Car Show the day before. Same track pads (Carbotech XP20 front/XP16 rear), too. This was the least prep we've ever done to a car for an autocross as we used to have to swap brake pads and rotors, the rear wing for a spoiler, and more to go from NASA TTS to SCCA ESP. Once we got to grid I bled down the tires (30 psi front and 27 psi rear, cold), fiddled with a shock setting, and slapped on some blue tape numbers. An old racing buddy of mine (and owner of the Alpha Miata LS1 project we are building, slowly but surely), Jason Toth, was on hand to ride shotgun with me on my runs. He saw on FB that we were racing in his back yard so he popped over. He was also kind enough to drive us to lunch in heat 3, so we could leave the truck connected to the trailer and not drive the Mustang on A6s on the street to lunch (always a bad idea).


The above two pictures are courtesy Channel Z Photography

So all of my autocross runs are with the car at TT3 weight (3775) with me in it, plus about 175 lbs for Toth, plus a whole lot of fuel (more than we'd normally run for autox). Plenty of road hugging weight! I was running as the first driver in the car, and we were gridded in the 2-driver line, with Amy running 2nd (also with passengers on most of her runs, just to give people rides). We switched out drivers for each run and managed to get all of our runs in proper class order. The run heat was a little on the small side so it was a frantic rush to swap drivers, seating and wheel positions, change numbers, bleed tires, cool the engine (hood up), set the vidcam, and and get everything reset between runs. We had about 5-6 minutes between each run, so it was tight, even with Toth helping on each run. And it was hot. I was also shooting pics when Amy was running throughout the 4th heat, as well in heats 1 & 3.

• Picture Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...us-Lot-051913/
• Street Mod Results: http://texasscca.org/2013_solo_resul...3_final.htm#SM
• PAX Results: http://texasscca.org/2013_solo_results/tr13_3_pax.htm

As you can see in the results above, we got 5 runs each, and I managed all of them clean. I sometimes can find a little time after my 3rd run, but this time we had a rapidly overheating set of tires and no water to spray them with. It was 92°F when we started running (hottest day of the year, to date - still in May) and the Hoosiers were too hot to touch after my 3rd run. The course was all 2nd gear for us (touching 7200 rpm at one point), with no big "gotchas" other than some oddly spaced slaloms that got increasingly tighter. The big long run from east to west was quite fun and there was a lot of room in the next left-hander (big 180° turn) to make up your own line. The end was pretty pinched off, too, but that's nothing new.



My first run (39.544) was on dead cold tires and cold brakes, and after our first runs I was in 2nd place, behind Henry Lin in his '04 Subaru STi. My second run finally had some heat in the A6 tires and the 38.665 run put me in the lead, and then I put in my quickest lap on my 3rd run, a 38.065 second run (see video, below).


Click above for in-car video. You can set options for resolution (up to 1080P) and go full screen

Great video by Brandon - funny comments he added, color correction, 1080P resolution; we're starting to figure this stuff out. Next time we autox we'll try to get data from the Aim SOLO and merge that also. By my 3rd run the tires had quit "growing" in pressure but they kept getting hotter and hotter. If I would have thought to bring the water sprayer I would have been water cooling them after my 2nd runs on. Tim Bergen (Henry's co-driver) put in some hot runs, and even managed a quicker 38.011, but coned it away. His 38.255 sec 5th run put him in 2nd, with Henry having cone trouble in 3rd. Amy was struggling all day, hitting cones on her first 3 runs, but put in a good 39.301 sec run on her 5th attempt, only .020 back from 3rd. We borrowed a water sprayer from a fellow competitor and drenched the tires before Amy's 5th run, the final run for the car, which seemed to help a lot (she dropped 1/2 sec from her previous best). This region has extras timers for split sector times, and my quickest S1 and S2 times came on my 4th and 5th runs, where the tires were boiling. But even then it was only a composite 37.942 run... so there wasn't much left, on the super heated tires. Sure wished I would have sprayed the tires on my last two runs, tho.




This was a great event overall, with solid competition in the SMod class that gave us a serious run for the money. The course was well marked and flowed well, and there were no major DNF or spin problems, which is always a good sign. The Texas Region SCCA folks put on a very good show, and the event ran smoothly all day - even with the new 4 heat format being tested for the first time. The weather was nice overall, and the 135 entrants all seemed to have a great time, with at least 50 people sticking around for trophies. You can see more events from this club and many other Dallas/Ft/ Worth autox events, at www.dfwautocross.com. With the temperate weather here in Texas we have autocross events virtually every Saturday and Sunday from February to December, and sometimes even January.

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Every win feels like this - even an autocross!

I definitely felt the Torsen T-2R differential's added benefit in this tight, autocross environment. This diff hooks up on road courses, it works in uber-tight autocrosses (2nd time I've got to carve cones with this thing), it is silent and doesn't overheat like the clutch style unit. The tires worked great, for old heat cycled scrubs, and once I got some heat into the brakes, they stopped well enough. Might have run more AoA on the rear wing, but the car felt hooked up in the high speed left hander. There was a serious push (understeer) condition all day, which is evident from my videos. We didn't have time between runs to adjust swaybar settings, or I would have set the rear bar much firmer.


There was so much bodyroll the front struts were running out of droop!

It looks like we are still seeing some major bodyroll, even with the stiffer 600#/in front and 250 #/in rears we went to after the 2012 Solo Nats (450F/175R before), on these 315mm A6 tires. For a serious autox car on these or even bigger gumball tires I could see the need for 800-1000# front springs and much stiffer rear rates (to get the pig to rotate), but yea, it would ride like a dump truck at those rates.

Strangely, my best run (with a passenger) ended up as the 5th fastest run of the overall event, and 10th out of 135 in PAX using the SMod PAX. The faster cars were EVOs in ASP and FP, and one of the SS Corvettes in the X-pro class just edged me out. Just for grins I ran the numbers using the ESP PAX, a class the car is much closer prepared to... and it would have placed 1st in overall PAX. Oh well, I can "calculate" myself into an F1 Championship, if I try hard enough, heh! Felt good to pull out this squeaker of a win in SMod, in any case. And it was a lot of fun for only thirty bucks - autocrossing entry fees are so cheap!


Five Star Ford of Plano Auto Show, May 18, 2013

The car show was actually the day before the autocross (for another double-header, busy weekend). This was hosted by Five Star Ford of Plano, Texas. Corey White, the dealer we buy our Fords from and send others to get theirs, sets up cars shows and track days, so we try to go out and support his events. The proceeds from this car show went to a local charity they support, too. We were so buried that day and never broke out the Nikon, so all of the pictures taken at this event were using my camera phone (Galaxy S4 set to 5 MP).

Photo Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Car-Show...d-Show-051813/

Corey said we could bring out our race trailer, a bunch of demo parts, and our TT3 Mustang if we were a sponsor. The guys at the shop washed the car and loaded up for the car show and autocross, and away we went. Got to the dealership at about 7:15 am, set-up our trailer and then unloaded. With a nice donation to the charity we were now official event sponsors and an entrant into the "pro street" car show class as well.

Amy and I have shown cars at shows in the past, and brought out samples of our parts, but never really had a lot of people stop by. I don't know why, but the folks at this car show responded very well and we had 100+ people come by and look at the car and the shiny suspension bits we showed off.



I spent about an hour detailing the car after we unloaded it. Like most cars that see a lot of track use, our Mustang was covered from front to back with "rubber". Rolled up bits of "klag" litter most race tracks and when a car in front drives over this stuff it kicks back onto the car behind, which leaves a big blob of rubber transfer on the paint. Our car also kicks up plenty of klag on its own, which gets deposited along the sides behind all 4 wheels, too. The white vinyl stripes were covered in this stuff and the XPEL clear paint protection film was covered, too. You can use some aggressive hydrocarbon based cleaners and get the stuff off of the paint, but these chemicals almost always damage clear PPF or cut vinyl graphics (leaving them discolored, yellowed, or worse). So we just wash the car and live with the black marks.

This time I tried a new product, "Goof Off 2" or "Goof Off Heavy Duty". This stuff is finally safe for automotive finishes, vinyl, clothes, etc. As opposed to "Goof Off Professional Strength", which is a good bit harsher and not safe on films and vinyls. We have used the latter for years on really stubborn tar and grease stains on paint, but always followed it up with fresh coat of wax. The new "safer" stuff still works great and doesn't damage or yellow PPF; the rubber marks just wiped right off. I spent a solid 30-45 minutes making the car cleaner than it has been in years, and followed that up with a quick spray and wipe down with Meguiars Quick Detail - a spray detail & wax product I've used for years.



Once the outside was clean, I opened the hood and it was also dirty. It wasn't really "dirty", just not as clean as I like my cars' engine bays to be. I normally use a whole bag of tricks and tools to detail engines, none of which I had with me, so I just spent 30 minutes and used just a bunch of Armor All and elbow grease. Hand detailed every surface, and it came out pretty well, as you can see above.



The other cars were arriving by the time I got the car cleaned up, and Amy had set-up our display table with all sorts of goodies. We had S197 Mustang shocks from Bilstein, AST and MCS. Vorshlag camber plates, Whiteline LCA relocation brackets and a Watts Link kit, fluids, brake parts, COBRA seats, and more. The pull out shade on the trailer was popular, so we set up about 8 chairs and rolled out our cooler full of drinks, and it became a regular party. I think we stayed busy talking to folks for about 7 or 8 straight hours, stopping only briefly to grab some of the free burgers and dogs that the Ford folks cooked up.



Towards the end of the day I broke away for a bit to look at the other cars at the show, most of which were S197 Mustangs. There was some vintage muscle car iron there, like the yellow 1969 Mustang Boss 302 shown above. This was a 1 owner car who's son was parked next to him with his yellow 2013 Boss 302. Pretty cool. Lots of folks we see at track events were there, like Jerry and Brian with their Boss 302s (who both help organize and run some ECR track events), and the Meher family (husband, wife and 2 daughters all track their cars, including two S197s and a 5th gen Camaro), among others. Even my neighbors the Stewarts, who own five beautiful S197 Mustangs, were there. It was a good sized show and at the end of the day were pleasantly surprised to see that the car won its car show class? I guess all that cleaning didn't go to waste, heh.



The dealership a real S197 Cobra Jet out on display, as well as a number of Roush Mustangs and Raptors. Met a lot of really nice folks, and twisted a few arms to get hopefully a few of the car-show-only folks to come out to the June 29th ECR track event, put on by this same dealership. It made for a long day but we got to talk to a lot of people and show off some cool new suspension options for the S197 chassis. Speaking of that...

Vorshlag is now an MCS Shock Dealer

Vorshlag is already a dealer for AST, Moton, Bilstein and Bilstein Motorsports shocks. Several months ago we became a stocking dealer for Motion Control Suspensions, a maker of high end monotube racing dampers. The principles of this company were the same folks who ran Moton for 15 years, with links back to JRZ and earlier companies, so they are no strangers to monotubes. They make double and triple adjustable, remote reservoir racing shocks (RR2 and RR3) like other high end brands, but now they have introduced two models that might appeal to the dual-use driver: non-remote reservoir coilover monotube racing shocks with single (TT1) or double adjustments (TT2).

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MCS Internal Singles (TT1), Coilover Shocks for S197 Mustang: http://www.vorshlag.com/product_info...roducts_id=582



I won't bore you with too much "salesy stuff" here, as you can go to the link above to learn more about these singles. But I gotta mention a few things. MCS shocks are all built and assembled in the USA, and made from parts sourced from Western Europe or the USA. Very robustly built, with a feature that allows the single adjustables to be converted to double or triple adjustables with remotes, or even double-adjustable "internal" shocks, with just some parts changes (housings are interchangeable). This makes for a truly upgradable shock family. Vorshlag is stocking several car models in the MCS TT1 shocks and has ordered the new TT2 models for a few cars as well. You can read more about the various shock brands and models we sell here on our Vorshlag Shock Page, linked on our website.


Further Mustang Development

We have some more changes in store for our 2011 GT, as I have hinted at on Facebook and in some forum posts. Our current tire package barely fits the OEM fender contours, but I want more mechanical grip for this high weight / high power package we run in TT3 (we are at the higher end of the class 9.5:1 weight to power ratio). The 315/30/18 is a bit squeezed on the 18x11" front but fits very well, and is slightly stretched on the 18x12" rear. Ideally I'd like to have more tire width.


The Hoosier 315mm front, 345mm rear looks like it fits, but it rubbed terribly out back

The goal is to use the 335/30/18 front and 345/34/18 rear. I've tried the 345 Hoosier on the rear before, on the 18x12" rear wheels we have now (see above), but it rubbed inside and outside. Now this was before we had the Watts Link and the Whiteline rerouted swaybar, so those later updates might help out back. But up front, we are simply out of "fender real estate". The front 18x11's already poke out just a hair... and there's not 3mm of inside wheel room left, and we already run -3.5° of camber up front to help with tire to fender clearance.

We also want to to be able to run two tire compounds in a given NASA TT weekend, with the harder Hoosier R6 used for a majority of the laps for a given weekend (to learn the track, get base settings dialed in, just to "have more fun" and get more seat time!) and then switch to the A6 tires for one magic lap per day... but only if needed. Remember that TT Arms Race I talked about in my last post? We need to get away from running on the A6 compound. Right now we're just not getting many laps out of a set of A6 tires, but they are worth some extra time - once you know the track. These super short lived tires are a poor choice for learning a new track or to test with, as they fall off quickly. To get more laps we've switched to a 315/30/18 Hoosier R6. That's the set that arrived today, and what we will use at Hallett...



To be able to run both compounds in the same day without a frantic and expensive trackside tire dismount/mount/balance, we've ordered another set of 18x12" Forgestar F14s. They were able to make them in less than a week (they like us!) and we are having them powder coated in Dallas, to make our June 22nd event deadline. We ordered 18x12" wheels for the front, too. Yes, all of the extra width is outboard, so this will widen our front track as well as make the tires "poke" out past the fenders by a huge amount.

This requires another solution: front flares. And wider front bumper cover. We're going to try to get as much of this done before Hallett as we can, then finish the other front aero mods we have planned over the summer (there aren't any NASA Texas events in July-August). Once these tires are gone we'll order up the 335F/345 rear, and likely flare the rear fenders as well. Shh... don't tell Amy, who doesn't want us to cut the rear fenders! The front fenders can un-bolt so we can "save" her OEM front bumper cover and front fenders. There's a lot more in store, but I don't want to spoil all of the surprises.


Above are the weights for the GT500 rear 13.77" dia rotor (left) and caliper (right)

The rear brakes on the 2011 GT are getting upgraded. We're going from the OEM 11.81" diameter rear rotors to the 13.77" rears (and calipers and brackets) from the 2013-14 GT500. Hopefully this will add a little more brake bite. We will test it at Hallett and report back. We also have some mods planned for my black 2013 GT, which just came back from the paint shop (Heritage Collision in Sherman, TX). All of the hail damage that came on this car is now repaired, and it looks 100% perfect. Every panel was touched, and the aluminum hood had to be repainted, but you can't tell anything was ever dinged before. The same set of D-Force 18x10" wheels we used on this car briefly are going back on with some 295mm street tires, then we're going to upgrade the wimpy 13.2" front brakes to 14" Brembos (see below), using a kit we're putting together (see below) with the best parts we can source and/or make.


Upcoming Vorshlag S197 front brake upgrade kit, shown with the unmodified OEM dust shields

This front brake upgrade kit will consist of new OEM Ford Brembo calipers, a choice of Carbotech brake pads, Vorshlag brake lines, Centric 14" rotors, Vorshlag brake duct/backing plates made for 3" brake hose (using the proper tubing size for actual 3" hose, so you don't have to cut it open the hose - like on most kits - not yet shown), and all new OEM bolts and mounting hardware. Will post up more when that kit is done.



That's a 2011+ Mustang Brembo 4 piston caliper next to a Gen I Cadillac CTS-V Brembo 4 piston caliper. Massive difference in size and weight. Just wanted to show that "not all 4 piston Brembos are the same", and that the OEM 4 piston caliper used on the S197 Mustang is one big mutha! The added size and heft (8 pounds vs 5 pounds) give the Mustang caliper more stability, more heat capacity, and uses both larger pistons and a larger brake pad. The "V" caliper is going on a 4th gen Camaro in our shop, and it just happened to be here for comparison at the same time as the Mustang unit. These are both dwarfed by the 6-piston Gen II CTS-V caliper we have coming for another project, though.

As a teaser, here's the list of new Vorshlag products for the S197 that are currently in development:

• 14" Brembo Front brake upgrade kit with cooling ducts
• 14" GT500 Rear brake upgrade kit
• A proper oil/air seperator kit for the S197 5.0L Coyote
• A diff fluid catch can kit for 8.8" S197 Mustangs
• A bolt-in S197 seat bracket with slider and harness mounts for various Cobra side-mount seats
• Tremec Magnum XL 6-spd swap kit for S197 5.0L Coyote
• Production run of stainless braided/Teflon lined/Brake Quip sourced, better brake flex lines for the S197

Will talk more about each item as it is completed and released.


Next Events?

The next NASA Time Trial event scheduled for the 2011 is at Hallett in Oklahoma June 22-23. Then the following Saturday the 29th we have another Five Star Ford ECR Track Day planned, where Amy is driving the 2011 and I should be driving the 2013 GT. Trying to continue our testing that we've done at this track using the 2013 GT, where we went from "nearly bone stock" (just on 18x10" wheels and 295/35/18 NT-05s) and ran a 2:07, then added AST double adjustable coilovers (4200RR) and some Carbotech pads and dropped a whopping 4 seconds to run 2:03 laps... on the exact same wheels and tires. Now we'll have the same suspension and tires but just an upgrade to the 14" Brembos + ducting... will be interesting to see if we can go any quicker, or if this just allows more hot laps before we have brake fade. I will post up the results after June 29th. The 2013 GT will likely be sold immediately following that ECR event, which I will post about here, of course.

This update already went way too long, so that's all for now...

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Project Update for July 22, 2013: Dang, has it been six weeks since my last post in this thread? So much going on at the shop, been to the track 3 different times, lots of new S197 Development, our production E46 LS1 swap launched, and I got behind again. I started writing this post several weeks ago, then two of my guys went to support a racer at Pikes Peak and that put the picture and video processing from recent racing events behind schedule, and I put off finishing my post. But the longer I wait the more it keeps snowballing, so I am going to break this up over several smaller posts and just get started.

More Race Prep for the Vorshlag TT3 2011 Mustang GT

We almost never run the car the same way twice, as we're always trying to develop new parts to make the car faster. Hopefully some of them turn out to be parts we can sell - which is always a driving force in any of our Vorshlag project cars. Anyway, before the NASA event at Hallett, June 22-23, I wanted to work on a few front grip improvements. One thing I keep complaining about as we run at faster and faster tracks is a front end push in high speed corners. That 125mph entry into Turn 8 at NOLA was pretty hairy, and had significant understeer. The rear wing seems to be producing plenty of downforce, but the ABS plastic, OEM front Leguna Seca splitter isn't keeping up on the opposite end.

We didn't get to fix any of that aero imbalance just yet (we will have more on this in a future update this summer), but I've suspected that we have had a mechanical grip imbalance on the car for a while. This could be from a number of factors, such as a track width difference front to rear, as well as a wheel width deficiency on the front axle. As most folks know, even with the same tire width, the width of the wheel that the tire is mounted to can affect usable grip at the road surface. And while the 12" wide wheel on the back of our car seems to some as a bit of a stretch for the 315mm tires we run, the same 315 on the 11" wide front wheel looks a bit pinched. The shoulders of the front tire tread are significantly more curved when you look at them closely, when mounted. And I don't want to stick with 315mm tires forever, either - every time we've increased tire width the car gets faster.


Our 2011 GT with 18x11" front and 18x12" rears - can't fit much more without flares

As I have discussed in previous updates, we are running a set of Forgestar F14s in 18x11" front and 18x12" rear this season and part of the last, with the 315/30/18 Hoosier A6 (and R6) or Kumho V710 in 315/35/18 tires at both ends. As you can see in the picture above, those are extreme fitments on the S197 chassis, without fender mods. Any more wheel or tire width up front and the wheel would poke outside the fenders. Same for the rear, which is pretty much maxed out. But I still felt we could gain some front grip (and potentially room for more front tire) if we went with 18x12" wheels up front, but only if we were then willing to cut and flare the fenders. Well, that time has come. We also needed a second set of wheels for race weekends, so we could test and learn the track on a more cost effective, durable tire than the Hoosier A6 (super sticky autocross tire) and then mount the A6 set for one session (hopefully) of faster laps. So Jason, Ryan and I took some measurements and we ordered up a set of 4 more custom 18x12" wheels, again, with different front and rear offsets. We tweaked the rear wheel backspacing but essentially kept the front backspacing the same as the old 11's.


Originally we had this 18x12" wheel built to fit a 345/45/18 Hoosier, but sadly this 13" wide tire rubbed like mad out back. Someday...

To fit this rather large 18x12" out back on a Mustang under the stock fenders takes a lot of parts and some compromises, and I think for the more extreme S197 racers an 18x11" would be better fit at both ends. For that wheel width I think the optimum tire size would be something in a 295-305mm width, as the 315mm tire is a bit squeezed. Not a lot of R compound tires to choose from in that size, but we ran across some 305/650/18 racing slicks and bought a bunch of them recently. I will discuss a potential "mounted and balanced" race tire/wheel set in one of my next posts. We've got a set of 18x11's coming in here next week and we will confirm our sizing measurements on my 2013 GT (which is for sale, here - more on that in a bit). For most track guys the 18x10" wheel is an even better solution, as this wheel can work without spacers and still rotate front to back.


New set of 18x12" Forgestar F14 wheels in gunmetal with a "flat clear" + a new set of Hoosier R6 "practice tires" (winnings from NOLA weekend)

Forgestar was able to quickly build the new 18x12" set for us to our new specifications, but they were backed up a couple of weeks in powder coating so we had the set sent to us in the raw machined form. I took the raw wheels to our local powder coater, who does lots of wheels and knows the temperatures that you must stay under to avoid ruining the heat treat of the alloy (which we confirmed with Forgestar). He showed me some sample boards and then convinced me to try a new clear coat finish called a "flat clear". So on this set we kept the same gunmetal gray color code that Forgestar used on the first set of F14s, but went with this new flat clear coat final finish, which came out pretty damned good. This is different than a typical "flat" powder coat finish, which is flat in the base coat and doesn't have a clear coat at all. Those finishes can stain more easily but since this set-up has a separate clear coat (just one that has a flat finish) it should hold up better. Pretty slick, looks cool, and we'll see how it holds up to the heat and stresses of track abuse (2 events on them so far, and it looks perfect).



I knew all along we would have to trim the front fenders to clear these now 1" wider wheels, as the entire extra inch of wheel width is all outboard (we already had the wheels tucked right up to within 3mm of the strut on the inside). This increases the front track by 2" total now, and also means the tire is going to poke past the fenders about 1" per side. More front track generally adds more grip at that end, too. All part of the plan.


Left: The original fender is now "wall art". Right: Sometimes these crazy ideas do involve alcohol

We searched and found a slightly lower cost fender for the '10-12 Mustang online, but once you factored in shipping it was cheaper to get two new fenders from Ford. Fine with me, as I like to use factory sheet metal whenever I can. After those arrived in black e-coat, it was time to measure and cut up the brand new fenders. First we pulled off the OEM fenders (which Amy wanted to keep unmolested, and are now Wall Art - soon to be joined by the OEM hood and front bumper cover), pulled off a front spring, installed the new wheel/tire combo, reassembled the front suspension, loosely attached the new fenders, and compressed the wheel and tire up to full bump travel on the Moton struts. Then we marked this spot (the loose fenders were pulled out of the way of the compressed tire), transferred this mark to the new fenders and cut a 1/4" above that. The plastic fender liner was trimmed to the new outer fender contour as well.

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This fender cutting is an ugly, temporary measure - we will make some proper flares when we have more time, over the next few months

This fender is now cut "beyond safe", as the tire cannot physically get to that point without the struts exploding. We checked for clearance with the front wheels turned in both directions at full lock, while compressed at full bump and dropped at full droop, as well. This amount of fender clearance and testing might seem like overkill to some, especially the Stance/VIP crowd (who strangely LIKE it when their wheels rub their fenders?!) but I've seen too many racers cut brand new tires on under-trimmed fenders. I don't want to end a race weekend over something we can prevent with proper preparation and testing (I'd rather hit a curb on track and end a day early that way, ugh!). Ryan cut the offending portions off of both fenders with an air nibbler and a cut off wheel, then swapped in a stiffer front spring (we went from 60mm x 7" x 550#/in spring to an 800 #/in rate up front now) and firmly attached the now cut and very ghetto looking "new" fenders. Once on the ground I asked the guys to lower the front ride height by 1", which I've been wanting to do for a LONG time.


Left: Even with -3.4° front camber we have some "poke" on the new 18x12s. Right: Running to get a tank of 93 octane and ice before Hallett

Rear Spring and Ride Height Changes

Out back we lowered the rear ride height an inch, to match the front. Finally, the car is at the proper ride height. Yes, we've been running the car a bit higher than we wanted for a while now, simply to keep the 315s from rubbing on the front fenders in a big bump. I'm paranoid as I've ruined front fenders before getting them too close to a new wide tire and wheel combo. The rear fenders already cleared the 12" wide rears at lower ride heights, and we had the rear LCA relocation brackets since last Fall (to fix any geometry issues on the very lowered rear heights), but the fronts were a worry.

No, fender rolling wouldn't have been enough - not even close. The 11's were already pushing the limits, and could have rubbed at a lower ride height. The 12" wheels were 1" out past the old 11's, so it would have been deep inside the sheet metal. Now that we have finally cut the front fenders, the overall ride height could drop. This will allow the front splitter to be more effective (the closer to the ground it is, the better it works) as well as lower the CG of the entire car by an inch - always a plus. We quickly found that loading the car onto our trailer just got a LOT harder, though. Doh! Oh well, nothing some longer ramps cannot handle (until we make the front end removable - later this summer, hopefully).



While the guys were working on the rear ride height, they swapped out the 250 #/in springs we had been running to a stiffer 350 #/in rate Hyperco spring, to match with the front spring rate bump. Why more spring rate? Well we had been noticing a lot more bodyroll than we liked in pictures of late. As grip and aero forces increase, spring rates need to rise as well. The Mustang is now truly "uncomfortably stiff" on the street (with the valving set for track use), but it isn't as bad as some cars I've driven over the years.

The custom valved Motons (using AST-USA's DDP digressive pistons) can be turned down a lot and it isn't as miserable as you'd think... but I'd still recommend lower rates for any dual-purpose car. If you are moving up to AST/Moton/MCS/Bilstein or another brand of monotube shocks we carry you can see them all compared on our revamped shock intro page. If you have any valving or spring rate questions beyond that, please feel free to call or e-mail us. Suspension is still the meat of our business.



A-ha! Finally remembered this one. I meant to put these rear control arm weights somewhere in this thread many months ago. We added these Whiteline rear Lower Control arms (LCA) in the Fall of 2012, after we left the SCCA's classing behind for this car (STU and ESP doesn't doesn't allow aftermarket rear LCAs, relocation brackets, and all sorts of other common aftermarket parts available for these cars - "its the SCCA", what can I say?). These lower control arms are adjustable in length, tubular steel, stiffer yet slightly lighter than stock, and filled with Whiteline's famous elastomer bushings. These things have worked very well on our Mustang (track, street and autocross), make no noise, and don't have the deflection of the SUPER SOFT rubber that are in the OEM arms (as well as the Roush billet aluminum arms with OEM bushings - an odd item, that we recently installed for a customer). OEM stamped steel arms were 6.0 pounds vs the Whiteline arms at 5.3 pounds. I wouldn't have thought that the flexy, stock stamped steel arms would be heavier than the thick walled, tubular, alloy steel, adjustable length WL arms, but the scale doesn't lie. I hate it when I talk about a particular part and forget to weigh the dang things, and the OEM part it replaces. So this is just a catch-up to previous posts. Trying to stay consistent.

Mustang Braking Capabilities and Improvements

Now lets take a step back for a second and move to a higher level discussion of S197 Mustang brakes. This is another area we wanted to address on our TT3 Mustang, but a little background helps further the overall S197 discussion. We've been pushing the limits of the OEM 14" Brembo front/11.8" rear disc brake set-up that comes on the '11-up Mustangs (that have the Brembo option) as well as the Boss302 and most of the GT500 Mustangs (the GT500 upgraded to 13.8" rear discs in 2013 and 15" front discs and 6-piston calipers in 2014), and wanted to see what we could do next.

Long ago we found that these brakes could be overtaxed quickly on track if left 100% stock. The basics are there (size of rotor, proper caliper) but the factory installed "consumables" weren't quite up to the task of track events. Easy upgrades like flushing out the old stuff and installing real DOT4 brake fluid (like Motul RBF600), using proper track-compound brake pads (like Carbotech), installing upgraded brake flex lines, and especially front brake cooling ducts and hoses makes a huge improvement in braking with the S197 Mustangs on track. Yes, even with the big 14" Brembos, you need to think about these upgrades if you want to push it on a road course. These are BIG, heavy cars with 420+ hp, and it doesn't take much effort to overtax even the larger Brembo brakes on track.

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Track pads, proper DOT4 brake fluid, good flex lines, front brake ducting - the Braking Basics

Most HPDE drivers in S197 5.0 Mustangs, even the casual 3-4 events per year HPDE guys, will want to do this list of brake mods above before taking it out and pushing the limits. Sure, if you want to roll around at 5/10ths of the car's maximum potential, you can do it on bone stock brakes, but the fluid will be the first to go. Once it boils, the pedal goes to mush and you lose all braking power and driver confidence. Track day is over. The stock brake pads will last to about 6/10ths of full speed. Once you have track worthy pads and push to about 8/10ths, you'll need front brake ducts. Not every track newbie will find the limits of the bone stock brakes on their first track day, but many often do. You can learn this on track, and have shortened track events (or take the "green line" unexpectedly), or you can plan for this and do these somewhat modest brake upgrades up front.


Our TT3 Mustang's times are closer to the STU cars (left) than the AI record holders (right) - maybe we should step up the brakes?

We have had nothing more than this list of "HPDE worthy" Mustang brake upgrades for a while, but we've been pushing the brakes way beyond those limits. Take into account the lap times this car is turning, noted abuse to consumables, and the brake temps we've been seeing. Our lap times alone should be a big clue that we need to do a little more to the brakes than basic HPDE upgrades. So we've been comparing our TT3 times to American Iron racers, simply because they share the same power to weight ratios (9:1 to 9.5:1) and basic layout of our car (solid axle, RWD, relatively heavy). Our TT3 set-up is still 300-500 pounds heavier than most of those AI cars in our region, and we run a wider/stickier tire, but still - it is a benchmark we use, and the closest thing we have to compare lap times to other than just the TT3/TT2 cars that run with us in TT. Last year this car was running a hair quicker than the AI track records, but this year it has been more like 3-7 seconds quicker.



Consequently, the brakes are getting a lot more beat up on our car this year. A lot more. Rear pad and rotor wear has been getting steadily worse the harder Amy and I push the car. Ryan noted some very high rear brake temps at NOLA, which got me thinking about a rear brake upgrade. I will admit, our Mustang is a bit of an oddity, as it is run at a very heavy weight (our current minimum is 3770 pounds with driver), with much wider wheels than most Mustangs you see on track (12"), and with some significant downforce. I will always "drive like an autocrosser", Left Foot Braking into every corner where I have to slow down, and braking VERY late. Also, we've stuck with the OEM Brembo brakes for a long time, rather than going to a pricy aftermarket Big Brake Kit, which a lot of folk just automatically do.

But should they upgrade to an aftermarket BBK? These 14" Brembos are pretty damned beefy, up front at least. I'm not sure a "different brand" BBK would help with longer wear or more stopping power. Consumable costs can and will go up when you go to an aftermarket BBK, however. Multi-piece 14" rotors often cost $400-800 each, or more. Aftermarket calipers also can reduce your brake pad choices, unless it is also using a pad profile that some other high volume (OEM) brake systems do. This is where the Mustang Brembos shine, because even though the calipers are made in Italy, they are the OEM fitment for many thousands of factory optioned Mustangs, so replacement calipers and associated hardware can be purchased at a Ford dealer for reasonable amounts, and the brake pad profile is fairly easy to find. The front rotor costs are also low because of their high OEM production numbers, so lots of replacement brands are available (we have the Centric premium 14" front rotor listed for only $99, for instance).


Do you need to get a BBK? the OEM 14" front rotors and brake pads used in the Brembo cars are less costly

We've tested so many brands of pads and rotors on this car since we started racing it 2010, we have found what we think works best. So we reached out to these manufacturers and become a dealer for several brake component brands. Part of the reason was to reduce the consumable costs for our own cars, too. But now we have enough stuff avilable and in stock that we added a brakes page under the S197 Mustang section of our online catalog.


We've burned through all of the parts, brands and compounds on OEM-based S197 brakes, and now we offer what works

Adding brake parts seems natural to some, but I resisted it for years. See, we've always been known for aftermarket suspension manufacture, development and service work, plus a few brands of aftermarket wheels, and our BMW LS1 swaps. But now we carry several brands of brake rotors and pads, make our own brake lines for several cars, and even have our own "big brake kits" based on some OEM bits. Our Mustang brake ducting kits are about to hit, too. So, we added a new section, and it seems to have been well received.

GT500 Rear Brake Upgrade

Anyway, back to our TT3 Mustang's brakes - I've been abusing the components and the rears are wearing too fast and getting too hot. We had several options to address this. One, add rear brake ducting. That's... not a bad idea, and we will do that to reduce brake heat out back. But I wanted to add a bit more braking POWER at the same time as a larger heat sink (rotor). To accomplish this we could have gone to an aftermarket BBK option. But, I am kind of cheap at heart, and wanted to keep it OEM based to keep rotor and pad costs down. Naturally, that left one option: the '13-14 GT500 rear brakes. We have installed these and already have an upgrade kit for 2005-14 Mustangs, since we had several customers already asking us to do this work on their cars, and we sort of figured out some crucial cost savings in this rear brake upgrade.

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Left: GT500 13.8" rotor and caliper installed. Right: The OEM rear discs are 11.8" in diameter and use the same caliper and brake pad

The 2014 GT500's brake components are becoming popular upgrades on the various Mustang forums. The 2014 GT500's front 15" 6-piston brakes are a bit extreme, and most of the draw is to the hard parking crowd, for the Big Brake/6-piston looks. Hey, I get it - looks cool, but very few racers have moved up from the 14" brakes to 15" brakes. Some of the Pro teams and endurance cars, sure, but not the club racers or Time Trial guys. What intrigued me more was the fact that the 2013 model GT500 got a big bump up in rear rotor size, from 11.8" up to 13.8", so we went with this upgrade first. Why? Because we were seeing problems in the rear, not the front, and this upgrade is fairly substantial for a very modest cost.


Left: GT500 13.8" rear rotor is 16 pounds. Right: The 11.8" rotor it replaces was only 12.5 pounds

We searched high and low and have rounded up the OEM GT500 13.8" rear rotors, the taller caliper brackets, and even the "GT500" calipers. The weights for these parts vs the 11.8" parts are shown here. Note where all of the added weight is - almost all of it is in the rotor. And the GT500 caliper? It is identical to the '11-up Mustang caliper, and even superceeds the 2005-2010 GT rear calipers. That is something we found after digging and testing, but Ford says this shouldn't be. They will have to revise their books, because the '11-up GT rear caliper is identical, from the casting numbers to the final machined part.


Left: The taller caliper bracket for the 13.8" brakes is 5.3 pounds. Right: The caliper bracket + support for the 11.8" brake = 4.84 pounds.

The 2" larger diameter GT500 rear rotor is almost 3.5 pounds heavier than the old 11.8" rotor it replaced, but my pic above was a very worn rear rotor (which had lost about a pound of metal), so it really only went up about 2.5 pounds. This is added metal that can absorb and shed heat, which isn't a bad thing. The taller caliper racket is almost a wash, with the GT500 version being about a half pound heavier than the shorter GT version. One thing to note is the GT's 11.8" rear caliper bracket has an axillary support bracket that clamps around the axle tube and adds some lateral support. This extra bracket doesn't exist on the GT500.


Left: The GT500 caliper is the same unit as the GT. Right: The rear dust shield for the smaller GT brakes

We went ahead and kept the "GT500" caliper we bought and used it on our 2011 Mustang, mostly because our old calipers were looking a bit worn and crusty. Ford insisted these were different calipers, but that just was not the case. We did another GT500 13.8" rear brake upgrade on a 2012 GT a week later and re-used the guy's old OEM calipers, which were identical so they fit identically. There is no dust shield for the 13.8" GT500 brakes, so the old one is removed (doesn't weigh much). The old brake lines worked on the new caliper location, too.


13.8" rotor installed with the old 11.8" rotor slide over the lugs, for scale

All told we added about 3 pounds per side on the 13.8" rear brake upgrade, compared to the brand new weights of the 11.8" disc brake parts. That's not bad for a TWO INCH upgrade in rear rotor diameter. This increase in diameter will increase rear braking torque, the added rotor mass will add more surface area and should help with rear brake cooling, and we hoped the ABS system can keep the braking balance in shape on track (it did).

The hardest part of the swap was pulling the axles out of the housing to be able to change out the caliper brackets. Not hard really, just messy. So you will need to replace the diff fluid and re-seal the diff cover if you plan on doing this rear brake swap. Since the axles have to come out it is a great time to upgrade the rear wheel studs (ARP 3" long rear S197 studs), but these technically can be done on the car (it is just more of a PITA). Also check your outer axle seals for melting/wear. Ours had been replaced earlier this year, so it all went back together and was about a 2 hour job, start to finish. We will go back and make/add rear brake ducting for this car soon, too.


Left: These larger 13.8" Rear brakes fill out the inside of the 18" wheels on our 2011 GT. Right: Same brakes on a 2012 GT with stock 19" wheels

After the new 18x12" wheels were fitted, new springs were in, front fenders were on and trimmed, the rear brakes were upgraded, axles were back in and diff fluid changed, the ride heights were finally squared away and the car re-corner balanced. Damn... this car is heavy.


We brought both R6 and A6 compounds of mounted Hoosiers to Hallett, a first for us

Another planned change for our TT3 car from all previous NASA events for 2013 was the switch from Hoosier A6 to R6 compound. The A6 tires just don't last very long on this heavy car, and we were hoping the R6 tires would be a better compound to test with. This is helpful when we go to the NASA events early and run the Friday Test-n-Tune, on tracks where we don't know the layout (driver training) or if we have had significant changes to the car since we ran here last (always!). The longer wearing R6 would help Amy and I learn this brand new (to us) track layout, but we didn't get wrapped up with the car in time to go to the Friday testing, so we had to learn the layout on race day. And then I broke the car almost immediately on Saturday... long story, tune in next time to hear more!

So the Hoosier A6 tire is terrible for track use. TERRIBLE. I wouldn't do it if this tire was penalized like the non-DOT racing slicks (it should be), but this is part of the TT Arms Race, so I keep bringing them. The A6 is very heat sensitive and after 1 hot lap on our car it has been falling off about 1 second per lap, and after 3 laps they are just a greasy mess. It has gotten to where I have to get in my best lap on my first lap, usually in the first (coolest) session, and I've stopped even scrubbing the tires at all on the warm-up/out lap. The R6 should be a lot more forgiving with regards to heat, we have nothing but hot months of racing and testing ahead, and I didn't know the next track on the schedule (Hallett) at ALL. The R6s went on the new 18x12" set and a set of worn A6s went on the older 18x11/18x12" set of wheels... but hopefully we wouldn't need them, and that set could stay in the trailer this weekend. I told my guys here that I'd only mount them if I was getting beat, heh.



Our shop was slammed that week so the guys handled all of this 12" wheel/fender/brake prep work on our 2011 GT in about a day and a half, in between customer jobs. Our service workload has gotten pretty heavy of late - so much so that I've hired a third technician to help, who starts this week. We had no less than 7 Mustangs at the shop one day last week, along with the regular BMWs, Subarus, Miatas, Corvettes and LS1 swap. I've been busy looking at bigger buildings to move us into, and will update this thread after we find the right place.

Gotta stop it here. More soon,