SN95 RinerAutomotive's CAM-T Mustang Build Thread Profile - SN95 Mustangs

[Ludachris]

Previously mentioned it but last weekend we had our local club's awards banquet and officially received our trophies. Boy were they impressive.

Ashley got first place in Ladies class which got her a trophy almost as tall as her and a personalized jacket.
View attachment 93406
Stephen got first place in Provisional class (ie CAM and XS) and overall top PAX. He received a trophy, personalized jacket, personalized plaque, and the Club's overall top PAX trophy to keep for one year.
View attachment 93407

 

[RinerAuto]

Congratulations to you both! Those are some epic-sized trophies.

For the KOTS event, how are they judging the Dyno portion? Peak number, avg over an rpm range? As you move away from just peak numbers, I'm thinking it becomes the equivalent of the drag race, without the challenges of traction and reaction time.

I'm pretty sure it will be peak number. Highest number will get 1 point and it will increase by one point from there. Goal is to have the lowest score. I can't win all the events, but going to make sure neither can anyone else.

 

[RinerAuto]

I decided to redesign my upper coilover mount. If I had forethought I would have incorporated this into my upper control arm bracket that I also just redesigned end of last year. But that bracket redesign was also one reason I need to change the coil over mounting. With the upper control arm being pulled closer to the car centerline, the spring was now hitting the upper arm.

Additionally, I have a hell of time getting the shock out of the mount. It's perfectly sized and just the slightest misalignment causes me a lot of trouble.

I decided to design a bolt on tower with adjustable height brackets. I went with adjustable heights due to being able to adjust the control arm heights. I mainly want to keep the shock in it's ideal working range, while keeping desired ride height.

Out with the overly fancy adjustable mount on the right and in with the new simple tower bracket on the left.


YouTube!

 

[Bill Pemberton]

Nice job , Stephen!

 

[Fake_Snake]

Hey man it was nice to meet you at the Triad event Sunday. Good luck at PITS.
I was hoping to talk more after our run group but I acquired some engine problems during my 4th run, so after coasting off course my last run when I finally got it started we headed straight to the house.

 

[RinerAuto]

Hey man it was nice to meet you at the Triad event Sunday. Good luck at PITS.
I was hoping to talk more after our run group but I acquired some engine problems during my 4th run, so after coasting off course my last run when I finally got it started we headed straight to the house.

You too man! I looked for you afterwards, but that explains why I couldn't find you.

Hopefully the car is ok. The car looked really good though.

 

[RinerAuto]

Trying to do some catch up, I've been really busy lately.

Since I put big brakes on the front, I started figuring out which master cylinder to use. One way is to calculate the ratio of MC area to caliper area. Since I'm not changing brake booster or pedal ratio this should work for me. Previously I had 03-04 cobra brakes with 94-95 cobra 15/16" master cylinder. This gave a ratio of 16.6, and I really like how the brakes feel. With the ATS/XTS calipers and same MC the ratio increases to 17.5. As the ratio increases the pedal gets softer and the travel is longer. If I go up a size to the 93 cobra MC the ratio drops to 15.4. So my current pedal feel is right before these two MC. Since the 15/16" is currently install, I'm going to try that one out first.

You don't want the travel too long, but also don't want the pedal too firm that it's easy to lock up. Here is what I calculated for several common setups.

 

[RinerAuto]

Autocross season has started and I made an adventure out of it!

Friday after work Ashley and I traveled from VA to Charlotte to autocross at ZMax. It was Ashley's first time camping in the trailer too. I just bought a folding 6" foam mattress.

In the morning I took Ashley to catch a train back home and I headed north to Winston Salem for another autocross. That was a lot of fun. Coming into it there was a lot of talk of me being there and there were some high expectations. I think I delivered I'll get the video and results soon.

Then I headed west to Ponies in the Smokies, where I was competing in the King of the Smokies competition. The King of the Smokies participated in every event: Shine Run, autocross, shotgun alley, drag racing, dyno, and car show. That was an absolute blast. I'll have results and multiple videos for this coming as it was 5 days long.

I have a couple single run videos from the above events on my YouTube.

 

[Fake_Snake]

You too man! I looked for you afterwards, but that explains why I couldn't find you.

Hopefully the car is ok. The car looked really good though.

Thanks I appreciate it, that wrap took forever, much respect to wrap installers.
Unfortunately I broke the ring lands on 3 pistons which smashed their spark plugs causing us to ride home on 5 cylinders. So now I’m in the process of debating a forged rotating assembly or a coyote swap.. not what I expected to be debating after points event #1 lol.

 

[RinerAuto]

Thanks I appreciate it, that wrap took forever, much respect to wrap installers.
Unfortunately I broke the ring lands on 3 pistons which smashed their spark plugs causing us to ride home on 5 cylinders. So now I’m in the process of debating a forged rotating assembly or a coyote swap.. not what I expected to be debating after points event #1 lol.

Agreed on the wrap install. I think it took me around 50 hours. I definitely see why it costs thousands of dollars, but still can't bring myself to paying that.

That's a bummer about the engine. How much pressure were you running? Both are expensive options.

 

[RinerAuto]

Autocross is back baby!

As I said above we traveled down to zMax in Charlotte. There were almost 200 drivers. In CAM class there were 15 drivers, in Ladies there were 3 drivers. I got to meet several people that I've seen or have seen me on Instagram, so that was cool. On just looks Leo's car puts mine to shame.

This was our shakedown event. First time racing with the new brakes and stiffer front springs (800#). The car felt really good. The brake pedal is a little soft as I knew it would be from the math above. But I still had full braking control and quickly adapted. Another new thing for this year was RaceCapture and Solo Storm. Solo Storm is really powerful and so easy to use. I wish I had made the switch earlier.

It took a few runs to get back in the groove but by my last run I was pretty close to the pace and finished 4th in class. However, I was still 1 second off of first place in CAM (the Skoons Camaro, which is more Corvette than Camaro). Ashley had an easy run to first in ladies and was getting reacquainted with the car. Overall pax I finished 31/198 and raw I finished 47/198.

 

[Fake_Snake]

Agreed on the wrap install. I think it took me around 50 hours. I definitely see why it costs thousands of dollars, but still can't bring myself to paying that.

That's a bummer about the engine. How much pressure were you running? Both are expensive options.

It runs right at 10psi. I knew it was living on borrowed time at 450rwhp on a stock rotating assembly but I never thought an autocross would be what kills it.

 

[RinerAuto]

It runs right at 10psi. I knew it was living on borrowed time at 450rwhp on a stock rotating assembly but I never thought an autocross would be what kills it.

Right, but autocross can be quite harsh as there is a lot of on/off throttle, heavy braking, and lots of changing direction. Road courses are longer duration and higher speed, but I think less abusive in general. Obviously dependent on tracks, tires, car setup, and driver.

IMO at least, again I'm an autocrosser not road racer, we like to think we are real race car drivers

 

[RinerAuto]

After Charlotte I dropped Ashley off at the train station as I was continuing West and she couldn't take time off from work. I traveled North to Winston-Salem, NC to run another autocross. I had never ran at Winston-Salem fairgrounds, so I was excited to check out the venue. I also got to see some other autocrossers that I knew but don't get to see often. One thing I didn't expect was that a lot of the CAM guys knew who I was. There was an expectation that I was going to do quite well and many were excited to see what I did on course. This gave me some pressure, but I too was excited to show what my car and I are able to do.

The course was quick, but had a few crucial braking zones. First out of the gate there is a tight pivot cone that I had to downshift to 1st. Then there was a tight sweeper that I was entering at 60+ mph, so another big braking zone. This really got to test how I felt about the brake pedal. Which I think is slightly on the soft side, so going to change that in the future. Then there was a quick slalom and gates that only needed a few lifts, no brakes. But that led to another tight sweeper that was easy to overshoot. From there it was WOT to the finish with a slight lift through a lane change. I wanted to hold the throttle through the lane change, but the risk of spinning at the finish was too high.

Right off the bat I was quick, in fact my first run would have been good enough to win CAM-T. But I knew there was more time. I felt good in the acceleration zones. The only place I could find time was by squeezing my braking zones, braking later and trying to pick up the throttle as soon as possible. This is easy to say, but sometimes hard to do.

Overall I'm really excited by my driving that day. I feel I drove some of my best and really showed what my little car is capable of. By the end I won CAM-T by 2.5s and was the fastest CAM car, I beat a corvette by 0.025s. I was behind a Telsa by only 0.003s. These smaller tighter courses really equalize the lower hp and higher hp cars.


PAX I finished 5th out of 147 drivers

Raw time I finished 6th out of 147 drivers

 

[Bill Pemberton]

We need to see you at the Nationals this September and you get to run with some other TMO members! Congrats on the runs in Winston -Salem and solid placing in the PAX Index.

 

[Fabman]

We need to see you at the Nationals this September and you get to run with some other TMO members! Congrats on the runs in Winston -Salem and solid placing in the PAX Index.

Do it!

 

[RinerAuto]

We need to see you at the Nationals this September and you get to run with some other TMO members! Congrats on the runs in Winston -Salem and solid placing in the PAX Index.

I am planning on going to Nationals this year, even though it's a 22+ hour drive. Unfortunately, Ashley won't be able to go since it's the first week of school, but I'm sure I can find someone to ride out there with me and possibly codrive.

 

[RinerAuto]

Now for my final destination, Ponies in the Smokies out in Tennessee. I was doing the first annual King of the Smokies competition, which is all the events (shine run, autocross, shotgun alley, drag racing, dyno, and car show).

Day 1 was check in and start of the shine run. I was able to tag along with a few other competitors, which gave me some piece of mind. Yea my car is street legal, but I don't drive it on the street very much. Plus I had just finished off season work so my confidence in the car while higher from the two autocrosses, was still quite low. The plan was to hit the couple close ones and then get the further locations knocked out. Started at Old Tennessee Distilling, then Tennessee Shine Co. Next was Tail of the Dragon. It was over an hour drive out there, but the scenery was gorgeous and the roads were fun. Then on the way back we hit Salt and Pepper Museum and Man Cave Metal to finish out the day. I ended up buying some apple pie moonshine, a tail of the dragon sticker, and a mustang key chain at the various stops.

Overall it was a fun time and some great people to cruise with.

 

[Dave_W]

Talking about the PS pump reminded me - if you ever have problems with cavitation in the PS pump, try the Redline PS fluid. Back when I was autocrossing the Neon, they had a tendency to cavitate on sustained hard inputs - end of a long slalom and suddenly you lose a bunch of power assist. The Redline power steering fluid solved that.

 

[Fabman]

Talking about the PS pump reminded me - if you ever have problems with cavitation in the PS pump, try the Redline PS fluid. Back when I was autocrossing the Neon, they had a tendency to cavitate on sustained hard inputs - end of a long slalom and suddenly you lose a bunch of power assist. The Redline power steering fluid solved that.

Agreed, I finally went to amsoil synthetic and that solved my hydraulic PS woes. Regular power steering fluid is not up to the task of sustained high rpm use. Redline is awesome too.