The Mustang Forum for Track & Racing Enthusiasts

Taking your Mustang to an open track/HPDE event for the first time? Do you race competitively? This forum is for you! Log in to remove most ads.

  • Welcome to the Ford Mustang forum built for owners of the Mustang GT350, BOSS 302, GT500, and all other S550, S197, SN95, Fox Body and older Mustangs set up for open track days, road racing, and/or autocross. Join our forum, interact with others, share your build, and help us strengthen this community!

S197 @4o6racing Build Thread Profile - S197 Mustangs

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

1,161
2,116
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
SoCal
Alright Team TMO, super excited for the next step in driver advancement this weekend with a maiden voyage in NASA Time Trials. Took a trip to the rollers for class certification. Bone stock engine with only an AED tune and Flowmaster cat-backs was good for 370 RWHP and 361 torque. With 3750# minimum weight w/driver, I slot easily into TT3 with 100TW Goodyear 3R’s. Completed annual tech tonight and now have a shiny new log book. Little league wins out for Saturday, but come Sunday it’s GO Time!!

C245285C-9087-447B-A237-DB2E4C0D76AB.jpeg
F4CCCCC9-9222-46C2-BAFC-5BD6C63F5838.jpeg

 
1,161
2,116
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
SoCal
On this installment of “What Have I Got Myself Into” : AeroCatch hood pins. This mod personally marks a new level of commitment to track car insanity - cutting holes in perfectly good body panels! Last outing at AutoClub Speedway, CaliPhotography had some really nice shots coming into turn 1 of the roval, and the lift on the front corners of the hood at 145 mph is very noticeable. Passenger side is done, still have the drivers side to do. I wanted to mount them in place of the OE outside bump stops, where there happens to be 3 layers of metal to deal with. A bit tricky and time consuming, but the piece of mind will be worth it in the end. This mod will be followed by cutting 2 really big holes for the Race Louver RX vents before the next track day.

C3B19712-7AAE-4314-A19E-8BC0C9C92E23.jpeg
1D46E866-7D55-43FE-B90D-883494FA6C90.jpeg
 
Last edited:
1,161
2,116
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
SoCal
Your car makes Street class?? Uh oh, I'm in trouble.
I’m in a weird in-between spot on the point system. I have to drop down to a 295 square setup with the Goodyear SuperCar 3 tire to make Street. If I run my normal wider tires, it puts me in the lower end of Mod. Not sure if the 295’s will be competitive in Street, but feel I have a better chance there than Mod.
 
539
687
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
3-5 Years
SoCal
I’m in a weird in-between spot on the point system. I have to drop down to a 295 square setup with the Goodyear SuperCar 3 tire to make Street. If I run my normal wider tires, it puts me in the lower end of Mod. Not sure if the 295’s will be competitive in Street, but feel I have a better chance there than Mod.
I think 295's will be fine. You will definitely be a contender for 1st in Street.
 
277
161
Watson rear seat delete? Your hood turned out really nice im sure its going help that lift and benefit your cooling a lot ! You will find out soon enough on these warmer events.
 
1,161
2,116
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
SoCal
Watson rear seat delete? Your hood turned out really nice im sure its going help that lift and benefit your cooling a lot ! You will find out soon enough on these warmer events.
Thanks Brian! I used the Shrader Performance kit. I believe they supply Watson for their kits, and Watson pre-drills the holes for the roll bar tubes to pass through. There’s a bit of markup for that step, and Watson’s shipping costs were way higher than going with the Shrader kit. I used the cardboard from the shipping box to build a template, mocked up the roll bar holes and cut them with a hole saw.

https://www.shraderperformance.com/shop/product/05-14-mustang-rear-seat-delete/
 
1,161
2,116
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
SoCal
Weekend Update-short version: BITTER-SWEET.

If you’re in for the long read:
Last Sunday brought about Round 3 of Super GT Cup time attack, this time at Buttonwillow Raceway Park, CW13. Since this happened to be Mother’s Day, me and a whole bunch of my track buddies have been spending this week on the couch. Hopefully the organizers can avoid this drama in 2022!🤣

Day started out with an interesting first session. Lots of offs and several cars not running their submitted pre-grid times made clean laps a bit difficult. This was my first time out on SuperCar 3’s and in a narrower than usual 295 size so that I could squeak into Street class. I have to say, I was very impressed with this tire. I finally caught a decent lap 4, which was good enough for a sub-2 1:59.955. Felt really good with that result, knowing there was a lot left on the table. I hadn’t been back to BRP since last July, so a fair bit of relearning brake and shift points. Session 2 was going to be the chance for a big improvement, before the heat started setting in for the day.

Session 2 started with a #12 spot on grid and P1 in Street class. Right next to my buddy @PaddyPrix on grid spot #11. You should have seen the smiles on our faces - we were lined up right ahead of a brand new GT4 in grid spot 13!! After some shenanigans by the P10 Viper on the out lap, we were off on our first hot lap. Everything was going well until I rolled Phil Hill about 8 MPH over my usual apex speed, slightly offline to boot. By the time the car settled off the hill, I was headed for the dirt on the inside of the next kerb. BRP’s soft loamy dirt is typically forgiving, but it was just deep enough to grab my FP transmission cooler scoop and remove the entire k-member brace from the car with it. The splitter bottomed out on the dirt as well, and my rigid mounted strut rods pushed through the bottom of the splitter and broke off. Splitter remained in tact, but unsupported in the middle. Pulled into hot pit, had the course worker take a quick look, and went back out to finish the session. Car felt OK - no alignment issues and seemed to be good.

Closer inspection in the paddock is when I realized the trans cooler was gone, splitter was damaged, and the wires were pulled completely out of the downstream RH o2 sensor. Decided to call it a day since I still had to drive it home 175 miles. Now it was a waiting game to see if anyone picked up time in the remaining sessions.

Here’s the bitter part. The P2 car from session 1 edged out my session 1 time by 0.017 seconds. The heartbreak continued after comparing the off lap with the 1:59 from session 1. Started the lap out -1.15 in the hole with a slower turn 2, made all of that back up and was +0.66 when I went off. 😔 Realistically could have gone into the high 57’s if I had taken care of the car and been able to turn more laps. Live and learn. Can’t wait for December 12th.

Still very happy with P2 out of 10 in class, and really excited for the P1 driver, who has been chasing Sub-2 for a long time.

C0FE6D85-FBFD-4280-995F-0C1A74F1EAAE.jpeg
A67E8A87-9145-4882-B696-15B6423ACD80.jpeg
4C7D2FCA-B027-427E-9BA9-7B3DE7D87214.jpeg
9AE3B7D4-D332-45D9-A2A4-F14525386152.jpeg
D7E50514-D9D9-4F39-8597-EE5EADB99519.jpeg
 
Great read! Nice results to boot.

Check out the professional awesome splitter support rods. Hard to say if they’d have fared better in your off but maybe. They really do bend quite a bit. Really nice parts, prob some of the nicer ones on my car.
 
1,161
2,116
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
SoCal
Great read! Nice results to boot.

Check out the professional awesome splitter support rods. Hard to say if they’d have fared better in your off but maybe. They really do bend quite a bit. Really nice parts, prob some of the nicer ones on my car.
Thanks for reading!

I’m in process of assembling parts for Splitter 2.0. @Badger had a trick set of S197 frame adapters fab’d up by Kaze Spec Engineering that pair up with the Professional Awesome quick release splitter mounts. KSE kept the dimensions on file, so I ordered a set and should be here any day. Definitely going with the PA support rods - @PaddyPrix has them on his car and the quality is very impressive.

Here’s a pic from Hano’s setup - hope he doesn’t mind me sharing the screenshot:
6A827155-6136-425B-9EE6-5A6F6023E7DD.jpeg
 
Last edited:
1,161
2,116
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
SoCal
The Kaze Spec Engineering brackets arrived on Friday. They looked so nice, I decided to fit them up for splitter V1.5. I have enough 6mm Alumalite remnants from the 4x8 sheet left to make 1 more, hence the V1.5

V2.0 will be made out of 10mm Alumalite, and will be built as a true quick release with the Professional Awesome splitter rods and ABS air dam.

The KSE brackets exceeded my expectations. With the included spacers, the lower two mounting bolts use factory holes in frame rail. The top hole requires drilling a 1/4” hole in the factory pinch weld, but really no big deal. They’re extremely rigid and fit perfectly square. I had to shorten the Professional Awesome quick release brackets by 3 holes. This still leaves me with approx 2 1/2” of adjustability to go lower if needed.


60109E75-5D2E-4751-9FA4-8A17C7B0AA84.jpeg
DAC35CB6-0C98-45FF-980F-F2BE45EC5847.jpeg
 

Norm Peterson

Corner Barstool Sitter
939
712
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
a few miles east of Philly
And here’s the instructions specific to face-hobbed sets. This describes a similar pattern, however the suggested adjustment is opposite the FP instructions of adding pinion shim thickness.

View attachment 62464
To Blacksheep and 67GTA in particular - I felt that putting my thoughts and questions here would make more sense than starting a separate thread and having to link back here anyway.

I've been doing similar research, and I also find it more than a little confusing (I never did get the gear swap in my '08 completed due to a number of "other factors").

What I'm seeing in that particular chart is a different procedure, which may be different entirely in what corrections may need to happen. It very clearly puts setting backlash ahead of setting pinion depth.
1630969728271.png


I've also measured a couple of crush washers, and found that they aren't all of the same thickness. The sleeve that came out of my '08 measures approximately 0.095" thick and is not perceptibly peened over on the faying surfaces. A Motive sleeve (unused) measures only about 0.070". That tells me that the OE Ford sleeve is something like 3 times stiffer in bending than the Motive sleeve.

My downstream question from there is about whether the lighter sleeve will provide enough clamp load at 20 in-lbs. I haven't actually heard of the thinner sleeves being an issue.

I did note blacksheep's work-around involving the use of pinion shim(s) as a means of getting a little more crush out of a used sleeve. Is this reliable?

I'm pretty sure that differential shims will fit behind the inner pinion bearing race as an alternate method of setting pinion depth deeper toward the differential carrier, mimicking the use of a thicker pinion bearing shim. Can anybody confirm this? Without a press and if needed this might be an easier alternative.

Or am I just totally misunderstanding this? I have done a couple of ring & pinion swaps before, but those were over 20 years ago and I don't remember much about them.


Norm
 
Last edited:

TMO Supporting Vendors

Top