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 BOSS 302 Race Car Build Thread Build Thread

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

898
544
I'm at 500# springs now and it turns in so good I hate to tamper with it, but my front shocks are on full stiff to control the diagonal weight transfer so I feel like I could be sprung somewhat stiffer.
600's was my prospective change but I didn't want to over spring it and develop a push.
If you were able to pull off 800's I feel a little better about springing up to 600's, especially now that I'm going up in tire size.

I think with a sticky tire, 600 lbs in the front is as low a spring rate as I would choose. I run 550 front spring rate with a 35mm Strano front bar set to full stiff and a 350 rear rate with an 18 mm bar and probably would benefit from increasing the front spring rate. As you can see below, my car has a lot of body roll mid-corner and might not be in the most effective part of the camber curve.

upload_2017-3-27_17-16-54.png
 

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
Moderator
8,730
2,734
Arizona, USA
@2012-Boss : Steve--assume that is "(N)Oak Tree" at VIR; also assume this is one of the highest lateral-G locations on that track. Would make sense on roll induction here. Will take the data point and see what happens. Roll aside--how did it turn-in? :)
 

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
Moderator
8,730
2,734
Arizona, USA
I use the telemetry data from the speedometer to qualify the GPS speed. Otherwise it would be moot, I don't read speedo stuff while on track. The only things I care about on track is temp/oil pressure (and the latter is more if exists then good)
Wrong thread, dummy!
 
898
544
@2012-Boss : Steve--assume that is "(N)Oak Tree" at VIR; also assume this is one of the highest lateral-G locations on that track. Would make sense on roll induction here. Will take the data point and see what happens. Roll aside--how did it turn-in? :)

It is Oak tree. The car turns in fairly well, but that is also in part with running the front sway bar full stiff. At some point I am going to go to 600 or 650 lb front spring and move the sway bar to a softer setting. In theory, that would increase grip on the inside tire.

Keep in mind that 'turns in fairly well' is compared to Steeda Boss springs and Koni's.
 

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
Moderator
8,730
2,734
Arizona, USA
The two things that I am most often asked at the track and/or on the forum are:
1) Is the carbon fiber roof real? (No--it's just vinyl since I cracked the paint using a blowtorch scraping off sound deadening)
2) How does the wing attach in the trunk?
WxXcPrN.jpg
 

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
Moderator
8,730
2,734
Arizona, USA
Your missing the 3rd question... Can i drive it?
Actually I don't get that one a lot. But the answer is universally "NO!" :)

My wife is still pissed at me that @captdistraction drove it in race car trim before her.
 
369
146
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Waco, TX
I think they were camping that night, I don't remember seeing him stuck outside anywhere.

That said, in whatever year I get that yellow one going again, you have a session credit available. Might be fun to try out that tremec setup (and cheaty horsepower boost)

Hope all the gates are closed at the track in case he really likes and plans to keep it. If i was a race announcer and there goes #50 out the gate and down the street.
 

Tucson 302

2013 Black LS #439
I would actually like to take your cars for a spin for a DE session and see what I'm missing. Then have you drive mine and say "hey dumbass how did you not notice X, Y, and Z!!!"
 

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
Moderator
8,730
2,734
Arizona, USA
I would actually like to take your cars for a spin for a DE session and see what I'm missing. Then have you drive mine and say "hey dumbass how did you not notice X, Y, and Z!!!"

That could be arranged. However, not sure how fast I should try to make you as you're moving up to race group eventually ;)
 

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
Moderator
8,730
2,734
Arizona, USA
Got two wins this weekend by default since I was the only person in-class. Saturday I had to back way off to keep the car cool in 91*F race conditions due to plugged up exhaust required to pass sound. Made some changes to the exhaust (still passed sound) and got the overall win on Sunday in 95*F weather while managing to keep the car running in acceptable temperature ranges. More on that later.
 

Fabman

Dances with Racecars
6,518
8,154
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Pleasanton: 1/2 way between Sonoma and Laguna Seca
A win's a win. ;)
 

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
Moderator
8,730
2,734
Arizona, USA
OK--race report from last weekend at Arizona Motorsports Park:

nLlQ7bw.png

The softer front springs were definitely a change for the better. The car turns in very well and doesn't have excessive body roll (for me) even with the front bar on full soft. I did up my rear spring rate by 50# at the last event.

With this setup, the car will rotate predictably with trail braking or even when lifting completely off-throttle while turning--very easy to work with.

At this particular track, they have a 96db sound limit at 50'. From my experience at Sonoma last year, my regular exhaust setup is 106db at full blast. To combat this, I installed factory BOSS (aka V6) mufflers and attached some 90* elbows to them to divert the sound away from the meters. In addition to this, I installed a set of header baffles inside the elbows. These baffles got me down to 95.1 db, enough to get my sound certification. Unfortunately, they created a lot of restriction in the exhaust and basically killed the power above 6000 RPM--and caused a lot of heat generation in the engine due to the increased backpressure. I actually blew one of the intermediate pipes off of the midpipe during qualifying.

For Saturday's race I was shifting around 6200RPM the entire time to keep the heat down and keep the strain off of the engine, but I still managed to hit 243* CHTs due to the near 100* ambient temperatures and plugged exhaust. The other two people registered for my class didn't pass sound or didn't show up, so all I had to do to "win" was simply run the race at any pace--but for Sunday I was going to try a different strategy to keep from hurting the car.

I put on a set of 90* elbow pipes without the header baffles installed on Sunday morning and ran full-bore during practice. In addition to this, I removed the grille altogether and also removed the nomex honeycomb from the radiator (but left in-place for the oil cooler). I didn't get black-flagged for sound violation, and the car was able to run about 20* cooler CHT while using the full rev range of the engine without issue. I was still the only person in my class so by default I got the class win, but I also got the overall race win on Sunday and the fastest qualifying time by over two seconds compared to the next fastest car (ST3 Porsche 911). We actually ran the track in the opposite direction on Sunday, which was a first for any public group. So half of the battle was learning the "new" configuration quickly; for me this was a lot of fun!

KwxztAR.png

The CHTs still managed to get up to 237 during the race, but again this was with 100*F ambient temperatures and running the engine out to 7800 RPM in traffic. In general the car was running around 230-235*F CHTs.

To further combat this, I am going to extend my radiator ducting plates forward into the front bumper like @Black Boss had done a while back and seal off the lower flap exposed areas on the FRPP radiator. I'm hoping that buys a few more degrees reduction in CHT but the car should be good to run in anything cooler than 90*+F full bore no issues as-is. We'll see for sure at Auto Club later in May.

ZIUFj4k.png

With the way things have gone so far for myself and my competitors this season, I will secure the regional championship for the year at Auto Club next month even with a mediocre finish in-class (which is likely considering the SoCal guys usually dominate with home-track advantage there)--but I am hoping for a more competitive showing this year, since last year was my first time to the track, my car is a bit better optimized handling-wise, and my car is not hobbled by a broken pressure plate making all of my upshifts take 3-4x as long, this time around.

Stay tuned...
 
Last edited:

TMO Supporting Vendors

Top