2005 S197 Model GT 4.6L Manual
Mods - Handling
Eibach Sportline Springs and struts, lowered 2"
Eibach sway bars front and rear
Track Wheels: PP1 Wheels, Pirelli P0 Tires (til they wear out) 275/40/19, 255/40/19
Street Wheels: Shelby CS67 20", Cooper Tires, 275/35/20, 255/35/20
Mods - Power
DOB Intake
M122 Supercharger, 3.375 Pulley (til engine build)
11 PSI @ 6500 rpm
DOB Supersingle HX
Ford POWA Pump
BBK Longtube Headers
BBX Xpipe
PMAS CAI
ATI Super Damper
8 Rib Conversion
Mods - Exterior
Cervini's Hood
Cervini's Window Vents
Temple Performance Spoiler
Temple Performance Splitter
Mods - Interior
Autometer pillar pod
Autometer Boost Gauge
Autometer Wideband
Hurst Short Throw Shifter
Background & Plans
I purchased the car a couple months ago with 48,500 miles.
I added the Supercharger and supporting mods.
Future plans are to build a forged short block with Boss Rods and Diamond Pistons (ordered)
Once the engine is built the SC pulley with be replaced with a 2.65", boost will be 18-20 psi

Figure it’s time for an update on the car.
It’s a lot different now and I have been terrible about documenting what’s been done.

Where to start, well I guess I’ll start with the engine. I picked up a VMP Gen 2 supercharger so to support that I built the engine, it’s a forged rotating assembly now with an Eagle crank, Boss rods and Diamond pistons.
Added some custom grind Todd Warren cams, limited the timing to 20*, and of course all new and updated timing.
Redline is now 7500 rpm, although the HP peaks at 6500, so typically shift around there.

Next is the transmission, the stock 3650 would handle the new engine so I swapped in a T56 Magnum XL and a RAM Concept 10.5, a very nice combo.

The rear end is a whole debacle, I ended up twisting the shafts on the 8.8” doing some drag launches, so I upgraded it to a Strange 9” 35 spline unit with 3.25 gears. It’s a great rear, I’m hoping I can fab up a Watts Link for it down the road.

Suspension wise I went a set of Pedder coil overs with Swift Springs, 10kg/mm rear and 12kg/mm front. The shocks are okay, I’d like to go with a set of Fortune Auto in the future. The springs are money, going from stockish springs to these was a night and day difference, the car is planted now and just sticks.

Interior is fairly mild, a pair of Braum Venom R seats and an 8 point roll cage.

We recently moved from the coast of NC back home to Utah. This caused a whole mess of cooling issues. On track engine temperatures hit 230 fairly quickly, so time for a change.
I was running a SVE 3 row radiator, which was great at sea level, not so much in the high desert at UMC.
Add to that the fact I was not able to monitor oil temperatures so I decided to make some changes.
I went with a Fluidyne 3 pass radiator and one of their late model dirt oil coolers, which I was able to mount between the AC condenser and the radiator, pretty slick IMO.
This seems to have gotten ECTs in check, last trip to track I never got over 208 on a 98* day. That was short lived as on the 4th lap one of the heater core hose connections blew, fortunately I was running water/water wetter only, so quick clean up.

Now to get the IATs in check, I was seeing IATs at 160* and not recovering, just holding there, more changes needed!

I already have a 22 gpm HX pump and a very large HX, so airflow is where I am focused here. I ditched the stock bumper for a FR tube bumper, this helped a ton. IATs were down and recovery was much faster after a pull. I went a step further and cut some vents into the bumper cover and trimmed them with bumper trim from a 96 F250, modified of course. Also fenced in the stack and made some baffles on the sides to keep air from going around the stack.

I ditched the fiberglass hood with scoops because aver 130 the under hood pressure started lifting the front end, that’s an unsettling experience.

Aero wise I’m running a 9 live racing dual element wing and a C2 Aero splitter and under tray, and a stock hood with Track Spec vents, I’ll be adding a set of gurney flaps to those soon.

I’ll add more info and videos soon, hopefully many more track days soon, hopefully be moving to time trials with NASA next year.

Random Autocross pics

She went from wonderful to " Wicked!!" Love the look but those pics are not in New Bern, NC ( been there ) , it looks more like California. Even though you are just autocrossing , I would pop those driving lights back out like one of your pictures for that little bit better air flow to the radiator and intercooler. Are you bringing the beast to Lincoln , Ne. for the Solo Nationals in September?

Bill Pemberton said:

She went from wonderful to " Wicked!!" Love the look but those pics are not in New Bern, NC ( been there ) , it looks more like California. Even though you are just autocrossing , I would pop those driving lights back out like one of your pictures for that little bit better air flow to the radiator and intercooler. Are you bringing the beast to Lincoln , Ne. for the Solo Nationals in September?

Click to expand...

The first pics are in Utah at UMC, the second set is in NC at NCCAR near Roanoke Rapids NC, and the night pics are at Southern National Motorsport Park near Wilson NC.

The lights are long gone, that was one of the first things I did to get more airflow.

No Lincoln trip this year, possibly next year if I continue to improve my driving, I’d love to see an event of that caliber!

There wasn't an SCCA event there this year, I believe due to FAA permitting, but keep your eyes open for a ProSolo and/or National Tour at Wendover. That will give you a bit of feel for Solo Nats. I highly recommend doing at least one National Tour event before going to Lincoln. The mindset you need for a well-regimented 2-day event with only 3 runs each day is completely different than a typical local event with 6-10 runs in one day. Both driving and working the course.

I will amend Dave's thoughts a little as it is a great idea to go to Wendover, but having started autocrossing in 1981 in Salina, Ks. ( Nationals were held there for many years ) I recommend going to Nationals as soon as you can. The knowledge you can get there is incredible and hanging with folks for 3-4 days you can pick brains and garner more info than anywhere and alot more than even at a National Tour --- folks literally park their butts in Lincoln for awhile and easy to catch fast drivers to talk to. Make it as soon as you can, no worries about your talent level since the sooner you go the sooner you find out many little secrets and you can get help from the best around the US and Canada.

Dave_W said:

There wasn't an SCCA event there this year, I believe due to FAA permitting, but keep your eyes open for a ProSolo and/or National Tour at Wendover. That will give you a bit of feel for Solo Nats. I highly recommend doing at least one National Tour event before going to Lincoln. The mindset you need for a well-regimented 2-day event with only 3 runs each day is completely different than a typical local event with 6-10 runs in one day. Both driving and working the course.

Click to expand...

I always wanted to do a pro solo, good to know they are so close, had no idea, thanks!

Had a great “Test n Tune” session on the west track at UMC this afternoon. Air temperature was 91 but track temp with my IR gun was 102.
This is a track sprint configuration which works well for shake down runs and testing suspension settings, I’ve been using them to test the cooling system.

Car is running amazing and temperatures stayed in a reasonable range for the ambient temperature and the fact that you don’t get to run the straight which seems to help cool things down,

Head temperature got up to 228*, but recovered very quickly in the pit, oil temp ran at 185-190*. IAT was a bit high at 160*.

With the car running cooler I was able to push a little more, and beat my previous best by 2 seconds.

I’m confident the car can handle a standard track day now, so I’ll be running HPDE with NASA in a couple weeks, really looking forward to that.

Happy to hear the cooling is working.

Note on the video - Get thee to the apex!!! For 97%* of corners, you want to start on the outside edge of the track, turn all the way across to the inside edge of the track, and then unwind and exit all the way at the outside edge again (or take little rumble strip). Typically, where you "clip" the inside of the track is maybe 60-65% through the corner - a "late apex" line. There are a number of corners where you're not turning "down" to the apex of the corner enough, and a couple where you drive the whole corner in the middle of the track. You should always try to drive "the line" unless you need to make room for someone - even on a lap where you're not pushing, driving the line is a visualization and muscle memory exercise; plus you're less likely to pick up marbles / trash on your tires.

*The exception is for "linked corners" like a chicane, where you drive a less-than-ideal line in one corner in order to place the car on the proper line in the other (more important for speed) corner.

Dave_W said:

Happy to hear the cooling is working.

Note on the video - Get thee to the apex!!! For 97%* of corners, you want to start on the outside edge of the track, turn all the way across to the inside edge of the track, and then unwind and exit all the way at the outside edge again (or take little rumble strip). Typically, where you "clip" the inside of the track is maybe 60-65% through the corner - a "late apex" line. There are a number of corners where you're not turning "down" to the apex of the corner enough, and a couple where you drive the whole corner in the middle of the track. You should always try to drive "the line" unless you need to make room for someone - even on a lap where you're not pushing, driving the line is a visualization and muscle memory exercise; plus you're less likely to pick up marbles / trash on your tires.

*The exception is for "linked corners" like a chicane, where you drive a less-than-ideal line in one corner in order to place the car on the proper line in the other (more important for speed) corner.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

I know I am on a far less than ideal line, I am fairly new to track and enjoying every minute of it.

I will be running a HPDE with NASA in 2 weeks in which I’ll have an instructor which should really help me out. I have found knowing the line and driving the line are 2 very different things!

Found an excellent tutorial on the West Track from someone at the Ford GT350 track day taking the group van "course walk" with an instructor.

And here's a decent lap at speed

The most important thing is to look ahead. Looking ahead makes you think ahead. You want to know where the exit of the corner is when you start your turn-in, so your steering input can be one smooth turn to the apex and straighten to the exit.

Phrases I've learned -
Look ahead - hands follow the eyes, car follows the hands.
Wait, then turn. Rookies tend to eagerly "dive" to the inside of a corner too early; wait a beat and then make a smooth arc for a late apex. If you find you're always running out of track on exit, it may be because you're turning in too early.
Turn, then turn some more. There's an initial amount of steering you use at turn-in, but you can add more steering as the car slows from tire scrub {and late-braking). So instead of holding one wheel angle the whole turn, you are smoothly adding steering from turn-in to apex, then smoothly straightening the wheel from apex to exit.
0% wheel = 100% pedal; 100% wheel = 0% pedal*. If you're not asking your tires for lateral grip, you can use all their grip for longitudinal grip (accelerate / decelerate). But as soon as you ask for some lateral grip, you can't still ask for maximum longitudinal grip. So as you start turning the wheel you need to ease off the pedals. As you're straightening the wheel, you can ease onto the pedals until you're full pedal with the wheel straight again. (* 0% pedal actually means 0% acceleration/deceleration, so just a little gas for "speed maintenance" but that ruins the saying.)

Good luck at the next event!

Dave_W said:

Found an excellent tutorial on the West Track from someone at the Ford GT350 track day taking the group van "course walk" with an instructor.

And here's a decent lap at speed

The most important thing is to look ahead. Looking ahead makes you think ahead. You want to know where the exit of the corner is when you start your turn-in, so your steering input can be one smooth turn to the apex and straighten to the exit.

Phrases I've learned -
Look ahead - hands follow the eyes, car follows the hands.
Wait, then turn. Rookies tend to eagerly "dive" to the inside of a corner too early; wait a beat and then make a smooth arc for a late apex. If you find you're always running out of track on exit, it may be because you're turning in too early.
Turn, then turn some more. There's an initial amount of steering you use at turn-in, but you can add more steering as the car slows from tire scrub {and late-braking). So instead of holding one wheel angle the whole turn, you are smoothly adding steering from turn-in to apex, then smoothly straightening the wheel from apex to exit.
0% wheel = 100% pedal; 100% wheel = 0% pedal*. If you're not asking your tires for lateral grip, you can use all their grip for longitudinal grip (accelerate / decelerate). But as soon as you ask for some lateral grip, you can't still ask for maximum longitudinal grip. So as you start turning the wheel you need to ease off the pedals. As you're straightening the wheel, you can ease onto the pedals until you're full pedal with the wheel straight again. (* 0% pedal actually means 0% acceleration/deceleration, so just a little gas for "speed maintenance" but that ruins the saying.)

Good luck at the next event!

Click to expand...

Awesome advice, thank you.
I like the addition of steering angle, I do that the autocross, but everything you read or hear says to have a constant angle, I’m excited to try some different methods.

dave2278 said:

Had a great “Test n Tune” session on the west track at UMC this afternoon. Air temperature was 91 but track temp with my IR gun was 102.
This is a track sprint configuration which works well for shake down runs and testing suspension settings, I’ve been using them to test the cooling system.

Car is running amazing and temperatures stayed in a reasonable range for the ambient temperature and the fact that you don’t get to run the straight which seems to help cool things down,

Head temperature got up to 228*, but recovered very quickly in the pit, oil temp ran at 185-190*. IAT was a bit high at 160*.

With the car running cooler I was able to push a little more, and beat my previous best by 2 seconds.

I’m confident the car can handle a standard track day now, so I’ll be running HPDE with NASA in a couple weeks, really looking forward to that.

Click to expand...

Let’s connect at the upcoming NASA event - I’ll be running Time Trial all 3 days. Great to see another S197 that will be frequenting UMC!

67GTA said:

Let’s connect at the upcoming NASA event - I’ll be running Time Trial all 3 days. Great to see another S197 that will be frequenting UMC!

Click to expand...

Awesome, sounds great!

I’ll be running Saturday only this time, in future events I’ll run multiple days, but really need to see how the car does.

Had a good day of autocross today. Won class, so that’s always a good day.
In the morning session the rear end kept sliding out and I didn’t understand why.
I decided to check the shocks and I found that my front driver was set at 0, damn.

A couple weeks ago I replaced the hardware and I guess when I was working on that I inadvertently rotated the knob without realizing it.

After getting that corrected the car felt much better and I was able to push it.

Seeing as LVRY is at the track I got a log book so I can keep track of this stuff to hopefully prevent this type of thing from happening again.

My Dragy app isn’t working so I don’t have a video to attach.

Wednesday will be another test and tune session, then Saturday is my first NASA HPDE, can’t wait!

Another awesome Wednesday night at the track, I made a lot of progress and improvement this session, knocked nearly 3 seconds off my previous best and most importantly hit apexes much more consistently, thanks Dave_w! They had turn in and apex cones which really helped me identify and hit the marks.

Much better, nice job!

I think the next thing you should try to do is use a bit of rumble strip on corner exit. I want you to track out until you hear the "brrrp" of the tire on the gator teeth. You don't have to go way out onto the curb, just enough to get the outside tire to make the noise. I'm guessing that you'll find you're further away from the edge of the track than you think by a foot or so. This will help you learn how wide the car actually is, which can help you open up the line through each corner a bit more, which lets you carry more speed.

Looking at your autocross pics, there are a couple where you're next to a cone with pointer, and the car is 2-4 feet away from the cone. I don't know what the preferred line was in those, but about 8 times out of 10 a cone with pointer is one you want to be right next to. How often do you hit cones in autocross from being too close? Like I tell my students, if you don't hit at least one cone every event, you're not trying hard enough (at least for local events where you're getting 5+ runs).

Around me, some of the highways have rumble grooves on the edge to warn sleepy drivers. When I'm driving to an event I use them as a tune-up of my car positioning skill. I'll drive so I think I'm just off the strip, then move over 2 inches to see if I hit them. Keep doing that until I'm consistent. It's harder to judge the right side of the car, so I practice that more. On track, with enough practice, you should probably be able to place the edge of your car with 6 inches. For autocross, the top drivers are accurate to 1-2 inches.

Well yesterday was amazing, until it wasn't.
HPDE1 was painfully slow, I couldn't get a single full speed lap in, however by mid day I was singed off to HPDE2.
Then it got really fun, and the instruction was much better since I wasn't held up in traffic.
Made a lot of progress, biggest take away was that I do not brake hard enough and I brake too early.

In session 4 I was keeping pace through the corners with a well prepped Miata, it was a lot of fun.
I ran 4 great laps, then took a cooldown lap, the 6th lap the engine suffered a catastrophic failure, broken rod most likely.
I heard a pop and then the engine shutdown, the rear unloaded and I spun into the gravel.
At the time of the incident, the engine temp was 210*, oil temp was 195*, plenty of pressure, IAT was 170*, high but not ridiculous, the cause is unknown.
So now I regroup, I'll be swapping a Coyote and keeping it NA. It will be much better for what I intend to use the car for and I should drop about 200-250 Lbs.
At this point I will probably also ditch the AC and cut some unnecessary weight, I rarely use the AC, I really don't drive the car much other than track/autocross and an occasional cruise in.

Considering my budget, and ease of installation I'll likely go with a gen1, possibly a gen2 if I can find a good example.

In a funny, not funny kind of way: on my return trip to the garages this morning for my own misfortune, the flat bed driver told me I was the 2nd Mustang that he’d towed in on the weekend. When I asked him which car, he told me a red Cobra and I immediately knew who he was talking about. Mine isn’t nearly as catastrophic - one of the bolts on the rear lca brackets broke/fell out. Easy fix, but done for the day and headed back towards Montana. Sorry we didn’t connect yesterday, and sounds like you’ll be out of commission for a bit. Looking forward to catching up soon.