S550 Macho Man NV Salvage Build Thread Profile - S550 Mustangs

[Fabman]

I spoke with Cortex this time last year but was told they didn't have a solution for running their SLA with the factory S550 K-member, nor did they have anything planned at the time. I'd certainly be interested in something like that though.

I believe the SLA from an s197 will bolt to the s550 if I am not mistaken. Might be a bigger solution than you're looking for but it is an option.
I would call and verify that what I believe to be the case is accurate.

 

[5.2 liters of democracy]

I believe the SLA from an s197 will bolt to the s550 if I am not mistaken. Might be a bigger solution than you're looking for but it is an option.
I would call and verify that what I believe to be the case is accurate.

Filip did confirm the SLA with their K-member will bolt right in. It seems using the SLA with the OEM S550 K-member is the issue. I'll call just to confirm though!

 

[Fabman]

Filip did confirm the SLA with their K-member will bolt right in. It seems using the SLA with the OEM S550 K-member is the issue. I'll call just to confirm though!

If Cortex has a solution, it will be a good one.

 

[PaddyPrix]

I would avoid either of those K-Member options (and most of them over the years we have not seen hold up well to the rigors of road racing, anyways). CorteX has an offering that is well-tested. Or options to put an SLA on the front of the car like mine, while using the factory K.

Dang. That was my gut feeling all along too, given by the lack of support from some who I'd expect it from, and those who chose to. Business side of me says that the potential market isn't worth any R&D cost/time, and with the platform being out for a while now, those who are going to do it probably already have, or have the means to do it custom/in-house. Glad to hear that there's a solution out from Cortex that isn't too much of a hodge-podge so the s550s aren't totally left out in the cold.

 

[bnight]

Glad you are back ! That car looks like serious business but so was the Stripper when it started. Looking forward to reading about your new adventures.

 

[PaddyPrix]

Handle me with care
Physical front, no updates. Calls to a shitty HMO and getting runarounds and shitty medical offices who are well, I guess wholly inept and incapable of seeing me, so with the holiday weekend and whatnot, it'll be December, 10+ weeks since that incident. I guess there aren't really any other options other than to medicate or operate, and I only need their help for one of those options. No stranger to pain breaking legs, hand, blowing up my knees, but little/no improvement halfway through the 3-4 month estimate that I got 2 months ago is the part that's quietly tearing me up. I still go out to our events, hug and kiss babies, cheer and support the homies however I can, but man, this f***ing sucks. With less than 2 months to go to our season opener, even if the car magically is ready to go, I'm likely not. Sucks. It probably won't be, but my rarely mature mind says that it's a whole new car, and I'm going to have to shakedown, likely find out parts are broken or not entirely in great condition.


The waiting is the hardest part
Haven't been totally sitting on my hands this whole time though.


So last we spoke, I've stripped the Stripper, and had some giggles along the way, like I guess I need to lose even more weight for next season out. I think I was like 195 when I did this, but I'd guess there's some physics that played a roll in these.


Cage acquired, and thanks to some of you whom I consulted, ended up going with a TrackSpec cage which is better geared towards tall, devastatingly handsome men, such as myself. Absolutely nothing wrong with the Autopower cage I had in before, was just looking at getting something set up shortly. That, and trying to keep up the status quo, as my friends in non-crashed cars went with their Camaro cages this offseason too. Glad to see more getting solidified and raising their safety game though, plus, I was taking on another 175-200 pounds that they weren't, so, I guess a slightly more level playing ground.

Still trying to figure out the logistics of it right now, as Macho Man (ooooh yeah) is about 90 minutes north, and the Stripper is in my garage. My friends offering to weld up are down here, and the car is up there. I'm sure I'll figure something out, just trying to think of places or friends down this way who can loan out a garage and electricity for a few days.


Had a moment free to do some unboxing and check out the Optic Armor Windows. Thanks for the heads up about them potentially taking a while, called and grab one of the last sets they had, clear 1/4" front, and a light tint 3/16" rear. I don't know what thickness the OEM glass is, but my inaccurate bathroom scale and quick math shows the front at 16-17#, and the rear is much smaller, and 7-8#, which puts the front glass around 30# and having to wrap and lift it out on back to back days a few weeks ago, yeah, sounds about right. I found humor in the INSPECT THE GLASS OR ELSE stickers, because like, I was tracking with a decent sized side-to-side crack windshield for like the past year.


Also got two sets of Watson's solid Coyote mounts. Why two? Well, I'm one of those jerks with 2m Fabrication Long tubes, which seem to never be the same thing twice, some people just toss them on, and some people toss them on, bang the shiznit out of them to get the steering shaft through, and then bang them again to clear the K and trans tunnels and whatnot. I'm going to try my best to get it with the shorty and lower my CoG a touch, and if that doesn't work for some reason, well, I've got the stock height set too.

Also decided against both of the K-members, not that I really have a distaste for BMR or Steeda (or do I ... DUN DUN DUNNNN) ... but at the last event I was talking to the powers that be in my region (and nationally too) and both of those would be assessed the dreaded body modification penalty in Super Touring 2 (and probably 1-4) which I'm trying to avoid. While I was looking at them for just weight savings, they can also improve the geometry over the stock OEM K-Member, giving me what could be seen as an advantage over those who don't have that. Sure, some vehicles and editions come more track-oriented from the factory than others, but at my desired power/weight level, it'd have to really, really improve things. I don't doubt that the Cortex would fix things up bigtime, and that's why it likely carries a hefty price tag for the quality, materials, and R&D time, but even if money wasn't an issue, it takes me from a car pretty much at the ST2/TT2 boundary and puts around middle of ST1/TT1. Although, in all honestly, I'm probably still going to move up to, something I had been mentioning back in the Stripper thread too, because if I'm beating the 1's in 2 form, I might be the one who helps us all get into free tire territory.


Great Wide Open
Thanksgiving a few days away, just wanted to share my thanks and appreciation to all of you listening, helping, and reading. As much as I want to say that I'm doing it all on my own, that's not entirely correct as I'm up all hours of the night bouncing ideas off you, even have a few part-time internet pick-a-part bloodhounds finding me part after part, and the best dang track fam there is. I am definitely the one crashing it into walls and driving it across the grass and kicking up giant ass clouds of dust that tend to outlive the car. As I'm in one of those retail-related industries where we are pretty much work around the clock for the next week or so, I'll be looking forward to your turduckens and whatnot. Don't feel sorry for me though, the stuffing, biscuits, and mashed potatoes, to me, are better than the Turkey anyhow, and I can't wait to pick them up on a crazy discount like two days after Cyber Monday.

I also have two 2018 GT's, base and premium that I'm trying to gut, so if you know anybody looking for something, especially the less popular, chances are I have it. Cannot tell you how many times I've been asked for a front bumper, hood, leather seats, or digital dash though. I've actually rented a storage unit just to make more space in my garage. Maybe I'll give away an evap core to a lucky reader who can guess a number between 1 and 2.
good god I hope somebody gets that, the Tom Petty references, or all the times I've written white on white over the years

 

[PaddyPrix]

Second-to-last dance with Mary Jane



It was a nice day out, so figured I'd take the ol' girl out for her penultimate voyage. Strapped up and got to enjoy the fine SoCal countryside along some of the back roads to bypass our congested highways.



What was to be a long weekend or two for my Mom to watch nationals turned her into a multi month unpaid caregiver and e-brake operations expert. She didn't complain too loudly when we closed her in to that dashless, seatless, steering-wheel-less car which we were going to load onto the trailer. After we winched it up, took a nice trip home, and then had to get chained up to work for the week of Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday where we sat around and fought over the scraps that AWS left behind for me. Please stop buying crap from big companies on those days so that I don't have to work and spend 18+ hours on a Zoom call watching charts, order your stuff from smaller people who don't pay my employer millions and millions and millions per year.

and now... here's something completely different.



Laid out the TrackSpec cage and started trying to put it all together. They do a really nice job of labeling every tube with a number, description, and even some circles to suggest where things bolt up to which makes it really nice, so nice, that even a first timer like me can figure it out.



Figured since I had to change out the roof, for the time being, might as well create a little more room and cut a hole in it, and start working on what might be the first NASA-approved sunroof. To get the roof off, you have to remove the front and rear windshields, and drill or grind out all of those welds, and they have an awful lot on the underside, like 25 for the rear alone. I wasn't having much luck with the drill bit, so guessing the way might be to toss on a grinder wheel, and grind down through the first of the 3 layers that hold it in place. It feels pretty solid in there, and curious why Ford has that many on it to begin with, it's not like it's really going to fly off, is it?




Borrowed a friend named Miller, and another friend named Jaysson, and so we started to make some sense of the nonsense. Really like how the TrackSpec base pieces are also laser cut on the boxes/plates that the cage stands off from.



Still a little more to go, just tacking things down, but holy moly that seam filler they use is a pain. Hitting it with a grinder or flapper wheel will produce a massive cloud that just sits, while the stuff being kicked out is a sparkly ember that will go find cabling and melt/cooldown onto the wiring wrap. Plus, it required multiple passes because the grinder disc wouldn't fit into tighter spaces and left some mess behind still. Used a wire wheel on my drill which left things much cleaner behind, no big toxic cloud, but it was so much slower.

The wiring is a pain too, so many wires going to so many things that I'm probably not going to ever use, so I'll have to spend some time trying to trace things around and figure which errors can I mute/hide without disturbing the operation of the car too badly. Talking about disturbing though is I'll swap as much as I can from the Stripper out into Macho. Not so much that it's the Auto vs Manual, but it's just the known knowns vs the known unknowns and unknown unknowns. She's that ex that's bad for you, and won't ever go away. Other than going with an aftermarket ECU, there's nothing wrong with stripping off like... everything not required, right? Been doing the math, and think I can get this low-mid 3100's with no carbon fiber. We'll see, still plenty of ideas and things brewing, plus the rule changes that I gotta double check and re-read through. Not going to use a full dash if I can figure something out, the stock dash weighs like 40#, and that's too much for just a start button and the occasional time I'll glance down to check temps. Might like cut it in half or just yank and remount the instrument cluster. Dunno yet, need to finish all this crap beforehand.

Did you know that you can render like a c6, c7, and c8 Corvette useless by lack of TPMS? I did not.

 

[bnight]

Any progress on this build :?

 

[PaddyPrix]

Any progress on this build :?

Yes, and no. More family/personal stuff that had me taking my attention elsewhere, and waiting/moving my base of operation out of state. Did all the math, and I'm actually slightly closer to the tracks, just on the exact opposite side, and that's been tying up money when the right non-HOA house shows up. I'm not as young as I look or act, and it's a lot slower to recover than I'd have liked it to have taken, and just watching everything from the sidelines hurts more than the car or the accident itself. Still, I'm more than happy to cheer and see my friends doing well, further improving, getting promoted up the ranks, and all those I've instructed coming back and all that, but man, every other second I can't help but think I should be out there and rubbing it in their faces... and so that's why I've got my paperwork back in to get that ball rolling just recently. My accident had a few companies revise their plates which were at PCI/SEMA, which I guess is kinda neat, and I'll see if I can't get my hands on that. I had been hoping to do 100% of the work, but at some point realized that perhaps it's best if I do like 98% of everything other than the welding, and hope you'll all still think highly of me for wussing out. My 335's turbo likely seized up, so I've got to tow that out and onto a friend's lift, and then I can access Macho Man, and hopefully in a professional's hands this week or next.

 

[PaddyPrix]

Measure 2,541 times, cut once.

Minor progress update. Cage beefed up and gussetted up for some idiot to walk away from another crash, although hoping it might be a little longer this time around. Cut the rear shelf out, removed the box that sits between the passenger seats, removed the seat box plates and shortening them down just a pinch for more head clearance,

The floor under the driver's seat may be modified, and the OEM seat brackets/supports may be removed for the purpose of gaining head room for the driver. When inspected from the underside, the OEM floor pan must be unmodified."

Still some big decisions to make looking at like a Tilton 600 two pedal underfoot assembly and then trying to figure out the formulas/math to what the bore size that'd do me best, but I guess the good news is that it has a decently adjustable pedal ratio, so I guess I don't have to worry too much about it. I was always kinda suspect on the Stripper's braking, so not bringing over the Stripper's Master Cylinder and Brake Booster out of a PP2 is probably a good idea.



Not that worried about going to manual brakes either, as I was usually running on real sticky tires and know threshold braking. Was thinking about a way to involve the factory ABS box, but taking out the brake booster means I lose the 3 wires for the vacuum, and I think these devices also need to communicate with CAN since we use the same ABS box for practically every Mustang... other than the fancy ones with the like $10k Bosch standalone unit that I believe you can directly feed them their own config and strategies.



After that, it's pretty much down to a Sweet Mfg steering column shaft since the s550 units are integrated into the dash, which I have to jettison in the interest of weight. After that, the car will look and feel pretty empty, because well, it will be. Can't wait to see what the weight is going to look like, especially because I'm trying to figure and plan out the power target off of it. Last year I did it the other way around, and did my weight off of the power, and was able to let her stretch her legs out at the long straights that Auto Club and Willow Springs afforded, but now I'm going to try it the other way around, and gear up for the curvier and slower Buttonwillow and Chuckwalla Valley courses.



So last year I was 3605 and had plenty of weight still in it, but now thinking front and rear lexan, no dash, no heater core, paper towel doors, thinning out my heavy 1/2" birch diffuser, and removing almost all of the wiring? 3400 sounds do-able, and then I'll drop the power target to about 435rwhp. Actually, not having ACS and its heavily banked left turns also mean I don't have to worry about fuel cutting out so I don't have to go out with a full tank either, so what, a gallon at 8 pounds, go out with 5 less gallons for another 40# savings?

Who knows, still a lot of work to be done, and the impending financial crisis gives me a little more pause. Might put some money in the SPY since everybody saying SPX its going to 4300 by the end of the year. Also fixed the Beem, friggin cat substrate exploded and blew the remnants back onto the resonator, clogging and making it impossible for anything to get by. Gotta love the cost of California catalytic convertors out here too, friggin' $3700!

 

[Bill Pemberton]

Well, you are on your way to a small book, but we are all reading it with engaged interest. My only input is if you remove the wrap do not throw yellow back in with the red scheme, as we just can't have the " Macho Man " become the Ronald McDonald Clown Shoe Stang.
Ketchup and Mustard Edition, McDonald's Big Mac Edition , naw..................stay with Macho Man or if it stays yellow I guess you could also go with " Nacho Man," Yep, it would would be the Nacho Cheese Dip Racer !

 

[bnight]

I was always kinda suspect on the Stripper's braking, so not bringing over the Stripper's Master Cylinder and Brake Booster out of a PP2 is probably a good idea.



Not that worried about going to manual brakes either, as I was usually running on real sticky tires and know threshold braking. Was thinking about a way to involve the factory ABS box, but taking out the brake booster means I lose the 3 wires for the vacuum, and I think these devices also need to communicate with CAN since we use the same ABS box for practically every Mustang... other than the fancy ones with the like $10k Bosch standalone unit that I believe you can directly feed them their own config and strategies.

Glad to see you are making progress. Biggest question is do you plan to go with aftermarket Big Brakes or you plan to stick with the Brembo ? My brake valves developed the same story as yours and I'm sure my Master Cylinder is shot as well. So I'm kind of hoping just valves will solve the issue but if not I might be done with Brembo. What is your plan for your new race car ?

 

[blacksheep-1]

I'm so glad to see this, I love the aspect of taking a wrecked, damaged or beatered car and reviving it, good luck on the endeavor and good luck on the back, I struggle with mine every day, They finally burned a bunch of nerve endings where they come out of the spine to stop some of the pain, The problem is, nothing is really fixed, you just can't feel the pain, so you can destroy it even further if you are not careful. (I'm not that careful).

 

[PaddyPrix]

Well, you are on your way to a small book, but we are all reading it with engaged interest. My only input is if you remove the wrap do not throw yellow back in with the red scheme, as we just can't have the " Macho Man " become the Ronald McDonald Clown Shoe Stang.
Ketchup and Mustard Edition, McDonald's Big Mac Edition , naw..................stay with Macho Man or if it stays yellow I guess you could also go with " Nacho Man," Yep, it would would be the Nacho Cheese Dip Racer !

Haha, yeah, as you've seen previously, I'm all in for a good joke, but totally, it's quite an eyesore. I look a little bit more than Ronald McDonald than I'd like to as well, big clown shoes and all. I'll keep it on while building, tuning, practicing, etc and love your suggestion so maybe for the time being it's Nacho man, but when the "wraps come off" he'll be all business and hopefully at some point go and take his rightful place on the throne, and yes, I'll be likely campaigning it as number two unfortunately there is a #2 not only in the region, but even in the same class, so I'll have to do some wheel'n and deal'n with buddy Mike, or maybe just run as 2x. Who knows, crossing that bridge when we get to it.

Glad to see you are making progress. Biggest question is do you plan to go with aftermarket Big Brakes or you plan to stick with the Brembo ? My brake valves developed the same story as yours and I'm sure my Master Cylinder is shot as well. So I'm kind of hoping just valves will solve the issue but if not I might be done with Brembo. What is your plan for your new race car ?

That's a really good question I don't yet have an answer for. I want to say that I was seeing the contamination of the Motul and clutch/brake system being shared because the reservoir always turned black/grey from being run so hot, but I can't confirm that isn't what just happens to the others, maybe another s550 racer can chime in. I swapped the brake booster in with the MC at some point and paired together, it was a night and day difference, I could _finally_ brake. Perhaps there's an issue with them developing pinhole leaks or something, because it didn't have the other signs of booster or vacuum leaks, but it certainly performed worse than it did initially.
As for the brakes, sure, I'd love a big boy race system, the AP racing ones are nice but sadly the finances won't allow it, because -- get this, money is an object but, I've got to get creative. If I had $12k extra, as much as I'd love an AP Racing kit, I'd probably go towards a sequential race system and simplify my footwork, or go with a SLA front suspension, both the transmission and suspension take penalties, but I think they're still worth it.
Brembo is great, but they're actually kinda simple with pretty much the same design and just changing a few different piston diameters and rotor size combinations. Now that I'm semi-decoupled from the stock system, my options almost increased as long as I can fit them, and I guess have to make or build some sort of adapter. Definitely looking at the Shelby GT350 kit if it's more or less changing spindles, but also caught eye of the earlier 05ish Porsche Cayenne setup, a much heavier car that does relatively well on a course for a big boy. My only issue there is that let's assume the pads cost relatively the same, the tires don't. At 18x11 or 315/30/18, a Hoosier is about $500. At 18x12 or 335/30/18 they're about $550 which isn't too much worse, well, after you pay for a decently expensive big race wheel, but worse - I'll also then take a penalty for ST2/TT2 for running 315+ tires. At 19x11 or 315/30/19 they're about $650 each which means I'm paying Hoosier an extra tire that I'm not able to use on each set, but not taking a penalty, or really gaining any more grip. Cost and rules might keep me at 315/30/18, and that's not too bad either as I can then still enjoy the cheap slicks scrubs from race teams.

I'm so glad to see this, I love the aspect of taking a wrecked, damaged or beatered car and reviving it, good luck on the endeavor and good luck on the back, I struggle with mine every day, They finally burned a bunch of nerve endings where they come out of the spine to stop some of the pain, The problem is, nothing is really fixed, you just can't feel the pain, so you can destroy it even further if you are not careful. (I'm not that careful).

Thanks a bunch man, and sorry to hear about your back struggles, I can completely and totally feel and understand exactly what you're talking about. It's equally annoying and painful. What was your procedure called?

This past weekend I had caught it just right and spent the whole Saturday night doing stupid limbo shiznit, rocking, rotating, and flexing back and forth trying to just find a spot to keep it to balance the nerves and muscle spasms. 8ish hours of fun all starting from... a sneeze. I'm a decently resilient kid and tolerate pain, but might look into that procedure at some point in the future, some random days it's just annoying. Coming up on 8 months, I'm guessing whatever has happened and healed has done so by now. I guess that's a sign you've made it, when you can trade crash and pain stories, kinda like the military fellas do.

 

[blacksheep-1]

Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA): Procedure and Recovery

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a minimally invasive procedure that is performed at a doctor’s office or a hospital. Pain relief after RFA is typically experienced 1 to 3 weeks after the injection.

www.spine-health.com

 

[PaddyPrix]

Random update. Back has been pain free for a few weeks now after I called it out and jinxed it, so whoever and whatever was listening, thanks... was certainly thinking that the day would never come. So, back to slow batches of updates we go.

Lexan is on and bolted/tabbed


Closed up ac/heater core firewall/random spots



Steering is in


... and I'm going to lose the vaudeville villain look now that the bumper is actually being supported.


Still a bunch of work to do, and not honestly bugging over the season starting since there's still a lot of work to be done. While I've got faves and leanings, still undecided on the ECU and transmission combo, but oh man, the joys of being different. Still have to rip out all the wiring looms and harnesses. Still have to figure how much of the suspension I broke, and likely send the MCS 2 way-non reservoir in for a rebuild, and while they're at it, might as well treat myself to a few reservoirs because my mommy says I'm worth it.

On paper though, you're looking at the fastest ugly yellow/red non-op in all of Southern California, and I'm cool with that.