S550 mavisky's "LOUDCAR" Build Thread Profile - S550 Mustangs

[mavisky]

The GT350 has some fender venting from the factory, but it's not exactly the best. Unlike the GT500's there aren't any sexy carbon fiber fender replacements from Anderson Composites that we can just slap on. Archetype supposedly has a set, but the owner there is seemingly flaking out like every other small shop carbon manufacturer and people who've had their fenders on order for over a year still have nothing to show for it. There is a nice carbon fiber option from Phoenix CF designs, and I may have gone that route if I had their carbon hood vents as well. Instead I went with the Trackspec fender vents to match my hood vents already on the car. I did a full writeup as well on this for anyone looking to DIY.

 

[mavisky]

Another great event under wraps. Had some lovely mid 70 degree weather and some new competitors in class. Course was complex and had a couple of mean off-camber sections that caught the car out twice as you can see in the video. New E85 tune is still being dialed in, but it feels great so far. Very happy with the current oversteer/understeer balance of the car and it rotates nicely. Still want some more spring rate front and rear, but also need better damping in the form of GT500/GT350R factory magneride shocks and struts. This should help the pitch front and rear and help better control some of the mid-corner roll from steering corrections. Tried to clean up my lines and reduce some of the oversteer moments and went slower on runs 5 and 6 here. Ended up with my fastest run being run 4 which was the first run I was doing without giving others a ride. Just missed 1st place in class by 0.182 and finished 11th fastest time of the day overall. Very happy with that results as 5 of the drivers who beat me were driving C7 Z06 Corvettes on Hoosier slicks or were driving this tiny little 500lb racecar thing called a Novakar J9. In the end only 3 cars in total were faster on street tires so very happy with that result.

 

[302BOB]

mavinsky, an Irish name if I ever heard one.....You seem to roll with punches and deliver a few of your own when you need to........If you end up being a "pollock" I"d
be proud to know you!!!!!!!!!!!!.

 

[mavisky]

There's a little Irish for sure, but the username is actually based off of my first "school assigned" e-mail address that used my last name and first two letters of my first name. Back in 1998 that was a unique enough combination of letters that it's still served me all the way through until now with only a few hiccups on some global platforms.

 

[302BOB]

Whatever that all means..........race on and make some noise, Brother...................

 

[mavisky]

Whatever that all means..........race on and make some noise, Brother...................

LOL. Name is Kyle Mavis, converted to e-mail for high school was [email protected]

E-mail name has hung around for 26 years as my username.

 

[302BOB]

Pleased to meet you Kyle....Race on and don't take no prisoners..........

 

[mavisky]

Well final points event of the 2024 season came and went with mixed results.

We ran in the early morning outside of our normal run groups which meant we were the parking lot sweepers this day while all the "Pro" drivers ran in the afternoon in higher temps and cleaner surfaces. Overall this crushed our numbers as we normally run in the same heat as them. Where we finished around the top 5 last time, this day we were barely in the top 25 due to the conditions.

The good news is that my continued tweaking of the DSC Sport magride controller has meant an even further improved chassis and the car behaved better than ever out on course. At the end of the day I got a little too aggressive right out of the gate which cost me enough time to lose the day in class to my primary competitor by 0.4 seconds unfortunately, but the progress made has me feeling good about where the car is in general and I know I just need to reign in the aggression to get the times I want out of the car. Of course with the added trust in the chassis i've been overdriving it a bit more. It's fun, but not always the fastest. I don't think I finished a single run this day without the ass end stepping out sideways trying to put the power down.

At the end of the day my buddy's 2014 GT is probably around 400lbs lighter than my car so I'm fighting an uphill battle for sure. A reasonable weight loss will be part of the offseason approach. The interesting part is that he and I compared times out of the 7 events we've run together and our total time spread between those 7 events was only 2.499 seconds with me only beating him at one event. This sort of close competition is what I love about the sport as our wins and losses are measured in tenths of a second despite our different approaches.

As always here's a video of my best run of the day and some great photos from our photographer at the event.

 

[Ludachris]

Well final points event of the 2024 season came and went with mixed results.

We ran in the early morning outside of our normal run groups which meant we were the parking lot sweepers this day while all the "Pro" drivers ran in the afternoon in higher temps and cleaner surfaces. Overall this crushed our numbers as we normally run in the same heat as them. Where we finished around the top 5 last time, this day we were barely in the top 25 due to the conditions.

The good news is that my continued tweaking of the DSC Sport magride controller has meant an even further improved chassis and the car behaved better than ever out on course. At the end of the day I got a little too aggressive right out of the gate which cost me enough time to lose the day in class to my primary competitor by 0.4 seconds unfortunately, but the progress made has me feeling good about where the car is in general and I know I just need to reign in the aggression to get the times I want out of the car. Of course with the added trust in the chassis i've been overdriving it a bit more. It's fun, but not always the fastest. I don't think I finished a single run this day without the ass end stepping out sideways trying to put the power down.

At the end of the day my buddy's 2014 GT is probably around 400lbs lighter than my car so I'm fighting an uphill battle for sure. A reasonable weight loss will be part of the offseason approach. The interesting part is that he and I compared times out of the 7 events we've run together and our total time spread between those 7 events was only 2.499 seconds with me only beating him at one event. This sort of close competition is what I love about the sport as our wins and losses are measured in tenths of a second despite our different approaches.

As always here's a video of my best run of the day and some great photos from our photographer at the event.

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Whatever the result was, your camera person is winning for sure.

 

[mavisky]

Jeff is awesome and he comes to every event to shoot photos. He also collects about $50 per event from me alone as I can't help buy buy a handful of photos from every event they're so good.

 

[mavisky]

Took it to Daytona.




Actually, if you couldn't tell, this is just Gran Turismo 7, but I've spent a not-inconsiderable amount of time going through and replicating the car as close as the system will allow in the game. The best part is if you have Gran Turismo 7 and the GT350R model, you can download the skin by just searching for my username.

 

[mavisky]

Was getting ready to spend another season working through revising my magneride calibration when an irresistible deal fell in to my lap. Local friend of found a good deal of his own and upgraded to a set of MMR spec MCS 3-way adjustable coilovers with remote reservoirs for this upcoming season. He then offered me a steal on a set of MMR speced MVS 2 way adjustables with remote reservoirs. Goal is to get these installed this week and get it aligned by next week for a shakedown on the 3rd weekend of March.

Magneride setup including DSC unit will be up for sale by the end of the month.

 

[Ludachris]

Was getting ready to spend another season working through revising my magneride calibration when an irresistible deal fell in to my lap. Local friend of found a good deal of his own and upgraded to a set of MMR spec MCS 3-way adjustable coilovers with remote reservoirs for this upcoming season. He then offered me a steal on a set of MMR speced MVS 2 way adjustables with remote reservoirs. Goal is to get these installed this week and get it aligned by next week for a shakedown on the 3rd weekend of March.

Magneride setup including DSC unit will be up for sale by the end of the month.

View attachment 101314

 

[GAR944]

Was getting ready to spend another season working through revising my magneride calibration when an irresistible deal fell in to my lap. Local friend of found a good deal of his own and upgraded to a set of MMR spec MCS 3-way adjustable coilovers with remote reservoirs for this upcoming season. He then offered me a steal on a set of MMR speced MVS 2 way adjustables with remote reservoirs. Goal is to get these installed this week and get it aligned by next week for a shakedown on the 3rd weekend of March.

Magneride setup including DSC unit will be up for sale by the end of the month.

View attachment 101314

Little concerned about the top mounts for the rear shocks as they are currently shown.
The shock bolt should be the other way round as you have excess thread sticking out a fair way and potentially into the tyre and rim depending on width and offset.
I would be looking at a dome head as well just to make it as smooth as possible. I say this just because i had one set of rims want to catch on the factory mount with the camber that was dialed in. Bit of shaping with the angle grinder and no more catching the lip.

 

[mavisky]

They were just sitting on the golf cart upside down.

 

[GAR944]

Whew, was really surprised but thought i'd just throw it out there.
That looks way better.

 

[biggsy]

Congrats on the pickup! You may want to consider going to 7” long springs in the rear. I also bought my set from MMR and 6” doesn’t give much room for height adjustment or peace of mind(in my opinion). I also used the lower shock mounting holes.

 

[mavisky]

For starters I'm going to run them at the same height my buddy had them on his car at. He had no issues running Road Atlanta at this height but I will keep that in mind if I decide to soften the setup slightly for autocross use.

 

[Stan Whitney]

My set from vorshlag uses 7" long rear springs also.

 

[mavisky]

Units are finally installed. Kind of wish I had weighed these compared to the stock setup. I think the two rear coilovers with reservoirs weigh about the same as one of the factory rear springs, at most one rear spring and one rear magneride shock. I assume I've probably shed close to 50lbs just from the suspension upgrade alone. Reservoirs are mounted although not ecstatic about the front solution as they do warm up. Only so many options for keeping them within reach of the shocks and easily reachable for adjustments though.