SN95 RinerAutomotive's CAM-T Mustang Build Thread Profile - SN95 Mustangs

[RinerAuto]

Since front brake caliper and rotors were increased the rear brake performance needs to be matched. I already run the cobra brakes in the rear which is a 11-5/8 vented rotor with the stock 38mm caliper. A common upgrade is the Taurus 43mm caliper, but there are multiple reports of them failing under racing conditions...bad news. Another way to increase braking performance but keeping the stock calipers is to increase the rotor diameter.

I found a person on another forum that designed a bracket that spaces off the stock caliper to fit a 2013-2014 GT500 rear brake rotor, which measures 350mm (13.8in). When matched with the XTS fronts this gives a 70/30 front/rear brake bias.

I get to keep stock calipers that I know work well. Racing brake pads that I like. With a little reroute the park brake cable reaches just fine. All wins!

Video:

 

[PatientZero]

I don't know if you've experienced this at all but when I had the stock 13" Roush rotors on the back with the 14" brakes on the front it would still lock the rear first. I put a proportioning valve on it to fix it. I've since gone down to Cobra rotors/calipers on the back and it works much better. I imagine bigger piston calipers will make it even worse.

 

[RinerAuto]

I don't know if you've experienced this at all but when I had the stock 13" Roush rotors on the back with the 14" brakes on the front it would still lock the rear first. I put a proportioning valve on it to fix it. I've since gone down to Cobra rotors/calipers on the back and it works much better. I imagine bigger piston calipers will make it even worse.

I haven't yet but I'll definitely report back how it feels. I have a proportional valve, ABS, and the rear caliper is the stock 38mm. I didn't go with the larger 43mm from a Taurus cause of all the problems I've read about them and gave too much rear brake bias. This is uncharted territory as there are only a handful of people with this rear bracket and haven't seen many XTS front brake setups yet either.

 

[PatientZero]

I'm sure having ABS will help a ton, I don't have it.

 

[Bill Pemberton]

Wow, I am impressed as you run strong in your SCCA Region and autocrossing with no ABS takes another level of skill. Plenty of cars in years past without, but having to run at the extreme limit, means your right foot becomes damn sensitive and kudos for wiggling through the cones without help when you have to nail the metal stoppers!

 

[RinerAuto]

2024 schedules are rolling out. I just signed up for my first 2024 event but it's not until June, UMI's Muscle on the Mountain. 150 cars and trucks split over 6 classes battling it out. Man that is going to be so much fun. But I have a lot of racing to do before June.

I plan to start mid-March stringing 3 events (CCR, Ponies in the Smokies, and Drive AutoX) spanning across 3 states into a weeklong autocross. Also plan to attend Summit Racing Autocross Week, SCCA Nationals, Holley Ford Fest. Hopefully get an invitational to UMI's King of the Mountain even in August.

Then sprinkle in local events trying to get a repeat overall PAX championship. This is looking to be a great year. Now I just need to get the car ready for March

 

[RinerAuto]

Halfway through last year I stopped running the front splitter. I did some back to back testing and lap times were no different. I think it's due to the home improvement store gardening edge air dam not being stiff enough and folding down. This allowed no downforce to be made. This off season I set out to build a new and improved Version 2.0.

I got a new router so I wanted to play with that and cut some weight reduction recesses. A CNC attachment would have been way nicer than doing all the weight reduction recesses by hand. But the main thing was a new larger, firmer air dam. I got a roll of ABS plastic from Amazon that was made for this purpose.

Amazon.com: Allstar Performance ALL22400 Black 0.07" Thick 24" Wide 10' Plastic Roll : Automotive

The next thing I wanted to add were diffusers from Professional Awesome Racing. The diffusers are supposed to increase downforce when installed correctly.

Hopefully all these improvements will lead to a front splitter that functions and I'll want to keep running. I'm not changing the height or any other mounting features. It has contacted the ground in the past and there are titanium pucks on the leading edge, but I plan to do another front spring rate increase to help with this.

Checkout and Subscribe to my YouTube:

 

[RinerAuto]

I've never been a huge fan of the universal fender flares I put on the car. Yea there are a couple mustang specific ones available, but I believe they are overly expensive for what they are. Plus if I damage them from hitting something I would be super bummed. And likely hood of me hitting something like a cone is very likely (exhibit A: profile picture). But they are completely necessary as my wheels stick outside of the body due to my custom suspension.

Next option is wider fenders. Again there are aftermarket ones available, but I'm chea...I mean... a DIYer. The options out there are really slim. The only ones I like are from _slib on Instagram. I don't like the G-Stream Aero kit, to me it just looks like fender flares. Over fenders like what is available for Foxes and many other "drift" cars would be awesome, if they made SN95 ones. So what does a DIYer do with metal fenders, cut them up and reweld them!

While this won't be a nice lightweight racing carbon fiber fenders. They will be durable and my labor is free right? In all seriousness, since my suspension is custom and wheels will probably change in the distance future I'm not sure how wide I actually need the fenders to be. Plus this will further make my car unique and one of a kind. I'm not a body guy or a very good welder, but I plan to smooth out my welds with bondo and then wrap the fender anyway. I can't think of a single thing that can wrong.

I'll also mention that it's unlikely I have this done before the first event a month from now as I still have a few other projects to finish on the car to get it even driving.

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[steve_garnjobst]

I've never been a huge fan of the universal fender flares I put on the car. Yea there are a couple mustang specific ones available, but I believe they are overly expensive for what they are. Plus if I damage them from hitting something I would be super bummed. And likely hood of me hitting something like a cone is very likely (exhibit A: profile picture). But they are completely necessary as my wheels stick outside of the body due to my custom suspension.

Next option is wider fenders. Again there are aftermarket ones available, but I'm chea...I mean... a DIYer. The options out there are really slim. The only ones I like are from _slib on Instagram. I don't like the G-Stream Aero kit, to me it just looks like fender flares. Over fenders like what is available for Foxes and many other "drift" cars would be awesome, if they made SN95 ones. So what does a DIYer do with metal fenders, cut them up and reweld them!
View attachment 93219
While this won't be a nice lightweight racing carbon fiber fenders. They will be durable and my labor is free right? In all seriousness, since my suspension is custom and wheels will probably change in the distance future I'm not sure how wide I actually need the fenders to be. Plus this will further make my car unique and one of a kind. I'm not a body guy or a very good welder, but I plan to smooth out my welds with bondo and then wrap the fender anyway. I can't think of a single thing that can wrong.

I'll also mention that it's unlikely I have this done before the first event a month from now as I still have a few other projects to finish on the car to get it even driving.

Subscribe to see how this all turns out:

I chose to get the Maier Racing flares for my ‘98. Seemed to be the best option for SN95’s, and $1,300 for all 4 corners is IMHO pretty reasonable for a chassis-specific set of flares. I don’t have the metal fab skills or tools to make my own flares, and the cost to have a body shop do the work would have been a lot more.

One note: Maier doesn’t list the SN95 flares on their website, but still produces them, and order lead time was about 8 weeks, which isn’t bad for custom parts. Bill Faull @ Maier was super-easy to work with.

 

[RinerAuto]

I chose to get the Maier Racing flares for my ‘98. Seemed to be the best option for SN95’s, and $1,300 for all 4 corners is IMHO pretty reasonable for a chassis-specific set of flares. I don’t have the metal fab skills or tools to make my own flares, and the cost to have a body shop do the work would have been a lot more.

One note: Maier doesn’t list the SN95 flares on their website, but still produces them, and order lead time was about 8 weeks, which isn’t bad for custom parts. Bill Faull @ Maier was super-easy to work with.

True $1300 isn't bad for all 4. Still not a huge fan of just flares. Aren't they are fiberglass? I think @PatientZero has cracked his. That would be my biggest concern since I do so much autocross.

 

[PatientZero]

@PatientZero[/USER] has cracked his. That would be my biggest concern since I do so much autocross.

To be fair I hit a cone at like 55mph

 

[steve_garnjobst]

The Maier flares are fiberglass, as are most of the options that aren’t generic bolt on flares. My car is being built pretty much exclusively for autocross, but I’m not too worried about the flares. I’ve built a lot of autocross cars, and have seen few issues with the flares - it’s typically air dams, splitters, undertrays, and fender liners.

I haven’t decided what to do about a splitter yet. Since my car is also driven on the street, I can’t get too crazy. I’ll probably wait until I get the ride height sorted out, then limit the splitter to what will clear my driveway without scraping.

 

[RinerAuto]

To be fair I hit a cone at like 55mph

That sounds like something I would do.

The Maier flares are fiberglass, as are most of the options that aren’t generic bolt on flares. My car is being built pretty much exclusively for autocross, but I’m not too worried about the flares. I’ve built a lot of autocross cars, and have seen few issues with the flares - it’s typically air dams, splitters, undertrays, and fender liners.

I haven’t decided what to do about a splitter yet. Since my car is also driven on the street, I can’t get too crazy. I’ll probably wait until I get the ride height sorted out, then limit the splitter to what will clear my driveway without scraping.

Plywood splitters are very durable, I have hit many cones with it. Mine if 4" off the ground static, but has rubbed the ground quite a bit. I have gone to stiffer front springs that should help with the hitting the ground issue.

 

[DaltonJr]

That sounds like something I would do.


Plywood splitters are very durable, I have hit many cones with it. Mine if 4" off the ground static, but has rubbed the ground quite a bit. I have gone to stiffer front springs that should help with the hitting the ground issue.

@steve_garnjobst I cut this plywood splitter using the template that @PatientZero posted on his built thread, I like that It goes pretty far into the floor of the car, hopefully I’ll be able to install it before this weekend’s track day.

 

[RinerAuto]

@steve_garnjobst I cut this plywood splitter using the template that @PatientZero posted on his built thread, I like that It goes pretty far into the floor of the car, hopefully I’ll be able to install it before this weekend’s track day.

View attachment 93290

View attachment 93291

Yea that's pretty nice to be able to get it cut out by a machine. I cut mine by hand but it looks very similar. I don't have a picture currently available though.

 

[RinerAuto]

I was planning on attending Ponies in the Smokies out in Tennessee for just the autocross event. But they announced a new competition that seems really intriguing, King of the Smokies. It combines all the events into one. Always up for a challenge I decided to sign up for KOTS. Why is it a challenge? Well let's talk about the included events:
Shine Run
Autocross
Start/Stop
Drag Race
Dyno
Car Show

While my car is street legal I don't often drive on the street, which is what I'll need to do for the shine run to get a picture of my car at each of the required stops. Then next challenge is drag racing, which I've only done with this car at Ford Fest. During that time I could only manage a 13.2s time. If I can get a good launch then I can definitely get into the 12s. Next is the dyno, which I'm excited to see what the car actually makes, but it is just a HCI 306. Lastly, is the car show, which my car looks good from 10ft, but up close you can see all the issues with the vinyl wrap and scuffs from multiple cone hits.

Ponies in the Smokies announced there were 5 cars signed up, me being one of them. Looking at the 4 other cars. There are two S197 cars and two S550 cars, that look to be Shelby GT500s. So I definitely need to do my best at autocross to have any kind of chance. But I have taken down many of "faster" cars before.

I have a lot of work still left to do to get the car ready for the event. I have roughly 3 weeks left. I don't think the widebody fenders will be done for this event though.

Video:

 

[RinerAuto]

Previously mentioned it but last weekend we had our local club's awards banquet and officially received our trophies. Boy were they impressive.

Ashley got first place in Ladies class which got her a trophy almost as tall as her and a personalized jacket.

Stephen got first place in Provisional class (ie CAM and XS) and overall top PAX. He received a trophy, personalized jacket, personalized plaque, and the Club's overall top PAX trophy to keep for one year.

 

[Fabman]

Previously mentioned it but last weekend we had our local club's awards banquet and officially received our trophies. Boy were they impressive.

Ashley got first place in Ladies class which got her a trophy almost as tall as her and a personalized jacket.
View attachment 93406
Stephen got first place in Provisional class (ie CAM and XS) and overall top PAX. He received a trophy, personalized jacket, personalized plaque, and the Club's overall top PAX trophy to keep for one year.
View attachment 93407

That's awesome, congrats!

 

[Bill Pemberton]

You know what is great , Stephen, is you can tell everyone you have a " Trophy Wife, " both literally and figuratively !!!

 

[Dave_W]

Congratulations to you both! Those are some epic-sized trophies.

For the KOTS event, how are they judging the Dyno portion? Peak number, avg over an rpm range? As you move away from just peak numbers, I'm thinking it becomes the equivalent of the drag race, without the challenges of traction and reaction time.