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!

The Dead Cow's GT350 Experience

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

Well, I had a great time with NASA Az on Saturday October 12 at Arizona Motorsports park. I ran in DE4 and Time Attack (TA-C class). My lap times were a bit off due to my recent inactivity (1:52.?) but I still had a lot of fun and felt comfortable on track. My main issue of the day was fat fingering the Solo causing it to not record lap times for the final two sessions, oh well. I've been so busy recently with the addition of two new puppies that I haven't been able to go thru the data & video (I really need to evaluate the data after each session but haven't had a good pc). Usually when I haven't been out in a while the data won't show anything other than "yep, I'm slow and inconsistent", so I'm not in a big rush. All in all it was a positive outing.
 
Well my GT350 experience has come to an end as I've sold the car. I simply wasn't using the car for as much as I was paying. Over the last year I've completed 2 track days and hardly any street miles, but I've came to the realization that getting a tow vehicle & dedicated track car are in my best interests. The GT350 was an excellent introduction into road racing for me and I'd encourage any reading this to try it out as well. I'm currently looking to buy or build a spec miata race car as they're affordable and popular currently at the local club. Updates coming...

IMG-0341.jpg" alt="IMG-0341" border="0">

IMG-0341.jpg

IMG-0346.jpg
 
Last edited:

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,420
8,346
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
Ran Spec Miata for many a year , but will also counsel you that the current trend with these cars is a bit pricier than in the past . With the competition at a very high level in both SCCA and NASA , the old days of having a competitive car for around 10K are long gone. There are tons of guys with just that , or more, in the motor. Different parts of the Country have varying levels of competition in this class , but since you are in Arizona I would reach out to Arizona Boss to inquire the level of participation in your area. That can highly influence the amount of funds you spend and there are other classes you can put a Miata in that are also quite fun to run in? Once you have the car joining Mazda Motorsports is a key item on your to do list, as it allows you to buy parts at Dealer cost for your race car -- must compete in at least 2 events per year , with results, but that can be two autocrosses. Does not matter where you place, either.

After this is all said , another great area to view , for relative cost , is the American Iron Class (NASA ), because I know some guys who have less in those cars than others in Spec Miata. The Spec Mustang Class is also starting to grow in NASA , so a chat with AZBoss may give you a wealth of options?
 
Last edited:

Grant 302

basic and well known psychic
Sometimes, it's just time to move on.

TDC- I've enjoyed following this thread and your progress. Good luck with any future racing and track endeavors...I'd love to see updates when you can, for whatever you are driving in 2020!

Grant
 
I did the same you are doing 2 years ago, except in the mid-Atlantic we have an NA 1.6L only regional Miata class that keeps costs down and gets super high car counts. While I miss the Shelby some I love having and actually racing a racecar. Maybe in the future I’ll get another Shelby for driving my kid around on the street:)
da7ba60241bbd67ebbcb57982343a816.jpg5f1a924eae709099199712ec4ff525ec.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Ran Spec Miata for many a year , but will also counsel you that the current trend with these cars is a bit pricier than in the past . With the competition at a very high level in both SCCA and NASA , the old days of having a competitive car for around 10K are long gone. There are tons of guys with just that , or more, in the motor. Different parts of the Country have varying levels of competition in this class , but since you are in Arizona I would reach out to Arizona Boss to inquire the level of participation in your area. That can highly influence the amount of funds you spend and there are other classes you can put a Miata in that are also quite fun to run in? Once you have the car joining Mazda Motorsports is a key item on your to do list, as it allows you to buy parts at Dealer cost for your race car -- must compete in at least 2 events per year , with results, but that can be two autocrosses. Does not matter where you place, either.

After this is all said , another great area to view , for relative cost , is the American Iron Class (NASA ), because I know some guys who have less in those cars than others in Spec Miata. The Spec Mustang Class is also starting to grow in NASA , so a chat with AZBoss may give you a wealth of options?

I've been paying attention to race group attendance in NASA Az by using the regional website to look at point standings. Currently SM is quite popular in the local NASA group, although a few years ago it was a ghost town. Seems like the most popular classes locally are the ST classes & SM. Here's last seasons points but caveat; they do California events so some classes only show up because they're popular out there. No one runs American Iron out here :(

https://nasaaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Race-Group-Season-Points-2019.pdf

A couple of my friends ran their first year in SM and finished 2nd in points without spending very much on a car (~$9k) or the race effort. At this level it seems affordable to me.

I've also been looking to cars but there's not many in state for sale and traveling out of state chews into the car budget. So I've been thinking about building one.

Sometimes, it's just time to move on.

TDC- I've enjoyed following this thread and your progress. Good luck with any future racing and track endeavors...I'd love to see updates when you can, for whatever you are driving in 2020!

Grant

Thank you! I've enjoyed interacting with you and everyone on here. I'll definitely post some updates.
 
TDC, keep up the good work and mindset....................

I did the same you are doing 2 years ago, except in the mid-Atlantic we have an NA 1.6L only regional Miata class that keeps costs down and gets super high car counts. While I miss the Shelby some I love having and actually racing a racecar. Maybe in the future I’ll get another Shelby for driving my kid around on the street:)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am hoping to have the exact same experience. Thanks for the encouragement
 

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,420
8,346
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
Classes can change and years back in our area SM was huge and now it has dropped quite a bit and other areas are picking up, so always good to do as you are doing and check your Region of interest. American Sedan, Spec Mustang, and the Camaro/ Mustang Challenge are big in many areas and the costs here are also reasonable , as one can pick up a 3 valve pretty easy and get it on the track in Spec Mustang for a decent price. Either Spec Miata or Spec Mustang are good choices , cost wise , now , though running in some of the Touring Classes can also be a place to put a Miata ( for instance) if just getting started.

I would suggest looking for a completed Miata or Mustang or one mostly built if cost is a factor, as you will find building a race car from scratch will almost always be much more expensive.

Good luck .
 
Last edited:

TMO Supporting Vendors

Top