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S550 Track GT500 Build Thread Profile - S550 Mustangs

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Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,425
8,350
Exp. Type
Time Attack
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20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
Ridiculous ,this is supposed to be a build thread. Moderators please remove this posting because it is serious " CAR PORN, " and many of us won't be able to sleep tonight. My wife will wonder why my computer is under the covers and it is quite obvious these pics will keep alot of us up all night.
 

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,425
8,350
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
As beautiful as the new Red Rocket is, I just can't imagine it will ever sound as sweet as your GT 350. Firing up the Grey Ghost caused Porsche, BMW, heck any upright humanoid carbon based form, to stop , pause, listen and sigh! That machine has to be in anyone's top 10 best sounding machines of any kind once they hear the sweet Whoomah rapping of the 5.2!!!
 
As beautiful as the new Red Rocket is, I just can't imagine it will ever sound as sweet as your GT 350. Firing up the Grey Ghost caused Porsche, BMW, heck any upright humanoid carbon based form, to stop , pause, listen and sigh! That machine has to be in anyone's top 10 best sounding machines of any kind once they hear the sweet Whoomah rapping of the 5.2!!!
Yes, very different cars! The GT500 is loud in Track mode, but obviously quieter than the race car.

Based on nearly 1,000 miles of street driving the GT500 is a delight. Very comfortable and almost docile in street mode and a beast in Sport or Track mode.

It’s actually easier to live with as a daily driver than a street GT350R. No tramlining and a less harsh ride in street mode.

Both front and rear suspension are modified. New design front knuckle (further modified from latest GT350R), aluminum tension arm, and billet rear vertical link, that’s inverted to package e-brake:

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Congratulations! Hey how did you get those photos of your car while it was on the assembly line? ;) And we know race red is the fastest color. I'm looking forward to see what you do with this one and to see how your lap times compare to your other cars.
 

Ludachris

Chris
Staff member
Moderator
1,658
1,962
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HPDE
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5-10 Years
Newcastle, CA
WOW. More, please!
Splitter and wicker install was straightforward, but this splitter is way more secure than the GT350R — lots of fasteners:
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Oil Seperator is WAY more substantial than GT350R and features a drain back, but is tedious to install:
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Job #2 CFTP cars (2020CY) builds come with camber plates installed, but they have 3 lockout screws from the factory, that need to be removed to change from street to track camber. Strut has to be dropped 1-2” to get access to the 3 set screws. Again not difficult, but tedious as you have to sequentially lower side to side to eliminate sway bay pre-load:
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I’m now up to date with progress on the car. Got the Recaro seats and trim out yesterday and started the Watson Roll Bar install (lighter Cromoly version). Need to finish up install, set track alignment, install data/video capture systems and load up.

Leaving for Pitt Race and Mid Ohio tonight!

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Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,425
8,350
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
So a day racing at Mid Ohio and then another over at PIR? Your task , should you accept it, is to make sure you post pics and videos of your time at those tracks, because that will be the only track time many of us will get this month with the damn Virus containment!

Yours truly,
The Vicarious Racing Team
 
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1,246
1,243
In the V6L
I'm wondering about your plans for wheels and brakes. On another forum, @Tob posted photos of the GT500 front knuckle and the 2020 GT350R front knuckle, which are the same casting with different machining. There's been a lot of discussion about how the GT500 knuckle affected the GT350, but one upside for GT500 owners is that they can swap in the GT350R knuckle and OEM GT350 front brakes and run 19" rims, or even 18" rims with aftermarket front brakes.
 
@JAJ I’m going to stick with 20” wheels and OE Brakes. Although the GT350 and GT500 front knuckles are similar, the roll center is changed to account for the weight change.

Not sure that downsized aftermarket brakes with 18” wheels would cope with the weight of this car. My experience with switching from OE to AP brakes on the GT350 was that braking performance was about the same, but with a significant weight reduction and the opportunity to run 18” wheels. The GT500 brakes and rotors are way bigger than the GT350. There’s also the question of maintaining F/R bias and ABS tuning.
 
Awesome. What seat slider did you go with? Exploring which ones have the least slop/deflection in-use...I have a Sparco right now.
Drew,
I went with these: https://www.americanmuscle.com/corbeau-drivers-bracket-single-2015.html
Not sure if they make an S197 version, but initial impressions is they have less slop than thr Sparco sliders I have on the race car.
I’ll do a back to back comparison after this weekend’s track time to see if they loosen up with some track use....
 

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