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Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
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20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
Brings back memories of my 97 White cobra and sold one of my very best friends a 98 that became the scourge of Vettes and Porsches everywhere - when he occasionally took to a road course. He removed the rear seat ( clear back then ) for an ESP Autocross killer, but by the time he was done he had the car down to 3000 lbs, monster rubber on the beast and a ton of suspension and engine mods. Looks like you already have some great things done on your Cobra and the next big step will likely be rims and big rubber. The Cobra really changed a lot of minds for Autocrossers as many switched out of GM Pony cars and switched over after folks found how well balanced the Cobra was and how well the little 4.6 wound out .

I have super found memories of a twin to your car, helped teach my son to drive in one, he went 100 mph for the first time in the car, and it won alot of Autocrosses for me. Glad to see you on TMO and look forward to hearing your exploits in the Midwest --- may see you at Topeka or Hastings or Lincoln ( for an autocross ).
 
Welcome! I AutoX and HPDE my 1995 Mustang. Nowhere near the suspension setup you have, though I am hoping to go the full Maximum Motorsports route eventually.

I creeped on your profile a little and saw your favorite track is Cresson (on my list of planned tracks to hit next year!). Leads me to assume you're in the Texas area. Have you ever made it to the Mid-America Ford and Shelby Meet in Tulsa, OK? I'm in Arkansas, so it's about the closest good event to me.
 

Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,422
8,347
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
You guys are closer than you thought, as his zip code is a small town South of Wichita , so Hallett is relatively close to both of you. Now the Shelby Event is a bucket list for many Midwesterners , but now you both need to hit another ------- get signed up for the Ford and Mustang Roundup in Hastings , Ne. this coming October.
 
Welcome! I AutoX and HPDE my 1995 Mustang. Nowhere near the suspension setup you have, though I am hoping to go the full Maximum Motorsports route eventually.

I creeped on your profile a little and saw your favorite track is Cresson (on my list of planned tracks to hit next year!). Leads me to assume you're in the Texas area. Have you ever made it to the Mid-America Ford and Shelby Meet in Tulsa, OK? I'm in Arkansas, so it's about the closest good event to me.
Yeah, the suspension really transforms the way the car drives. In a stock Mustang, there is a lot of play in the steering wheel and they understeer. They're obviously set up more for drag racing and to keep Ford from being sued by inexperienced drivers. The Griggs setup makes the steering response immediate and gets rid of a lot of the understeer. I feel like it currently handles better than my stock C5 Z06 I had for a few years, though after riding in my friend's C5Z at Road Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, I know my Mustang is not on that level yet.

I've actually never done an all-Mustang event. If I can get a coolant temp issue sorted out in the next month or so, I may try to make it Hastings in October. New Mishimoto radiator, Mishimoto fan and shroud assembly, straight distilled water + Water Wetter and it still gets to 250 degree coolant temps within 1.5 laps at 90 degrees ambient. Very frustrating when you've spent $500 for a track weekend at Road Atlanta and traveled 1,000 miles, one-way. I'm going to replace the water pump next, along with the On 3 coolant bypass delete. The water pump is original with 108K on it. We'll see what that does.

MSR Cresson is my favorite track locally, especially when they run the 3.1 setup that combines both tracks together. It's my cheapest option for a track day since I used to work there part time when I lived in Texas a few years ago.
 
You guys are closer than you thought, as his zip code is a small town South of Wichita , so Hallett is relatively close to both of you. Now the Shelby Event is a bucket list for many Midwesterners , but now you both need to hit another ------- get signed up for the Ford and Mustang Roundup in Hastings , Ne. this coming October.
Mustang Roundup is on my radar for October, if I can get my coolant temp issue solved.
 
Yeah, the suspension really transforms the way the car drives. In a stock Mustang, there is a lot of play in the steering wheel and they understeer. They're obviously set up more for drag racing and to keep Ford from being sued by inexperienced drivers. The Griggs setup makes the steering response immediate and gets rid of a lot of the understeer. I feel like it currently handles better than my stock C5 Z06 I had for a few years, though after riding in my friend's C5Z at Road Atlanta a couple of weeks ago, I know my Mustang is not on that level yet.

I've actually never done an all-Mustang event. If I can get a coolant temp issue sorted out in the next month or so, I may try to make it Hastings in October. New Mishimoto radiator, Mishimoto fan and shroud assembly, straight distilled water + Water Wetter and it still gets to 250 degree coolant temps within 1.5 laps at 90 degrees ambient. Very frustrating when you've spent $500 for a track weekend at Road Atlanta and traveled 1,000 miles, one-way. I'm going to replace the water pump next, along with the On 3 coolant bypass delete. The water pump is original with 108K on it. We'll see what that does.

MSR Cresson is my favorite track locally, especially when they run the 3.1 setup that combines both tracks together. It's my cheapest option for a track day since I used to work there part time when I lived in Texas a few years ago.

I have pretty much all Steeda suspension, but I get a lot of body roll still.

Look forward to meeting you and seeing the old gal! The Tulsa event is awesome. I can't speak to the NE event, but I'm sure it's just as good.We need more SN95 cars at the Tulsa event though! I think there was...2 of us?? Me and a bada** LMR car. (This car, I think, or the spitting image of it).

As to the cooling issue, do you still have the air deflector under the core support? That thing is a BIG key to getting airflow across the radiator in our cars, and it's missing on a lot of them. Last month, I was seeing 230* temps after several (8) consecutive AutoX runs with a 180* thermostat, Steeda radiator, and fans coming on at 195*. That was even with spraying the radiator down with water we normally use on the tires. It had me worried about overheating at Hallett later that week.

I cleaned some junk out of the radiator, added a very quick and roughly-made aluminum air dam underneath the core support, and removed the condenser (that wasn't in too bad of shape, but I wasn't using it anyway).

104371224_850781822110487_6609453705919018252_n.jpg
83683189_606761603551990_7868550960291447800_n.jpg

That cured my issue. Car would creep up to around 215-220* on track in the afternoon, but on the cool-down lap would go down to 195* before I even got back to the pits, which I consider to be just fine. I did end up having it bent forward significantly more than in these photos, because I kept scraping it along the track under heavy braking.

At my last AutoX (this past weekend), with no additional changes, the temp only got up to 212* after 8 runs. Big change from 230* to 212*, though that was with me keeping it idling between runs and using no water on the radiator.

The next thing I need will likely be some kind of hood heat extraction. I have a lot of air coming in from underneath with the AL air dam and from the fan, but it needs a place to get out.

I experimented a little this weekend and found that the car would go from 210* (immediately after run 5) to 208* after sitting and idling for 3 minutes or so.

My next run (Run 7), I opened the hood and it dropped by 10* in about 3 minutes, again, while idling. It was about the same in the afternoon runs, significantly more cooling with the hood open than not. That's good enough proof to me that I need some hood vents.

By the way, this is with a mildly built 11:1 aluminum headed 351w with long tubes, 475hp-ish, idling at 900 rpm, shifted at 7000 rpm. No offense intended, but it ought to be running hotter than yours on track lol.

This is getting long. Last thing, though, what does the Mishimoto shroud look like? One problem with some of the shrouds on the market for our cars is that they do good at idle and low speeds, but they actually block a lot of useful airflow at speed. Not a problem on the street or in bumper to bumper traffic, but that's not where we care about anyway :)
 
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Bill Pemberton

0ld Ford Automotive Racing Terror
8,422
8,347
Exp. Type
Time Attack
Exp. Level
20+ Years
Blair, Nebraska
We often have 3-8 Ford Engineers or Executives pop down to Hastings every year , and they race with us. One of the guys drove down a GT 500 and destroyed the asphalt all day Saturday with nary a hiccup. That is just one of the cool things that happen at MPH, but we have guys who have been to both events , and each of them are " Bucket List " track celebrations. With lots of timed track runs we have a good number of drivers who like Motorsports Park Hastings better. I would have to say , trying not to be biased , that they both hit high levels for Mustang Machinehead Mania, and if you liked the Hallett Ho- Down , you will enjoy the Mustang Motorsports at MPH!
 

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