S197 Unleaded Racing - 2009 Bullitt Build Thread Profile - S197 Mustangs

[drunkonunleaded]

This is the Build Thread for Unleaded Racing - 2009 Bullitt. Reply below.

 

[drunkonunleaded]

First off, thanks to the TMO community. As I've worked through sorting out this car, you have served as an indispensable resource both due to your accumulated knowledge and your Classifieds section. Forums are a dying breed but are an integral part of the car hobby.

That being said, allow me to introduce you to my 2009 Bullitt. My on-track career has had several fits and starts. Mostly fits. I've owned a number of cars over the years: Several Neon ACRs, a 92 Mustang LX 5.0, and an 04 Z06. While I had always intended to get on track, time and money was always allocated elsewhere.

In 2019, I began to get serious. I purchased two ex-Celebrity Challenge 1995 Neon ACRs, a 20' enclosed trailer, and a Silverado to tow it all. I spent most of June prepping one of the Neons and made it to two local AutoX events that summer with car #19, the rattier of the cars in question. I fully refurbished this car mechanically, but left the patina for the future. The decals and such, all original, are only original once:



Car #19 had been garaged its entire life and included a logbook and a mountain of paperwork. It had eventually become an ITA car and ran various events in Michigan, albeit sparingly.



We all know what happened in 2020. My full schedule of local AutoX with Car 18 and club racing at Waterford with 19 got scuttled in an instant. As the restrictions wore on into 2021, I focused upon another hobby of mine: riding ATVs.

 

[drunkonunleaded]

During this time, I had a few realizations regarding my current situation:

• The Neons, while once plentiful, are thin on the ground and any good parts are hoarded by a select number of folks
• The 04 Z06 was a fun car, but I barely fit into it WITHOUT a helmet. Tracking it would be difficult
• The 92 LX would take a lot of money to even come close to the performance of a Neon. Not worth the investment
• My new home lacked a garage that could support motorsports at the level which I wanted to operate at

This led to a few year frenzy where I sold off everything aside from the Notchback and focused on building out the garage. In 2025, the car bug hit me again pretty hard. This was exacerbated when a friend invited me to crew for him at Waterford Hills. I decided it was time to find a car.

I considered a lot of platforms, up to even trying to wedge myself into an NC Miata, but the S197 really checked all of my boxes. It is well supported, has a great community behind it, and there's no shortage of good parts out there. More importantly, I fit in them very well. I've always wanted a Boss, but I feel as though the 05-09 and its clean lines has aged very gracefully. A car I used to clown on back in the day became my latest fixation.

Not to mention, the SCCA recently introduced a Club Spec Mustang class that put together a good recipe of parts that was deemed competent on track. No development, no guessing, etc. All I simply needed to do was buy a car, order the list of parts, and have fun. It all seemed so easy. Almost too easy.

And that's when I learned about how many of these cars got abused by previous owners. They truly are the modern iteration of the Foxbody. When I was younger, everyone and their brother had a clapped out "5.0" and cars without questionable modifications or heavy signs abuse were hard to find. This seems to have repeated itself with 05-09 cars.

That is with one exception: the 08-09 Bullitt. I guess technically the Shelby GT would fit this too, but personally I wanted a very stock appearing car. Stripes, scoops, and spoilers are not my thing unless they are purposeful. Fortunately, there are any number of Bullitts for sale at any given time and most of them are of the "never seen rain" variety.

A perusal of the usual suspects: Facebook Marketplace, Craiglist, forums, and even Bringatrailer turned up no shortage of workable examples. But one particular car stuck out in my mind. It was a Marketplace ad and the car was literally a mile or two from my home:



Normally I would NOT go see a car with such a frankly terrible description and four or five grainy photos but considering the proximity, I figured what do I have to lose?

 

[drunkonunleaded]

I checked out car in person. To say that the ad undersold the car would be a gross understatement. While the photos illustrated the CDC lip, I had no idea what else was in store. When I got there, the car was actually equipped with:

• FRPP Hot Rod Cams
• FRPP Intake Manifold
• FRPP Throttle Body
• Kooks Headers
• FR500 Mufflers
• FRPP 4.10 Gears

There was a small ding on the rear quarter and the car had evidence of door panel sag. The tune was, let's just say not great. But otherwise, it was an honest car and drove fairly well. The "new" tires had date codes of 2020/21 so I knew I'd need new tires before ever touching a track.

The only thing giving me pause was the lack of paperwork. The seller had purchased this car used from a local dealership in 2011. The original owner allegedly had all of the work performed at Livernois Motorsports, but neither the seller nor Livernois could confirm. Nevertheless, a deal was struck and it was mine.

 

[drunkonunleaded]

With Club Spec Mustang out of the window. It was time to decide what I wanted to do. I felt as though I got a good jumpstart on things. I know that on the street a stock 3v car might be a little underwhelming, so the extra power was welcome. Stage 0, for me, was to get a solid baseline and work from there. I needed to have confidence in the car and going against my best judgement to buy a modified car with no paper trail was the opposite of that.

I first enlisted a local Mustang specialist to drop all fluids and give it a general once-over. I also took that time to have him install the M-4033-KA diff cover along with a Lubelocker gasket. Otherwise, the engine, trans, and differential received fresh Amsoil. He also confirmed that the random misfire codes were tune related and that the loud "clanking" noise in neutral was good ol' rollover noise in the trans. Such is life with cams I guess




If you need work done in the Metro Detroit area, I cannot recommend Jeff at Oval Auto enough. It doesn't matter if you have a Mariner, a Mustang, or anything in between. There is no better place to take a Ford.

The next question was the tune. For this, I again lucked out. Lidio at Alternative Auto Performance is a short drive away. Having read the guy's name 100x in Mustang mags as a kid, I was almost giddy at having someone I viewed as a Mustang God sorting out my car. Needless to say, the day came and he knocked it out of the park.

As expected, Lidio killed it. The car runs exceptionally better, especially in stop and go traffic. The previous weekend I took the car down to the Woodward Dream Cruise and while it ran okay I really had to slip the clutch to keep from stalling in the parking lot that is Woodward cruise weekend. Lidio fixed this and then some. It was like a completely different car.



The car put down a respectable 309/305. Lidio stated it was a bit on the low side for this package. I am not sure what or why, but I am happy with the car as is. I was not chasing a specific figure. In my mind, this car now has an engine befit of the Bullitt badge. In my mind, the 08-09 should've occupied a space above the GT but below the GT500, something akin to the 12-13 Boss 302 or 21-23 Mach 1.

 

[drunkonunleaded]

While all of this was going on, my credit card saw a lot of action in the way of parts. With the power mods already here, I wanted to get the basics down. That I means I need to stop.

• Apex ML10RT 18x10 ET40 in brushed silver w/polished lips
• Continental ECS02 in 275/40/18
• M-2300-S Brembos
• Shelby Iso-Clutch Reservoir
• Motul RBF600

There were also some "comfort" mods that I needed off the bat to make this car easier to live with:

• Kenwood Excelon DMX809S
• Valentine One Gen 2
• Panavise base with Quad Lock phone mount
• Steeda jacking rails

Everything related to the brakes and wheels sat on the shelf until the wheels came off of backorder. It took a little over 6 weeks, but the wheels arrived:



I quickly got with Tire Rack to order the Contis and had a local prep shop mount and balance. I was pleased to say the least. The wheels were beautiful in person and took what looked like a facsimile of a 60s muscle car and elevated it to something more refined. While part of the appeal to me of the 05-09 is how closely it looks to an early Mustang, Torq-Thrust style wheels do nothing for me after having seen them on countless cars.



Front fitment looked pretty spot on. Apex states that you may need a 5mm spacer with this setup for strut clearance. It was close. Perhaps a little too close to comfort. I vowed to order some spacers but wanted the wheels on for Woodward as it was the formal "debut" of the car with a group of car friends who were coming into town. The universe had other plans when I got to the rear:



What the seller did not disclose was that while the rear wheels were "professionally widened", presumably by Weldcraft, but he had installed a 1" spacer on the rear. On top of that, they had cut the original studs down to fit. Needless to say, this was not going to work so I spent Woodward on the Bullitt wheels.




Fortunately, us Mustang guys outnumbered the Mopar boys. I guess I still technically own a Neon parts car, but owning two running Mustangs puts me firmly in the Mustang camp.

 

[drunkonunleaded]

I had a few options here. I could:

• Pick up generic Dorman studs and press them in at $10-20
• Spend $15-20 each on OEM Ford studs
• Go big and go with ARP

Naturally, I chose the latter. Partially because I wanted it done right and also because I was leery about pressing in studs so many times and the knurling hogging out the axle flange. I paired the rear ARP studs with a set of M-1104-A FR500 front hubs. This frustrated me a bit because I specifically stuck with 18x10s and 275s to avoid needing to run a spacer and the longer studs. Had I known I needed to do this anyway, I would've went with 18x11s and a 315.

The install was not without its challenges. As documented in another thread, I read a tip that said to use a ball joint separator to press in/out the studs. I ordered the Gearwrench 3916D and went to town.



I was able to press out the studs with a standard socket wrench and socket. Extremely easy job, all things considered. Pressing in was the reverse of removal, only here I used a Lisle 22800 Wheel Stud Installer to first seat the ARP studs squarely before sending them home. These got 99% of the way there by hand, but I fully seated them with the low torque impact.

The fronts were similarly easy, with the right going snug by hand. I set my digital torque wrench to 249 lb-ft and torqued them down. Final torque value showed 249.5, which is perfect. The left side gave me trouble. The nut itself would not thread on. I was concerned about galling or cross-threading the spindle. After a post here and on the Track S197s Facebook group, I bought a second nut from a local Ford dealer the next morning. This, too, went on without issue.

 

[drunkonunleaded]

With the stud issue solved, it was finally time to install the brakes. I had the M-2300-S kit sitting on my shelf. I was really unsure what to do with pads, so I called Terry @ Vorshlag, explained my situation, and asked him which G-Loc pads to buy. As a beginner doing some AutoX and HPDE, he recommended R6s. Money exchanged hands and they landed on my doorstep. I paired them with some fresh Brembo blanks.



The fronts, that's a different story. @LSboss here on the forums had the coveted M-2300-SA brake kit for about the price of the M-2300-S kit I had purchased from Summit. Obviously, this was a no-brainer. We coordinated on relay via one of LSboss' friends and I went straight home to get things installed.



I had intended on maybe upgrading to Girodisc rotors in the future, but again this got me quite the head start. I whipped out the trusty Motive bleeder and went to town, spilling about $10 worth of brake fluid through my beloved Racedeck tiles in the process.

Having installed these during the aforementioned garage buildout, I've been a big proponent of Racedeck flooring. There was no way I was going to pay for epoxy flooring to have it discolor and lift after so many years like I've seen countless other times. The other major benefit here is that the flow-through tiles allow dust and such to fall through, which means I can lay directly on the floor to work without getting dirty. About once per month I blow out the dust with a leaf blower.

I'm usually very careful with fluid spills and have done multiple oil changes in this garage with maybe spilling a teaspoon or less. Never have I had a large spill here, but there's a first time for everything. Over Labor Day weekend I will be pulling up the tiles and scrubbing the floor. I have some drywall work to do in the garage anyway, so it'll be time to park the Mustang outside and tackle indoor projects.

It took two bleed cycles to get all of the air out of the system. I ran roughly 1500ml through the system bleeding the brakes. Two full bleed cycles with the Motive bleeder. The second time around, I started to recycle some of the "captured" Motul back into the Motive bleeder after I was reasonably sure the old fluid was gone. If this is a rookie move, don't hesitate to call me out. In the grand scheme of things, another $20-40 of fluid is a kick in the bucket here.

Regardless, this resulted in a rock hard pedal and it was finally time to bolt the wheels on this past Friday evening. Did I mention that I signed up for an Autocross at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday?



But first, I needed to address the world's jankiest catch can courtesy the previous owner and JLT. This thing is suboptimal to say the least. First off, it is completely supported by its own hoses, which is a ridiculously stupid design. Secondly, never in my life have I witnessed plastic barbed fittings. Combining an unsupported catch can with plastic barbed fittings is a recipe for failure. And fail it did.

On top of that, the can was installed in the engine bay had it sitting horizontally. I am guessing that was due more so to a previous owner more so than JLT, but considering the design choices JLT made here I am not willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. What I am sure was a previous owner "mod" was the way this was plumbed:



You're seeing this right. A patchwork of half of the original PCV hose, a couple of spring clamps, and some 1/2" heater hose that had turned gummy because it was not rated for oil exposure. This was NOT going to work for me. Had I been able to get an OE type PCV hose on 24 hour notice, I would have. NAPA had 1/2" PCV hose in stock, so I grabbed 2 feet. Worst case, I could always make a new PCV hose to get through the event.



Fortunately, my least favorite motorsports supplier Amazon was able to get me some 3/8 NPT aluminum fittings and Oetiker clamps by 6 AM on Friday. A little bit of cutting and crimping and we have a workable solution. I now have the elbow routed coming out of the LH valve cover and pointing towards the fender. The hose makes a gentle loop to the catch can which uses the straight OE fitting and comes out of the intake manifold. Note that I trimmed back the teflon tape after taking this photograph. While not ideal, this will work in the interim. I planned to upgrade this with a Moroso or Watson can later on down the line, but I may address that sooner out of sheer annoyance.

This is where we sat by Friday night. I went with the black Ford oval center caps. This car is completely devoid of pony logos and I see no reason to change that. The only thing that would look "right" in my mind was the oval.

 

[drunkonunleaded]

Saturday I slept in. It was a long week of late night wrenching to get the car sorted. What you don't see here is the hours of torquing bolts. Re-torquing. Cleaning threads. Marking with via-torque or a paint pen. I am not an engineer and I never worked in motorsport. I was the president of our FSAE Hybrid team but we were so underfunded that we barely had a rolling chassis in the two years I was on the team. Needless to say, I don't view myself as nothing more than a Novice but I've disassembled and reassembled enough to understand that these little details matter.

All I needed to do Saturday was wash the car, fuel it, and pack it for the event. But before that, I went for a test drive. While I had G-Loc pre-bed the brakes, I still wanted to bed in the rotors. Queue an hour and 50 miles of country roads and circumnavigating the intersections of two major freeways. The country roads got me several "medium" speed stops, while the highway off-ramps provided a safe opportunity to scrub speed. After this, I was confident that I had screwed everything together porperly.

Having owned black cars in the past, I forgot what a pain owning one is. I waited until late afternoon for heavy cloud cover to wash the car. After which, I applied my numbers curtesy of iZoom graphics, and set off to take some pictures.





Yes, that last picture is the reflection in the paint. In person, it is nowhere near perfect, but the condition is commensurate with a car that has "been in rain only once or twice" and has generally lived in the garage. 15 years and the previous owner put all of 5,000 miles on her. What a waste of a beautiful car.

Nevertheless, I was ready the next morning. I packed, and I re-packed. I managed to fit everything into the trunk of the car. My chair up along the rear seats, in the deepest part of the trunk. Next to it, my torque wrench, a chair umbrella, and a golf umbrella. In front of that I had a Dewalt tough system Large box with fluids, a Toughsystem small box with the impact and inflator, and a Yeti Roadie 24. Helmet on the back seat. I did neglect to bring a jack with me, but this will go on the passenger floorboard next time around. Honestly, I was a little concerned about room considering this car has the Shaker 1000 amp still in the trunk, but everything fit so nicely I see no reason to degrade my listening experience for now.

 

[drunkonunleaded]

Today was the big day. Months of hard work and cubic dollars. A year and a half of agonizing over a car purchase and fantasizing about what I'd do. All put into action. Why is it that I can barely make it to work some days by 9, or even be up by 9 on a remote work day but I can be up until past midnight packing the car and have no issue being up at 5:15? The body is a mysterious thing. I torqued the lugs one more time for good luck and pointed the car west.



Michigan International Speedway, located in the Irish Hills region of rural South Central Michigan. Known for its lakes and tourist traps, the area is bisected by US-12, the primary link between Detroit and Chicago long before Interstate 94 came into existence. Driving from Ann Arbor down to Brooklyn is a great drive unto itself. Sort of like Michigan's own facsimile of Route 66, there are plenty of stops along the way. This abandoned gas station/diner has long been one of my favorite photography stops.



After a leisurely Sundar morning drive, waking up all residents in the tri-county area, I arrived at the track.



For the unaware, Michigan International Speedway (MIS) is the premier racing circuit here in Michigan. This is where the big boys play. Today the track is owned by the France family by way of International Speedway Corporation, so rarely does it host any sort of motorsports outside of NASCAR. The 2 mile oval was so revered that both Texas World Speedway and California Speedway (Fontana) were both heavily influenced by MIS. The event still hosts NASCAR races, but in its prime has hosted everything from a snowy 1969 Trans-Am race, to CART's attempt to usurp the Indy 500. While the unique extended/outfield road course is no longer in use, the infield course is still used for private events. Having watched many races here as a kid, I was excited to be able to shake down a car of my own on the other side of that fence.

 

[CarSalesman]

Nice work on the car and great story writing. The dyno results sound right to me. My FR500S has your setup plus a much more aggressive cam, valve springs, FRPP throttle body, FRPP high rise intake, headers, and nearly open exhaust with no cats (it’s a track car). Even with all that the dyno was 355hp at 6800 rpm. The 305 you got sounds right.

Remember your car was only 310 at the crank which is about 270 at the wheels. You picked up 35hp with minimal mods and retained good street manners.

 

[drunkonunleaded]

While perhaps not as unfortunate as Parnelli Jones, the weather did not want to cooperate for me either. What started as a beautiful Sunday morning turned into torrential rain. New car, novice driver, and standing water. What could go wrong?



I guess this marks the third time this car has seen rain. When asked what my plans were, I told the previous owner that I wanted a nice "Sunday driver" to cruise Woodward and grab ice cream with. I guess technically I didn't lie to him, although I'd venture to guess that he wouldn't approve of its current career path.

Before the fun began, I had to unload the contents of the trunk in the Paddock. The downside to this event is that despite having covered garage area, these were not open to us. I understand ISC can be prickly about these sorts of things, but the facilities at MI are barely on par with a local circle track - they're basic steel buildings. The facility forced us to keep cars on grid all afternoon. Per Google Maps, my grid spot was 1200' from paddock spot, meaning thatI was going to get some steps in today. Fortunately, I share my car toolkit with my ATV/moto toolkit and everything is in the aforementioned Toughsystem boxes, which are waterproof. When the weather said 25% chance of rain, I threw a tarp in the trunk just in case. I was glad I brought it.

Cue to 2.5 hours of mostly sitting in my car. We were in Heat 1, so I remained in the car as we cycled through our four runs. I felt bad about not socializing more, but I decided that having to drive while saturated would not be an enjoyable experience. Even with an umbrella and a rain coat, I still managed to get fairly wet.

Fortunately, the car performed flawlessly for each of the four runs. The important part, though, is that the Bullitt never missed a beat. Four runs, steady rain, zero mechanical drama. After the amount of work that’s gone into this car over the last year, that was probably the biggest victory of the day.



No mechanical drama, but the nut behind the wheel could use some Kroil to knock off the rust. It definitely needs some tightening. This was my first competitive autocross since 2019, my first event in the Bullitt, and my first time even driving the car in the rain. My goals were simple: don’t finish last, don’t wad up the car, and learn something. I definitely learned that I need some work.

Run 1 was fairly uneventful. We did not walk the 1+ mile course, but did one parade lap. I used the first lap to get my bearings and earned a 112.836. Not the slowest first run by any means, but also not exactly setting the world on fire.

Run 2 I felt comfortable enough to get a little aggressive. Foolishly I even tried a little bit of left foot braking. On the backstretch, I got on the power a little too early with the wheel cranked and the car came around on me. My passenger door became very familiar with four cones. Nevertheless, I went on and turned a 113.562 prior to the 8 second penalty.

Run 3 I dialed it back enough. Despite the mistake, I knew immediately what I did there. I decided to focus more on smooth inputs and go back to braking with my right foot. I backsided two cones a little too tight and knocked them over. Nevertheless, my raw time greatly improved and I turned a 104.997 before the 4 second penalty.

Run 4 I felt pretty locked in. When trail riding, I get into a kind of flow state where everything starts to click. I felt the same way here. Honestly, one of my biggest complaints about autocross is what makes it so difficult to master: you have a finite amount of time to master the course. Here I pushed pretty hard, and overcooked a fairly tight corner. A quick recovery had me good on time, but I ended up on the wrong side of a cone and the official result was a DNF. No cone hits this time that I was aware of. Raw time had I made the gate would've been 103.711.



All four runs can be seen here:

Looking back at the four runs, there was a pretty clear progression: The first run was simply about surviving the course, figuring out where it went, and getting a feel for how the car behaved on a soaking wet surface. By the second run I was starting to trust the car more and began picking up the pace. The third run was my best of the day, taking nearly eight seconds off my opening clean run and showing me that the car was capable of far more than I was asking of it.

By the fourth run, I got greedy. I was carrying more speed, but I also got behind mentally, blew a gate, and turned what could have been another improvement into a DNF. That’s entirely on me, 100% operator error. Looking farther ahead, improving course visualization, and simply getting more seat time are all things I need to work on.

To be fair, I’ve never considered myself anything but a complete novice. My total autocross experience is fewer than 50 runs, all but four of them in a Dodge Neon. On the plus side, I wasn’t the first driver to spin in that section or go off at that corner. Embarrassing? Absolutely. But I’d rather be transparent and post the mistakes than only the highlights. That’s how you learn, and I’m always willing to solicit

EDIT - Final results were published adter the post went live. Out of all of the CAM-C drivers who showed up, that 108.997 out me 5th out of 7 cars. That includes fellow CAM-C drivers in the Novice class. On the Novice Index, I ended up 9th out of 12. Overall, I was 150th of 165 on raw time and 149th of 165 on PAX. Not great, but not terrible.

Looking at my 2019 results in the Neon on a much shorter 30 second course, I faired much better in the old car in its maiden voyage. I could’ve numerous excuses for this, but now I will blame the conditions and the fact that I was driving a much less powerful car with much better suspension. Most importantly, I was fully confident in that platform and knew its limits.

While I was at first happy to run Heat 1, that was before the rain. Heats 3 and 4 were fortunate enough to see the course dry out. Then again, I'd rather drive in the rain than work a corner in the rain. By the time my work assignment came up in Heat 3, I was able to pack away the rain coat and umbrella.

Overall, I was happy with how the day went. The primary objective was to get comfortable with the car and shake it down before moving on to HPDE events. I feel as though I accomplished that. In a way, it was perhaps better to get caught in the rain in a low-stakes autocross than some place like Nelson Ledges.

More importantly, the Bullitt finally did what I wanted it to do: it showed up, ran four hard sessions in the rain, and drove home under its own power. The car never missed a beat. And that made the late nights and scrounging up old forum posts worth it. Not to mention the 87 parts orders I've placed this summer..

 

[drunkonunleaded]

So now I'm drafting this recap and it's time to Monday evening quarterback this thing. There's a few things that I feel need to be addressed outside of my driving:

• Suspension - This is the car's biggest downfall. It leans and wallows like the 99 Grand Marquis that I drove in High School. I was originally looking at the FRPP handling pack because it is a "one and done" solution, but I quickly realized that I would probably replace most of the components in the kit. I have you fine folks to thank for that. In my garage I have FR500 rear LCAs, LCA drop brackets, and Panhard ready to go on. My plan here is to just call Terry @ Vorshlag and ask him what to buy. Terry's suggestions saved me quite a bit of money and aggravation on the brake pad purchase and that alone has earned my business going forward. I am leaning towards the H&R Street or TrackPro kits, but here I will defer to his expertise. I assume at some point I will need sway bars to go along with this.
• Seating - Even for this autocross, the stock seats are woefully inadequate. I intended on pairing fixed-back buckets with a Watson 4-point bar from the beginning. This will be a winter/spring upgrade.
• Gauges - One thing where this car falls short from the factory is regarding engine monitoring. Before pursuing any cooling modifications or similar, I'd like to get a handle on what the car is actually doing during use. My intention here is to add a triple gauge pod on the dash with a dedicated Oil Temp, Oil Pressure, and Water Temp gauges. Here I was considering splurging a bit and seeing what Speedhut can do to closely match the OE gauges.

Overall, I feel that addressing the above will allow me to enjoy the car with much greater confidence, on par at least with the jump from stock to current state.

My plans for the rest of the year are to hit a few HPDEs and perhaps an AutoX or two if time allows. If I can manage it from a scheduling perspective, I would like to hit Waterford Hills in two weeks for their OTD as a first "real" track experience. Aside from that, I am looking at registering for the SCCA TNIA at Mid-Ohio in October. With the car sorted, my only limitation is my personal schedule.



I'll be sure to keep this thread updated as things progress, both from a build perspective and a participatory standpoint. It's been years since I've done a build thread and intend to keep this one alive even if it is nowhere near as informational as some of the others. You have a great community here and I'm glad to be a part of it.

 

[drunkonunleaded]

Nice work on the car and great story writing. The dyno results sound right to me. My FR500S has your setup plus a much more aggressive cam, valve springs, FRPP throttle body, FRPP high rise intake, headers, and nearly open exhaust with no cats (it’s a track car). Even with all that the dyno was 355hp at 6800 rpm. The 305 you got sounds right.

Remember your car was only 310 at the crank which is about 270 at the wheels. You picked up 35hp with minimal mods and retained good street manners.

Agreed on the street manners. I'm very happy with how it drives. The car has a catted Kooks X-Pipe on it now. The tuner suggested getting rid of them as he claims that they will not hold up during a track day and I would be risking engine damage. Remedying that is on my shortlist to be addressed before the next event.

Thanks for the information. May I ask which cams you went with? I had zero expectations going into this, so the numbers are what they are. I was a little worried about running the Hot Rod cams with stock springs but the tuner claims it's not an issue. If the hivemind here feels otherwise, I am open to suggestions.

Going into this, I knew I would want to wake the car up a little bit anyway. Having the cams, intake manifold, TB, and headers addressed that out of the box.

My ONLY complaint in the modification department is the 4.10 gears. Fun on the street but I'm not sure how well the short final drive would fare on track. That will be for a future discussion. At this point, theres's a lot more important things to address. IF and when I do address this, I'd likely do it in conjunction with a Torsen or similar to eliminate the Track Lok. The perfectionist in me would like to see a painted axle housing considering the rest of the underside of the car is spotless.



Why Ford decided to cheap out and leave the axles unpainted is beyond me.