Project Update for August 28, 2013: Been a busy couple of weeks since the last project thread update, with the majority of the new aero work completed on our TT3 Mustang after working long hours every day and night. It was a major thrash to get all of this done in a 2 week period. During that time we also ran an autocross event with Amy driving our 2013 GT (STU) and me in Matt's BRZ (STX), and then track tested the new front aero parts on our TT3 Mustang. We're now in the final week thrash to do all of the "clean up work" to the car before we load up and head 22 hours across country to the NASA Nationals Sept 4-8th, so let's get caught up.
S197 Mustang Coilover Tester Needed in Dallas/Ft. Worth Area
Before we dig into the STU Mustang autocross test results, let's get to the reason
why we went to this event out of the way - to test some MCS coilovers on one of our shop employee's cars, a 2013 Subaru BRZ. And this has a bearing on the S197, too. How is the suspension on a BRZ important to a Mustang? Well, they have several things in common: both chassis have McStrut front/shock rear suspensions, both have a factory coilover spring on the struts, and both chassis Vorshlag makes camber plates for. They also both are RWD, and they share almost the same track width (about the only dimension they have in common). So our suspension testing on the BRZ does sort of apply to S197 Mustangs.
We also sell MCS coilovers for the S197 Mustang, and in fact we have the first TT1 set in stock that we had built to our specs. All we lack is a tester to buy this set, then let us photograph, install and measure all of the parameters we like to check on a brand new suspension option like this. We've done installs on MCS RR2 doubles with remotes and TT1 singles on other cars, just have get a Mustang buyer to let us install a set for the S197 chassis.
Fitting the custom built set of MCS TT1 shocks to a tester's BRZ, sans springs, for bump/rebound measurements
We need someone local with an S197 that street drives + tracks or autocrosses their Mustang to sign up as a
Vorshlag Tester for this first MCS TT1 set we had built. This would include a discounted install at our shop, a free corner-balance, and hands-on set-up help at a local autocross or track event(s). Go to the recently updated
Vorshlag Tester Page,
read the Tester Expectations, and if it sounds like a fit, sign up to be a tester via the method shown on that page. Don't call, or shoot me a PM, or send a fax, or wire us a telegram, but instead
follow the instructions on that page to sign up.
If your criteria line up with ours, we can get the MCS TT1 installation pictures for the S197 chassis. This would be another great monotube offering we can provide for this chassis (to go along with the offerings we have from Bilstein, Moton and AST). The MCS units are a bit unique in that they only have a 2 to 3 week lead time, are modular and can be upgraded to doubles or with remotes, and the have very beefy internals, shafts and housings.
SCCA Autox at Crandall, August 18, 2013 - STX vs STU?
So we decided to enter this autocross after we installed the MCS TT1 coilovers on
Matt's 2013 Subaru BRZ. This car has been waiting on proper coilovers for almost a year, and after a few fits and starts we finally got a high end, adjustable monotube coilover on the car that was made to the specs we wanted. Working with MCS has been easy and we've installed and sold a good number of their singles (TT1), internal doubles (TT2) and doubles with remotes (RR2) onto our various customer cars.
You can read more about the BRZ project
here, but the plan quickly became to drive this car in its Street Touring class (STX) at the same event as two S197s we brought and ran in STU. Amy drove our 2013 GT (which is
still for sale -
hello, is this thing on??) and Mark C drove again his 2012 GT in STU class, so we could compare times against each other and against the other STU and STX cars in attendance. There were a number of strong regular competitors in STX cars at this event who ran in other classes for various reasons (mostly time of day choices). Still, it was worth comparing to the top ST cars there, so we will, at the bottom of this post section.
Vorshlag Photo & Video Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...andall-081813/
So Amy Fair, my wife, is a
3 time National Champion autocrosser (STU-L twice and ESP-L last year) was running our 2013 Mustang GT in STU. This car is far from under-prepped, and in fact had a couple of "illegal for STU" mods, but this was a good venue to test those things because they were both items we've been asking the STAC/SEB to include for solid axle STU cars. The main suspension items were a $5000 set of AST remote reservoir double adjustable shocks with 400F/200R coilover spring rates.
The 2013 also has a big adjustable Eibach front swaybar, plenty of front camber (VM plates), upgraded and ducted 14" Brembo brakes, and
295/35/18 (10mm wider than allowed in STU - for now) Nitto NT-05s (200 treadwear) on our Vorshlag/D-Force 18x10" wheels. It also has Whiteline rear control arm Relocation brackets (also not yet allowed) plus a Whiteline Adjustable Panhard bar, to center the axle since it is lowered approx. 2 inches. This car had zero power mods, as it already made 377 whp with the bone stock 5.0L Coyote motor - which is too much for 295mm street tires to deal with on TRACK (see above), much less use in thae "knife fight in a phone booth" which is autocross.
Have I mentioned that
this car is for sale? Oh, there, I did it again. Somebody is going to come by and drive this car, realize what an amazing deal this is, and buy it. And then rub it in other peoples' faces.
Mark C is a bit newer to autocross (couple of years) but has a solidly prepped car as well, and was running on fresh RS-3 Hankooks in 285/35/18. These felt like they had a good bit more stick than the year-old 295 Nittos on our car, so the extra 10mm was probably a wash, if that. Mark's Mustang was on AST 4150 coilovers, 550F/250R springs, BMR adjustable panhard bar, the same 18x10" wheels with the aforementioned "200" treadwear RS-3s (they used to be 140 treadwear but Hankook asked the Pope to sprinkle holy water on them and
viola! they are now 200). It also has a Torsen T-2R aftermarket diff, 14" Brembos, and some other goodies, but also stock power.
continued below