Vorshlag 2011 Mustang 5.0 GT - track/autocross/street Project

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Thread Added - August 16, 2013: Hey guys, Vorshlag just joined this forum as a supporting vendor. I went back and reformatted, copied and edited 3 years worth of our S197 Mustang development project thread updates to DFW5.0s forum, so you guys can read from the beginning. The 10K character limit here made for a lot of editing and posts to add - 181 posts were ported over, in total. I spent almost a full day getting them on here, so I hope yall enjoy them.

We have learned a LOT about the S197 chassis in the past 3 years, working on our own cars as well as customer's S197s. If you read the earliest posts you can see us stumbling into new problems and finding solutions along the way. Please read through the August 2013 posts before commenting or asking questions about some of my earlier entries, as we might have figured out some of our failures, fixed some bad choices, or answered your early question along the way.

After you've read through the current posts, feel free to chime in or ask about anything along the way. We're here to help in any way we can, and we also learn a lot from your guys. Thanks.

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Project introduction - Nov 11, 2010: Some of you guys know us here at Vorshlag. We're a suspension design and manufacturing shop, making the world's best camber plates as well as numerous other items for various modern sports/sporty cars, such as: competition motor and transmission mounts, competition wheel studs, wheel spacers, and even our popular E36 LS1 swap kit. We're also an AST shock dealer and we sometimes work with AST-USA on developing new shock models and valving. We're also racers... running our test cars in SCCA Solo and NASA Time Trial, among other venues.


2011 Mustang "Boss 302R" race car

It helps us in suspension development to periodically acquire and build-up new cars. About once a year we get a few new cars in the stable, and this time we've focused on the 2011 Mustang GT 5.0. We already have 2 versions of camber/caster plates for the S197 chassis Mustang ('05-11+), but we've only sold a few of them and haven't really pushed suspension parts for this chassis yet. Its been foolish of us, because its a HUGE market (avg sales are 200K units/year) that has a large percentage of owners who are enthusiasts and that auto-x/HPDE/race these cars. I've only driven a few of these S197 cars but have personally owned and raced previous generation Mustangs (7 in total) in the past, and raced in those for many years. I was never a fan of the "mod motor" 4.6L V8 in the 1996-2004 Mustang models, however, which is the main reason I haven't owned one of these already. When GM was making their sports cars with the legendary LS1, Ford was trying to match the power with smaller displacement motors that were still massively bigger and heavier. Only the supercharged Cobras and GT500s could keep pace.



But when the all new Ford "Coyote" 5.0L DOHC V8 engine was announced in ~2007 I took notice. When we found out it was going to debut in the 2011 Mustang, along with an all new Getrag 6-spd transmission, we went and test drove one right after they came out in May 2010. It took about 60 seconds of driving it before I was sold... Ford had finally built a Mustang that had some serious potential and was worth comparing to cars costing 2-3 times as much! The brakes rocked, the transmission shifted better than the almighty T56 Tremec, and the motor... oh the motor was perfect. We borrowed a new 2011 "Brembo" GT for a day, took lots of measurements and weights (see below). As heavy as it is its still hundreds of pounds lighter than the other modern muscle cars - the 2010 Camaro or Challenger - and was on par with the latest BMW M3 V8, 335i and many others. Modern cars are heavy!


This was the weight of a loaner '11 Brembo GT back in June - 3605 with 1/2 tank of fuel

Sure, as a 4-valve-per-cylinder V8, the Coyote 5.0 revs to 7000 rpm effortlessly, but more important: it has a LOT of low and mid-range torque, something the previous Ford 4.6L motors really lacked. 390 ft-lbs of torque and 412 hp is what these are rated at, but in reality they are making closer to 385-395 wheel horsepower, which means they have even more power at the crank than that. The power is what really sold the car for me.



The new Mustang 5.0 was quickly matched up against some heavyweight sports cars, and the obvious E92 M3 V8 vs Mustang 5.0 magazine match-ups popped up everywhere (see spec sheet comparo above). But unlike most of the "numbers only" comparisons, the new 2011 had some serious improvements in a lot of areas (interior quality, Sync voice control, sound system/NAV, and the suspension/brakes), and was winning the hearts of most jaded auto journalists. Sure, the Mustang ran blistering 12 second 1/4 mile times and did 0-60 mph in the low 4 second range, but for once the Mustang was as quick on a road course as the $70K M3. And you could get a 2011 Mustang for $29K retail, and the 14" Brembo brake package was only +$1600.

So we custom ordered our 2011 GT in June of 2010. With SO many optional rear gear ratios (3), and dozens of other options, dealers were loading the cars up with crap that we didn't want. We got it with just the "standard" 3.31 rear gear (for a "longer" 2nd gear in autocross situations), the Brembo brake/suspension/wheel package, and my wife insisted on the expensive and frivolous "electronics" package (boy am I glad she did - the system is incredible). The car took over 3 months to be built, and there were further delays once it arrived, but we finally picked up the car on Oct 29th.


we've been playing with wheel fitment this week... and photoshop!

So far the Mustang is still bone stock, but it won't be for long. We are planning on making various parts for the car, such as revised camber plates, motor mounts, and some other bits and pieces as we run across them. What better way to test the car than autocross and track use? So we had been planning on building it for autocross use around an as-yet-undecided autocross class, then running it in NASA TT in whatever class it fell into (the 2011 is still not classed as of this writing but it will likely fall into TTB). The obvious choice for SCCA Solo was E Street Prepared... that means virtually any suspension mods (no changing pick-up points), intake/exhaust/tuning mods, racing seats, and giant Hoosier A6 "DOT" R compounds. With the 5 time ESP National Champion in our SCCA region we wouldn't be starved for serious competition, either.

But after a year of racing in another "SP" class, and trashing lots expensive Hoosier A6 tires, I had second thoughts. We had run in Street Touring classes from 2004-2009, and we kind of missed racing there. The "ST" category allows for almost the same level of mods as "SP" but uses much more cost effective tires (lower grip/longer wearing) - basically they have to be 140 of higher treadwear. Racing in this category is lots of fun and its the only category outside of "Stock" that allows you to keep your car emissions legal and still be competitive.


This is the weight on our '11 Brembo GT with no fuel - 3563 lbs sans 12.7 lbs of "trunk junk"

Where to run this hefty Mustang? We have seen exactly one S197 Mustang run in STU before (one of our testers - and he moved quickly to ESP), but the thought of battling against the AWD boost buggies in there in a 3600 pound Mustang, even with wider 285mm tires, would be almost pointless. Well since its under 5.1L of displacement its legal to race it in STX, as long as we stick to a maximum 265mm wide tire and 9" wide wheel. So that's where we'll start.


Stage 1 testing is to verify our OEM perch/camber plate solution

To see if this is even a remotely competitive car we plan on doing several stages of prep and testing before spending the bucks for full out suspension and weight saving mods. Stage 1 will be fairly simple: little more than swaybars, Vorshlag camber plates, and maybe lowering springs.


This will be the "Stage 2" prep level for our S197 Mustang - AST 4100s and Vorshlag plates

After we test camber plates on the otherwise stock suspension for a few weeks we'll jump right into Stage 2: AST 4100 coilovers, plates, lightweight 18x9" wheels and 265mm tires (max widths allowed in STX) - then get to an autocross! There's several Nationally competitive STX cars in our region including multiple E36 328is BMWs, several RX8s and some WRXs. Sure, we'll have double the power of the rest of the class, but the Mustang has a solid axle and LOTS of extra mass to throw around. We'll know pretty quickly if the car is going to be competitive, and if so we'll go to the 3rd stage of prep - looking for every pound we can save, and adding AST 5200GA remote reservoir (the same style AST shocks being built for Continental GRAND AM and World Challenge).

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That's another key area of testing we'll perform - to see how much weight we can get out of the car. We'll weigh everything that goes on or off this car and track every pound. The 2011 GT gained about 100 pounds over the 2005-2010 GT, due partly to the new engine, the new 6-spd transmission, and some extra sound insulation Ford added (all S197s got the extra insulation from the GT500, in 2011, according to Ford engineers we met at the 2010 SEMA show). The stock 19x9" wheels and tires weigh a considerable amount also, and we're already testing lightweight wheels/tires on our car that most of the Mustang aftermarket either ignores or doesn't know about.


Test fitting 18x9.5" ET20 wheels (needs more like ET45 offset to fit that wheel) with 275/35/18 tires


As always we're going to post regular updates on several forums for this project, and we'll share everything we do and learn. We're all about "bringing the tech". We'll start with posts on Vorshlag forum, SCCAforums and Corner-Carvers. Please let us know of other forums we should post on! Each forum will get the same updates from us. A lot of our car projects and ideas are crowd sourced, and tapping into several thousand brains is always a help. I freely admit I'm out of touch with the Mustang chassis, and we're learning as we go, but some of you out there will obviously have more experience in these and we welcome your suggestions.

One small note: Feel free to ask any questions or post helpful tips on the thread, but remember: there's potentially hundreds if not thousands of other people reading the same thread (one of our project threads from last year had 250,000 hits in 12 months). Seeing 1,000 "me too" or "cool car!" posts don't really add anything to the discussion, nor does asking the same question that's been asked and answered on that same forum thread already. Remember: if you want to subscribe to a thread you can just go to "thread tools" and click "subscribe to thread". This will keep the thread chock full of useful discussion and save everyone time when reading.

Next post: wheel testing!

Thanks,

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Project Update for Nov 12, 2010: What about wheels?

Originally Posted by Msquared Terry, just a thought: You have found some rims that would clear the calipers that either come in the right widths but wrong offset or vice-vice versa. Given the volume of the SN197 aftermarket (and its likely growth), I wonder if a company making one of those rims could be talked into producing some with the correct offset and the widths you want. Perhaps a retailer such as Vorshlag could commit to selling and promoting them? Just a thought.

We are looking at the potential for helping design/market a new wheel to fit the S197, yes. It would have to be "significantly different" than the hundreds of other S197 fit wheels out there to be worthwhile... lighter, wider, proper hub bore/bolt circle/caliper clearance without spacers, etc. As we're seeing there are a lot of heavy wheels, and a few Nissan/Honda/Subaru/EVO wheels that can be made to fit these cars, but not any real lightweight wheels that are truly made for the S197 (other than the $637, "20 pound" BBS being sold by Rehagen Racing - see below, right).


Left: D-Force 18x10" wheel is 18.7 lbs and $309 retail. Right: This is the only lightweight 18x10" we could find truly built specifically to fit the S197

There's probably a good place to build say.... an 18x10.5" wheel (under $350 and less than 21 lbs) that would fit the S197 correctly and accept wider than 275mm tires. We'd partner with D-Force Wheels, of course. Then again, as soon as we spent the capital to make this new wheel, a company that sounds like FirePack would just copy it with a Chinese built offering and sell it for $10 less... D-Force is also getting into forged and multi-piece wheels - we'll know more about their added capabilities after the 2010 PRI show next month. The Mustang is one car that really needs a dedicated, racer-owned/run, small wheel company like D-Force in its corner making lightweight racing wheels, and Vorshlag has worked with D-Force intensely since 2007 developing new wheel fitments for the BMW community.

Originally Posted by DougNuts Let me guess......this car will not have an LSx put in?

Ha! For once there is a car out there with a motor worthy enough to NOT need an LSx swap!


Va-goosh!

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Project Update for Nov 17, 2010: We've had a huge amount of responses (some that I've replied to) on the 4 forums where I have posted this thread on so far, so some of this might look familiar on the thread you're reading. Adding the RoadRaceAutoX.com forum was a big boost in ideas/questions (thanks guys).

Autocross and Time Trial Classing - We've had a lot of folks question my sanity on the decision to run STX for SCCA Solo classing. Not sure what this class is? Read the STX rules here on Jason Rhode's STX blog page. Speaking of that...

http://www.rhoadescamaro.com/build/

Go read that blog and see another racer who's bucking the trend in STX - by using a V8 powered RWD solid axle '67 Camaro Z/28! If you thought our build was crazy, he has pretty good reasoning for his similar-yet-different V8 RWD chassis decision there. Now his 1st gen Camaro STX build, when all is said and done, will likely be 300+ pounds lighter than our 2011 GT, so he might really be onto something. And remember: he beat all the Civics in STS back in 2006 using a RWD Nissan 240SX, so don't just assume that being competitive in STX is impossible in a powerful RWD car. He's proven that winning in unconventional cars is possible, if you develop it well enough. Very cool build, mad prop's to J-Rho! We've been tossing ideas back and forth on both of our cars, and he has clued me into some great ideas already.



Also, our foray into the ST category with the S197 Mustang GT isn't unprecedented. We had a Vorshlag tester (KentK) that helped us in the development phase with our S197 camber plates and AST shocks for this chassis. Somehow Hanchey and I convinced him to try it in STU. He ran the same Enkei NT03+M 18x10.5" ET30 wheels (the rears needed more backspacing) we ran on the EVO X, and he had the STU class limit 285mm wide Dunlops, with the above mentioned AST/Vorshlag suspension. It wasn't half bad in the handful of races he ran in STU, against the Texas STU crowd here, but he didn't stick around long enough to develop it. He moved to ESP class, with big 315mm Hoosier A6 tires, where its done well Nationally - and is still doing well there. The prep level he has on the car now would have sure helped his chances in STU, way back when. So for our 2011 GT in STX... sure, its going to take a lot of testing and prep, but we think its got an outside shot at being competitive. Stock for stock, the '11 GT has +100 whp over the '05-10 GT chassis Kent used in STU, too.

For NASA Time Trial use (where we should have better luck using the proposed 450 whp we think we can make in STX legal trim) we'll use a wider wheel (18x10" or 18x10.5") and a wider tire (285mm) with something like 140-200 treadwear. The 2011 GT was just re-classed in NASA from TTC (2005-2010 GT) to TTB (2011 GT), and has a race weight of 3770. We'll have to ballast up to make that, and it will likely end up in TTA with the mods we have planned. Ugh. We'll talk more about TT prep in a later post - we won't have a track test day even planned until after at least the "Stage 2" (AST 4100) suspension and the "big" wheels are on.


Factory undertray has a flip-down trap door over the oil filter. We changed 8 qts of Mobile1 and Wix filter goodness

Wheel Testing - this has been most of what we've done with the GT the past week, other than the initial oil change @ 250 miles (the stock oiling system takes 8 qts of oil - that's kind of encouraging, actually. Went with 10W30 Mobil1 + Wix filter). I started asking about wheel options before we bought the car, back in this massive Corner-Carvers thread about the Coyote 5.0 motor/2011 GT. The beef I brought up there was the lack of wider, lightweight 18" wheels made for the S197. In my early measurements I could see that the standard GT's 18x8.5" and even the '11 Brembo GT's 19x9" (ET42) wheels were small for the size and weight of this car - and there was tons of room for wider wheels going inboard. The stock 19x9" wheels/tires are boat anchors (57.2 lbs per corner!) and the factory 255/40/19 tires are super tall, too (27.2" tall!).


Left: Stock wheel/tire is 57.2 lbs. Right: factory wheel is 19x9" ET42... that's made in China

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The problem we quickly noted was that the aftermarket was pushing blingy, heavy, yet narrow wheels for the S197. Most of the Mustang drivers on the non-race forums were choosing cheap, "replica" wheels that are hideously heavy. Or Shelby GT500 wheels (18x9.5"), also very heavy. The only "real S197" direct fit wheel we found in 18x10" that wasn't a Chinese replica was the expensive BBS 18x10" shown below...


Above: The "Boss302R" 18x10" BBS wheel Rehagen sells is 20+ lbs and $637; Its used on some Continental GRAND AM S197 race cars

TireRack lists a bunch of heavy aftermarket stuff for these cars, too: 18x8, 18x8.5", 18x9.5" and a bunch of 19" rubbish - all of it heavy. I won't have a car that uses 19" race tires, no way. There's no reason to have 19" wheels on this car, period. 18"ers clear the brakes, and the tire choices are MUCH better in that diameter, so 18" it is. 19's is simply a styling move, and one I hate. Some of the reason we haven't found many wider 18" options yet, I think, is because the 2011 Brembo package is still "new" and the larger 14" Brembo front brakes are somewhat unknown - not all 18" wheels will clear the big caliper, as we found out.

Where were the Enkeis, Team Dynamics, Volks, WedSports, OZs and the many other lightweight aftermarket wheel options?? Well, digging deeper we noticed that they were all out there, just not listed under the S197 Mustang. Nissan (350Z), Mitsubishi (EVO), Subaru (WRX/STI), and Honda (S2000) all use the same 5 x 4.5" bolt circle (they call it 5 x 114.3mm). And most of the aftermarket wheels use an oversized hub bore, so we can make hub-centric adapter rings to fit the Ford's 70.5mm hub bore. That's good news.



So last week I tried to fit Stuart at AST's 18x10" CCW Classics (6.75" backspacing) from his '05 GT (above, left) onto our '11, but they didn't even come close to clearing the huge front calipers. The Classics aren't known for their awesome caliper clearance, but it did have me a tick worried. Next we pulled an 18x9.5" ET20 (6" backspace) Rota "Grid" Matte Bronze wheel and 275mm tire off of Matt@Vorshlag's 350Z (above, right) to see if that cleared the brakes and fenders, but I had my doubts due to the 20mm offset... (sorry for posting this pic twice, but it is more applicable here/now)


(yes, that is photoshopped to be lowered... this is the actual pic)

That first test was pretty enlightening. The gold wheel didn't look that bad on the car, either, but that was not the point. This Rota 18x9.5" ET20 doesn't fit inside the S197 fenders, as feared; the tire was sticking out past the fenders (about 1/2" out back - see below), but it was a good reference point and let us measure the inboard clearance to the suspension. After measuring the 18x9.5" Rota on the car it looks like we could go inboard by 2.5" in back and over 2" in front... meaning an 18x11" up front and 18x12" in back could just barely fit, if you played your offsets right. With enough camber, rolled front fender lips, and a different style front swaybar end link (more on that later). It should be easy to fit an 18x10 on both ends, though. Backspacing of 7-7.5" on the front and 7.5-8.5" on back looks to be ideal for 10"+ wide wheels, from my measurements.



I then borrowed an 18x9.5" ET45 wheel (a TireRack branded Subaru-fit wheel) with a mounted Dunlop 275/35/18 tire from Paul M's '95 Impreza/STi swap project last weekend. Tested it on the GT this past Sunday and it fit much better than the same size'd wheel in ET20 we tried before (under the fenders at both ends). If I had to choose a street wheel without the need for maximum width/grip or goofy class rules that limit us to little 9" wide wheels, the 18x9.5" ET45 would be the obvious choice for the S197.

So the Subaru/Nissan 350Z fitments are what we ending up searching on, as there seemed to be many more wheel choices from companies like Enkei. Hub bore is different, but like I said, we can make a hub-centric adapter ring. I'm trying to get an 18x9" in at 18 lbs or less, so Enkei is the first obvious option we're looking at (NT03+M, RPF-1 or PF01 models). Matt found an Enkei RPF-1 in 18x9" ET35 (6.4" backspace) which might just barely fit (18.4 lbs), and they also have a PF01 (new for '09) with ET45 (6.77" backspacing) that's sub-19 lbs (the 18x8.5" shows to be "18 lbs", no weight on the 9"). The ET45 will fit inboard better, obviously (nearly identical to the stock '11 Brembo 19x9" ET42 wheel). In the 18x10" size the choices got much slimmer... the most backspacing we could find was 7" (18x10 ET38) for this bolt pattern. So we ordered one of the 18x9" ET45 in the Enkei FP01 and one 18x10 ET38 in the Enkei RPF1 yesterday from TireRack and we'll test fit them when they show up next week and report back.



We talked to the nice folks at Team Dynamics, who were willing to custom make the 5x4.5"/70.5mm hub bore in one of their 18x10 wheels in one of 3 offsets (ET40, 52 and 56 - all Porsche fitments normally in 5-130mm), all of which would fit much better ion the rear but might require a small spacer up front. Weight was the killer - 28.5 lbs for the 18x10s.

Tire height is the next issue. The stock Mustang 255/40/19 tires on the 19" wheels are a staggering 27.2" tall. The 265/35/18 we're thinking of using for STX class is only 25.3" tall, which is a huge difference (for gearing, CG height, etc). Not many choices there, as most of the ST-legal/competitive 265s are all this same size. For the street a closer match to stock is a 285/35/18 tire, which is 25.9" tall. Those probably will go on the 18x10" wheels for street/track use. For a variety of reasons (racer recommendations, price, compound, & sidewall style) we're looking at the Hankook RS-3 tire for initial testing. After being out of ST category for a year a lot has changed... we probably need to test the same sized tire in Yokohama AD08, Dunlop, Kumho XS, and Toyo R1R, if not more. I doubt many/any of these have been tested on a car this heavy, either.



Last night I worked late on SolidWorks and revised our Vorshlag S197 camber/caster plate drawings (rev 3 for all of the main parts), so we're having a short run of these made in steel. It will eventually be released as an aluminum plate, after I have time to add the "Vorshlag" logo, model engraving, hash marks, and crunch the numbers. We'll test the plates on the stock springs/suspension next week, then try it with Eibach lowering springs (I think that's going to likely become a popular and affordable S197 package - Eibach springs and Vorshlag plates). I'll rate the stock '11 GT Brembo spring rates on our Longacre spring rater, too (see this Spring Archive for similar data).

I'll stop there for now. We've got a lot more to share., and keep those suggestions, questions and ideas coming.

Thanks,

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Update for Nov 19, 2010: Not a lot of "work" to update on here, but we did get the baseline dyno run completed so I figured I'd share that, plus some bench racing on the exhaust, and some more wheel weight testing.

The guys at Dallas Performance were kind enough to squeeze in a quick 3-pull dyno test on our GT late yesterday. This was using their state-of-the-art, 2008 model, Dynojet® "Eddy Current", loaded in-ground 224xLC chassis dyno. They just moved to a new (and massive) location where they've built a dedicated dyno cell. Its as clean as a surgical room in there - and everywhere else in their shop. It is literally the nicest looking, most well equipped tuner/fab shop I've seen in all of Dallas/Ft Worth. They do some amazing high powered builds there, with 1000-1400 whp twin turbo V8s and V10s being the norm.

Our 2011 GT was the first stock Coyote 5.0 powered car they'd dyno'd so far. They told me that the most power they'd seen from a bone stock 2010 Camaro V8 was 345 whp, and a 370 whp pull from a stock 6.1L Hemi Challenger was the highest of any modern, stock "pony car" they have tested to date. Well the numbers from our 2011 GT beat all of those pony cars...

Here's the video & dyno chart (all pulls within 3 whp):


Click for baseline dyno video



We were a little disappointed with the peak 378 whp figure, as we'd seen a number of '11 GTs post 385-395 whp pulls, bone stock. We tried to rationalize the number on the low mileage on the motor (580 miles at the time of the test), or the fact that I drove the car around all day and didn't let it cool down before we dyno'd it (heat soaked), but in reality I screwed up and told them to dyno it in the wrong gear! For consistency and the least drivetrain loss, you typically dyno a car in the 1:1 gear, which is usually 4th gear in most 4, 5 and 6 speed transmissions. All Tremec T56 cars ever built had a 4th gear of 1:1, which is normal. But of course the 2011 GT doesn't have a Tremec, it has the Getrag MT82 6-spd (see the specs on the 6-spd).

6-speed manual transmission (MT82 Getrag) gear ratios:

• 1st = 3.66
• 2nd = 2.43
• 3rd = 1.69
• 4th = 1.32 (oops! We dyno'd in 4th, thinking it was 1:1)
• 5th = 1.00
• 6th = 0.65
• Final drive 3.31:1

So not using 5th might account for maybe... -3-8 whp or so? A small but measurable amount. We'll dyno it in 5th after the next round of mods, and we'll do a 4th vs 5th gear pull to see the difference, then. We have the headers we want to use picked out and we're rounding up parts for the custom after-header system we're going to build in-house so hopefully this won't be too long from now.

We have a ways to go on the 450 whp goal, but I still think its doable. Tuners are finding 10-20 whp on otherwise stock 5.0's, just in air/fuel/spark tweaks, too. DP is looking into getting the software for HPTuners or one of his other tuning packages to be able to tune our car, but I won't bother until after we have the updated I/H/E or at least the underdrive pulleys. Nobody else tunes our cars but Taylor @ DP. He programs powerful yet reliable tunes. We'll raise the rev limit at that time to 7500 rpm, up from the 6800 rpm the car is stuck with now (was supposed to be 7000 stock).

The I/H/E mods (intake/headers/exhaust) currently planned include some sort of aftermarket cold air intake (need to research the various 2011 offerings available) and of course full length headers + custom exhaust. A biggest single gain will likely be found in the headers - the stock exhaust manifolds units are short, tortured messes of tubes. There's a lot of 2011 GT header offerings out there already, but I plan on using American Racing Header's stainless steel full lengths:



Luckily they have some of the best header products on the market and their 2011 GT 5.0 full length header options are amongst the best. They claim a 32 whp increase, using the stock mid-pipe/mufflers/no tuning. So somewhere around 410 whp is what we'd be looking at after installing just their headers, without any tuning or other exhaust mods. The baseline number they had was almost identical to ours, 379 whp, and they reached 411 whp with the headers.

The problem I see with using theirs or anyone's full length header design and catted X-pipe is the location of the converter. Here's the STX/STU specific rule:

STX, STU – Any high flow catalytic converter(s) are allowed, but must attach within six inches of the original unit. Multiple catalytic converters may be replaced by a single unit. The inlet of the single replacement converter may be located no further downstream than 6” along the piping flow path from the original exit of the final OE converter.

Here's the stock converter location on our 2011 (there's only 2)



So my thought is to buy the headers, throw some header wrap on them, then mock them up in the car. Take the measurements and see where the cats can be placed. Then we can build our own after-header exhaust with high flow cats further upstream, maybe even modify headers/collectors a bit if needed. We can then push the high flow cat exactly 6" back from the stock unit. Its more work, and less than ideal for ultimate power gains, but its the rules. We'll at least save weight on the custom X-pipe and rear exhaust portions over the pre-made units from the aftermarket, which always use heavier wall tubing.



On the custom X-pipe and after-cat portions of the exhaust system we'll be using thin walled, 20-22 gauge stainless mandrel bends & tubing, with a few V-bands in there to make everything easily removable. I thought briefly about making an aluminum after-cat exhaust, for the lightest possible weight, but the longevity would be severely compromised and it would be significantly louder. Need to keep the tested sound number under 100 dB (SCCA limit), but with cats it shouldn't be a problem. We'll do our own before-and-after exhaust sound tests here, as usual.

Not sure what mufflers to use, yet. Just read Andy Hollis' "Sounding Off" muffler test article in the Dec 2010 issue of Grassroots Motorsports and the best results came from the Burns mufflers, so I cannot ignore those pricey little buggers. I really like Flowmaster's products and tend to use their mufflers on a lot of our builds, but I want to keep it very light and all stainless. With the cats required in STX it won't need as much muffler to meet sound regs as we used in DSP on the E46, so we might go with some sort of lightweight race muffler instead of FM's larger chambered style or the new glass-pack style Hushpower units. Since there's 2 big spots for the stock mufflers all the way at the back, that's likely where we'll end up with ours. Meaning: a full length exhaust (not a dumped/shorter run). If we can use a bullet style muffler we could place them where the stock resonators are, and use turn-downs for a shorter/lighter system.



The first two real "test wheels" purchased for the Mustang also arrived today. Both Enkei wheels were immediately weighed, with some surprising results:



So the 18x10" RPF1 was lighter than the 18x9" FP01. Weird, right? But we knew the FP01 would be heavier in the same size, just a bit surprised that a one inch wider RFP1 would be almost a pound lighter. Still, at 19.3 lbs the FP01 is already at least 7 pounds lighter than the stock wheel.

My wife stole the Mustang today so we'll test fit wheels later this weekend and post up about if/how they fit next time. I have a feeling the more curved spoke FP01 will have substantially more caliper clearance than the flatter spoke RPF1.

OK, I'm going to get back to work. Until next time,

[Grandpa]

Fair is officially my new favorite sponsor. I love these detailed write ups!! Thanks for sharing. I'm going to read them all after I get back from the gym.

[Fair]

Originally Posted by SlowGreyGT ... I'm going to read them all after I get back from the gym.

Pack a lunch.

[dmartin78]

Good to see you on here Terry!

[Fair]

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.

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[Fair]

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SCCA Event Results: http://texasscca.org/2013_solo_resul..._final.htm#STU

I guess the BRZ was fairly well prepped for STX, too. I figured beforehand that we might give the two STU Mustangs a run for the money, and was hoping just to keep within a second of the fast STX guys that I watch in our region, like Brad Maxcy's BMW 328is and Mark Sipe's RX8.

Mark C (STU 150) and Amy (STU 197) ran their 5.0 Mustangs in the first heat of four for the day - which was both good and bad. It was good because the surface temperatures on this concrete lot were lower, as were ambient temps in the morning runs. This meant the tires wouldn't get overheated as quickly - but we still had to spray tires on both cars after runs 2-4. At least the didn't have co-drivers to add to the tire heat. But it was bad because the course surface for first heat wasn't as clean as it gets later. Texas Region SCCA does a phenomenal job in prepping the course, with multiple backpack air blowers and brooms, but nothing replaces car tires scrubbing the surface clean. And the course was a bit tricky. It was long, with a LOT of slaloms and near-offsets, perfect for narrow cars - more of what I call a "Miata-centric" course, which we see a lot since the course designer drives a Miata (love ya JJ!). It also had three increasingly tight 180° turn-arounds that joined long-ish acceleration zones. This was AWD heaven.

Walking it I could see the two STU Mustangs probably having trouble with corner exit traction compared to the AWD cars in their class, as the exits from each major "slow down element" (the three turn-arounds) were pinched off (aka: decreasing) and not what these cars need to "excel". The tightness of the 180s were also going to be tough to navigate in these big cars, as were the slaloms. But the BRZ on 17x9" wheels and brand new 255/40/18 BFG Rivals was almost as wide, at a measured 71" outer track width. So it might struggle through the slaloms, too.



It turned out to NOT be the case for the BRZ. This car was eating up the slaloms! In the video linked above (which has horrible audio, thanks to a previous gen GoPro HD camera) is my best run in the BRZ. It was a GRIP BUGGY, and at 2700 pounds with 255 Rivals, excellent shocks and great camber, I guess it should be. My first run in the BRZ absolutely obliterated both STU Mustangs. Now I did run in heat 4, so the course surface was cleaner. But it was also 90°F, so it was hotter when a ran, too. And I was co-driving in a 2-driver car with Matt, and we had to do fast driver changes - we barely had time to spray the tires, switch numbers and reset the seat/wheel between runs, and we had help (thanks, Olof and Mark).



So it looked like Matt's BRZ was pretty quick for having zero testing, at its first ever autocross. We basically threw a bunch of parts at this car, took some guesses at set-up, and went out there and drove it. Of course the parts didn't suck... custom spec'd MCS TT1 coilovers, 450#/in springs, Vorshlag plates, Whiteline bars, Enkei 17x9" RPF-1 wheels (15.8 pounds) and brand new 255/40/17 BFG Rivals. It needs a test day to get the bars, spring rates and other adjustments sorted, but we tweaked shock settings and tire pressures during the event and it felt pretty damned good.

This car was hooked UP on this course. At 2700 pounds the BRZ has a huge weight advantage on the 3600 pound S197s in STU, but with 166 whp it lacks a bit in the "go" department. I beat on that car like a rented mule, launching from the Start at 5500 rpms and taking it to redline several times on course; even using 3rd gear on most of my runs. These cars have relatively low power levels, but it just didn't matter. This is autocross, where WEIGHT WINS. In the end the BRZ was 3.6 seconds faster than Mark or Amy in STU and 1.5 sec faster than the winner in STU. That was shocking, and more than a little depressing. I mean, sure, I knew the BRZ could be faster but not THAT much faster than two well prepped STU S197 5.0 cars.

Matt, the car's owner and a 5 year veteran here at Vorshlag, is still a novice autocrosser yet beat the 30 car Novice class handily in the same BRZ. So I guess we had the car set-up well enough from the start. Co-driving the car with him in the last heat of the day made it tight on driver switchover timing, and the car slowed down on my last 2 runs - we think from both tire and brake pad heat (he had on the OEM pads and I was turning them to goo with my hectic Left Foot Braking). We just could not get the tires cooled down on our last 2 runs.


Left: Twin turbo LSx powered 68 Camaro on street tires! Right: 2 liters of naturally aspirated fury pumping out 166 whp. Its no Coyote 5.0.

PAX Results: http://texasscca.org/2013_solo_results/tr13_6_pax.htm

I will be the first to admit that I'm no "momentum" car driver, yet the times still PAX'd 13th out of 121, and won STX class by a 2.5 sec margin. My best run in the BRZ was run #3, still with with a passenger on board (took passengers on runs 1-3, then took runs 4-5 solo), so I know the car had more left in it. I feel that the tires were just a tick too hot, and word is the Rivals do not take extreme heat well - but what does well in Texas summer heat with 2-drivers running back to back? Not a whole lot. Normally you don't want to have a 2-driver car in any class in this kind of heat.


Amy driving the 2013 (at left) in the same 180° corner as Mark in his 2012 (at right).

Looking at the results, the two STU Mustangs were bringing up the tail end of their class. It seems that the Mustangs were very close to each other, and in the end Mark beat Amy by .009 sec, which is no small feat. Sure, Amy was coning runs left and right (3 of 5 runs) but her fastest run was clean and on her 5th and final attempt. Maybe her car's tires were past their due date (NT-05s were never that grippy), but she was hustling around that course and stepping on cone bases, cutting good lines. She's been racing since 1993 and often matches or beats my times, but she's a bit rusty in Solo this year. And in case you are wondering, I might guess that.... I might have put a second on her that day in that car, maybe. I almost never beat her by more than that, and we are often in the same tenth (or she beats me) when we co-drive together.



The image above (click or any other it for larger version, as always) is a "composite results" listing I put together of all of the STX & STU cars. I even dragged in some StreetMod and X class entries, that were really STX or ESP cars (but not the entire X or SM classes). Sometimes the online results disappear over time, so I like to make my own copy. This grouping shows all of the cars that matter to the STU Mustang. As you can see there was a good variety of cars in the STU class, including a 2.5L WRX, an EVO X, an E46 M3 (Gaith's car, which we have worked on several times), and the two Mustangs bringing up the rear. STU should be faster than STX, of course, but it doesn't always work out this way.

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[Fair]

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It looks like my STX winning time was also good enough to top STU and all of the STX cars at the event but one, as Mark Sipe cleaned up some cone trouble with a hero 5th run (running in Street Mod during heat 3) that put almost 9 tenths on the BRZ. He's a damn fast driver and has been racing that RX8 since about 2006, and it is set up well. Maxcy was fast in his well prepped BMW 328is (running in X class) but also had cone trouble and sat on his 1st run. Since he was in X class and they automatically DSQ the 4th and 5th runs (that class only), and he was a bit closer on his 5th run. Madarash's ESP car was smoking fast, and even with the harder SMod factor he just out-placed me in PAX results. After watching all of my runs on video, there was clearly more time in the BRZ than we saw in this first event, with better driving and a developed set-up. As usual I complained more about power than anything, and there are some proven power mods on these cars out now, too.



In the end I think this event was a better test point for the "S197 in STU" idea than the last autocross where Mark and I drove his 2012 GT in two different heats on differing courses (mid-event course change, ugh). The times we see in these results show another piece of data supporting the request allowing more tire on the Mustangs in STU. Even with 295s and $100 worth of "cheater" rear suspension upgrades, it was still lacking. Both Mustangs would have gotten killed in the old STX class, especially running on the skinnier 265mm tires, so I think STU is still the right move for these cars. Of course everyone can always drive better and Mark will only get faster as he gets more seat time and mods on the car, but Amy isn't new to this sport and neither of them brought an un-prepped STU car.

Since there is still no resolution in sight on the ESP Watts Link rules debacle (delayed until 2015, for no good reason), see I will continue to not build a car of my own around an SCCA class in 2014. This is unusual for me, as I have almost always had a car built around some SCCA Solo class rules since I started autocrossing in the late 80s. Instead I will try to continue to co-drive cars like Matt's STX BRZ or maybe Mark's STU Mustang, at local events through this year and maybe even into next season. Might do the "local" National level events but I won't travel for them. We have been doing 25-30 race weekends a year for the past 7 or 8 years in a row, and it is taking its toll. Amy and I will continue to concentrate our personal cars and efforts on campaigning our 2011 Mustang in NASA TT (as well as another car we are building) next year, which as a club has been a good bit easier to deal with.

We are also on the list for a 2015 Mustang, as soon as they are released, whatever it looks like or weighs. Who knows how the SCCA will class this car, or if it will be heavier than the outgoing chassis? I think that all of the rumors out now of it being lighter than the S197 are wildly optimistic, but I am hopeful that with IRS it might have better corner exit traction. Time will tell. However it turns out we will try to make it better, and track + autocross it to test parts we develop for this new chassis.

More Aero Prep on TT3 Mustang

Now for the stuff most of you have been waiting for - if you even bothered to read the autocross bits above, I thank you. Many of you have been watching the progress of our front aero work from the past two weeks on the Vorshlag Facebook page. But for the rest of you, let's catch up from where we left off in the last update, where we were just starting to get the new aero development underway. Don't forget that almost every picture I post can be clicked for a larger rez version.



One big slab of 6061-T6 x .190 sheet makes up the new splitter, and yes, we probably went too thick and this thing has a sizable amount of heft. Its hard to tell in the small picture above (left) how much bigger the new unit really is. The black one is the Leguna Seca ABS splitter sitting on top of our aluminum BMF splitter. The Leguna piece sticks out past the lower fascia by 5.5". The new unit sticks out front by 10.25", almost double the forward length. It also goes back a couple of feet and is wider by nearly 4" per side, and is mounted 1" lower as well. The extra width is there to better line up with the upcoming tire spats/flares that will cover the front of the 18x12" front wheels. Spinning tires sticking out in the air stream are a big contribution to drag, so we planned to cover the leading edges.



The spacer to lower the splitter was built out of is 1" square aluminum tubing, pie cut on the back side and bent to match the curved contour of the lower fascia. This was then TIG welded back together while held in the fixture shown above, ground smooth, drilled for the existing mounting holes, and bolted between the splitter and fascia it becomes a rigid spacer. Ed cut and shaped this thing one night using his portable band saw, then Ryan (who did 90% of all of the work in this aero mod project) welded and ground it smooth, and it came out looking much nicer than any race part should. If we have ground clearance issues we can remove this 1" spacer and adjust the rear mounting eyes upward to match.



The radiator I talked briefly about in my previous post is shown above. Yes, it is a Mishimoto unit, which is a fabricated, all-aluminum radiator that is much larger than the OEM piece. It bolts in place and has the integral mounts for the A/C condenser, which is still on this car. We were going to buy the Ford Racing Boss-S radiator (M-8005-MGT), but at $750 retail (still $650+ at the lowest shipped price) I just couldn't stomach that. We have had excellent results with Mishimoto radiators in the past on LS1 BMWs (I have one in my new E46 LSx build, one in the Alpha E36 making 490 whp, McCall had one in his Z3 LS1, Matt has one in his E36 LS1, etc). Then we realized... damn, we're a Mishimoto dealer, and they do make an S197 drop-in radiator. We sell this radiator now for $247, which is a steal. I will touch on how it worked in my coverage of the ECR track test, below (excellent).



Above left you can see the "waterfall" air deflector that we built for behind the radiator. There are brackets that hold it in place (not shown in these pics yet) and it has rubber edging and cut-outs near any radiator hose. This deflector seals to the bottom of the radiator but is open on the sides. It directs the airflow up towards the hood ducting, but isn't part of a 100% sealed duct system. We talked to other race engineers and they agreed - the small incremental improvements from making a 100% sealed radiator-to-hood duct system is not worth the added work compared to what we have done here. We could get 90-95% of the benefit for 1/3rd the work. The upper right pic shows the first iteration of the rear splitter mounts. These are custom made pin mounts that go into small spherical eyes that can be adjusted up/down for a better fit. We have 3 on there, and the outer 2 have latching pins.

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[Fair]

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Above left are the fabricated struts that hold the front of the splitter and bolt to the fabricated push bar behind the bumper cover. These are adjustable in length and made from aluminum tubing and steel threaded eye ends. They have been weight tested and also proven on track, don't worry. The above right picture is with the hood ducting cut and some corrugated cardboard stuffed in place, for mock-up. Then Brandon did his photoshop tricks and made the blue hood look red.



Building the hood ducting was done in the method shown above. We looked at other ways, and even attempted to weld on the aluminum sheet that the OEM hood is made of. welding was a major chore so we went with rivets. The aluminum side panels have small angle pieces riveted to them and to the hood, and he structure is actually stronger than before due to the boxed shape of the two ducts.



How big are the ducts, and why didn't we just "buy a Tiger Racing hood!", like so many people suggested? Well, as you can see, a human head will fit through the duct openings, so they are bigger than anything we've seen out there. The drop on the ducting is also very deep, unlike any off the shelf hood we have found for the S197. This drop was only possible by moving the coolant reservoir and factory routing of the cold-air inlet to the middle and going over the radiator support. THIS was why we did all of that work. The TR hood also has the ducts in less than ideal placement, in my humble opinion, moving from a low presure (forward) to high pressure zone back by near the windshield. It is also $1500+ for a composite hood that is prone to cracking, and a real bear to paint (according to a body shop I talked to that has done a half dozen), whereas this is a $300 used aluminum OEM hood with just "some fab hours" into it. It is still light and yet strong enough to work for years without cracking. Mostly it allowed us to make the ducting as deep as we wanted in where we wanted, instead of being stuck with an aftermarket composite hood's shape and layout.



As you can see above, Ryan added some epoxy seam sealer to the edges of the hood openings where the sheets of aluminum met. Again, welding this OEM material proved problematic, so we went with rivets and panel bonding epoxy on everything. It is air tight and STRONG. The ducts are BIG, placed in the correct low pressure areas (in theory), and they drop WAY down and grab air from the now uncovered back of the radiator, with more flow pushed upwards from the waterfall deflector. This hood ducting combined with the massive splitter we fabricated should produce significantly more front downforce than the LS splitter we used before, even at low speeds. In theory. Neither Jason nor I are aero engineers, but our mechanical engineering backgrounds aren't from another planet, either. We also know some smart aero guys who gave us a lot of tips.



We never got a good picture with the bumper cover off of the new "Corvette style" air cleaner installed onto the end of our fabricated aluminum intake tube, and now that is all buried under the front end and I don't want to pull it all apart for a pic. Above are a couple of pictures with the clear cellophane still on the air cleaner, but mounted in place. Removing the big, bulky factory bumper beam and foam crash structure and replacing it with the fabricated 1.75" x .120" wall DOM tube allowed a lot of extra SPACE for the rather large air cleaner to sit and draw air from. It is up out of the air stream with just the carbon fiber "lid" visible from the grill opening. It might get a tiny bit of extra airflow from some "ram air" effect, but I doubt it will be noticeable (it wasn't on track). That wasn't the intent of the new intake tube routing and air cleaner location - it was all about making room behind the radiator for the new hood ducting's surface area.



In order to leave as much room behind the radiator for more surface area on the hood, to allow more flow through the ducting, we ditched the OEM electric fan and shroud. Why? The stock fan shroud was VERY THICK (4" or more), and it was also sealed to the entire back surface of the radiator. This is a good thing on a 100% street car with stock grill and stock radiator, as it allows the fan to suck air from the full back surface of the radiator and not just the round area that the fan blade covers. We aren't as concerned about stop and go traffic driving as much now, and once you are up to speed (45 mph or so) on track the "free flow" across the radiator makes the electric fan irrelevant - and in fact, the shroud can restrict free flow at speed. So we added a slim aftermarket 16" diameter electric fan without a shroud. This mounts to the Mishimoto's upper and lower flanges with custom aluminum brackets Olof fabbed up. We have it tied into the factory wiring harness and it functions just like the stock fan (computer controlled). When Ed and I ran the car Friday night to burp the new coolant system (filled with distilled water), the engine idled for about 20 minutes and the fan came on 2 times for about 30 seconds. Trust me, it moves some air. You can feel it sucking in on the front of the radiator and also blowing hard up from the waterfall deflector. We had to wait for the track test to see if the ducting work would pay off with adequate cooling, seeing that we blocked off over half of the grill opening area. We were warned by countless Mustang folks watching the pics on FB that it would overheat and melt the block like the core of the earth, too.



Another area we wanted to improve was the oil / air separator system. We have been using the JLT for over 2 years, and had upgraded their normal kit to have a real mounting bracket (we fabbed) and real metal fittings and lines (the JLT kit comes with plastic bits that eventually crack/leak). It was OK but the kit we had only drew crankcase pressure from one cylinder head - the passenger side. I picked up the can from a Moroso kit a while back and used it in a new system we built. This larger Moroso oil / air separator draws from both valve covers, into the separator, with a vacuum source on the other side of the can. We were pressed for time and simply used 5/8" heater hose for the lines with Norma clamps crimped at each end. We set-up the Moroso can using fittings with hose barb ends that we put together and mounted to the firewall with the included mounting bracket. I hoped the heater hose could take suction without collapsing (it doesn't!), but we had the track test to check that out at.

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[DirtyD]

You have me wanting to just start spending money, upgrading the car, and getting out and doing this stuff!

So awesome!

[Fair]

Pre-Nationals Update, Sept 2nd, 2013: It has been a very long week and we have been working hard on our Mustang every day since the test. A lot of things have been finished and cleaned up, and the crew is loading the car into the trailer now, at 10 pm the night before we drive to Miller. I will show a few pictures that are uploaded, but will do a better "catch up " post when we get back from the NASA Nationals...



The picture above shows the Kevlar honeycomb grill guard material and the air cleaner, in front of the radiator. If this honeycomb is damaged it can be quickly removed. It is a sacrificial material. A mesh grill out at the opening (high pressure area) would cause more airflow restriction than this stuff right at the radiator surface.



That's the front end all painted and ready for graphics. The guys at Heritage Collision Center in Sherman, TX did a fantastic job for such a short window, and over a 3-day holiday weekend at that. There is some clean-up work to do, as they ran out of color and couldn't get anyone to open their stores to make more, so don't over-analyze the paint just yet. We will bring the car back after Nationals, sans stripes, and they will re-shoot the hood. For the insane time frame we gave them, however it looks fantastic!

Ryan has been working damn near around the clock getting all of the little fab work done. Jason, Ryan and I worked with the flares and they came out "pretty good" for our first time vacuum forming ABS. We will show more pics of the flares when we get back. We learned a lot with this set, and will apply this knowledge and tweak our forming equipment to get a cleaner looking set of flares soon.



Amy and Jason did the stripes in about an hour, and they look excellent. They look like the old graphics but are indeed all new on the fenders and hood. The stripes dive down into the hood ducts and look slick. Big NASA decals adorn the car front and back.



That's the crew, with me on the left, Amy, then Jason and Ryan (with his eyes closed!). Brandon is on a ladder getting the shot. The rest of our guys are at home, asleep, on this Monday Labor Day holiday. Ed was here earlier helping with the build, as usual, but this time sporting a busted knee. We're loading the trailer and Amy and I leave for our 22 hour tow in about 6 hours. Sleep? Not part of the plan.

We hope to have fun at this, our first NASA Nationals. I want to thank everyone at Vorshlag that helped with this 3 week "new aero thrash" and flares prototype work. The final results are beyond my expectations and I hope it all works as good at Miller as they did at our ECR test. I also I can put in some good laps and don't embarrass everyone! Fingers crossed.

More soon,