This is easily the coolest blog post I've ever made in the 17 years I've been doing this blog. Just dig that title! It was an EPIC trip! That word was overhyped out of use a few years ago, but its the best word I can think of to describe this road trip!
Here was the plan of attack. As documented here in this blog, I have been modifying Old Crow to be a solid street car that can do track days. With this in mind, Brent and I had been talking about doing a track day at Buttonwillow together along with the #stickaxlegang sometime in the fall. I signed up for the Oct 19th Buttonwillow CW13 configuration with SpeedVentures. It was $330 total. $70 of that was to pay for an Instructor, which was required if this is your first track day event. I also rented the transponder, which was like $40, so I could get my lap times recorded through racehero.io. It's certainly not a cheap event. If you weren't aware, I live in Utah and Buttonwillow is in the central valley of California. It's 750 miles away from my house! The nice part is its only about 1 hour and 15 minutes from my home town of Tehachapi, California where my parents and brother live. The plan was to drive down in one day, have a day to do some prep (change diff and engine oil and mod the seat rail to lower the new Corbeau bucket seat), hit up an R/C indoor event at the Mojave airport, then hit the track on Saturday and then start driving home on Sunday.
Tracking your "daily car" always has some level of risk to it. Adding the fact that I'm 750 miles away and the potential impacts of breaking down at the track, that definitely made me nervous. Add in the other point that I and my friend are the ones who installed every single modification and it was really going to be a test of the car. I'll give you the spoiler, everything went better than expected, the car did amazing and it was an epic trip and day at the track.
This is going to be a long post. I'll run through the trip and the preparations we completed once I got to my parent's house in Tehachapi.
Pre-trip Preparations
I need to catch you up on the couple of mods I have done the last month or so in preparation for the track day. After doing the front brakes on the Mustang with Corey and then doing the brakes on our Honda Odyssey by myself, I felt comfortable to tackle replacing the rear brakes on the Mustang. The pads and rotors were visibly worn and needing to be replaced. I followed Brent's path here as well by picking up the SVE rear caliper bracket which allows the use of the 13" brake rotor used on the 07-09 or 11-14 GT500/2012-13 Boss 302. This is a nice step up in size from the 11.8" GT rotor. I then picked up matching PowerStop "Track Day" brake pads. Here's a quick before and after shot. I cleaned and masked off the rear calipers and sprayed some gloss black to improve the look behind the wheel.
I flushed the transmission fluid and replaced it with Mercon V ATF, which is per the OEM specification. Kind of funny that the manual transmission uses automatic transmission fluid (ATF). It took exactly 3 quarts. The trans fluid had been changed at 30k miles, which was 100K+ miles ago. Another yikes!
In September, I drove down to the Corbeau warehouse in Bluffdale, Utah and test sat in a few of the FX1 line of seats. Brent has the FX1 Pro on the drivers side and the FX1 Wide now in the passenger seat (previously the drivers seat, moved over to the passenger). I had driven Brent's car with the FX1 Pro about 2 years ago when I went down to help Poppi get his engine and trans back in his Sally SN95. I was pretty set on that and was about to buy it online. When I found that the websites I was going to buy from were going to take a few weeks to ship/arrive, I went straight to Corbeau's website. They offered since I was local to come down and sit in some seats to test them out. What I found was that the Pro was the most narrow (up to 34" waist), the standard FX1 was in the middle (up to 36" waist) and the FX1 Wide was... you guessed it, the widest (up to 38" waist). I sat in the Pro first because I thought that was the one I came down to buy. Uh, whoa that's reeeeeally tight man. That got me thinking haha Can I live with this on the street year round? Bruuuhhh... that's tight. I sat in the standard and was like, oh ya, I think that's it. I sat in the wide and in a couple of other models, but went with the standard FX1 in the end. Here's a pic above of the final look once installed. The hardest part of the install was actually the removal of the stock seat's wiring harness. To get the one plug you need to connect to the seat belt sensor, so your audible alarm doesn't go off continually, you have to retain the whole wiring harness for the factory heated and adjustable seat. I'm not ready to cut up the oem seat harness so its stuffed underneath the Corbeau for now.
Day 2
The Ford OEM GT500 diff cover came with some nice stainless hardware along with a plug for the diff vent which is not needed on the Mustang GTs because the GTs vent through a vent in the axle tube. The rear diff fluid wasn't horrible, but not great either. We inspected the bottom of the bucket and didn't seen anything scary in there (shiny metal bits). I used Valvoline 75w90 (regular temp conditions) synthetic gear oil which is made for "limited slip" diffs from Walmart. Luckily, by buying 3 quarts, if you spill 1/2 a quart, you still have enough to top off the diff LOLOL. Ask us how we know! We used Poppi's funnel and tube contraption to gravity feed the oil into the diff. I'll have to take some time this winter to put some black paint down on the rear end to improve the looks a little. Kinda rusty lookin'.
Day Before Trip Start
On Tuesday, October 15th, I packed up the car and my suitcase. I filled up my small red tool box with some basics, torque wrench, sockets, screw drivers, flashlight, windex and paper towels, a park chair and some snacks. I left with a full tank of Utah's best 91 octane at 615am on Wednesday October 16th from Farmington, Utah. The sun was not up and wouldn't be for like 2 hours. My first stop was Cove Fort and the new gas station on the Cove Fort exit.
Day 1
After going about 2+ hours, I made a stop at the Cove Fort gas station. There was some rain clouds threatening in the area. I escaped with only minor sprinkles. Stopping here allowed me to make it to Las Vegas for a final gas up.
After going for my morning walk, we started working on removing the rear diff cover. After looking in the maintenance records I have from the original owner, I realized the rear diff oil was original to the car. Yikes! 16 years and 134k miles. I was planning to replace it anyway, but man, that's a long time. After watching a YouTube video of changing diff fluid on the 05-09 GTs, I quickly saw that there was no drain plug. To remove old fluid, you have remove the diff cover, which means replacing the gasket too. So, I went to LMR.com and found they have the GT500/Boss 302 cast aluminum cover which is finned for better cooling. The cover also has 1/2 a quart more fluid to the capacity, making for 2.5 quarts total. The cover was like $190 shipped plus a gasket for like $25. So, I quickly ordered it up and actually had it shipped to my parents. It arrived on Tuesday before I arrived Wednesday afternoon.
After finishing up the diff fluid and cover install, we moved on to changing the oil. Brent recommended I go with 10w30 Synthetic High-Mileage oil either by Mobil1 or Valvoline. I went with Mobil1 because that's what Walmart had. Brent had a spare Ford Racing high flow oil filter for me to use since he now uses a remote filter location due to his oil cooler. Score! The oil change went smooth. Nothing to report there. Normal capacity is 6 quarts. I put in a little more #becauseracecar.
The final track day prep item was to modify the brand new Corbeau S197 seat rail. Hechtspeed cannot leave anything alone, even mods have to be modded! After installing the Corbeau seat and rail, I did notice my head was closer to the roof/headliner. I commented to Brent about this not thinking much of it and he responded back that he modified his same seat rail to lower it. The seat rail's rear mount design has a 90 degree step in the metal frame. By cutting out the step and welding a piece of steel flat and drilling out a hole, boom, you move the seat rail down a solid 1" in the rear. This has a secondary benefit of leaning the seat back a little bit. It is a little too upright, especially for a performance driving/track day.
Here's a pic of Poppi using a cut off wheel to remove the stepped portion of the bracket. He estimated the length of the new plate and where the hole should be.
This pic below is after the first modded bracket is tack welded on. Using the same wheel to cut the piece of plate.
Here's the finished look after grinding the welds down a bit and putting down some satin black paint. The lower seat and subtle leaned back angle made a noticable difference in the seating position. It took a couple hours but I think was worth it. It's really kind of odd to have a racing seat sitting higher than the OEM seat. It doesn't make any sense. It's probably not a big deal and maybe not even noticable for regular Joe's but at 6'3.5" tall, I noticed it right away and knowing I was planning to have a helmet on, that was going to be even worse.
We finished Day 2 by catching the Dodger vs Mets playoff game after getting some local Mexican food in town with mom and dad.
I think this was the day Brent and I got the email from SpeedVentures giving us our run groups and schedule. I was in the Beginner group "Purple" with my first session scheduled for 9:35am.
Day 3
Went for a 7 mile bike ride with Poppi, hung out with my high school buddy Dave, helped my parents shop for a new screen door at Home Depot and then went over to Brent's to watch him replace his rear brake rotors and pads and talk shop. He taught me how to sit in my race seat so I don't wear it out as fast. heh heh Brent came to check out the car and the new seat and immediately noticed the fabric pattern is a little different from his Pro and Wide FX1. Once he sat in it, he was like, oh man, this is more comfortable than his. The seat cushion we realized is a little thicker. So, that was another option if I needed it was to swap in Brent's passenger seat cushion and I could have dropped down lower another 1/2 to 1".
Brent bought a new full faced race helmet, so he gave me his old open faced unit. I spotted him $40 since it saved me from having to rent one from the track. We loaded up the car with all the stuff we'd need and hit the hay.
Sick sunrise pic from Buttonwillow's pit area.
Brent was in the Black run group which was first to get out on track at 8am. His Drivers Meeting was at about 715am. So, we planned to get there about 645am which meant our departure from Tehachapi was for 530am! Yikes! This is vacation!? hahaha Poppi and I got in formation with Brent and Bentley in the Red Baron Mustang and headed down the hill to Bakersfield and on to Buttonwillow which is about 20 minutes beyond the outskirts of town on the 58 freeway, then up the 5. We got through a short line at the gate where we had to pay $10 each (geez, $330 isn't enough to get me a parking spot?). I found Brent and the #stickaxlegang parked up on the northwest area of the pits and joined the gang. That was a cool moment man! What I haven't gotten into yet here is the cool factor and the meaning of this moment of finally driving into THE Buttonwillow race track. I've been following the time attack scene for over 20 years. I was originally into aircooled VWs in the mid 90's as a teenager. When I was newly married and in college, I got into the Japanese sport compact car scene, Civics, Integras, Evo's, STi's, Skylines, etc. Back in the summer of 2000 when I picked up my first Sport Compact Car magazine, it was a very performance oriented scene that I was interested in, especially the time attack scene that was focused around the Tsukuba Circuit and Lap Battles. Circling back then, Buttonwillow and specifically the CW13 configuration is the closest thing to an American Tsukuba Circuit that we have. So, I've followed the magazines, then forums, then YouTube channels and Instagram accounts for anything related to Buttonwillow CW13. I've watched countless hours of videos of Hondas, Subies, Evo's, GT86's and Mustangs and Camaros lap CW13 and dream of the day I could have a track worthy car. October 19th was my day to be officially a small part of this track scene. It was really cool to meet the #stickaxlegang members in person for the first time, David (Grabber Blue S197 V6 track car), Nico (Green Bullitt S197 3V that has gone 1:54 (#sub155club)! I also met Mikey (S550 Shelby GT350) and his friend Alex (Mazdaspeed Miata). Thanks to David for providing the "008" vinyl race numbers! Most importantly, David is going to cut me up a CW13 track outline decal for my rear window. Can't wait!!!
Ok, so we unpacked the car, applied vinyl numbers and went to the main building to find out when my Purple run group Drivers Meeting was. It was at 850am, so I had time to grab a transponder, fill out the Mustang Drivers Club handicap points form (4.5 points if you were wondering) and grab some free MDC stickers. At the meeting, we got some direction on how the day would proceed, explanations of the different flags you might see out on course and some question and answer.
I came back at 9:15am to meet my Instructor, who ended up being Ed a CHP from L.A. who was parked next to the gang in his E92 BMW M3 V8 4 door (he ran a best of 2:05). He was a pretty cool guy and gave me some good instruction and was just generally a very chill guy who's demeanor was calming and reassuring. He asked me some questions about my car, about driving, he asked me what my natural, best position was for my hands on the steering wheel. I put my hands right at 9 and 3 and he said "oh, its not with one hand on top?" haha So, after chatting for a minute, he could tell I had some clue what I was about to do and then began to talk about things that would help me be safe but also some basics on how to drive the line faster over time as I got comfortable.
Session 1
The first session was a medium paced lap where we got to see the track and the corners and to follow the person in front of us. Ed was good about pointing me in the right direction, even saying, "don't follow the line of the guy in front of you, he's not doing it right" haha. I only did 2 laps and went 2:46. I was 11th out of 13 on track.
Session 2
The second sesh we picked up the pace and got to do 5 laps. Ed pointed out some things I needed to do and where on the track I should be. He also said for me car the track should be a 3rd and 4th gear only. No need to go down into 2nd. That didn't totally make sense but I was just listening for now. I went 2:34 and was 11th out of 15 cars. After this session, there was a debrief back in the main building with the group to discuss questions and talk about anything.
Session 3
Session 3 was my first solo run. I was pushing much harder now with a little more knowledge of the track, the line, the braking zones, getting comfortable following others and passing and being passed. It's a lot to take in and I was intentionally going slower and not trying to be too aggressive. I was also feeling out the car as I got closer to the limits (little did I know how far from being at the limit I was). I ran 5 laps and ran a best of 2.22 and placed 9th out of 15.
Ride-a-along with Brent in the Red Baron!
Whoa! I knew Brent was fast. He has run a 1:59 in this car in cooler weather. He has the coveted #sub2club decal! Going under 2 minutes flat at CW13 is a very fast time especially for a street car. I was a little nervous to ride with Brent. I mean, I've done multiple touge runs down to Keene with him in various different Mustangs through the years and is able to push hard and be in control. That is how you go fast. You are in control but barely, you are able to dance on that limit of grip. I know this is how someone makes the most of their car but for someone with no real experience pushing a car himself to the limit is intimidating. That is exactly what I was there to do though, to learn how to push my car to its limits. I believe this was Brent's 4th session and the temps were near 80 degrees and he knew he was not going to be PB anymore that day so he asked if I wanted to ride along. I was all in and knew I would learn a lot. Boy was I right!
Just entering the track on the entry point we were already going hard. Brent made it clear that if I started to get motion sick or want to stop, just tap him on the arm and he'd pull off. I was all in and was watching and imagining this was me driving. I'm trying to figure out how to best describe this 20 minute session with Brent and the Red Baron S197! It was insane! It was fun! It was exhilerating! It was lesson time! Oh, and guys! The S197 chassis, with its 1960's "solid rear axle" design, it is an amazing piece of machinery! The basic design of the rear is much better than 1960's and early 70's Vintage Trans Am Mustangs, with the new 4 link design. With some basic mods, these cars are very capable! The way the car grips, it was so much more grip than I expected. And with these grippy 200 treadwear tires on a race track, compared to regular performance tires and the street, the grip level doesn't compare AT ALL to the street vs the track! About half way through the out lap Brent was going hard and the tires were gripping, they were warmed up! I was in the Corbeau FX1 seat but was pulling the seat belt tight to keep my planted in it and pushing with my feet. As a passenger, you don't have the same things keeping your butt in the seat. Brent and his RB were clipping the curbs and getting an inside tire off the ground some times and I mean at speed. Especially coming out of "Bus Stop" and going through "Riverside" and into "Phil Hill", which is a fast sweeper. The transition from Riverside's right handed sweeper to the left turn to get lined up to Phil Hill, that was probably the most impressive section where the car was flying and the grip was crazy! The "Esses" the car is shifting into 4th and hauling ace while going left and right and left and right and left again, bouncing off of curbs at every point. Brent's car, with its cammed and barely muffled 3valve 4.6, which has about 400hp at the motor sounds gnarly and just puts me back in time to what a 1970 Boss Mustang racing in Trans Am could have felt like. It was just "Wow!" I don't think I've had that much fun ever, except in a minute when I describe myself driving my car probably about 85% that hard haha!
Session 4
The 4th session for me was a big jump up in confidence, speed and grip and pushing myself to the limits of the car. After riding with Brent, wow, it really gave me confidence that these S197 3Valve cars are amazing and can grip like crazy, way more than I thought I could drive. Mind you, I also have in the back of my head that, "hey genius, you still need to drive the car 750 miles back home when this is all done!" I was using a few key points from my instructor, mostly the advice, "keep your eyes up!" and "B.S.T.", which stands for Brake, Shift, Throttle, in that order. I was also going deeper and deeper into the braking zone. I would say, the impressiveness of the braking performance was on par with the grip levels. I was stomping on these rockauto 14" 4 piston front and 13" rear rotor'd brakes with PowerStop "Track Day" pads over and over, corner after corner, lap after lap. They are dusty and squeally, but they flat out stop the car consistently and hard! One of the key things the rear suspension mods do is really reduce the nose dive of a Mustang in hard braking. The rear suspension geometry changes really keep the nose flat and that really improves the Mustangs stopping ability. With me pushing this great car closer to its potential, I ran a best of 2.13 and was 2nd fastest out of 11 cars in session 4. It was a big jump of nearly 10 seconds! I will mention, we had a full course red flag, where we stopped in place on the track. I was texting Brent and Poppi and found out an S2000 blew its motor and laid oil down the front straight. Later we came into the hot pit and I watched the safety crew put "kitty litter" down on the oil. I was glad that we were allowed to resume a few more laps as I was just getting fast and had passed a few people and had a wide open track to really get after it. My fastest lap was my last lap of that session too.
Bonus Point-By Session
I was excited for this final session of the day. I was eager to get back out there. The nervousness was gone, the confidence was up, the understanding of how to push the car was increasing each lap. I had done a couple laps and as I came out of turn 2 I saw Brent going slow up ahead allowing me to catch up. We were able to run 3-4 laps together with me following Brent. This was such a cool great finish to the EPIC day! I was hanging with Brent and pushing and just have a blast doing it! It was a great memory maker for sure! I improved again, by going 3 seconds quicker, to a 2:10 lap time. Brent was saying, he thinks my car is capable of doing 2:05 or so! I agree, I know there's more time in it! This was just my first day ever on a track!
Funny thing was, I started to get fuel cut. I only had about 1/8 of a tank of fuel left by the end of the session and actually finished probably a lap early. I really should have put a couple more gallons in it before that last session. Rookie mistake!
My Take Aways
1. The S197 Mustang platform is very under appreciated! Especially the lowly 300hp 3 valve 4.6L 5 speed version of the platform as compared to the 5.0 Coyote/6 speed variant. But, what I was able to build for about $20k total is an insane value for money. With the right set up and driver skills, it is a great track weapon! The grip levels and braking performance with the right mods is more than I imagined!
2. Driving on a track is nothing like street driving, even canyon / touge drives. The ability to have a safe place to push yourself and to get lap times to use as a way to measure improvements is unmatched. Stay off the streets, get on the track. Track driving makes you a better driver on the street though too. It was interesting to drive home. I felt more confident in the car in every situation.
3. I have read many times that experienced track people suggest starting to track a car when it is pretty much stock trim. I get the point that your money spent on getting on track is super valuable. I have spent the last 20 years modding my cars to various degrees, all with the intent of making them handle, stop and look better. I know in the case of the S197 Mustang, some good tires and brake pads/fluid would go a long way to being able to push a car on track. But, I would say, the $10k I put into the car to transform its handling, braking and looks was well worth it and made my first track day an absolute blast and allowed me to run, what I think, is a respectable lap time at CW13. Yes, I could have taking that same $20k and bought a used 2011-14 Coyote powered S197 Mustang that might have an intake, tune and exhaust and maybe some heavy Bullet wheels, but it would not have handled and ran like my car did at the track. Plus I get lower insurance with 120hp less on the spec sheet haha
4. I'm officially #sub3club hahahahaha It feels good to have touched every bit of this car, to have driven it 1500 miles round trip, beat on it and learned a ton at Buttonwillow. It was a dream trip come true!
Here's some parting pics from the end of the day before we enjoyed a free meal by the Track Snack Shack (legit fried chicken, mashed potatoes, asparagus and cake - $25 value for free (I mean, I did spend $330 for the day, so not exactly "free" haha)!
What's next?
I gotta get my bumpers and fenders painted. They're sitting here sanded and ready to go. Then I can put my front lip back on and I have Brent's Gen 1 Canards ready to go on the bumper once its painted.
Then probably an aluminum radiator. The original radiator is 16 years old and probably could go at any moment. I need to pick up some all season tires to go with my GT500 wheels for winter mode. Brent is suggesting I do new timing components at some point. I'm thinking water and oil pumps too. Nothing drastic or major. Just continued fine tuning of a great car!
I hope you enjoyed this one. I know I did! The road trip and Track Day went better than expected. I got 23mpg on the drive home from Cali back to Utah and that includes lots of hills. It'd probably do a solid 24-25 mpg on flat highway. She cruises at 2100 rpm at 80 mph on cruise control! She's a great grand touring car too! (Huh, GT, weird).
Parting shot here. We gassed up outside Bakersfield to get home after running out gas tanks very low from all the fun we had!
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