OLD CROW 3V Mustang: Buttonwillow CW13 The Photo!

 This photo deserves its own post. Cali Photography is out on the track taking photos of every single car on track and you can buy package deals for like $90 or you can buy your first individual photo for $25 and then any additional photo for $15. Most of the photos looked at this basic angle of the car and I liked this one the best because it looked like a good action shot, coming down the small hill, more like a bump, on the section of the track at Buttonwillow Raceway Park called "Grapevine". 

This photo represents the last 20+ years of dreaming of tracking a car, of all the hours watching YouTube videos of cars running CW13, all the planning and scheming and wishful thinking during my ownership of my other cars, especially the last few, the Silver 2002 WRX, the red Civic EK Hatchback, but even the 330Ci BMW that I autocrossed and all the way back to my first 2002 WRX which I modified a good amount and took to Miller Motorsports Park back in like 2010 for a Wide Open Wednesday event. I would say what got me over the edge to actually do a track day was my brother Brent, who paved the way by tracking his red 2005 Mustang GT RED BARON and his encouragement and example. I just copied him and it 100% worked like a champ to get me out there! 

I'm planning to do a Track Day out at UMC (Utah Motorsports Campus) next year! 

Enjoy!

Grabber Blue S197 V6 Mustang Track Car

 I wanted to share some photos of this really cool V6 Mustang in Grabber blue. This is David's Mustang which he has been tracking for a few years now. He is one of the "stickaxlegang" OG's. He's the one who provided me with #stickaxlegang stickers for my car recently. 

Beauty shot here, showing off the APEX SM-10 wheels in bronze with 305/30/18 square set up along with the big track wing and front splitter.

This front view shows us the subtle differences between the 2010-2012 and 2013-14 nose. Personally, I prefer the 2010-12 between these 2.

Here's a great photo of the #STICKAXLEGANG with their trophies at an MDC (Mustang Drivers Club" event last year. 3 of the 4 are Sub2 at CW13! David is knocking on the Sub2 door and is hoping to get even closer this weekend at the event!

Another great shot of the Stickaxlegang in the pits between sessions. 

RED BARON 3V S197 Mustang Track Car: 315/30/19 Square mounted!

 Another update on Red Baron! The new Continental ECF in 315/30/19 showed up and were installed yesterday. New/used 14" Giro Disc rotors installed up front and paint stripped from the calipers. Here's some beauty shots Brent shared last night that I had to put up. The wider tires are noticable in the look of the car. It was too cold to push the car to get a feel so that will have to wait.

Also installed were some adjustable front sway bar end links by Shelby. The 400lbs rear springs were also installed, replacing the 300lbs springs. With the big rear wing and wider tires, this change should suit the car nicely on track.

To fit the wider tires, Brent went with a 20mm spacer, up from 19mm. The camber plates were maxed out at about -3 degrees, which necessitated grinding the opening on the strut tower to allow the top of the strut to move inward a little more. The alignment was straightened out and a test drive confirmed all was ready to rock. The bigger 13.5" GT500 sized rear rotors using the stock calipers with a bracket to make it all work will be installed today since the rotors were arriving today instead of yesterday.

Enjoy the pics! Brent is hoping that these latest changes can get the car down to a low 1:57 lap time at CW13 in a couple weeks.

RED BARON 3V Mustang Track Car: V2 Canards are finished, Beauty Shots!

 Brent just sent along some beauty shots after he finished and installed the V2 canards. Before the beauty shots, let's see a couple in process photos.

Here's a picture of the V2 canards mid lay up on the car. 

Here they are with bondo applied and ready for body work.

Here's an in process pic during the body work step.

Painted and ready for final installation.

Da' beauty shots!!!

So much going on here! The new canards really finish the look up front. In this light, you can see the Watson roll bar showing off and harnesses too.

That serious track car face from the front view. Roll bar saying "Look at me!". 

Day light front view! I like the blacked out fog light housings here. Very "Mach 1" - esque.

3/4 front view here with those Tehachapi Mountains and desert juniper giving a nice background.

I really like how the canards and front splitter work together from all views. Red lower control arm mounting brackets are a nice touch matching the red body color. 

Next up? 315/30/19's were ordered a few days ago. Brent is looking to get to the MDC (Mustang Drivers Clud) event at Buttonwillow CW13 on December 16 or if that doesn't work out, the end of January event. He's hoping for or thinking he can set a new PB at around 1:57 or maybe a really high 1:56. ;)

Oh, adapter bracket for running the larger rear GT500 brake rotors (13.5"?) using the stock GT calipers was ordered up on a Black Friday deal since the rear rotors were due for replacement. All the upgrades!!!

What it takes to go 1:59 at CW13 in a Mustang

1:59 lap time in a Mustang at CW13 (Buttonwillow Clockwise #13). I purposely didn't say "in an S197 Mustang 4.6L 3valve" or "in an S550 Mustang GT" or any other flavor of Mustang. That fact is to me the most interesting thing about this statement.

It's probably much more obvious for those drivers who actually track their cars than for guys like me who dream about it and "internet bench race" about tracking a car. That fact is that, the number of variables that determine your personal fastest laps at a track are "infinity and beyond"! 

Here's a few of those variables I've observed Brent deal with in his now 12 track days in the Red Baron.

-Weather: (cold vs hot days, cold means more engine power, cooler temps for the engine and brakes, intake air, less tire grip, etc. Hot days mean more grip (up to a point, then tires get greasy), but more heat soak to the engine, brakes, cooling system, driver, intake air is hotter meaning less hp)

-Condition of your critical components: Worn or new brakes, tires, clutch, engine, etc.

-Other drivers: Peer pressure to push harder because your friend is driving with you, comparing yourself to other cars, trying to turn faster laps

-Yourself: Pressure you put on yourself to go faster, beat your previous best. We're usually our own worst enemy. Your skill level, your experience with pushing cars in general, your experience pushing the car you are tracking to the limit, your understanding of physics, skills in car control, etc. THIS IS THE BIGGEST SINGLE VARIABLE!

-What car you drive: This may sound like the biggest variable that determines how fast you go, but I'm trying to point out that it really is not. See below!

-The modifications to your car: I think this is an important variable and maybe more important than the car you're driving. See below! Things like drivers controls/touch points (drivers seat, steering wheel, shifter, pedals), parts that effect the handing (tires, brakes, suspension), aerodynamics and of course power mods (maybe the least important of the mods?).

I think these categories above cover the key areas that determine your success and improvement in lap times. For this post, I wanted to showcase something that is very interesting to me and probably to many out there:

What car should you buy as your starting point for a street / track car? (Which Mustang should you guy?)

In one way, it really doesn't matter which car you pick (heard of "24 hours of Lemons"?). In another, this is the fun part of the track car process; so of course we over think it, we research it to death, we agonize over the pros and cons of all our options. Or is that just me? Selecting the car you want to turn into a track car does depend on your budget and what exactly you're trying to accomplish.

For me, I have a tight budget and I want a v8, rear wheel drive, manual transmission "muscle sports car" to be my daily driver and sometimes-track car/autox car.

So, if you are into muscle sports cars (notice I added a word), or shall I say, rear wheel drive, V8 powered sports coupes, then the Mustang is one of 2 options in my mind (the other is Camaro. I don't consider the Challenger a real option). Mustangs and Camaros from the last 10-15 years are much more like sports cars than they ever have been and can be fast, successful road course cars that can be driven on the street. Hence, I've added "sports" to the "muscle car" genre. Let's look at the Mustang specifically in this post.

We are entering the 7th generation of Mustang after 60 years. To quickly summarize, we have:

Gen 1: 1964 - 1972 Classic Mustang (GT, GT350, Mach 1, Boss 302, etc)

Gen 2: 1973-1978 Mustang II (who cares? LOLOL)

Gen 3: 1979-1993 Fox body Mustang (GT, Cobra, SVO)

Gen 4: 1994-2004 SN95/New Edge Mustang (GT Cobra, Terminator Cobra, Mach1, Bullit)

Gen 5: 2005-2014 S197 Mustang (3v 4.6L, 5.0 Coyote, GT, GT500, Boss 302, Bullit)

Gen 6: 2015-2023 S550 Mustang (GT, Bullit, GT350, GT500, Mach1)

Gen 7: 2024-2029 S650 Mustang (GT, Dark Horse, ???)

That was a lot of fun actually to search out and pick a Mustang to represent an entire generation. Of course, these aren't necessarily the top dogs in each generation (except for maybe the '65 GT350 ha) but a car that I could reasonably obtain and build into a fun street/track car. 

I've gotten very sidetracked from the focus of this post haha. 

The point here is, you could pick any of these generations of Mustang and make them a fun street/track car. To make that point, I'll just pick 2 generations and show you a comparison of 2 pretty different cars with 2 good drivers.

In the red corner, we have Red Baron, a Gen 5, S197 Mustang GT with the 4.6L 3valve engine and 5 speed transmission. Brent and his Baron have gone as fast as a 1:59.3 lap time at CW13. Last night Brent and I summarized all the modifications and the cost to build the car (so far). The car was purchased used for $9000 with about 100k miles about 4 years ago (this is a record eh Brent?). As I look locally, that's in the range I'm seeing for similar 2005-09 GTs here in Utah. The modifications  totaled about $16k, with the total about $25,000. See the list below.

In the blue corner, we have Mark Jager's, Gen 6, S550 Mustang GT with the Gen 2 5.0L coyote and MT82 6 speed transmission. I found Mark's car and the basic mods (probably not every single mod like what we did with Brent's car) listed on the @sub2club Instagram page. From the post you can see this car has gone 1:59.067. 

I took a shot at summarizing the cost to build Jager's S550. Here's his list posted on sub2club's Insta.

I made an assumption of about $30k to purchase a used 2015-2017 Mustang GT. Then I searched online for prices of the mods listed. The mods totaled $19,211. The total was just under $50k for the car and mods. Yowzer! 

I need to mention, as part of the background and context of this discussion, Mark Jager, per the same Insta post has done a 1:41 lap at CW13 in an 800hp STi. What I'm trying to show is that we have to assume that Mark is a pretty good driver. 1:41 is a VERY FAST lap at CW13. Very Fast! Also, to go that fast, Mark likely has many track days and laps at this track to be able to go that fast in any car. (P.S. Insta-stalking Mark I can see he also races a Miata, so I'm confident when I consider him an experience driver)

Brent has done 6ea CW13 Track days so far (he's done 5 at Streets of Willow and 1 at Big Willow for reference). So, I'm going to assume that Brent has WAY less laps on this track than Mark. I think most will agree with that assumption.

Now, the other assumption I would have made before this analysis is that an S550 GT is going to be much faster than a S197 GT 3V. I mean, wouldn't you? Cars are progressing and getting faster all the time!

One way I like to compare cars is the power:weight ratio. So, let's look at that really quick.

Mark's S550: 3700lbs and 435hp (with his mods, we can estimate 450-460hp (intake, catback, tune, light driveshaft). 3700/455hp = 8.13lbs/hp

Brent's S197: 3300lbs and 300hp (with his mods, dyno'd at 344whp (410hp). 3300hp/395hp = 8.35lbs/hp.

Brent's mods definitely close the gap on power (very slight edge to Mark's S550) and the fact that Brent's car is 400lbs lighter than an S550 is also important, not only for the power:weight ratio but the benefits to handing and braking. Considering Red Baron has the same width tires but with 400lbs less to move around is going to really help the lap times. Note: A quick math calculation shows that 10hp more for Brent and they have the same 8.14 p:w ratio. That's really nothing at all. 

Another variable here is Brent has done his own aero parts; which include a rear spoiler, front splitter and canards. Of course, aero parts really only start coming into play on the higher speed corners, which is only at certain parts of the track, so its difficult to know the impact the aero has here, but besides Brent's time and some materials, he spent WAY less than the $5k that Mark spent on his aero parts.

So, 2 pretty skilled drivers, 2 Mustangs with similar power:weight ratios, 2 pretty different Mustangs (IRS vs solid rear, 5.0L 4v vs 4.6L 3v cammed, 5 speed vs 6 speed) and 1 costs about double the other.

Yet, the lap times at a track, where the lap is on the longer side, are identical. There are many variables that we just don't know, like weather/temperatures, tire life, etc to really be apples:to:apples, but this is the best we have.

So, what is my conclusion or summary or "so what" about all of this comparison and information. Well, I've been very back and forth on what car to get next and if it was to be a Mustang, which one? Since the S550 came out in late 2014, I was all over it. I was very pouty on my 40th birthday (sorry babe!) 5 years ago now because I was really wanting, some how, some way, to get an S550 Mustang GT for my 40th birthday. When the 2018 Perf Pack 2 came out, that became my next dream car. Then the Mach1 came out and it had all the GT350 handing/track parts but with the more regular-Joe coyote and I wanted/want it bad! The fact is, I just don't have S550 money right now.

What this shows me is that, a 2005-2010 S197 3v 4.6L car with the right mods and a solid driver (not sure that's me, only 1 way to find out eh?!) can be very very close to a S197/S550 coyote Mustang but without having to spend nearly as many total dollars. There are just so many variables to consider. The higher power coyote cars come with more weight than the 4.6L cars. The IRS vs Solid Rear Axle argument I think is debunked here as well. Sure, the IRS is probably more comfortable on the street and easier to drive on track than SRA, but if its better, its not very significant. 

The other explanation for why Brent's car is so fast could be Brent. It's really hard to compare drivers, especially when they're driving different cars. But, I've been on Touge runs with Brent in a few Mustangs through the years and he is able to push the car much harder than me. Pushing a car to its limits takes guts and skill and experience. Developing all of those is part of the fun!

So, there you have it, my Mustang Dissertation LOLOL I hope you enjoyed it!

Red Baron S197 Mustang GT 3V goes Sub 2 at CW13

 "Capt von Richthofen" (aka Brent) has piloted the Red Baron (aka 2005 Mustang GT 4.6L 3V) to a sub 2 minute lap time at Buttonwillow's CW13 track last Saturday!!! Of course it happened on the last lap of the last session of the day. 

Remember, Brent "Richthofen" went 2:00.1 minutes at Buttonwillow's CW13 orientation back in December. That was his personal best (previous was 2:04? I think) up to that point. During the 1 month interval, Brent added an electric water pump and electric power steering set up, as well as installed the Ford Racing intake manifold (which required removing the Steeda strut tower bar due to clearance issues). The temps back in December were foggy and cold. This time the sun was out and temps were in the 60's. This meant that grip may have been higher, but engine heat soak also was a thing, so maybe they cancelled each other out. Brent ran 2:00.xx's all day and was getting frustrated that he wasn't breaking into the 1.59's. Throughout the day, he spun out 3 different times. Yikes! He was pushing! In the last session, Brent took son Bentley out for a quick "warm up" lap to give him a taste. Bentley was the "lucky charm" because on the last full hard lap of the last session, Brent ran a 1:59.3 sec lap!! #sub2club baby!!!

I stole this picture of Sub2Club stickers from the @sub2club Instagram account! I found this account in the last week, I don't even remember how, obviously searching Instagram for pics of track Mustangs and whatnot. haha After Brent ran the 1:59 lap, I was tagging him and the Sub2Club insta account so they could recognize his lap and his car. Sounds like they reached out and asked him for his basic mods so they could post his info on their page. Very cool!

Here's a couple pics from the pits and "rewards ceremony" for the Mustang Drivers Club "MDC2" street class portion of the event where Brent got 5th fastest Mustang in class. 

And here's good luck charm Bentley gettin' in the photo...

Photos from Grabber Blue/V6-Dave of Brent rollin' around the Buttonwillow pits...

Car looks amazing from all angles! Pretty cool that this was a $9000 used Mustang 3 years ago with some typical Street Mustang mods like Bullitt style wheels and intake and exhaust. 

My next post, I want to dig into what it takes to get a Mustang to go sub 2 minutes at CW13. We compare the Red Baron with a newer, more powerful, IRS equipped S550 that went only 0.2 seconds faster for a lot more money...