mmarsh3014

I have an 09 GT with a completely stock suspension, and recently attended a local SCCA autocross event. I definitely want to get involved in participating using my car. Any ideas on how I could set my car up to be streetable (daily driver) and still have some advantages between the cones? I am planning on a BMR Strut Tower Brace already. I also have other individual components in mind, but I want other's opinions. Was thinking about Eibach Sway Bars as well

jayel579

What class are you looking to run the car in? Most "streetable" class IMO is to run in a stock class or F-Stock for the Mustang. Save your money and dont buy the STB it is not needed for these cars. The other suggestion I would give is to call Sam Strano www.stranoparts.com. He can get you and tell you all the parts needed soup to nuts for a very competitive F-Stock classed car. Then you just have to tighten the nut behind the wheel.

Or you can wait for him to resond here. I will almost garanutee once he see's the title on this thread he will click on it to see.

Sam Strano

Here I am.... Yes, I can help. I am an autocrosser, I know the rules, I know how to setup cars (have done many that have won National Championships--including my own). I know the in's and out's of classing too.

I am currently working on my own GT for E-Street Prepared for National competition in 2010. I have been running a friend's S197 in F-stock for the last 3 years (and winning most everything in it as well having setup all the other fast cars in the country).

Your tuner and intake will precluded you from F-stock, as would a STB. But those things are legal in ESP, and STX and STU (the latter two being street tire classes vs. R-compound tire classes). I'd suggest you get a copy of the rulebook (you can download it for free from SCCA.com), and then give me a call.

mmarsh3014

Wow, jayel and Sam, thank you. I should definitely take a look at the rules and the classes to understand what I'm up against. Considering that I've never done any type of competitive driving, it's most likely not a good idea to dive right into the deep end

Sleeper_08

If you want to do some reading here is a link to the Readng List thread

https://mustangforums.com/forum/s197...ding-list.html

There are also some web links near the bottom of Post #1

Argonaut

Hey MMarsh3014 - where are you? What club did you run with? I live in Harrisburg and have driven with both Central Penn and Susquehanna regions. Always good to see another S197 out there. Its a good car for performance driving, I wish more folks would realize it and start using the car on course and on track.

jayel579

Take a look and see, honestly if your really just into it for the fun, which 90% of people autocrossing are then don't worry about classing or what you have done to the car. Go out and have fun with it, don't even worry about what you have in the car. If you want to be competitive, I know I like to be, then you'll want to take a look into where and what you want to be doing setup wise. My first season and a half of autocrossing I ran my car bone stock, then the bug really bite me. It will take you a good season just to get a full understanding of what you are doing, driving wise, anyway. And that is where we all started. First few times out you will be slow, you will get lost but it is all part of the learning. No one I have ever met at an autocross event is unapproachable, even when I met Sam this summer, to ask for tips and advice.

mmarsh3014

I showed up mid-way through an event held at Boeing in Ridley Park, PA. It was the Philly region SCCA. I would like to be competitive at some point, just maybe not for my first season. It will be a new experience for me and I can only expect what people have written here and elsewhere on what to expect. I did plan on modding the suspension for more performance on the street, and it would be nice to have an easy transition from spirited street driving to competition. Thanks for your help so far. You'll be hearing more from me when the time grows closer

Norm Peterson

I'm guessing that this was at last Sunday's (8 November) event. Know that Boeing has two of the three smallest lots that Philly Region has run on this year (the side we were running on was the larger but bumpier one).

We are scheduled to run a "trial event" at the Wachovia Center lot on the 22nd (more details in the 'Solo' forum in this thread over at www.phillyscca.com ). MUCH larger/smoother/Mustang-friendly.

Sam - this promises to be a much better event for you than the one at the end of last month that was next door at the Lincoln.


mmarsh - If you haven't installed the cold air & tune or done much else yet, you'll probably fit into F Stock. Or you could run as a Novice in the indexed novice class primarily against all the other newbies.

At your stage, "seat time" is going to bring you the greatest and quickest improvement. Seat time, tires, everything else, pretty much in that order.

A separate word about canned aftermarket tunes - many of them are developed primarily for the drag strip or to make the car promise more power than it really has, and leave a bit to be desired with respect to the fine throttle modulation that is useful at autocross. Without shilling for FRPP, their tune at least seems to be pretty good in this respect.


I was driving the gold #85 EP Mazda. It's a knife in a gunfight ride in that class, but still fun (and not dead last of four entries after 3 runs this time).


Norm

ShawnAlexander

ESP is a fun class, but not for those who are weak of wallet if you know what I mean.