Whiskey11

Moderators, if this isn't the place for this, feel free to move to the appropriate location! There is a Handling question at the end

(I'm copy and pasting from my post on ModdedMustangs)
Hey all, just made the 2nd and final for this year 3.5 hour trip to Oskaloosa Iowa from Omaha and the 3.5 hour trip back to Omaha and finally got the videos all finished and my "course map" finished (Don't you just love MSN paint course maps? ). Well worth the drive, as always. The Iowa Region puts on some good events and they've made the 7 Hours of driving to and from the event worth every penny on gas and food spent on getting out there and back. I had an absolute blast. I feel that I did ok. With my tires being as dead (or near dead, or dying) as they are, and my unwillingness to drive 3.5 hours on overly inflated tires, the tires ran at the road pressure of 34 PSI front and rear. The tires were fine, I didn't get any noticeable understeer and once again the car felt balanced rather than an absolute mess like it did at the previous event.

Course was very quick with the average time falling around the 45 seconds in length. Not the longest courses I've done, but certainly worth it. They gave us SEVEN of them and offered fun runs afterwords!!! If I didn't live some far away I would have stayed and done some fun runs.

Anyway, the MSN Paint map that I mentioned earlier:



1 is a Slalom
2 is a very strange way to set up a chicago box thingy
3 is a very strange off set slalom that turned out to be too wide to really cause any heartache if you hit it right.

Simple map, fast and fun of course!

I decided that one of the most important things for me was to get the underside of the car in action. Some interesting things noted, mostly with pinion angle changes and axle windup and lots and lots of squating on acceleration, but most importantly is watching side to side movement. The PHB geometry just likes to play favorites, and right hand turns are certainly it as it plants the outside rear tire very well. Left handers are not so nice...

Times were as follows:
Run 1: 45.965
Run 2: 44.783
Run 3: 44.181 (fastest)
Run 4: ??? +2 cones
Run 5: 45.575
Run 6: 44.713
Run 7: 45.021 +1 cone

Anyway, SEVEN videos, fastest run was Run #3 so you can watch Run #3 if you just want the highlights

Run #1, good perspective to watch for you PHB geometry guys!
2009 Mustang GT Autocross - Oskaloosa Airport, Oskaloosa Iowa - Run #1 Suspension View - YouTube

Run #2
2009 Mustang GT Autocross - Oskaloosa Airport, Oskaloosa Iowa - Run #2 - YouTube

Run #3
2009 Mustang GT Autocross - Oskaloosa Airport, Oskaloosa Iowa - Run #3 - YouTube

Run #4
2009 Mustang GT Autocross - Oskaloosa Airport, Oskaloosa Iowa - Run #4 - YouTube

Run #5
2009 Mustang GT Autocross - Oskaloosa Airport, Oskaloosa Iowa - Run #5 - YouTube

Run #6
2009 Mustang GT Autocross - Oskaloosa Airport, Oskaloosa Iowa - Run #6 - YouTube

Run #7
2009 Mustang GT Autocross - Oskaloosa Airport, Oskaloosa Iowa - Run #7 - YouTube

I also drug two friends out, one to co-drive (his first event driving, 2nd attending) and another who is attending for the first time. Needless to say, 3.5 hours in a Mustang with 3 people in it, can get a little irritating, but with a few stops it worked out. My co-driving buddy was a bit chicken at first running just shy of a minute, but by the end of the day and a pep talk during the lunch break and he managed to get down into the 46.XXX range which is very good! He needs some work, but I told him if it was going to continue to be my co-driver, we'll have to discuss him helping with paying for tires!!

I do have 3 videos from his runs but I haven't processed them yet.

Anyway, only one more event this year and then the white cold death arrives in force and ruins all fun. It gives me time to prep for next season. After much deliberation I've decided to stay in F-Stock for another year. The level of prep that the ESP guys have here locally is just oppressive. I can't say that F-Stock is much better. Generally the 3 fastest times of the day that are not some Formula car or a cart are the 2 National level drivers in ESP (One a 1999 Camaro and the other a 1999 Mustang Cobra) followed very quickly by a Shelby GT in F-stock. Do I plan to "compete"?? Not without a set of A6's and I honestly can't afford that right now, so Dunlops it is for next season unless I run into some serious money! I'd like to PAX better though even if it isn't near the top, I'd like to be in the top 25% if possible rather than dead set in the middle every time.

Between Tax Season and the Holiday hours at work I should be picking up 4 Dunlop Direzza Z1 Sport Star Specs (that is a really long name) in 245/45/18 to run daily on the stock rims. Hopefully I can get the Strano Performance Adjustable Sway bars (both, but only installing front for now) and a set of Koni sports for all 4 corners. Any extra money is going to go for seat time and the "A6" fund.

I PAXed at 16th of 31 (horray for being average) and placed 2nd of 2 in F-Stock, losing to an Infiniti G35 by 0.454 seconds... The G35 couldn't replicate that time to save it's life, all 6 of it's other runs were higher than my runs, which where faster overall than his. That said, it only takes 1 fast time to win, and that's the name of the game and he did it Good job to him!

Questions for the folks who know more about this than I:
-The tires are an obvious choice and an absolute necessity. The tires have lost all resemblance of a shoulder block, I'm assuming due to lack of camber (yay Stock rules) and the 1/8" tread depth and the fact that they are not the greatest tire to begin with. The Dunlops in 245/45/18 should be about perfect, only 2.3% smaller than the stock ones, I can deal with the speedo reading fast by 2 MPH at 60. Am I right in assuming this will probably make a bigger difference in handling than either the Koni's or the front sway?

-I haven't had much time to look at the rules regarding camber changes on the stock suspension, but IIRC it says "Authorized camber changes" and I remember reading that Ford authorizes the use of their specced Crash Bolts? Would it be F-Stock legal to install the Ford spec crash bolts (not that I really want crash bolts, but tires are not cheap and I'd like em to last as long as possible!) and align it to Ford Specs? I think Ford specs out to -2º as acceptable? It was some high number, anyone have any better info than I do?

-Which would make the best difference in handling, the Koni Sports or the Front Sway? I'm thinking (I shouldn't do that much!) that the sway will make a big difference, but ideally both should be done to fix some of the underdamped nature of the 05-09 Mustangs? I'm kind of at a loss. I realize the Koni's Sport struts are on national back order (still) but if they will make a larger difference in overall handling than the sway, I'd rather get those ASAP.

Obviously budget is kind of a big concern. With the job change and some low points in my life came some pretty poor financial decisions and the credit card got a little higher than I like. I'm hoping between holiday hours and tax season to get at least the tires (which are now essential) and maybe some other items if applicable.

As always, comments are greatly appreciated and thanks in advance for help with the questions!