marcuskeeler

After a few false starts I was able to finally get the GT onto a road course this year albeit in October. The weather was thankfully dry if a little overcast. That did keep a lot of cars away, but what the hey.

I've driven on road courses before but not for a couple of years and never with the Mustang, so I took it pretty easy for a fair amount of time. I additionally shuttled the local instructors round with me sometimes, not least because they were standing round looking bored

Have to say that the Mustang pretty much surprised everyone. The initial concensus from the Instructors was that the car would be typical American iron with too much power and no chassis but she really shot them down, surprising me a little at the same time. All three instructors commented favorably on the car after riding in it and One instructor actually asked to drive it. LOL

Seems I've been a tad lucky with the setup. Not only was my decision to stick with a single manufacturer for the whole suspension a good one, but it appears that the 4-wheel alignment I paid for at the same time managed to nail the sweet-spot straight on the head. I ran with a GT2 Porsche shown in the picture below for quite a few laps and were tied together the whole time which I'm sure irritated the driver no end even though it was as much about the Porsche driver than the car

The FRPP Handling pack really proved itself to be very capable indeed keeping the car as flat and level as I could have hoped. A couple of times I had to catch the rear end but mostly it was predicable and neutral.
The Brembos didn't give me a hint of overheating at any point despite some heavy usage, they really were worth the coinage.
My Nitto 555's behaved fine although I think I'll now swap the left side front, which now displays a LOT of outside edge wear, with the rear.

I mostly favored 3rd gear through the whole infield to keep the rear more planted and only felt the TCS (which I deliberately left on as an indicator of grip) activate a couple of times as I ran over curbs. The ABS chirped at me just Once throughout the whole day.

Here's a link to some video (11 minutes) from the windshield camera with telemetry overlay from my data logger. As with all video, it numbs the whole experience somewhat (never has "you had to be there" been so appropriate) but check the G-Meter on the fast 1st turn at the end of the straight, it looks jittery but it's reading the car as it twitches in & out of grip - Super smile action. Not many other cars although I do pass some and have a little spat with a Vortech powered GT.

VIDEO 11 mins


Only thing I'll do for next time is try a more aggressive brake pad in the back to push the brake bias a little more to the rear. I don't think I could have braked [hard] from a higher speed than I did with the stock rears in it without encountering too much instability

danbevsv6rumbler

How does a 4 wheel alignment work with the solid rear axles?

Sounds like you had a blast.

I'm also addicted to my local road race track. I've seen a couple heads turned

Z06 Killer

Great Video, but why were you shifting at 5000RPM's?

wingman75

Hey Marcus that sounds like a blast. Where is the track you were on? I'm guessing near Toronto.

You mention going over the curbing, did the car jump sideways on you. I would think you would want to stay just inside the curbs.

Texotic

sounds like a blast. nice wheels, what kind are they?

americaniron

Thanks Marcus, that was great to see. I can only imagine the fun you must of had. You held up the Mustang banner well!!!

Rubrignitz

Great vid, thanks for posting Marcus. Looks like you were exceeding 1G a good many times! Can you change the datalogger to show numerical g's?

And I really like those rims. Thruxton's right?

degeze

Great video Marcus.
The car looked like it performed very well.

marcuskeeler

Replace all the rear suspension including the lower control arms and Panhard and then take the car to an alignment centre to see just how far the axle is sitting to the left/right or even twisted. Hell, for that matter, take your stocker there, you might be surprised.

TSW Vortex

I don't mean harsh vertical curbing, I mean the Red/White corner curbing. It's designed to allow wheels over it and in fact the best line involves usually running onto it at an apex.

For me, road course driving isn't about being the fastest in a straight line, it's about keeping a good average speed and being smooth. Ripping it to 6k+ might be ok in a heated race but what's the point of stressing the block on a track day? Besides that, the Whipple pushes more than enough torque between 3-5k that there's really no need to wring it's neck.

Rubrignitz

That's right. I remember you saying they were TSW and thruxton just came to mind . Nice rims...