FWP!

Was out at Laguna Seca last weekend for the Continental Tire and Grand Am series races (taking photos) and got in on a tour with Mark to see some of their BOSS 302R's there. Basically they have had two cars that started everything, the white/red/black #16 and the all orange #15. Couple interesting facts..

1 - The 302R's are bought right from Ford and are built and assembled (aside from the roll cage and seam welding) right next to their normal assembly line. They're built on a separate line called the prototype line where they spend 45 minutes to an hour at each station instead of 30 seconds.

2 - They cost $125,000 as a rolling chassis, engines are $14,000. Compare that to their rival Camaro's which cost $235,000 and engines are in the $45,000 range.

3 - The engines are factory stock down to the exhaust manifolds, they're taken right off the assembly line, one goes into a showroom stock BOSS302, next one goes into a BOSS 302R. The engines are then sealed (sealed bolts on the valve covers, front timing cover, and oil pan). The #15 and #16 have been running the same exact engine with no problems since they started the program in January of 2010!!! Most of the other cars in the field get their engines yanked out after each event and torn down.

4 - Transmission is a built up 6060 with the MT82 bell housing, but because the 6060 is a different size they figured out they could use the tail section off of the Australian Ford Falcon to make everything line up for the shifter to come up through the tunnel at the right spot. He highly recommends installing "the kitty litter scoop" to help cool ours transmissions..

5 - Other modifications: Remote oil filter and cooler, rear diff is stock 3.73's with the torsen LSD but with a cooler setup and dual radiators, fuel tank removed and fuel cell installed in the trunk, gutted interior except for the dash which has to be stock (although lightened from 26 to 6 pounds), Ford racing ECU, stock BOSS 302 radiator, Ford racing exhaust, Brembo race brakes in the front only (rears get better pads only), Koni coil over's at each corner and the tiny stock rear sway bar, BBS wheels, stock electric steering, ABS module has been upgraded and is actually available to buy at Ford as of two weeks ago (apparently much better than even the stock BOSS 302 unit), all seams are welded before the full high-strength cage gets welded in, and some other small stuff.

Very cool to me though that the cars are assembled and painted at the factory. The employees apparently really enjoying building them (as well as the Cobra Jet's on the same line). And they'd be doing better in the Conti Tire series but the rule makers recently lifted a lot of restrictions on the Slomaro's (more hp, bigger rear wing) and now they just dominate. They were 1-2-3-4-5 for a while at Laguna. Kinda boring.

SpartaPerformance

Are you sure you heard him correctly about the engines? On FRPP site there is a BOSS engine M-6007-M50B which is labeled as a BOSS 302 engine and the M-6007-M50BR that is labeled as a BOSS 302R engine. Unless they pull the engine tear it down make the changes and then seal it back up.

VistaBlue

The 302R crate motor includes the wiring harness (and possibly the PCM - FRPP doesn't seem to specify); also, the 302R motor has 12-quart oil pan with baffle, vs. 8.5-quart in the regular 302.

Other than that, I don't believe there are any differences.

JAJ

The FRPP site says different oil pan and different connectors for the TiVCT controls. Guts are the same - that was the point of the discussion.

FWP!

Yep, different pan, and Mark also mentioned that the pickup sensors for the TiVCT and a few otheres are meant to work properly at higher RPM's, they're different than stock.

908ssp

I think the OP is talking about the 302S not the 302R which hasn't been made in years and was made offsite. The 302R had the cammer motor the 302S shares the motor with the new 302 street car. I saw a bunch of the new 302S cars at Rehagen they sold half of the total production something like 15 cars or thereabouts.

CaptDistraction

I was hanging out with the OP, and was certainly amazing to hear.

Shocking that the only difference between a Boss302R motor and the Boss302 motor is the pan and then the revised harness (basically a race harness, don't need certain street functions and some added sensors here or there).

908ssp, about the lineup:

Boss302R = Grand-AM spec Continental Tire Challenge car. Replaced FR500C
Boss302S = NASA AI / World Challenge car. Replaced FR500S
Boss302/LS = streetgoing bosses. Replaced * modern musclecars, lol.

One thing of note I'm working on myself is that the Boss302R's use an Air to Oil cooler. Not all teams use the same setup, but Mark mentioned that the #15 car saw a huge improvement moving from AN10 lines to AN12. Being that my car spends a lot of time on the street, but does see a dozen track days in Arizona and Southern California, I'm trying to build something to work. Unfortunately, an AN12 kit might be a bit big (although effective), so I'm looking into what it would take to put a thermostat in there, or would just have to let the car sit and idle for a couple minutes before taking off.

I'd be really curious to see what kinds of spring rates the Boss302R cars use, as the rear bar selections were tiny. I'm on eibach sportlines and eibach's recently released 2011 specific swaybar set, and I'm on the middle setting on both front and rear bars (very massive compared to the boss cars). I love the feel and its not too loose in the back. I thought it was common for racers to prefer RWD cars to be a bit loose, so I imagine the rear spring/wheel rates have to be fairly higher than what I was running (before the talks about bar settings). I remember some old FR500S teams in the Mustang Challenge would qualify with the rear bar completely disconnected. That just doesn't seem right to me...