Today i went to Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, and learned one thing about the mustang: it has unbelievable power. since autocross isnt racing on an actual track, its very hard to get the power down in such a small space between turns. Pretty much kept it in 2nd throughout the course, and man does this car haul a**! Another thing i took from today is that the first couple mods are going to be focused on handling and handling only. Anyone else autocross their 5.0's yet?

 

Yes. With a good set of tires you will be competitive and with upgraded springs and shocks you will be kicking butt. Here are some videos of my last two solo races.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN6GHmNahtc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcsbN...eature=related

 

well as of now i was looking at getting some good rubber (nitto nt05), an eibach pro-plus system, and a new panhard bar. maybe even a couple other suspension components. the main thing i need to reduce is body roll, that was bugging me throughout the day. what are you running?

 

IIRC the Nitto NT05 is a summer only tire right? Why not go straight for the jugular and get a proper set of handling street tires? Can be pricey depending on your wheel size but THE tires in Street Touring (the only classes we have street tire data from) are pretty much:

Hankook RS-3
Bridgestone Potenza RE-11
Toyo R1R
Dunlop Direzza Z1 Sport Star Specs (These were basically $1000 mounted, balanced, and shipped from TireRack in 245/45/18 size)
Kumho Ecsta XS

I opted for the Star Specs on their reputation for being a fantastic all around tire and good in the rain. Since my car will be daily driven on those tires that was important to me and the difference in time between those tires isn't enough to sacrifice the daily driving aspect for me.

I would take a look at those tires and see if any of them come in a size that fits your wheel diameter and width. I'm assuming you'll have to drop the aspect ratio a little bit and go to a shorter overall tire, but 26.7" diameter tires do not look bad on these cars. That's what mine are (245/45/18) and you can't tell the difference from stock despite the extra 1/4" in the fender area.

 

For tires I'm running Yokohama ADVAN Neova AE08's (265/40R18). I have Koni yellows and steeda ultralite springs and a J&M adj. Panhard bar.

 

I commend you on a very rare aspect of racing found in domestics, I do have the same outlook, I just find it insanely fun racing through corners vs straight line (highway or drag)

I have gone down that path with many of my friends, street racing and all and it got us no where fast.

One thing I do love is how well the coyote handles in the stock form with stock tires, I just can't wait to start adding tires springs and struts and shock.

Has anyone ever tried the Falken azenis tires? I had them on a 06 350z and they werent that bad, although it was clearly not for daily driving I had most fun given the 6-8 months of street driving.

 

I have the Koni Yellows and the Steeda springs as well and it was a huge, huge improvement. Tires would be another significant upgrade. Determining what class you want to run will help guide you on the mods and what you can squeeze in. Springs, dampers and tires are definitely where the biggest improvements are to be had.

 

I'm actually going to give it a whirl next month.

 

This is a big thing to look at when you choose your upgrades. Figure out what class you want to run in because if you for instance add a different cam or have custom headers to exhaust you will have to race in a much faster class but if you don't have the suspension and tire upgrades to match it you will be getting your butt kicked more often than not.

 

What is the benefit of a 245mm tire over a 285mm tire? Or better yet, a 285mm over a 305mm tire?

Don't you lose traction with less tire patch on the ground? Or even the possibility of rolling the beads over and off the rims?