GT350 Build - Autocross Time is Great but Track Time is Better

[Biggsy]

[/QUOTE]
Ended and the sparco Evo drivers seat, and the Evo L for passenger. If I start getting crazy, I'll switch to a halo seat of some sort.

The NASA discount was as good as the CMS Black Friday deals, which was nice. Didn't have to wait to place an order, and get the roll bar hung up in BF orders.
[/QUOTE]

CMS roll bar I assume?

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[WItoTX]

Ended and the sparco Evo drivers seat, and the Evo L for passenger. If I start getting crazy, I'll switch to a halo seat of some sort.

The NASA discount was as good as the CMS Black Friday deals, which was nice. Didn't have to wait to place an order, and get the roll bar hung up in BF orders.
[/QUOTE]

CMS roll bar I assume?
[/QUOTE]
Yes. We will see how install goes, lots of doom and gloom on youtube about drilling through the bulkhead, but also a handful of videos of guys saying they don't understand what everyone is complaining about too. We will find out here hopefully before Christmas.

 

[WItoTX]

One of the biggest annoyances I have with the 350 is that no one makes a decent 200tw 315 tire in 19". Why didn't Ford go to a 380mm rotor (And while I am wishing, a top laoding caliper!) and allow 18" fitment?

So in an effort to A) Tolerate Ford's engineering oversight, B) have fresh tires for the Beeville Pro Solo here in two weeks, and C) a more robust warm weather tire for summer to handle COTA and still be able to run MSR a few times, I decided to jump to the Nankang CRS 325's from the Bridgestone 305's. The 'stones are a fantastic tire, and for anyone in AutoX, or even track days, they should be your number one choice outside of maybe an A052.

When the 'stones get hot and you go over the limit, they are still incredibly controlled and predictable, unlike the RT660's. I still have a little tread left on the RE-71's, so I kept them, with the intent that either this spring, or possibly black Friday, I would pick up another set of wheels.

They have at least one track day left on them.

The new 325/30/19 Nankangs are massive, and I need to do some testing tonight to see if the rear's are going to make contact. Front's, no issue with rubbing. I was going to do the 305, but at the time I didn't expect to need to worry about the rear poke and potential rubbing the fender.

My best guess is I am fine, but time will tell. There is plenty of clearance in the front, but to make the rears fit properly, I am probably going to have to go to a custom wheel/backspacing. I think what I really need is a 19x12" ET58 to ET60 wheel, which Apex doesn't make. Right now, I have about an inch of clearance between the rear strut and the tire. Which goes down as soon as I add camber. So...maybe 19x11.5" is just a good spot to be, and I will have to live with 305's or poke with 325's.

I *think* with the suspension geometry, it is going to tuck. If not, I will add more camber. I am only at -2 right now, and it wouldn't hurt to go up to 2.7 or more.

My general conclusion is a 11.5" wheel is probably as big as one should go on these cars still using the factory Mag Ride setup. And 305 is about as wide as you can get before poke becomes significant, not to mention you end up pinching down on the tire.

We shall see how she goes, and might have a last minute tire change next week prior to Beeville. Picked a perfect time to figure out the size might be an issue.

I also ran the local SCCA event on the Stones. Despite a very poorly run event, leading to tire temps dropping back to ambient temp on run 3, I did manage a decent time. I did take first in my class, but it was sort of a hallow victory, as there was a full second I could have dropped but for losing all tire temp. Run 1 and run 3 were ice cold tires.

Also, I am experimenting with a new GoPro location, so I apologize for the over-exposure.

 

[webspoke]

Kyle, I run 325/30/20 Nankangs on the rear of my car, it takes around 2.3-2.7 degrees of camber to tuck. Offsets are different between the gt500 rear brake/hub) but that is on an et45 offset 20x11.5 apex wheel. Clearance to the oem shock mount is quite close - I run about a tie wraps width 3-4mm att full droop - but I rub more on the inner wheelwell at about 9 oclock with the combo pulled in close.

The shorter 325/19 will fit better.

 

[WItoTX]

Kyle, I run 325/30/20 Nankangs on the rear of my car, it takes around 2.3-2.7 degrees of camber to tuck. Offsets are different between the gt500 rear brake/hub) but that is on an et45 offset 20x11.5 apex wheel. Clearance to the oem shock mount is quite close, but I rub more on the inner wheelwell at about 9 oclock with the combo pulled in close.

The shorter 325/19 will fit better.

Thanks, that is good info. I didn't realize the 500 was that different. The rubbing is under full compression I assume?

 

[webspoke]

Thanks, that is good info. I didn't realize the 500 was that different. The rubbing is under full compression I assume?

I thinkso. Photo of the tuck with the taller 20" tire.

 

[WItoTX]

I thinkso. Photo of the tuck with the taller 20" tire.

Awesome, thanks for sharing.

I have more questions on the MCS/Magride delete you obviously did. But one expensive thing at a time!

 

[mavisky]

Awesome, thanks for sharing.

I have more questions on the MCS/Magride delete you obviously did. But one expensive thing at a time!

Just get good deletes and it's pretty straightforward.

 

[WItoTX]

I went for a ride last night, with my eye on the fender clearance. Found zero rubbing in the rear, but did find at full lock, the front in has a tiny rub on the fender liner. Since I spend no time at full lock, problem solved itself. I only got the car up to about 60, and didn't feel a loss in power from the bigger tires. I suspect my trip to COTA next month is where I will feel it.

I also dug through some old photos, and found a good photo of my car at full compression in the rear, and it was clear I'd probably have some rubbing if I didn't make some camber adjustments.

That being the case...I spent this afternoon tweaking camber A) because I was only at 2.1, and B) to get the wheels to tuck into the rear fenders. I had to adjust the key in the camber arm, easy peasy, and some minor toe tweaks to keep ever so slight toe in.

And with that, we are ready for the Pro next weekend.

For anyone looking for camber arms, the @AAD Performance S550 arms are fantastic. Beautifully made, and the keys make incremental changes a breeze.

 

[Deadly0ne]

I went for a ride last night, with my eye on the fender clearance. Found zero rubbing in the rear, but did find at full lock, the front in has a tiny rub on the fender liner. Since I spend no time at full lock, problem solved itself. I only got the car up to about 60, and didn't feel a loss in power from the bigger tires. I suspect my trip to COTA next month is where I will feel it.

I also dug through some old photos, and found a good photo of my car at full compression in the rear, and it was clear I'd probably have some rubbing if I didn't make some camber adjustments.

That being the case...I spent this afternoon tweaking camber A) because I was only at 2.1, and B) to get the wheels to tuck into the rear fenders. I had to adjust the key in the camber arm, easy peasy, and some minor toe tweaks to keep ever so slight toe in.

And with that, we are ready for the Pro next weekend.

For anyone looking for camber arms, the @AAD Performance S550 arms are fantastic. Beautifully made, and the keys make incremental changes a breeze.

For educational purposes - why did you go with the AAD performance ones instead of options from Full Tilt, SPL, Steeda, etc.?

Thanks for the great thread - love seeing all the progress!

 

[WItoTX]

For educational purposes - why did you go with the AAD performance ones instead of options from Full Tilt, SPL, Steeda, etc.?

Thanks for the great thread - love seeing all the progress!

A long time member on here, who helped with tuning my DSC, recommended them. I came from a hellcat, and AAD is big in that group for suspension parts.

The reason I liked them over the others is a didn't want a turnbuckle style of adjustment. The keys make camber adjustment repeatable and consistent. Basically I know what camber I will get with each key, and the keys are .25 increments (roughly). And their customer service is awesome. I was texting with one of their techs at 10 pm on a Friday night because I was having trouble with something. I dont recall what, but I was impressed they were responding. Great company.

Add to that the parts are beautifully machined and significantly lighter than the competition.

 

[honeybadger]

For educational purposes - why did you go with the AAD performance ones instead of options from Full Tilt, SPL, Steeda, etc.?

Thanks for the great thread - love seeing all the progress!

definitely don't want to use the Full Tilt, BMR or Steeda camber arms. Those threaded bits are major weaknesses. I went for a wild ride back in 2020 with an FTBR arm that broke.

I now use an SPC arm. I've talked to Turner at SPL extensively about their rear camber arm and he assured me that it won't break. He over spec'd it significantly based on my experience. I'd trust their arm if I needed a new set.

The AAD arm looks pretty decent too. Just don't use FTBR, Steeda or BMR

 

[CobaltFilly]

definitely don't want to use the Full Tilt, BMR or Steeda camber arms. Those threaded bits are major weaknesses. I went for a wild ride back in 2020 with an FTBR arm that broke.

I now use an SPC arm. I've talked to Turner at SPL extensively about their rear camber arm and he assured me that it won't break. He over spec'd it significantly based on my experience. I'd trust their arm if I needed a new set.

The AAD arm looks pretty decent too. Just don't use FTBR, Steeda or BMR

I will be switching to AAD and Cortex Racing suspension once the mustang is off the street for good. For now my Steeda is holding up well, albeit a little noisy clunking every now and zen on rare occurrence.

plus I am balling on a budget right now…trying to save for a house ;-;

 

[honeybadger]

I will be switching to AAD and Cortex Racing suspension once the mustang is off the street for good. For now my Steeda is holding up well, albeit a little noisy clunking every now and zen on rare occurrence.

plus I am balling on a budget right now…trying to save for a house ;-;

just inspect the threads very closely every so often and you'll probably be fine. you can see mine had been fatiguing for a while

 

[CobaltFilly]

just inspect the threads very closely every so often and you'll probably be fine. you can see mine had been fatiguing for a while

When you run out of things to do on your GT350 (funny like that will ever happen) I gotta take some track car building masterclasses in person from you. Your car is my dream with my own, only using the 6 cylinder powerplant and a supercharger paired with the stock 6r80 and a HTG Tuning sequential shifter. I hope to see you in person sometime.

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