2018 GT Daily Track Driver

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Track Date: October 17, 2022

Another ”Monday Funday“ with EdgeAddicts out at MSR Cresson on the 3.1 CCW!

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Build Date: December 25, 2022

Merry Christmas!!!

The last two track days (9/24 and 10/17) I cooked the brakes pretty good the last sessions those days. I actually take great pride in those moments as it showed that my skill level was finally exceeding the limitations of the stock GT brakes

So, thank you to my wonderful wife for getting me the gift of big brakes!

 

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Build Date: December 29, 2022

My son and I took a field trip down to Summit Racing in Arlington, TX. For the life of me I can’t remember what we picked up that day, but I do remember the great feeling of walking around the showroom floor and telling my son about all the go fast parts on display

Edit: I remember now! I picked up the PowerStop Z26 drilled and slotted rotor and brake pad kit for my “street” setup (the OEM Ford smooth rotors from the Brembo kit will be reserved for track days)

 

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Build Date: January 15, 2023

A new year brings the installation of new brakes! My wife got me the Performance Pack Brake Kit from LMR (#LRS-32120K) for Christmas. The LMR kit is actually slightly different from the Ford Performance kit (#M-2300-V) In that rather than re-sell the FP kit, LMR saves the consumer $$$ by putting together the individual components themselves.

The LMR kit included the same 6-piston Brembo brake calipers, a set of genuine Ford brake rotors (#KR3Z-1125-G), Ford Performance Pack brake shields, and Ford caliper bolts). In fact, the only non-Ford branded part was the Centric/Stop-Tech Posi Quiet (#104.17920) brake pads. The LMR kit does not come with brake lines, but those are only needed for non-GT cars.

In keeping with my strategy of running drilled-and-slotted rotors on the street (‘cause they look cool ) and smooth rotors on track days, I installed the PowerStop Z26 kit I picked up from Summit Racing and did a complete brake fluid flush with Motul 600 RBF.

Before:

After:

 

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Build Date: January 25, 2023

Disaster!

On January 23rd, I posted about having a bad front wheel bearing. With an upcoming track day scheduled for January 28th, I needed to get this resolved quickly.

I picked up the replacement wheel hub/bearing assembly and the replacement 36mm nut from my local Ford dealer. Stopped by Northern Tool and picked up a 36mm socket and a 1/2" to 3/4" drive adapter so it will work with my 1/2" breaker bar and torque wrench.

As I reported in that post, when I went to take the spindle/hub nut off, it was definitely not torqued!

As I started to loosen it with the breaker bar, it was way too easy to loosen the nut. At that point I decided to see what the hub/bearing would feel like if I just re-torqued the nut. After torquing to 250 ft/lbs, everything seemed perfect: no play in the hub/bearing and spun with the same amount of resistance as the good passenger side hub.

So, I had a decision to make… consider the problem resolved and return the parts or go ahead with the replacement.

I opted to play it safe and go ahead and replace the parts and use some red loctite to keep things in place.

There didn’t seem to be any evidence that a previous owner had this part serviced before ( the dust cap looked perfect aside from the marks from my removal ).

Seems crazy to me that the nut would have lost its full torque from the factory…

 

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Build Date: January 27, 2023

Disaster!!

Thursday night (Jan 26th), I came home from work and parked in the garage. It was a completely uneventful drive home with no issues with the car at all. I’ve probably been home for maybe 30 minutes when my wife asks me to go pickup dinner. I head to the garage and find this:

After having just gotten through the crisis of having to replace a bad front wheel bearing before the upcoming track day (Jan 28th), seeing this coolant leak was not confidence inspiring to say the least.

I decided not to mess with the car Thursday night and instead woke up at 5am on Friday morning to figure out what was broken. I started the car and started inspecting and found this:

So, as you can see, one of the braided steel hoses for the Mishimoto oil cooler was in contact with the corner of the aluminum Mishimoto radiator. Steel is harder than aluminum and over time the braided steel slowly grated a pin hole in the radiator.

Removing the radiator should have been a relatively simple job, however the upper bracket that holds the Mishimoto oil cooler in place blocks the AC condenser from being separated from the radiator. Unfortunately that meant that I had to remove the front bumper so I could remove the oil cooler bracket so I could remove the radiator!

Once I got the radiator removed, I had a decision to make: put the original stock GT radiator back in, or try to get the larger Mishimoto radiator repaired. I called a few auto and radiator shops but no one would even attempt a repair of the radiator. But, one of the auto shops I called suggested that I call McGill Propeller and Welding as they are very skilled at welding aluminum.

I called them up, told them about the issue and they said to bring it down. After dropping it off, they called me back 2 hours later and I picked up my freshly repaired radiator!

To ensure that the braided steel line wouldn’t rub another hole in the radiator, I took the rubber off a cushioned clamp and zip-tied it to the hose where it came into contact before. Channeling my inner Freiburger, I used more zip-ties to pull the hoses away from the radiator. It’s not a great permanent solution, but it should solve for track day.

 

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Build Date: January 27, 2023

Oh, almost forgot, while I had the radiator out I took the opportunity to replace the GT350 one-piece lower radiator hose (see post #69) which was coming into contact with the bottom corner of the air box, with the beautiful silicone hose I picked up from Improved Racing (PN: RFR-802). There seemed to be plenty of clearance between the engine side of the hose and the alternator.

 

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Track Date: January 28, 2023

I made it! Against all odds (bad wheel bearing and a busted radiator) I made it to Decatur, TX to run the 2.7 mile counter-clockwise at Eagles Canyon Raceway

 

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Build Date: February 11, 2023

It’s time for some front aero and brake cooling upgrades! My Mustang started life out as a GT Premium and I’ve slowly been converting it to a PP2-ish car. Last year when I did the Ford Performance Track Handling Pack I made sure to go ahead and update to the Performance Pack Front Control Arms with the air deflectors for improved brake cooling (post #38).

Now that I’ve got the 6-piston Brembo calipers with the proper internally vented 15” rotors, the final piece of the puzzle is to install the Performance Pack belly pan with the integrated air channels to route air to the brake cooling air deflectors. Of course, the stock GT lower lip won’t fit the PP belly pan so I had to order the PP lower lip to go along with it. I went ahead and ordered the kit that has the PP2 air splitter to complete the package

The install was very straightforward and I’m incredibly happy with the new look! I will note that with the suspension drop from the FP Track Hadling Pack combined with the PP1 lower lip and the PP2 air splitter, my front end is only 4.5 inches from the ground

This makes navigating my driveway a bit trickier as it’s easy to scrape the bottom of the belly pan and air splitter now.

 

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Track Date: February 25, 2023

Time for some fast laps out at MSR Cresson on the 1.7 clockwise! Well, actually, the morning was anything but fast as the track was wet and traction was nowhere to be found during the first morning session.

It really was a terrible first session and I was really bummed out at the prospect of the entire day being wasted by this terrible weather. Thankfully, the weather improved and the track started drying out. As the day got on everyone was starting to get in some really good sessions with some fast laps!

 

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Build Date: March 18, 2023

So, at this point I’m super happy with the progress on the car. She has the PP brakes with the supporting air ducts and deflectors and the PP2 air splitter. I should stop at this point and save up for more mods next year, but… I just can’t help but complete the look by putting in a bigger spoiler to complement the new front aero!

I contemplated going “period correct” with the PP1 spoiler that would have come on a 2018 model, but I decided to go with the newer design available for the Mach 1 with the removable Gurney flap for track days.

Removal of the factory spoiler was a little nerve wracking. I laid down some blue painters tape for protection and then used a combination of plastic trim removal tools and some fishing line to ”cut” through the double sided tape. I then washed dirt underneath and used a EWK serrated decal eraser wheel to remove the rest of the double-sided tape.

This is when I had the thought, “oh $#!^… I just F’d up my paint!” I didn’t take a picture of the “mess” that was left after using the eraser wheel so I’ll just have to try and describe it. The wheel did a great job removing the double-sided tape, but left the paint underneath dull looking. I tried to wash it with some waterless wash but the paint looked ruined.

I went down to my local Autozone and panic bought a Griot’s Garage 6in random orbital polisher that came with a ceramic all-in-one wax. I also grabbed a bottle of Griot’s Complete Compound for good measure.

This was my first time using a polisher or compound and so I was super careful and used a light touch with the compound first before finishing it off with the all-in-one.

Everything turned out fantastic and the spoiler fit perfectly (it reused the factory spoiler holes). I love how it completes the look of the car, and hopefully the added downforce from the Gurney flap will be beneficial during track days.

 

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Track Date: March 25, 2023

A beautiful Saturday out at Motor Sport Ranch in Cresson, TX running the 1.7 counter-clockwise configuration with APEX HPDE. The Nitto 555 G2 tires that came with my SVE PP2 replica wheels from LMR (post #27) could have probably gotten through another track day or two, but I played it safe and put on a set of Firestone Firehawk Indy 500s in 285/35-19.

 

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Game Date: March 26, 2023

My son has a PS5 and the VR2 headset. He suckered me into the VR world by getting me to play Gran Turismo 7 using the controller with motion control.

Next thing you know, I’m buying a Logitech G923 steering wheel and pedal set, 6-speed shifter, and a Next Level Racing wheel stand!

It’s definitely not the same as driving a real stick shift car, but it sure as hell is a really fun experience!!

 

[ice445]

Car is definitely coming along great. Did you notice any change in pedal feel going to the larger front brakes? Supposedly the PP2 and Mach1/GT350 use a different master cylinder to better balance with the extra hydraulic pressure those brakes summon. Most people said they didn't notice any difference between stock brakes though, so I'm just curious.

Have you done any mods to control the rear subframe deflection? That's my only real complaint about these cars handling, you can feel the rear doing something else than the front and you have to give it time to catch up.

 

[txgt]

Car is definitely coming along great.

Thanks! It’s been incredibly fun and very rewarding. At first it was all about changes to make her handle great on the track, but now she’s really looking the part as well

Did you notice any change in pedal feel going to the larger front brakes? Supposedly the PP2 and Mach1/GT350 use a different master cylinder to better balance with the extra hydraulic pressure those brakes summon. Most people said they didn't notice any difference between stock brakes though, so I'm just curious.

I read that about the PP2 master cylinder as well, but honestly I don’t notice any brake pedal difference. However, I’m not the most “sensitive“ driver where I notice all the subtleties. All I know is that braking is much better on the track and I haven’t cooked the brakes since the change

Have you done any mods to control the rear subframe deflection? That's my only real complaint about these cars handling, you can feel the rear doing something else than the front and you have to give it time to catch up.

I haven’t, but that’s next on this list. I’ve given my wife the following parts list for my Christmas wish list

• CB005 BMR Cradle Bushing Lockout Kit
• CB006 BMR Chassis Brace, Front Subframe, 4-point

If you’ve got some additional recommendations, please share!

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