2018 GT Daily Track Driver

[Howitzer]

Forgot to mention that I had them enlarge the strut tower hole while they were at it!

Looks clean too. Having just a proper alignment alone helps so much.

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[rxryanm]

This was a fun lil thread to read through over the past couple of days and has got me itching to try HPDE out this spring.

 

[txgt]

This was a fun lil thread to read through over the past couple of days and has got me itching to try HPDE out this spring.

Thank you! It’s been a blast wrenching on her and taking her to the track.

I highly recommend getting into HPDE! It’s such a fun way to put our cars and ourselves to the test. I know I’ve learned and progressed so much these past three years.

What tracks to you have locally? I’m not super familiar with the Kentucky area but I know ya’ll have NCM Motorsport Park in Bowling Green.

 

[rxryanm]

Thank you! It’s been a blast wrenching on her and taking her to the track.

I highly recommend getting into HPDE! It’s such a fun way to put our cars and ourselves to the test. I know I’ve learned and progressed so much these past three years.

What tracks to you have locally? I’m not super familiar with the Kentucky area but I know ya’ll have NCM Motorsport Park in Bowling Green.

I had to look it up, it's not something I'd thought about before. Definitely will depend on your definition of local lol. NCM's the only one in Kentucky and is about 2 hours away. Don't know if Indy does anything , but it's 3 hours away. So is Flatrock (new track) in TN. Mid-Ohio is right at 4 away.

Now to find out where HPDE is offered and go from there.

 

[txgt]

Now to find out where HPDE is offered and go from there.

Check out motorsportreg.com for events!

 

[Ballistica]

I had to look it up, it's not something I'd thought about before. Definitely will depend on your definition of local lol. NCM's the only one in Kentucky and is about 2 hours away. Don't know if Indy does anything , but it's 3 hours away. So is Flatrock (new track) in TN. Mid-Ohio is right at 4 away.

Now to find out where HPDE is offered and go from there.

I've gone to SCCA's Track Night in America events local to me in Chicago. A quick search on their website says they had a couple of events at NCM last year. Might be worth keeping an eye out for future events once the schedule for 2024 is released.

https://www.tracknightinamerica.com/events/2002883-track-night-2023-ncm-motorsports-park-may-6

These events are great for beginners to HPDE. No pressure, relaxed atmosphere, super nice staff who will take the time to answer your questions and give you tips/pointers. Perfect place to start.

 

[rxryanm]

Check out motorsportreg.com for events!

Oh, nice. Good looking out! I see a winter karting league in Indy and would love for us to have one here.
And already found a track I didn't think about - Nashville. Event in late February and that seems crazy early to me, but it'll probably be in the 70s by then with how weird the weather's been.

I've gone to SCCA's Track Night in America events local to me in Chicago. A quick search on their website says they had a couple of events at NCM last year. Might be worth keeping an eye out for future events once the schedule for 2024 is released.

https://www.tracknightinamerica.com/events/2002883-track-night-2023-ncm-motorsports-park-may-6

These events are great for beginners to HPDE. No pressure, relaxed atmosphere, super nice staff who will take the time to answer your questions and give you tips/pointers. Perfect place to start.

I'd heard only good things about Track Night in America. I'll have to check them out too, thanks!

 

[dupp403]

@txgt do you still plan on dailying the car with the -3.0 camber?

 

[txgt]

@txgt do you still plan on dailying the car with the -3.0 camber?

Great question. I keep hearing, “It’s not camber that kills tires, it’s toe”

If that turns out to be true then I should be good with 0 in. total toe. But we’ll see after I put some more miles on the Indy 500s to see how they wear.

 

[dupp403]

Great question. I keep hearing, “It’s not camber that kills tires, it’s toe”

If that turns out to be true then I should be good with 0 in. total toe. But we’ll see after I put some more miles on the Indy 500s to see how they wear.

I’m sure that’s true to a point. I’m at -1.9 on the front. With 2,000 miles on the tires they seem to be wearing really well with 0 toe.

 

[txgt]

Build Date: December 29, 2023

Going on my 3rd year of owning this car and I finally installed the BMR CB005 Cradle Bushing Lockout Kit. I know this is one of the first suggested mods for our S550’s, but I always seemed to prioritize other track day mods above this.

The install was pretty straight forward, but centering the cradle was a bit of a pain. I watched a few YouTube videos to see if anyone had some amazing secrets to make this super simple, but alas no.

However, I did come across this video that shows the absolute WRONG way to do the install! Honestly, I'm pretty shocked that the shop seemingly didn't read the install instructions that came with the kit at all.

I did a test drive and every thing seems to be good. My next track day is Jan 6th out at MSR Cresson driving the 1.7ccw configuration. It will be interesting to see how the car handles with the cradle lockout, front control arm spherical bearings, and the Hankook RS4’s on the Apex 19x11‘s

 

[txgt]

Build Date: February 22, 2024

It’s common knowledge around here that the oil temperature on our cars is inferred from other sensors. On top of that, my GT Premium trim level doesn’t come with transmission or differential temp sensors.

Taking a page from Terry Fair and the Vorshlag team, I decided to add some gauges to have a better understanding of what I’m putting my car through on track days. I went with the same Ford Performance Dash Gauge Pod (M-6304GPOD-A). For what it is, this thing is a bit expensive, but IMO it’s the best looking gauge pod available.

I went with the GlowShift Elite 10 color series and their oil pressure, oil temp, and transmission temp gauges. I went with this series because of their low/high-warning modes, and peak recall features. I really wanted to get some Autometer Ultra-Lite or Speedhut gauges, but those are easily at least two to three times as expensive as the GlowShift counterparts.

By focusing on engine and trans, I have fulfilled the “monitor the most expensive parts first” principle. One day I might add in a fourth gauge for differential temp using an air vent gauge pod adapter in the center dash vent. In the meantime, I’ll just be very diligent about diff fluid maintenance.

For the oil pressure and oil temperature sensors, I was able to tap into the two 1/8” NPT ports on the Mishimoto oil cooler’s thermostatic sandwich plate. Due to space constraints around the alternator, the oil pressure sensor has to use the “cold” side (post oil cooler) of the sandwich plate while the oil temp sensor has to use the “hot” side (pre oil cooler).

I did a lot of planning on how I was going to route the wires from the sensors to the gauge pod. I finally settled on doing a sound tube delete and routing the wires through the hole in the firewall. I tried to remove the 10 mm nut holding the sound tube on, but I have no idea how that’s even possible for an adult sized arm! So, I ended up doing the recommended “just yank that damn thing off” approach. The gas pedal blocking the cabin side of the sound tube firewall hole, so it was removed for easy routing of the sensor wires.

I didn’t want to just drill a hole through the rubber plug that came with the sound delete kit. I wanted a proper grommet to protect the wires and seal any gaps. I found that a 1/2” webbed grommet out of this Performance Tool rubber grommet kit worked best. Using my drill press, I think I put a 1/4” hole in the middle of the grommet webbing to run the three sensor wires through. Next I used a 1/2” drill bit to put a hole in the rubber plug that came with the sound tube delete kit. I’m really happy how this turned out!

The transmission temp wire wasn’t long enough, so I used some 18 gauge wires to extend the wiring and finished it off with a 2 way Weather Pack connector at the sensor, which uses an M16 x 1.5 Male to 1/8-27 NPT Female Thread Adapter in the drain plug to mount the sensor.

To keep all the sensor wiring protected from heat, I used two DEI 1/2” Heat Sheath Sleeves. The transmission sensor wire runs through a sleeve along the driver side of the transmission. It then gets added to a second sleeve along with the oil pressure and temp wires and is routed along the driver side engine bay to the firewall grommet.

The Ford Racing gauge pod is mounted to the center dash speaker grille. I picked up a used Speaker Grille off eBay so I could revert back to stock if I ever wanted to remove the gauges. My car actually has the center dash speaker so that came out to make room for the wiring. To get the wires from the firewall to the dash, I fished some mechanics wire between through the top of the dash and then taped the sensor wires to the wire and gently pulled it through.

To power the gauges, I again used some mechanics wire to help route some 18 gauge 4 conductor wire to the passenger floorboard fuse box. I used a couple of ATR Fuse Taps to get 12-volt constant (#2) and 12-volt switched (#23), and grounded on to a nearby location. The orange dimming wire on the gauge pod is connected to the yellow wire in the 18-4C wiring. This wire should tap into a 12-volt lighting source (something that only turns on during the night) to signal the gauges to dim by 30%. I haven’t connected and will leave this for another day.

Overall I’m pretty happy with how everything turned out, but if I had a bit more money to spend, I would have gone with different gauges. I really love the peak recall setting of these gauges and the price point is very good compared to others on the market.

Pros

• Price
• Peak recall

Cons

• The LED back-lighting makes it very hard to take a video or pictures of the gauges due to the LED flicker
• The lenses on the gauges have a thick bezel which makes it hard to see the left side numbers on the middle and passenger side gauges
• The white led color has a bit of a pink-ish tint to it and so doesn’t quite match the white backlighting of the factory tach and ground speed gauges

 

[krishelnino]

just come across this thread and went through all the posts. Great work, keep it going. I did something similar with the gauges few years ago. I added Glowshift elite for engine oil temp (used a sandwich adapter near enginer oil filetr), trans and differential oil temp(near drain plugs). I didn't know about the FP gauge pod back then, so got a generic one from Glowshift website. But the FP one looks much cleaner. A couple of questions

1) Did you ever figure out the dimming or get it to work ?
2) My sensors are hardwired currently near diff and trans drain plugs. I need to figure out a way to add a connector so that I can quickly disconnect during oil changes. What is the connector you used near your transmission drain sensor ?

 

[txgt]

just come across this thread and went through all the posts. Great work, keep it going. I did something similar with the gauges few years ago. I added Glowshift elite for engine oil temp (used a sandwich adapter near enginer oil filetr), trans and differential oil temp(near drain plugs). I didn't know about the FP gauge pod back then, so got a generic one from Glowshift website. But the FP one looks much cleaner. A couple of questions

1) Did you ever figure out the dimming or get it to work ?
2) My sensors are hardwired currently near diff and trans drain plugs. I need to figure out a way to add a connector so that I can quickly disconnect during oil changes. What is the connector you used near your transmission drain sensor ?

Nice install!

I still haven't wired this up yet, but from my research it seems that this is the way to go.

I bought this Weather Pack kit off Amazon for my trans sensor connector. It was the cheapest I could find that had a decent crimp tool. If you lived close to me I'd let you borrow my kit!

 

[txgt]

Build Date: February 22, 2024

I love to record my track day sessions so I can review the video and see where I need to improve (and yeah… I need a lot of improvement! )

My lap recording setup to date has been to use a windshield suction cup mount to hold my iPhone while the TrackAddict Pro app records data and video. I‘m using the PLX Kiwi 3 OBD2 adapter for vehicle data and the Dual XGPS160 SkyPro for enhanced GPS accuracy.

As part of the gauge pod install, I wanted to see if I could come up with an alternative phone mounting solution that wouldn’t depend on the windshield suction cup. After a lot of internet searching, I finally decided on the RAM Mount Quick-Grip XL with the drill-down base. My idea was to leave the ball-mount permanently attached to the speaker grill and add in the arm and phone mount just for track days.

An issue I had with this setup was that the backside of the phone mount completely covers the iPhone camera lenses. Using a hacksaw to remove some material, I was able to expose the wide and telephoto lenses of my iPhone 13 Pro. The ultra-wide lens is still blocked, but that‘s not an issue as the wide lens is used for videos.

While it’s really easy to remove the phone mount and arm when I’m not at the track, it turns out I really hate the way the ball mount looks next to the gauge pod. So, to save the aesthetics of the dash, I made the ball mount removable as well. I accomplished this by securing some rivnuts to a thin metal plate that I riveted to the speaker grille.

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