GT350 Build for SCCA Nationals

[ajhartman]

I gotta check in with the forum more often. Car is looking awesome!

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[WItoTX]

This weekend was my first track event in this car, at MSR Houston with NASA. Since it was my first event in forever, I started in HPDE 1.

I've never done a NASA event, and it was quite intimidating. I am used to pulling up to AutoX events, and even the National guys might have a nice trailer. But the NASA event, I was greeted by legit haulers. As I was pulling in with my puny F250 and open trailer, I thought I screwed up, and wondering if anyone would notice if I just quietly drove back out, so I didn't have to be embarrassed. When I finally found a spot tucked in the corner, I was surrounded by walls of 18 wheelers, tool boxes, cars on air jacks, and I was definitely feeling completely inadequate.

Luckily, I pulled up to another Texan, running a sick S-10 in ST2. Despite his massive setup, he was a good dude to be next to, and I spent all together too much time BSing with him.

Fast forward, car is unloaded, find my way to our group, to find out my one Mustang buddy had sold to get a ZL1 1LE. So I am now the only Mustang left in the bunch.

I won't get into too many more details. All weekend I fought a rough circuit and not enough dampening on the front, leading to MASSIVE amounts of splitter contact. @ajhartman, I fitted titanium pucks to the splitter (Thanks @Flyhalf), and apart from one brief straddle of a curb, there are no marks on the splitter. I am stunned. (I am lucky to have a friend that is a photographer). A Z06 followed me (briefly), and told me I was sending sparks, and it made me happy to hear that.

Here is my fastest, a 1.47. Review of video shows I left a ton of time out there, and a 1.3x is not out of the realm of possibility.



The wing, combined with the splitter, makes the car absolutely stick to the ground, without any balance issues. I was expecting a lot of push, but it just wasn't there. Not only that, but the uprights and the mount to the trunk, was really sturdy, no bent metal, nothing that indicates there was flex there. The wing and splitter were absolutely solid. The RT660's took to the track way better than I expected. In fact, I ordered a second set of tires in case I needed to swap out over the weekend. I brought them day one, and after seeing day 1 wear, I left them at home on day 2, which was probably a risk, I should have brought at least one spare. Noted for next time.

The skills taught in AutoX are awesome for the track. I gotta say, getting a 5-10 second stretch to just think, check gauges, think through the next turn, find the corner worker, it's pretty awesome. And for this car to flex it's muscle up to 130 MPH, it's clear it belongs on the track more than AutoX.

I'll be in HPDE 3 next go round, and it will help with getting clean laps. As it stands, I only ever got 1-2 clean laps a session.

Next mods. Seats, 6-point belts, and roll bar.

 

[mavisky]

I won't get into too many more details. All weekend I fought a rough circuit and not enough dampening on the front, leading to MASSIVE amounts of splitter contact.

Are you still on stock magneride? I thought you had the DSC for some reason.

The skills taught in AutoX are awesome for the track. I gotta say, getting a 5-10 second stretch to just think, check gauges, think through the next turn, find the corner worker, it's pretty awesome.

This reminds me of the time my track buddy came to his first autocross with his headset setup that he uses for instructors so I could coach him. Had to explain him that there's really not time to talk/coach on the autocross course and we'd discuss the run in grid. Such a different dynamic than the track where you can take a breath between corners.

Next mods. Seats, 6-point belts, and roll bar.

Love the factory Recaros, but they do lack control and I find myself bracing a lot as opposed to being mounted to the car and being able to steer freely.

 

[Biggsy]

Lol funny you mention the scene when you arrived. I tell people that it’s interesting going to an event because you will have huge RVs and stackers with a full living room and then two feet away you will see someone who put up a 5x5 tent that they brought in their civic.

 

[ajhartman]

I won't get into too many more details. All weekend I fought a rough circuit and not enough dampening on the front, leading to MASSIVE amounts of splitter contact. @ajhartman, I fitted titanium pucks to the splitter (Thanks @Flyhalf), and apart from one brief straddle of a curb, there are no marks on the splitter. I am stunned. (I am lucky to have a friend that is a photographer). A Z06 followed me (briefly), and told me I was sending sparks, and it made me happy to hear that.

I developed our Mag-ride coilover conversions to combat this. They allow the use of stiffer 2.5" coilover springs while maintining the OEM mag ride shocks. I'll DM you.

 

[WItoTX]

Are you still on stock magneride? I thought you had the DSC for some reason.



This reminds me of the time my track buddy came to his first autocross with his headset setup that he uses for instructors so I could coach him. Had to explain him that there's really not time to talk/coach on the autocross course and we'd discuss the run in grid. Such a different dynamic than the track where you can take a breath between corners.



Love the factory Recaros, but they do lack control and I find myself bracing a lot as opposed to being mounted to the car and being able to steer freely.

I have the DSC. I slowly increased compression across Low, Medium and High, but as I dropped time, the bumps were more significant. It got better, but I will be making a significant bump for the next event.

I started with an AutoX tune, so the dampening was significantly less.

 

[webspoke]

In the DSC you can raise the starting current on the front shocks to firm them up across the board - then blend that value with the rest of the table. That worked on my car. Eg. 600ma-700ma - max was 850ma.

For spring rate you can use AJ's kit or the steeda gt500 springs that are 350#

 

[WItoTX]

In the DSC you can raise the starting current on the front shocks to firm them up across the board - then blend that value with the rest of the table. That worked on my car. Eg. 600ma-700ma - max was 850ma.

For spring rate you can use AJ's kit or the steeda gt500 springs that are 350#

You are talking the Shock calibration table?

I was working off the velocity table, and while it got better, it obviously wasn't enough.

I do have AJ's kit, with 400 lb springs. We will see how these tweaks go, but R dampers and 500 lb springs may be next on my list. Or jump to coilovers and a delete kit.

Thanks!

 

[webspoke]

You are talking the Shock calibration table?

I was working off the velocity table, and while it got better, it obviously wasn't enough.

I do have AJ's kit, with 400 lb springs. We will see how these tweaks go, but R dampers and 500 lb springs may be next on my list. Or jump to coilovers and a delete kit.

Thanks!

Yes, bump up the 0% cell by some 10-20%. Then clear the 10% to 90% cells and autofill them again to blend from 0% to 100%. On my car front 0% is 700 and 100% is 850ma, so really not much difference.

 

[kz]

You are talking the Shock calibration table?

I was working off the velocity table, and while it got better, it obviously wasn't enough.

I do have AJ's kit, with 400 lb springs. We will see how these tweaks go, but R dampers and 500 lb springs may be next on my list. Or jump to coilovers and a delete kit.

Thanks!

This is some weird calibration - regressive damping ? Is it intentional ?
I think this table is really a base and everything else (G-forces, accel. steering angle, velocities) are applied to this.

 

[WItoTX]

This is some weird calibration - regressive damping ? Is it intentional ?
I think this table is really a base and everything else (G-forces, accel. steering angle, velocities) are applied to this.

I mean that makes sense. I won't dive into the discussions with DSC about this, but I was told the Gforce table was the basis of everything.

That screenshot is for a Porsche. Apparently they are backwards from Ford. Default full stiff I suppose.

 

[kz]

I mean that makes sense. I won't dive into the discussions with DSC about this, but I was told the Gforce table was the basis of everything.

That screenshot is for a Porsche. Apparently they are backwards from Ford. Default full stiff I suppose.

Oh - I thought it was yours which didn't make sense to me at all.

 

[Cobra Jet]

Great progress with the GT350, you’re doing really well with the track times/events too. The more you go the better you get each time. It’s nice to see how you’re logging/tracking your actual track runs; best way to do it and you can actually learn from how X-run went and what needs to be improved upon or adjustments, etc.

Keep up the great thread! It’s very educational for many who may have never run a car in certain events like you are doing - and have thought of building a car for such events, but may have been intimidated by XYZ. Your thread has a lot of DIY’s embedded in it too, which again is very useful and beneficial to others.

Best of luck with the GT350 and your track journeys!

 

[honeybadger]

This weekend was my first track event in this car, at MSR Houston with NASA. Since it was my first event in forever, I started in HPDE 1.

I've never done a NASA event, and it was quite intimidating. I am used to pulling up to AutoX events, and even the National guys might have a nice trailer. But the NASA event, I was greeted by legit haulers. As I was pulling in with my puny F250 and open trailer, I thought I screwed up, and wondering if anyone would notice if I just quietly drove back out, so I didn't have to be embarrassed. When I finally found a spot tucked in the corner, I was surrounded by walls of 18 wheelers, tool boxes, cars on air jacks, and I was definitely feeling completely inadequate.

Luckily, I pulled up to another Texan, running a sick S-10 in ST2. Despite his massive setup, he was a good dude to be next to, and I spent all together too much time BSing with him.

Fast forward, car is unloaded, find my way to our group, to find out my one Mustang buddy had sold to get a ZL1 1LE. So I am now the only Mustang left in the bunch.

I won't get into too many more details. All weekend I fought a rough circuit and not enough dampening on the front, leading to MASSIVE amounts of splitter contact. @ajhartman, I fitted titanium pucks to the splitter (Thanks @Flyhalf), and apart from one brief straddle of a curb, there are no marks on the splitter. I am stunned. (I am lucky to have a friend that is a photographer). A Z06 followed me (briefly), and told me I was sending sparks, and it made me happy to hear that.

Here is my fastest, a 1.47. Review of video shows I left a ton of time out there, and a 1.3x is not out of the realm of possibility.



The wing, combined with the splitter, makes the car absolutely stick to the ground, without any balance issues. I was expecting a lot of push, but it just wasn't there. Not only that, but the uprights and the mount to the trunk, was really sturdy, no bent metal, nothing that indicates there was flex there. The wing and splitter were absolutely solid. The RT660's took to the track way better than I expected. In fact, I ordered a second set of tires in case I needed to swap out over the weekend. I brought them day one, and after seeing day 1 wear, I left them at home on day 2, which was probably a risk, I should have brought at least one spare. Noted for next time.

The skills taught in AutoX are awesome for the track. I gotta say, getting a 5-10 second stretch to just think, check gauges, think through the next turn, find the corner worker, it's pretty awesome. And for this car to flex it's muscle up to 130 MPH, it's clear it belongs on the track more than AutoX.

I'll be in HPDE 3 next go round, and it will help with getting clean laps. As it stands, I only ever got 1-2 clean laps a session.

Next mods. Seats, 6-point belts, and roll bar.

Nice to see you're getting out there! car and driving are looking good! Holler when you head to COTA and we can meet up. Happy to help you get up to speed there!

Hopefully I'll even have my money pit running

 

[WItoTX]

Nice to see you're getting out there! car and driving are looking good! Holler when you head to COTA and we can meet up. Happy to help you get up to speed there!

Hopefully I'll even have my money pit running

Thanks! Your thread is a frame of reference for when I am modifying mine. Appreciate all the posting you have done, there is a lot of good information contained in each post.

Will do. I am gathering all the events at COTA to figure out when I can make it. I'd love to see HB out there.

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