Honey Badger's Completely Off-the-Rails Race Car Build and Track Adventure Thread

straightliner1

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Great meeting up with you [MENTION=23430]honeybadger[/MENTION]. Let me know if you have questions about our earlier convo? Safe travels when you head North again. I'll get my pics posted up later tonight.
 

murdock2112

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Moved to Whidbey Island a couple of months ago. Looking forward to this summer maybe we can all get together sometime for a ride. Any Ford shows in the Spring around here?
 

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I'd be up for a meet and greet! A drive somewhere, maybe?
 

50 Deep

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Wife and I have it bad for Portland. When we go back we will try to connect with you PNW guys. Talk about cars with a nice hard cider.
 
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Today drove from Sac to Napa Valley and then on over to Hwy 1. Hwy 1 was about 60 miles of 55mph max speed, twisties and some of the most beautiful scenery I've seen yet. The twists were so aggressive and common, the speed limit was hard to keep up on anywhere but the straightaways.

Listening to the Voodoo scream and growl it's way through the woods and hills of the coastal highway was legitimate bucket list material. This car is incredibly capable - it's really unbelievable. Got some footage, but like a n00b I left my Surface Book's charger at home :tsk:. Apologies for the amateur hour stuff. Will get some video posted after the trip. Maybe sooner if I can find a charger :headbonk:

After Highway 1, we landed in the Golden Gate National Park to check out the bunkers and do some hiking (thanks for the recommendation, 50 Deep). Made sure to grab a quick picture of the car with the Golden Gate in the background - too bad the sun had fallen behind the mountain.

Tomorrow we are headed to Monterey and (hopefully) sneaking a quick peak of Laguna Seca.

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honeybadger

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I'd be up for a meet and greet! A drive somewhere, maybe?
Moved to Whidbey Island a couple of months ago. Looking forward to this summer maybe we can all get together sometime for a ride. Any Ford shows in the Spring around here?
We definitely should go for a drive. The sound of a handful of Voodoos terrorizing a hillside or canyon would be epic. Some of the WA coastal areas have amazing roads. Peninsula is phenomenal. Southeastern Washington is great to for more secluded drives.
 
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Wife and I have it bad for Portland. When we go back we will try to connect with you PNW guys. Talk about cars with a nice hard cider.
Let me know, brother. I'm game for a drive to Portland!
 

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I know a couple of 350 owners in PDX that I am sure would be down to meet up. Come spring time perhaps we can make this a REALITY!
 
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We were able to sneak in a hand car wash this morning before we left SF - so we could roll in style. Had some fun conversations about the Voodoo V8 and other sports cars at the washing stations - even got some local car driving knowledge, haha. After we cleaned up the car, we left SF and made our way down to Monterey/Carmel-by-the-Sea. Highway 1 had some beautiful parts, but we were moving a bit too....spiritedly...for good pictures or footage.

Once down to Monterey, we made a beeline to Mazda Raceway. Since it's a park, we got to cruise around the grounds. A track crew/care keeper even took us for a lap in his car. That place was epic. Those of you who are close enough to drive it sure are lucky. Pictures/video/videogames REALLY don't do it justice. That place is massive and the elevation changes are far more dramatic in person.

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Track tour
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After that, we drove around Carmel-by-the-Sea (one of the most beautiful beaches I've seen in the US) and Pacific Grove. The views did not disappoint. Pics below

Sunset Drive
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Pacific Grove
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I believe this was also on Sunset Drive (near Pebble Beach)
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Tomorrow we are off to Santa Barbara where we spend a few days relaxing and scouting the area. Hoping to get some footage of the way down.
 

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Nice collection of color combinations in those pictures...
 
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It's amazing how fast time moves when you get busy!

As predicted, my PC died on the trip and I had no way to keep the updates coming. Then as soon as we got home, life got crazy busy again. But enough of the excuses! Tons and tons has happened since January, so I got to get this thread going again. Bunch of updates incoming.

Road Trip Conclusion

To tie up the rest of the trip, we spent a few days in Santa Barbara (beautiful and peaceful place), a few days in Venice (terrorized Hollywood Blvd. with the Voodoo once or twice), and then finished up in San Diego.

Unfortunately, we didn't snap many pictures in SB or Venice/LA, but we did do a fair amount of driving - especially in the LA area. Malibu was fun as expected. The Glendora Mountain RD breathtaking. And the Los Angeles Crest Highway epic. Those 3 areas are a must if you're in the area.

Los Angeles area
While cruising the Angeles Crest Highway, we stumbled upon a photographer + a team of builders taking pictures of their latest project car they had just finished building for their client. It's truly a work of art. Gotta' love Pro-Touring cars. If I remember correctly, it was a 1968 Camaro that they had re=built - most notably, they had widened it by 2in on each side. The trunk, hood, bumpers and fenders were all custom body work. It was beautiful.

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We finished the LA cruises with the Sunset above the city. With the exception of the smog, it was beautiful.
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San Diego
San Diego was mostly relaxing because we were at a pretty fancy resort for the final few days. One of the days I did sneak away to go play in the mountains tho. Specifically, I went and checked out the Palomar Mountain Loop. This was epic. It went up and down a mountain with beautiful views and very, very little traffic. Great place to let the Ruby Voodoo stretch its legs without being too much of an ass to anyone.
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I made a short POV drive of the drive up part of the mountain. Nothing crazy, but was still plenty of fun.
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That concluded the trip and most of the excitement. Although I did have a bit of fun on the really, really flat, straight parts of I5 north of LA on the way back home.

After 2 weeks and 6,000 miles, I can honestly say this car is an absolute blast to road trip. We drove through flooded roads that were almost river crossings, snow storms, desert heat and monsoons and never once had a surprising moment. This car is an absolute blast.
 
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New addition to the family

In a surprising turn events, there's a been a very blue new addition to the family!

Back in January, my dad and I went for a drive in the 350 and he took it for a spin. In the beginning of February after my wife and I got back our road trip, my dad told me he was getting pretty serious about getting one of his own. So we started searching for a Lightening Blue with Convenience Package. After a couple of weeks, we found a Grabber Blue in North Dakota. He ended pulling the trigger and we went on a very adventerous road trip to pick it up the first weekend in March.

This car was an absolute score - it had 4.2 miles on it and hadn't been washed yet. It was delivered in a blizzard, so it was rolled off the lot and into their storage facility and had been sitting their until we picked it up. Talk about a score!
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Because we had 4 mountain passes to drive over, we ended up trailering home. This a beast of a car to pull into the enclosed trailer. Not much room.
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Once home, it was time to get it all cleaned up, correct the paint, and protected with CeramicPro. The paint took a bit of work to get corrected. It had tons of rubs from what I think were shipping during the winter (straps and such getting brushed up against the paint. Grabber is a hard color to correct since there is no metallic and it shows everything. But I was happy with the results of the job (about 25 hours in total).

Before
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After
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Unfortunately I don't have any glamour shots as it was rained for about 3.5 weeks straight in March, but the job turned out great and she is BEAUTIFUL in the daylight.
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It was pretty cool to have (2) 350s in the driveway for a while.
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Dad and I already planning a bunch of road trips and things to do together with these cars. First up is heading down the coast again to meet up with the Sacramento crew and headed down to Fabulous Ford's Forever car show. Should be a good time.
 
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honeybadger

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Track days

In February, a couple weekends after we got back, I went to my first autocross in the Ruby Voodoo. Had a blast, but quickly understood why so many say 3700lbs cars aren't really meant for autocross. It was clear I needed to get on a road course to really have some fun. So, in March I attended my first instructed lapping day with Team Continental down in Oregon at Oregon Raceway Park. Didn't capture any video or pics as there was just too much going on and I was trying to soak it all in. But I had a blast and learned tons.

Skip Day Track Day March 27, 2017
I also signed up for the "skip Day Track Day" Event for the following Monday. It's a pretty sweet deal. They book tracks on off-days for discounted rates. It was $165 for 7 hours of open track time and limited to 35 drivers. By sheer chance, I was fortunate enough to meet one of the Ford Racing instructors, Ronnie Swyers, who was hanging out at the track as well as a member of the local Shelby chapter, Brian, who also races one of the older FRS500's. So cool the community this car has around it. I got a chance to demo some of Ronnie's cool data logging products (he's a seller of the Aim SoloDL) as well as pick his brain about track tips, car handling, etc.... He was a really cool guy and can't wait to get to Track Attack now.

Early in the day, the weather was pretty good and track temps were good. MY best was a 2:02 in the clockwise direction. I was happy with that for it only being my second day at the track. (Apologies for the flutter, got it fixed for the next time).
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I was hoping to try and break 2:00.x time, but mid-day it just started POURING and hailing. I was on track when it first started to sprinkle, clear through the hail, then rain, and then sun again. The experience was pretty invaluable as I learned how the grip would change with the changing temps, moisture, etc... The MPSS are quite capable in the wet I was very surprised. I will say, though, I thought how slippery water is when playing Forza was to be an exaggeration - nope. Big puddles on a race track are quite slippery, and yep, your braking zones get a lot bigger even when going slower. Might or might not have slid off the track a wee bit. Regardless, the rain was a ton of fun. I think I did something like 29 laps straight. I was having a blast.

After a bit of sun and some lunch, I went back out and logged a 2:04.
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By this time, though, my brakes were going. In the 2 consecutive days of track time, I burned through about 75% of the brake life. Tires still have plenty of life even with the 7,000 of street driving. I'll tell you what, the Voodoo sure drinks some fuel. On this track day, I believe I turned a total of 113 laps...so somewhere around 4 hours of active track time. I burned through 2 complete tanks of fuel and averaged something like 5.8 mpg. Hehe

This car is an absolute beast on the track. I had quite a few drivers come check it out over the course of the weekend. I heard "that's a damn fast mustang" quite a few times. My personal favorite was a guy driving an older, race-prepped RX7: "when you caught me because of traffic, I was sure I was going to be able to outrun you. But you'd hang with me on the straights. So my next thought was I'll definitely be able to outbreak you. But I'd look behind me and see you close a gap 5 car lengths in one brake zone. So lastly I thought, there's just no way it'll keep up with me in the turns, but you did. Damn that car wicked."

I had an absolute blast chasing down corvettes, cmaaros, porsches and BMW. I was far from the fastest car on the track, but I had a good time chasing down cars that I really shouldn't have been able to. This car is an absolute beast on the track. I can't get enough.

Next up is ACNW instructed lapping weekend at the Ridge in mid-May followed by another Skip Day at Portland Internationals Raceways on a June 1. I'm pumped.
 
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straightliner1

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[MENTION=23430]honeybadger[/MENTION], did I hear that you're making it to FFF end of this month?
 
 
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