Obsolescence to Obsession – Tales of the Rented Mule (FPRS GT350 Track Attack #14)

[Muligan]

Welcome back to another exciting (?) update on the Mule. This time, we ventured south to Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Alabama with a convoy of buddies on a 1600 mile excursion in search of BBQ, steaks, beer, camaraderie, eccentric art, vintage motorcycles / race cars, and speed; lots of speed.

Our rag-tag bunch included a BMW M3, Camaro SS 1LE, a GT350R, and a former Bondurant Mustang GT, as well as the venerable Mule. I joined the tail-end of the column as they passed nearby headed south and we were off. Having walkie-talkies along for the ride helped to pass the time and talk smack, as well as play a bit of car movie trivia..... and to coordinate gas stops and other important stuff.

At our first gas stop, I discovered everyone was sporting Mule hunting licenses on their cars (oh, boy, this is gonna be an interesting weekend).......

Following #74 - a smokin' fast '01 Mustang GT that now packs a 500+ hp Coyote between the fenders......

With Road America being home-base for the Mule, I'm used to a big, wooded, track experience, but nothing could prepare me for Barber. Based on all I'd read and watched, my expectations were high, but I was still blown away by the scale and beauty of the facilities.

We timed the trip so that we'd arrive at the museum mid-day on Friday, giving us the afternoon to enjoy the displays before we could get into the paddock.....

One of the cool features of the museum is the bridge that goes out over the track to an observation area. It was from there that we caught our first glimpse......

The pick-up in the above shot is the landscaper.... he's actually edging the grass along the track! We were told that the facility manager is a horticulturist, which explains a lot.

Friday evening - paddock area all set up and time to head to the vrbo and enjoy some relaxation and a great dinner with friends......

The event was put on by Chin Track Days - it was my first time running with them and I'm really impressed. The driver's meeting was very informative, with just the basics covered in the main session, then break-outs for each of the run groups tailored to the experience of the entrants. There was even a surprise attendee providing coaching to a couple of the drivers (note Randy Pobst to the far right in the below pic)......

The one downside was that since I'd never been to Barber, never run with Chin, and have a somewhat "stale" resume given my many years away from the track, I was assigned to the novice run group to start. I qualified as "solo," so wouldn't have an instructor with me unless I requested a ride along to get signed off for a bump to intermediate later in the day.

Oh, and it was about then that one of the guys (ahem..... @GoesTo11) fanned out a stack of "kill stickers" with a mule covered by a red circle/slash and announced that every time someone passes the Mule, they'd get one for their car. Now it's not like I'm a competitive guy or anything, but this was war. So, I resolved that nobody would earn a sticker that day - which was going to be a tall order with this bunch..... and the butterflies in my stomach started flapping their wings a bit harder.

Both days began with a half hour slow, yellow flag familiarization session - invaluable for a real look at the track for the first time after spending a couple of weeks watching videos. Next, it was out with thirty or so other cars in the first novice session. As expected, there were some traffic back-ups, but with instructors in half of the cars the point-by came quick enough to clear things. I was even able to get a couple of clean laps in, once the Pirelli DH slicks were up to temp, and turned a best of 1:39.4 in my first session. That seemed to be sufficient to get me bumped to intermediate when I dropped by to talk with the officials about that check-ride.

The other guys had just gone out with the intermediate group when I was getting bumped, so since the sessions were a half-hour long, I figured I had plenty of time to get ready and head out. I'm sure they were surprised to see me rolling out onto the track midway through their session, and it was game on at that point. Note the target reticle added to the Mule's rear bumper......

After being denied their kill stickers on Saturday, the hazing continued, with the hunters turning up the wick a bit and wearing hi-viz orange on Sunday.

Mule fans (and foes) were everywhere, including the line for some really good BBQ at the on-site food truck.....

Although Sunday ended up being pretty hot, the morning was cool enough to make good power and the first session yielded my best times of the weekend - a solid string of 38's with the best three separated by just 2/10ths.....

For a first-timer at Barber those laps came with a bit of pucker factor, as evidenced by my seat......

The only downside to the whole trip was that on my prior outing, I noticed a bit of a wonky clutch pedal - it was feeling "notchy," which is a sign that the throwout bearing is about to take a dump. Well, on Saturday it was doing the same thing, as well as being really hard on initial push and sometimes hanging up a little and acting slow to return to position. It all came to a head in the second to last session on Sunday when the pedal went to the floor and decided it'd had enough.... it was staying there. With nobody behind me, I was able to slow to cool-down speed and circulate the track to the pit-in. After some time to cool off - both me and the Mule - it was onto the trailer via winch.

As for the track - all I can say is WOW! Barber is 2.3 miles of undulating asphalt that keeps the driver thinking and working the entire lap. There are precious few places were you are cruising along straight - the corners come at you fast, the elevation changes fling you from unweighted and loose to compressed and grippy, and the blind hills and turns make each lap a collection of leaps of faith. Yeah, it's a long way from home base, but I'll be back to Barber someday, for sure.

Props to Chin and their team for a great event. They are a class act and bring out some fast drivers with heavy iron. The intermediate group ran fast, clean, and courteously - lots of mirror watching and quick point-bys. My lap times would have easily fit in with advanced, but I was happy running where the Chin guys wanted me for the weekend.

The only other discovery is that the Mule appears to have developed an appetite for passing Porsches.

Please, tell me again how fast your Cayman GT4 is.... I'm all ears.

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[sublime1996525]

Haha sounds like a great weekend!

 

[svttim]

Damn, I need one of those shirts!

 

[Goz To 11]

Damn, I need one of those shirts!

Can do. I know a guy...

 

[azshelby350]

I replaced the clutch in #9 with a McLeod unit that is quite a bit more stout for track usage.

Barber looks beautiful!

 

[Muligan]

Here's the initial look at the aftermath of a spectacular throwout bearing failure. If your clutch pedal feels notchy, hard to push at the top, or stays on the floor, this is probably what you'll find inside.

First pic is what a healthy and new throwout bearing looks like......

And here's the one in the Mule......

Note the ball bearings and other clag in the bottom of the bellhousing - yikes!!!


More updates to come - stay tuned.

 

[Jbraun2828]

I ran into track attack number 12 last weekend at mid Ohio. Super cool guy, his wife also has number 15 I believe. He was struggling with tires so I let him borrow an extra set for the afternoon one day. I mentioned that he and his wife didn’t need both cars and should probably sell me one of them but he wasn’t having it

 

[Muligan]

The Mule is back - and better than ever!

While the trip to Barber Motorsports Park in September was epic, having to winch the Mule onto the trailer before the final session on Sunday was a bit of a bummer. As mentioned in a couple of recent posts, it was evident the throwout bearing was on its last legs, but I hoped it would give me a couple more events so I could make it a winter project. I soon learned that track cars don't run on wishes and hopes.

Here's a repost of the pic of my unique "Explod-o-Thro" (c) and pat. pend.

And here's what the flywheel and pressure plate looked like...... maybe not "toast," but certainly they have both had the spurs put to them during their short but hard life and are showing signs of some hot-spots.

Now, all of these components are "legacy" stuff from the Mule's days as a "shared resource," as they say in the corporate world. They use a bit different word on the street, but we'll keep it clean here, as the Mule strives for a certain level decorum and is a bit sensitive these days about the past. Anyway, although I tried to be gentle, it's likely the Mule and I were living on borrowed time when it came to power transmission to the wheels.

What's most impressive, though, is that even with a clutch that was probably slipping due to the failing throwout bearing, the Mule was still really quick. I sure can't wait to get it out on track for the final event of the 2022 "Back in the Saddle" tour season to see what it'll do now.

So, what's new? Well, since I took advantage of the blowout sale on obsolete parts offered by the school, I had a new clutch and flywheel on hand. In the interest of time and the spirit of developing a relationship with a nearby dealership that just opened a brand new flagship facility, I dropped the Mule and those parts off on our way home from Barber. I also provided a couple liters of Castrol SRF, a torque paint pen, a Gen2 MGW shifter, and a bunch of paperwork, while the dealership ordered up a new OEM throwout bearing and replacement hardware for all the one-time-use stuff.

Two weeks later, the Mule is home. After a quick clean-up of all the grime from Barber (finally), it was time to hit the road and put some break-in miles on the new clutch. I knocked out just over a hundred miles today on backroads and through small towns with lots of rowing through the gears, stopping at a car show for a while to let some kids climb in and make race car noises. Sure does feel good to imprint on the next generation!

I'm usually a hands-on guy when it comes to mechanical stuff, but I also tend to work really slow. I knew that if I tackled this project, my season would be over. Unfortunately, that means I can't attest to the ease or otherwise of the installation of the MGW, but I sure can say for a fact that it's one awesome looking and operating part! I thought the stock shifter was pretty good, but WOW - the MGW is so much better. It feels like a true gated shifter and the throw is way shorter than expected. The tech who installed it made notes on the paperwork, including reference to having watched and followed the video instructions regarding installation and set-up. He even paint marked everything that he torqued - shifter and all the other work!

As a final tweak, they rechecked my alignment and dialed in a bit more negative camber on the front. Now set at -2.8 on both sides, which seems to be about the most we'll get using the Maximum Motorsports camber plates. If I need or want more, I'm going to have to switch to Vorshlag or others.

Also, since I didn't do the work, there aren't any pics of the process to share, but here's one of the MGW shifter from below; even mostly hidden, it's really cool looking.

And, here are a few pics from my "break-in" trip, including the Williams Bay car show and along the shores of Geneva Lake (Wisconsin). It was a brisk 32 degrees when I rolled out at sunrise, but was sunny and warm by mid-day......

 

[Muligan]

Oh man; gimme a brake:

Brief update on the Mule's brakes. For such a heavy and fast car, the Mule is fairly easy on consumables. This reinforces my impression that the GT350 is set-up really well out of the gate, but with a bit more tweaking, it can be made even better, which translates to consistent and reasonable wear on things like brake pads, rotors, and tires.

I've been running the same rotors all around that FPRS installed - most likely with a few days on the front ones before I picked it up. Although the first few events were run at a slow-ish pace as I worked on shaking the rust off my skills, the last few days on track (Gingerman and Barber) saw some fairly hot laps, with lots of hard brake use.

The rear brakes (rotors and pads are all FPRS-issued) are in great shape. On the front, I'm only on my second set of pads (including the set that came from FPRS). The front rotors had visible heat cycles on them, though - with a bluish tint and just a faint crazing (spidery-web hairline cracking) on the surface. There were also some "dirty" spots from pad material transfer - either built up during hard use or more likely from sitting in the paddock and not being rolled forward and back periodically as things cooled down. That material transfer resulted in a pulsating feeling - not a wobble in the wheel, but more of an on/off type feeling under really light braking. Since it became more of a vibration under heavy track braking, I decided to pull the front rotors and check them for warp and see if we could do a clean-up cut.

Both had very minor warping - probably more within factory specs than from overheating - and they mic'd out at mid-36mm range. Minimum spec is 34mm, so we chucked them up and turned just a tiny bit off each side. The result is that both are perfectly flat and still over 35mm, with a nice new cross-hatch pattern.

Before -

After -

Next up - Blackhawk Farms this coming weekend. BHF is an old-school, throwback of a track just about an hour from my house. I haven't been there in years and years, so it should be fun to get back to my roots. I'm even thinking of driving the Mule, since the Pirellis are out and I'll be running street tires because of the forecasted cold.

I'll get these rotors reinstalled on the car, bleed the brakes, then use the trip there as a chance to bed in the pads and re-season the rotors.

Thanks for dropping by - always nice to have a visitor.

 

[Muligan]

And That's a Wrap!

Well, the 2022 season has drawn to a close and with it, the "Back in the Saddle" tour. It's hard to believe that all this began just eleven months ago with a call from FPRS and their offer for me to be the Mule's new caretaker. What a whirlwind - the trip to Charlotte, the pre-season work, butterflies-in-the-stomach that morning of the first event at Road America, a bunch of mid-season work, hitting our stride late season, an epic trip to Barber with a bunch of buds, the Explod-o-Thro (c) & Pat. Pend. tribulations, and a really chilly last event (more to come on that one). It's been great sharing this past near-year with all of you and I hope everyone enjoyed the ride. So, here's the details on the last outing and some random thoughts from the year.

Blackhawk Farms - Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Blackhawk Farms Raceway (BHF) is an old-school place located almost right on the IL/WI border (but on the wrong side). Just under two miles and with only seven turns, it combines a narrow track surface with some tight turns, then tosses in some nearby trees, tire walls, concrete barriers, and swamps to keep things interesting. The grounds are (ahem) rustic, but the owners have made improvements over the years, so the facilities are nice. Paddocking on the grass (or dirt/gravel) is the order of the day. I started running BHF back in the early '90s and other than a nice enclosed pavilion (with a much appreciated fireplace!) and no more sheetmetal trough in the men's room, it hasn't changed much.

I originally planned to go to BHF in July, but the mid-season suspension update and other work got in the way, so I put it off. With a follow-up trip to Road America scheduled shortly after the Barber trip (which I ended up not making due to the Explod-o-Thro (c) & Pat. Pend.), I had to push the rescheduled BHF date out to October. Back in the day, I used to run at BHF with Midwestern Council of Sports Car Clubs in their time trial program. Turns out they still have those events and they had to move their last one to mid-October.... so I jumped in as a non-member participant for the morning open track sessions, taking a pass on the one-and-done timed runs in the afternoon.

Since the new clutch/flywheel combo just had a bit over a hundred miles on it, I decided to drive the Mule to the event, rather than hauling it there on the trailer. I figured it was a win-win, since it'd give the clutch a bit more break in, as well as the recently turned front rotors, and save a bunch of time at both ends by avoiding the loading/unloading gymnastics. Besides, showing up with a loaded rig and all my gear seemed like overkill for just a few sessions.

The Mule and I got an early start on the 75 mile trip so we could be at the track when registration and tech opened at 7 am. Around here, sun-up is just after that time these days, so when I left there were still nearly two hours of dark. Oh, and it was cold - like upper 20s-low 30s cold. And windy. That ruled out the Pirelli slicks, yet another reason to drive it..... hey - it has street tires and license plates, so why not?

A hot mug of tea and a home made breakfast sandwich in hand (no rules against eating in the Mule), I fired it up just past 5 am....... waking up pretty much every nearby neighbor in the process with the R exhaust locked in the full open position. I swear, the garage acted like a sound funnel of sorts, resulting in a shotgun blast of noise outward when I hit the start button! What music!!!!

Ever watchful for roadkill-in-waiting, I pointed northwest and blasted through the dark, arriving at the track right on time and having only one near-miss with a deer just finishing it's morning stroll across the road as I rounded a curve. First through tech as the sun was coming up, I had a bit of time to lead the Mule to the trough and give it a drink of ethanol-free 93 octane Sunoco.

Afterward, I tucked the Mule in at it's paddock spot and wandered around, checking out the other cars and chatting up guys who, like me, were wandering about trying to stay warm. This club runs their morning open track sessions a bit looser than the commercial track-day groups I ran with all summer - very basic rules for passing from group to group and point-bys were "appreciated" but not required.

By now, you've guessed it was a bit slippery on track. By the time my group was called for our first session, it was still just in the mid-30s and overcast (and didn't get very far into the 40s by the end of the morning), so no ambient warming of the track by the sun. Combine the cold temps with what are by now somewhat hard MPSS tires (they have more than a few heat cycles and are looking a bit colorful) and mix in the aforementioned narrow surface, trees, various tirewalls, concrete barriers, tight turns, and nearby swamps...... well, you get the picture, I just sorta tip-toed around to avoid wadding up the Mule at its last event.

Sounds like fun, huh? You may wonder why in the world this seemed like a good idea. Well, remember those legendary shirts I printed up at the start of the season? You know, the ones worn by discerning track rats everywhere (more-or-less)? Well, BHF was one of the tracks listed on the back and I was told in no uncertain terms that if I didn't run BHF this season, there was going to be quite an uprising - along with lots of returned (or burned) shirts. So, BHF it was..... cold and all for better or worse..... suck it up buttercup.

In the end, we had a great time, met some new people, danced around on the track and learned more about the Mule's handling characteristics (both good and bad traits), validated that the clutch work is done right, reveled in that awesome MGW shifter, and at the end rang up a "Charge System Service Now" alert - complete with a ridiculously fast gong noise (yay - something to work on over the winter!). Best of all, the Mule drove home under its own power and arrived back at the shed with nary a new scratch or ding on it's well-worn body, but with almost a thousand new track miles on the odometer.

Those miles represent lots of fun and memories made in a short time. Those of you following along from the start may recall that I took lots of years off from the track - twelve long years away from all this fun. This season started with lots of anticipation and just a little apprehension. With each lap, my comfort and confidence began to return. Having skilled friends to run with truly helped - I'm blessed and thankful to have them all out there with me. They welcomed me back to the fold and then let me chase them, followed me and provided feedback, and even had the fortitude to climb in the Mule for a bit of evaluation and coaching. Those guys, and an incredibly competent car, really helped me get back in the groove.

Up Next?

So what does 2023 hold for the Mule? Well, to start, it's been decided that next year (in honor of the transmission fluid soaked underside from Gingerman) will be dubbed the "Rode Hard and Put Up Wet" tour. Look for more cool shirts, too. The off season will be time for some additional mods, but the cast-aside Z28 LS7 swap project will take priority for a while once everything is tucked away for winter storage.

Oh yeah - there was one thing about Barber I didn't mention. I left the track for a bit at the end of the first day and returned to find the Mule in the air. Now this was really nice of the guys to help me get ready to rotate the tires, but there was some quiet chatter going around that they were going to leave the poor thing in the air; something about slowing me down.

They eventually lowered the Mule the next morning - right before our first session, but those uber-cool QuickJacks really left an impression. I couldn't stop talking about them when I got home - how a set would really add to the functionality of my four post lift and so on, ad nauseum. Mrs. Muligan must have gotten the message, as I came home yesterday to find an early birthday gift wrapped up in the garage...... my very own QuickJacks! Here's a teaser pic - more to come once set up and ready to go.

As the curtain closes on a wonderful 2022 season, my heartfelt thanks to everyone who made it so, including lots of you guys here at M6G. The Mule is starting to take on a personality and sense of humor of it's own and I can't wait to see the places we'll go next year. Speaking of that, ever hear of the Grassroots Motorsports / Tire Rack UTCC? I guess they're moving to NCM in Bowling Green next Fall ..... Hmmmmmmmm.

Until next time....... Hee Haw!

 

[svttim]

Dear Mrs. Muligan.... I need a quickjack too

 

[matthewr87]

I love a good quickjack. Especially at the track with all the people around and watching. Makes it more exciting to torque my gorilla nuts.

 

[barstowpo]

We should plan a FPRS reunion nest year somewhere. That would be a hoot.

 

[Gt6guy]

Thank you for sharing your adventures.
Is anyone keeping track of all the track attack cars that have been sold. Is there a registry?

 

[Muligan]

Thank you for sharing your adventures.
Is anyone keeping track of all the track attack cars that have been sold. Is there a registry?

Funny you should ask..... about time for a bump on that page's link......

https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/th...ack-program-car-registry.168814/#post-3431556

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