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The Albuquerque Stripper - Who says a Mustang can't land a kickflip?

Ewheels

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2015-2017 GT's have the controls for the stereo on the left. While 2018+ have them on the right. It's really annoying that they are moving it my Fiesta have the stereo on the right as well. So it's really hard to control your music when switching between different Ford cars ...
That's not true. My stereo controls on my 18 are on the left.
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That's not true. My stereo controls on my 18 are on the left.
So it's the other way around actually on my 2017 the vol is on the Right. I know that they are different because a friend of mine has the 2019 and the stereo control is on the other side. I found some photos of my wheel and stereo is on the right.
 
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So it's the other way around actually on my 2017 the vol is on the Right. I know that they are different because a friend of mine has the 2019 and the stereo control is on the other side. I found some photos of my wheel and stereo is on the right.
Are your Bulgaria models right hand drive? Perhaps they worked with focus groups between the 17-18 models to realize that so many youths wanted to raise the stereo volume during race/shifting events, so they moved the volume controls to the wheel side opposite of the shifter.

When I was in ZA, my VW Golf didn't have volume controls on the steering wheel.

It also didn't have a radio, but that's irrelevant.
 

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Are your Bulgaria models right hand drive? Perhaps they worked with focus groups between the 17-18 models to realize that so many youths wanted to raise the stereo volume during race/shifting events, so they moved the volume controls to the wheel side opposite of the shifter.

When I was in ZA, my VW Golf didn't have volume controls on the steering wheel.

It also didn't have a radio, but that's irrelevant.
Nope Left hand drive Euro Spec Cars. Though that with the racers makes sense but you have Auto volume increase when speeding anyway this even my Fiesta has.
 
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Who wants to destroy a perfectly good car? I do!

So, took my half-assed attempt at wrapping off and figured that it'd be a better idea to leave it to the professionals. Part of my going quiet for the longest time is that well, for the most part, wrap places in Southern California absolutely suck. I had approached twenty five (25) of them, and actually took time out of my day and risked dying of Covid to go see some of them and talk things over. I don't believe my ideas were too crazy, and the livery that was done up is I believe, top notch. I guess they'd rather spend their days doing simple carbon fiber roof and hood wraps instead. I'm not mad, just disappointed. Eventually found somebody who sounds pretty legit, and so we'll see how that turns out.

So, to get it to them, it'll make things easier if the car is in one color, which ... uh, Grabber Lime, Silver Ingot, Ebony Black, Mineral Gray, and Oxford White means I need to get cracking.

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Cleaned up and prepped that space for a few cans of Oxford White spray

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Cut a nice hole in the side and put a Race Louvers side vent in it

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Put some additional cardboard in the engine bay, and cut holes all throughout that hood, which is rather difficult with an angle grinder (don't be dumb like me, use a jig)

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and a bit messy, but ended the day with a nice win.

I'll admit, it's rather difficult to look at a perfectly good (and expensive) hood, and start cutting holes in it. It's even harder when you know you do shitty work :D

Oh well, it's for a good cause, I think. Letting air out means my hood isn't going to lift as badly as it did on my last trip to Auto Club Speedway, and those side vents should help and take a good amount of brake heat along with it. If not, at least I'll sound like a race car, and sometime shortly, sound like a race car. Now if I could only get some more seat time and drive it like a race car. I hope I'm nearing the end of this though, with the suspension, car stripped, some aero, and whatnot, it's only really some minor electrical and other race prepping things, like a new seat, fire system, and lil' ins and outs. I'd like to think my power/weight is around my intended Super Touring 2 limit of 8:1, because if it is, then I just have to get some more seat time, perhaps some coaching, and shave a few seconds off to get this thing competitive for the 2021 season, if there ever is one.
 

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As always, awesome to read and see the updates!
 
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What a fun two weeks it's been since I last updated things. I'm primarily posting on Track Mustangs since, well, that's what I am, but that doesn't mean that I don't not love you guys. Although, if you're hard parking your stock Mustang at Gas Stations and posting one liners about how you win every race and nobody beats you... I'm not mad, I'm just incredibly disappointed.

Let's see, went out to Auto Club on Oct 3 and Oct 4th, first time out on Toyo RR's, which were not heat cycled. First session out was a very disappointing 1:54.x, but making slight adjustments to the pressures for a more even wear, and the second day's heat cycling jumped another 2 seconds so I finished Sunday with a 1:51.0, and I'm sure there's another few seconds in that as well if I start working on the aero.

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That was an earlier picture, but you can see my temp was way off, so, yeah, disregard every internet idiot saying what they use and just work on it yourself. Right now, I'm not running any splitter, undertray, or rear defuser. The good news is that the vents in the hood and fender fixed the issues with the hood lifting that I was previously having in a major way.

I was instructing 5 students on Saturday, and it was the very first time I can recall that every single car had more horsepower than I did... Corvette Grand Sport, Z06, a Hellcat, and a 1000hp+ Challenger Hellcat. Felt kinda nice that they thought enough of me to get the people most likely to kill tires and spectators.

Fast forward a week, and I'm back to Buttonwillow with NASA in the traffic jam to end all traffic jams. Spent most of the time fighting traffic and trying to quickly identify if I can pass or not, so I just default to waiting for a point or passing on the straight. Got it on the scales with half a tank at 3599 which was nice, still another 100 or so left in it. Had some fun sessions on Saturday with Will and Kenny running their Porsches as we'd weave through traffic at high speeds. Saturday was CCW13, which is the usual course in reverse, and that's an entertaining course full of pucker as in Mustangs you come through the Esses already at a pretty good speed, and after the last one you have to take that quick sweeper. Sunday was CCW25, and I find that many times more entertaining because if you take the Riverside sweeper around 100, you get a long straight, and then approach the Grapevine left at above 140 with a good lil' hill right in the middle of the braking zone, definitely a fun place to catch some air and get a nice workout on your sphincter muscles.

What also got a nice workout, was something inbetween the engine and the transmission. The Auto Club weekend was pretty uneventful, with the exception of losing my right side skirt in one run, which came back undamaged, thankfully enough. Sometime after the 2nd session on Sunday and during the 3rd session, something started breaking down. I was still able to drive, so I don't believe it to be the motor, and I was somewhat still able to shift, so I don't think it to be the transmission, so I'm guessing it to be something with the clutch or pressure plate.



Had Buttonwillow and Willow Springs up, to finish this month off, and then one of the last Auto Clubs in November, but yeah, as much as I want to track every weekend, this car... well, is this car. So, we'll get busy on those other things that I'd been putting off, like perhaps boxing the air inlet into the radiator and perhaps to the vents, working on that front splitter, and of course, fixing that chinging noise.

https://www.soundboard.com/handler/...ame=mj/MjgwMzE1Mjc4MjgwMzc2_Sj_2bWnZuZ0Vo.mp3
 

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She sounds like something came loose alright. Keep us posted what you find. Also post a pic of your wrap job.
 
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She sounds like something came loose alright. Keep us posted what you find. Also post a pic of your wrap job.
Yeah, had a busy month planned with weekends of ACS, BW, BW, Big Willow, and a week off before going back to ACS, so in a way, thankfully it kinda broke when it did. Need to get that settled up, need to put that front splitter and get the rear diffuser dialed in, and get the wrap fixed. Time was running short the other week, and we cut lots of corners to get it out in time for ACS. As much as I want it to look cool, I want it to run even better. That, and I keep playing with something between each track, so it's hard for me to really set a benchmark and then figure out where my improvements are coming from. Hoping I can do the clutch in my garage with Harbor Freight jackstands, will find that out this weekend.
 
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So, something definitely came loose. To those of you who follow my Instagrams, well, you are scratching your head just as I am.

I mean, I guess it wouldn't be the Albuquerque Stripper if something didn't break, and man, just as things were getting good too. So I had spent the past week or two trying to call in and arrange the parts that go in-between the motor and the transmission. Starting in 2018, they slightly changed the MT82 around to make it the MT82-D4, the D4 I think meaning that 4th is 1:1 drive. They changed to a dual mass flywheel, and the clutch is a 9.5" twin disc. The slave cylinder is also slightly different because that setup is slightly different, but that's not entirely important now. The Flywheel was on National D99 backorder, which Ford employees have told me that it might be available come the end of November, but there's no guarantees, and that dealerships won't take these parts back for return. On my Stripper voyage, this is also the second time that I've encountered a part shortage, the first time being the starter debacle.

So my buddy Andrew came down on Saturday, and after a trip to Harbor Freight to return the jackstands which killed me, twice, we grabbed a transmission jack, and started disassembling things. Disconnected the negative terminal on the battery, took the midpipe off, disconnected the driveshaft, and then took the starter out.

The flywheel looked fine.

but, uh... the starter, did not.



I guess this would explain why I was unable to start the car again, as there were no teeth to spin the flywheel. It did make a funny whirring noise, different from the high pitched clicking when it ejected out the solenoid and died the first time. Also curious is the inner lip that looks to have been ground off. Which, yeah, okay, so, that's strange. More to come on that in a moment.

So, unbolted the transmission cross brace, unbolted the transmission from the motor, and had to do a bunch of wiggling to finally jar it loose. Once we got it down and out, the transmission looked kinda okayish. The clutch actually looked kinda okayish, a positive sign that I know how to drive a manual okayish. The pressure plate also looked okayish, with all of its fingers on, and no sign of a clutch-spring that had wiggled itself loose somehow. However, the next part didn't make much sense. The flywheel looked a little different.



The dual mass flywheel looked a lot different, in fact, the teeth decided that they didn't want to deal with starting the car anymore, so they kinda just decided to go a different way. That random jingle jangle was the Flywheel Hula-Hoop bouncing around.

So yeah, that happened.

Going to give it a few days to process and think about next steps. I do have all the pieces necessary to stick the stock rotating assembly back in, but now that I've got the car up in the air, perhaps this is time to think about beefing things up further. I don't know, I'll give it a few days and approach it like the intelligent person I think I am, and not cutting in line to the poor house. Even if it does win, I mean, those trophies are like what, $29?
 

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If I were you while you are in there and with flywheel on back order why don't you just stick Magnum XL in that baby and forget about the crappy MT82. Mine was in the shop for oil leak for 3 weeks lucky it was the factory overfilling the transmission.
 
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PaddyPrix

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If I were you while you are in there and with flywheel on back order why don't you just stick Magnum XL in that baby and forget about the crappy MT82. Mine was in the shop for oil leak for 3 weeks lucky it was the factory overfilling the transmission.
That's on my short list. The big strike against it is that it is a double overdrive. Big plus is something like s1 sequential to make life easier. The other is a beefed up MT82 from the 11-17 with something better known like an Exedy Hyper Single clutch. I'd love something by Albins, Holinger, or Quaife, but those are expensive and something universal that'd require me to do a bunch of additional custom work like the tail going to the drive shaft, bellhousing and input.
 
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OMG WOWZERS.

1614145160465.png


So, where we last left off, it was my late father's birthday.

My flywheel busted in a strange way and I thought about switching transmissions. Anxious to get back onto the track, I used some of my amazing friends and networking abilities to get my hands on a stock clutch, flywheel, and slave cylinder when they were once again, on a D99 back order. Installed up just fine. During the process, saw that the K-Member was definitely bent, as it was quite difficult to put things back together, and that explained why it was such a challenge to get the suspension geometry lined up. Not that it's guaranteed, but well, new K-Member (to me, anyhow) and with the front radiator arm/forks off, which give me some time to think about the waterfall setup, where I tilt the radiator forward, and use it to cool and create some additional downforce... if done properly.

I also had some time over the Christmas break to check out my biggest issue, well, other than braking parts constantly, was the actual breaking parts. I don't know if I've ever really been able to stop in my 2019GT or my 2018GT to a level that I'd think would be acceptable, at least in the race car sense. Having all of these cylinder dust boots blown certainly wasn't helping matters any.

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or, y'know, having these pads down to the metal wasn't either.

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So, went and fixed them up.

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Much nicer.

I also went out and grabbed some more slicks, thanks to Adrian at F.A.S.T.

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So this puts us in January, where I said something profound about 2020 sucking, but doing whatever I could to make it a pretty good one, and that's where you come in, thanks. That's where the Albuquerque Stripper comes in, thanks to her too. That's where the Silver Mullet comes in, thanks. That's also where the Donut XL comes in.

What's the Donut XL you say?

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It's my 3rd (AND LAST) acquisition of the year, and one of my last pieces of the puzzle, my dedicated tow vehicle... that also happens to be a Cop car, bulletproof doors and all. Best part of it? It's also a flex fuel vehicle, so if anybody has any e85 that they don't want, I will more happily take it.

Also, since I'm of Irish heritage, and I look like a Leprechaun, should you find me and my rainbows at an event in California, come on by and grab a donut, if I'm there or not.

Honest.

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Have I lied to you yet?

I've since entered into the Super GT Cup, which is a really well run California competition, where I'm in the Super Mod class, and while the car was partially rushed, came close to stealing a podium at Big Willow.

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I did find out that Willow Springs is much, much faster in CW, and that my CCW lap times didn't count.

Oh well.

Then went off and got dynoed.



Headphone warning, my car is exceptionally loud. Really.

466/430, which is alright, I haven't done much more to it than a tune, e85, and longtubes... more power would only further accelerate things exploding. I also put a splitter on the front, because I need to get serious about this sooner or later, and I'm tired of bouncing around at the high speeds that this is capable of.

So by this time, I've fixed most of the things up, and knowing my weight, and now my power, this next step only made sense, and the next milestone on my list -- enter it in a NASA event.

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First day there, I was joined by the mighty Ale, where while we're set up for TT2, we went up to TT1 because... why not go big or go home? He ended up setting the fastest Mustang lap that I'm aware of. I was 3rd in class and 5th overall for a bit, and then a couple of guys from the ST jumped in for a quick lap and took me down a peg. Set a PB, 1.5 seconds better than my Super GT Cup showing, which would have had me on that podium. Oh well.

That weekend was doubly special because it was also my 1 year anniversary with the Albuquerque Stripper. Strange year that 2020... had it not happened, I dunno, maybe I'm not writing this right now. Maybe I'm still making payments on my 2019GT, wishing I had a race car. Dunno.

Sunday was a better day, I was cross swapping the tires after every 2 sessions, and on my 3rd session, I put down a 3rd place lap in TT1 that I fucking threw away because I lost the brakes on what was to be my cooldown lap. Per NASA TT rules, if you put all 4 off or have a tank slapper, all laps in that session are forfeited. Trying to finish my 5th lap off, crossing the stripe at 140 or so, found out that yeah, coming into turn 1, I had no brakes and had to fight like mad in an effort to well, not die and fucking blow the car up. I was pissed, not so much that I missed out on a trophy or podium, but that I'm still to this day seriously taking a chance on my life and those of others because I can't stop. If I drove this on an east coast track, I'd be dead or at least seriously injured by this point. Double and Triple pumping going into turns, hoping they catch has me either overslowing if they catch and hold on the 2nd because I don't know if I'll have them again, or missing the apex by multiple cars on the 3rd is just so stupid, and makes me look stupid.

On the drive home, stopped by my friend's and picked up the Performance Pack's Power Brake Booster and the matching Master Cylinder + Reservoir, and finished the full PP brake conversion.

Took it out to Chuckwalla CW this past weekend with some friends, only my 2nd time there, and about 16 months since the last time I was there. I'm not going to say that I cried, but after a stressful morning of the brakes still pumping air, pulling the stuff off and doing a bench bleed in the middle of nowhere... twice, that hard work on a set of A052's was somewhat rewarded, as I could finally stop. I ... don't even know what to say, it's night and day. Like, the Donut XL previously had stronger stops, loaded up with all my gear, and with the Stripper on the trailer behind it, going downhill... it was almost really that bad, especially as you'd do some laps and let the brakes, car, and fluids warm-up.

I have got a long road ahead to actually re-learn how to drive, now that I can brake properly, and don't have to make split second judgments of where can I dump the car that's the safest for me and the other competitors. Braking so hard with these G-LOC R18's that the Yoko A052's couldn't hold it, and the car was just jumping. Every turn made me giddy, being able to brake for a whole session with each just as strong as the other, no fading, no nothing. After all that silly stuff was done, I turned in some times that were at least somewhat consistent (can you guess which laps I had traffic?) and played with some differing approaches to some of the rhythm sections this course has. Predictive showed a 1:56 if I could put it together, which on 12+ heat cycle A052's would be amazing.

1614150448652.png


Just a handful of faster cars, and considering I made my PB's in the 5th and final session, driving directly into the sun, where others hit their best in the 1st and 2nd's that were 1-2 seconds faster is also a nice feeling that the best is still yet to come.

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What an amazing year we've had together, and this next year should be even bigger with NASA and Super GT Cup events coming up. Just a few parts left, like maybe an upgraded rear differential, maybe that transmission, maybe that driver, but I'm going to continue to close that gap, come too far to quit now, right?

Robert Kiyosaki said:
"Losers quit when they fail. Winners fail until they succeed."
 

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On the drive home, stopped by my friend's and picked up the Performance Pack's Power Brake Booster and the matching Master Cylinder + Reservoir, and finished the full PP brake conversion.

What an amazing year we've had together, and this next year should be even bigger with NASA and Super GT Cup events coming up.
And some people still say you don't need Master Cylinder from PP when you do the conversion. Think this proves what we already know.

Anyway Congratulation for your full year with the new car. Based on your NASA photo looks like the car made a long trip in this year and looks fantastic. Hope your 2021 season to be better and with more podiums and wins.
 
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And some people still say you don't need Master Cylinder from PP when you do the conversion. Think this proves what we already know.

Anyway Congratulation for your full year with the new car. Based on your NASA photo looks like the car made a long trip in this year and looks fantastic. Hope your 2021 season to be better and with more podiums and wins.
Thanks. I still need to skill up, and I'm far behind some of the well known people in this region who have been beating people up for decades, but me ol' cousin Ruaidhri O'Maoldhomhnaigh will give me some of that special dust once Covid-19 regulations let him through.

I'd be more inclined to say that it's the pair, including the power booster, which also features a different part number. I did some of the measurements when I had them both out, but the two big changes were the outer diameters being 27 and 28mm, and inner diameter measures of 23.5mm for the PP, and 22m for the non-PP.

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