Where Is Your Stang Going?

[jikelly]

I have a desire to go drive fast and that's driven a lot of the mods I've done to my mustang over the years. I have sacrificed comfort for performance. Now I'm wondering if the "payoff" is worth the effort or not.

Here is the thing. I've got this great looking car that's a little rough on the bumpy streets round here that I hardly drive because of the price of gas and right now the lack of AC. The kicker is that what I really want to do (go drive fast on a track) I can't in my stang because it lacks a roll bar. I hesitate to install one because it is going to be a massive perminant change to the car.

So I have my fire breathing street car and I have to decide if I want to go over the top and take farther towards racing. Ugh. I have thought maybe it's time to sell my old girl and get something I don't care if I destroy racing. I asked if I should do that on another forum and the consensus was no. Instead they all recommend buying a cheap beater or Miata that I can flog at autocrosses and the track.

Regardless of that I do have further mods planned. EFI, rear disk brakes (maybe large disks up front too) and a new rear suspension setup aimed to improve handling.

Anyway, what are you guys planing for your stangs? Are any of you facing the same hard question as me?

 

[my70stang]

well when i graduate, im thinking of keeping it street, but to transfer to EFI and supercharge it, it would be expensive, yes but i figured i would love to drive it a lot more and taking it out would be more of an occasion

 

[BDT 1967]

My car is to the point where i like it, its fast enough to keep the rice at bay, and sexy enough to keep me excited. Its to the point where it will stay for years and years, I would recommend another project if you want to race it, these cars are getting to valuable to chop and muff around with. I say buy yourself a little fox body and run that they are cheap and fun. Just my opinion feel free to take it with a grain of salt.

 

[chepsk8]

Jimmy,

I had that decision early in building the Cobra. Since the car was going to see the tracks as much as possible, I built the car with racing in mind, but kept it just barely streetable.

I like the racing look myself, though I wonder how many of the Pro-Tourers actually see track duty.

Dan

 

[zookeeper]

I think lots of car projects get out of hand or off course for a variety of reasons. I should know, because I've made every mistake in the book over the years. My last Mustang was a perfect example. I "thought" I wanted a badass street car. I was wrong. After 4 years of ownership, I had gone through several motors and all of my money. In it's final form, it had too wild a motor to run on pump gas, too low of gears to drive on the freeway, too stiff of a clutch, the wide tires hit the fenders all the way around, the headers and scattersheild drug, even though the car was not lowered, it was too loud, the brakes sucked, and the interior looked like dogs lived in it. I took a nice '65 fastback and made it a car I couldn't do what I wanted with. The worst part is, after I sold it (for less than half of what I had in it) the next owner fixed everything I had done and made it a great car. It made me sick to see what it could have been. With my present GT 350 clone, before I ever even bought the car, I laid out some mental plans, kind of a road map to where I wnated the car to end up. I mean, who in their right mind heads out to a new destination without a map? Same with my car, I had to be honest with myself about my goals, my budget and above all, be realistic about what I really NEEDED out of the car. Since I had a tough time finding a fastback, I had lots of time to check the price and availablity of parts. I wrote everything down that I needed, then added in what I felt I could afford for a car, then added 50% for a fudge factor, then asked myself if I was prepared to spend that much. That helped me set a budget.
As far as performance, I set some realistic goals of having my car perform as well as my '88 Mustang GT. Maybe that seems tame to you, but keep in mind I'm not after big drag strip numbers. In fact, about the only time the car will see any sprints will very, very likely be on freeway on ramps. Sure, it may only run in the 14's, but that's more than enough to put a grin on my face on the street. I also run 2 four barrel Holleys on an original Shelby intake, but since they are 390 vacuum secondary carbs, it starts easily, doesn't load up, and gets acceptable mileage, even with non-progressive linkage. I've been down the big cam/stiff valve springs/high compression/big carb/wicked motor road before, and it's not as much fun as I thought it would be.
As for appearance, my last car only needed paint and interior to be perfect when I bought it, and when I sold it, it still needed paint and interior. For me, it's not as much fun working on a car that doesn't please my eyes. For this car, I stuck to basics and budget. Rather than heap on beautiful but spendy billet stuff, and chrome everything else, my budget dictated stock. I know it sounds boring, but at so far this summer, out of two shows I entered, I got a People's Choice award, and a second place in a large, '64-'69 modified class against several pro-built cars. For me, the idea of a white, 100% homebuilt car made up of other people's cast-offs beating pro-built cars in a car show is unreal.
Even though I met lots of nice people during the shows and was thrilled to win both times, driving is what I built it for and driving is what it does best. Yes, it's low, but nothing hits, it rides great, and for a 40-year old car, it handels very well. It starts, stops, steers and looks better than I ever hoped, even if it did take 6 friggin' years to finish. I think that may be the key, when you have more time than money, you have time to think every detail to death. Will this work, what if I did this, and can I afford that is cheaper than doing it twice and more rewarding in the end.

 

[bnickel]

hey Jimmy are you going to the big mustang show next weekend? it's on saturday the 16th at the new Wayand Baptist campus up on Quaker and the North Loop. i'll be there, you should come out too

here's a link to the mustang club site and info on the show is in the lower right corner

http://lubbockmustangclub.com/

 

[bnickel]

there's also another big show in Levelland the next saturday which is the 23rd, i'm going to try to make it to that one but not sure yet

 

[jikelly]

hey Jimmy are you going to the big mustang show next weekend? it's on saturday the 16th at the new Wayand Baptist campus up on Quaker and the North Loop. i'll be there, you should come out too

here's a link to the mustang club site and info on the show is in the lower right corner

Lubbock Mustang Club

Hey that sounds like a plan. I'm working on the convertible top right now. I spent the better part of this morning's activities staring at the replacement top pads wondering how exactly they were going to go on the car. I got one set that is long enough to go over all the frame headers and then a second pair of shorter pads that look nothing like what I took off the old top. I wonder if those cover different year cars. I've no clue.

 

[bnickel]

it's probably some kind of trim to fit universal kit i'd bet

 

[blown65]

About the only thing I want to do in mine is turn a 9.99 eventually in the 1/4. Even if its a small shot of gas to get there.

 

[jikelly]

In it's final form, it had too wild a motor to run on pump gas, too low of gears to drive on the freeway, too stiff of a clutch, the wide tires hit the fenders all the way around, the headers and scattersheild drug, even though the car was not lowered, it was too loud, the brakes sucked, and the interior looked like dogs lived in it.

Wow I did a lot of the same thing to my stang.

I learned though and lost the long tube headers that drug on the ground, the high volume oil pump, high compression pistons, and went with a tad less cam.

I kept the 351w, stiffer springs (although I'm rethinking that one now since the streets here suck) and 750 carter carb (although I'm going to replace that with EFI this fall).

 

[ga289stocker]

I hear here yeah about the rollcage/bars. I have no desire to put one in mine either. It's progressively gettin faster but I'm still a few seconds from the 11.49 sec et rule at the dragstrip. Once i hit 11.99 I'll have to look into gettin a scattershield, I got some room to go though.....I love just hitting the shows from time to time as well.

 

[jikelly]

hey Jimmy are you going to the big mustang show next weekend? it's on saturday the 16th at the new Wayand Baptist campus up on Quaker and the North Loop. i'll be there, you should come out too

here's a link to the mustang club site and info on the show is in the lower right corner

Lubbock Mustang Club

Dang it's going to be rainy this weekend. I'm still not done with my convertible top install. I haven't gotten to work on it since last weekend. I'm going to play with it tonight and in the morning, so maybe I can show it off to you.

What's your stang look like? Are you in the show?

I got a new video camera for my birthday yesterday and I'm itchin to try it out. Could I interview you about you car? The guys of at Grassroots Motorsports were saying we should start doing our own user submitted car show. I'm going to start it off I guess. I'm documenting my top install for what might be the first of many podcasts.

 

[bnickel]

yeah, i know rainy again. it rained al day at the show last year too.

1969stang.com Mustang Photo Gallery. Stang photos of all year mustangs. 1969, 69, 70, 1970, 2005, GTR. :: bnickel69gt :: 69_stang_GT_my_car_04_30_2008_17

that's my car

 

[jikelly]

yeah, i know rainy again. it rained al day at the show last year too.

1969stang.com Mustang Photo Gallery. Stang photos of all year mustangs. 1969, 69, 70, 1970, 2005, GTR. :: bnickel69gt :: 69_stang_GT_my_car_04_30_2008_17

that's my car

I like it. One of my favorite mustang bodies and in the perfect color.

Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow.

 

[bnickel]

thanks. it's for sale too BTW. but i have a 69 cougar project to kinda take his place. the proceeds from the sale will get split between a down payment on a house and retoration funds for the cougar

hope to see you there tomorrow. drive the stang even if it's not finished yet...just put the top down, well, unless it's raining

 

[jikelly]

Saw you car, but not you at the auto show. We went up there around 12 and didn't stay too long. Just long enough for me to check out all the cars. There were a lot of really nice looking cars there. I really liked yours a lot. My wife though the color was pretty.

I see on the website that the LMC meets up at sonic some nights. I'll have to come out there once I get my top on straight. Dadgum weather. It needs to stop raining and get hot so I can get my top fitted right.

 

[bnickel]

i was with the car most of the day but did go look at the rest of the cars as well and also went up and talked to Jerry Heasley (the photograher) for a little bit. he took a bunch of pics of my car for event coverage in one of the mags and hopefully he'll call me back about maybe doing a feature on it at some point, don't know that he will but it sure would be nice.

 

[electricgreen]

We're building Eleanor to be a streetable cruiser. We are putting in a cage, after seeing a 73 tore to heck (someone here, a few years back-semi VS Mach Vs guardrail) we decided to go for it. She'll be track legal then too, should we want to run her. 347 stroker backed by a street/strip c4.

 

[GNN60GT500]

I like where my GT350 clone is at....

High 12 second car, 351W 5 speed 9 inch nothing exotic or fancy- just a very solid dependable combination....

Went down the need more hp road before with a fox body- too much money- not enough dependability for driving it every weekend-

Yeah its fun when your 10 second car is running- but when its not, and your always working on it- it gets old fast and I dont have time to screw with a car every weekend now that I have a house, wife, baby exc........