Fox Closed Out The Track Season With Two Personal Milestones

[MFE92]

Over 1,000 track miles in one year, and over 10,000 miles in my lifetime. And, I kept knocking time off each session, and took a whopping 3 seconds off my prior personal best at Arizona Motorsports Park, set just last weekend. That's a gigantic improvement, with absolutely no change in equipment. And...some of it was a bit of a -show as this video will attest

 

[95BlueStallion]

I always love watching your videos (go motherf*cker, lol)! Not too many people track their foxes like you do. Congrats on hitting the milestones, it is a great feeling to keep improving and beating your previous best.

Edit: Do you drive your car on the street, or is that a dedicated track car?

 

[MFE92]

It's not my daily, but I do drive it on the street, about 5-7k miles per year. I was talking to another guy and he was complaining about how heavy his ex-Bondurant track-only Mustang is..."still has electric windows". So does mine...plus working A/C and a full interior

 

[95BlueStallion]

That is what I wondered. Your vid said 3470 with you in it (if I remember right), and I dont see a cage, so I wondered why you hadnt lightened it. Also, the fact you are running the 255's rather than a 275 series made me wonder. It is cool to see you running with vettes in a nearly stock fox body. You definitely know that track, and how to wheel your car.

 

[MFE92]

It has a 4-point bar and I just this year stepped up to 9-inch wheels LOL.

 

[jrichker]

You can't always outrun them on the straightaway, but you sure can out drive them in the corners!

Good Job!!!

 

[Mstng93SSP]

Awesome! I enjoy your videos as well. Always entertaining.

 

[FoxMustangLvr]

For a while I've wanted to try the local road course on a test'n tune day but I am way to scared of getting hit and wrecking. I'd need a beater fox for that.

 

[MFE92]

For a while I've wanted to try the local road course on a test'n tune day but I am way to scared of getting hit and wrecking. I'd need a beater fox for that.

Don't do a test & tune, find a day with actual real instruction, such as NASA, Porsche Club of America, BMW Car Club of America, Track Guys, and you have pretty minimal chance of anything going wrong.

 

[Shakerhood]

Congrats on doing a great job and having fun too! How is the new engine doing?

 

[Boosted92LX]

Looks like fun man. I saw at least four instances that would have made me pretty mad too, lol.

It seems nobody EVER wants to just let the faster driver pass.. ANYWHERE!

 

[General karthief]

You're spark'n me to run down to sebring for a track day, you said you have a 4 point bar in yours? I can live with that, I will guess no push bumpers or you would have used it on that little black car

 

[stpete]

Glad to see another track guy on here. I've been tracking a Miata for 10 years or so. I turned it into a SM and raced it the last couple years. That is a lot of fun, but expensive and far less track time than HPDE. Your equipment list looks pretty much like what I plan to do to my Mustang. If I can turn it into a decent street/track car like the Miata used to be, I'll probably get rid of the Miata and track the Mustang.

I notice you have a TKO. Were you killing off T5s? I don't really know any fox body guys that put significant track miles on their car. Any other problems I should be aware of when putting the car together, or recurring issues? How many sets of brake pads/tires did it take to get through the 1K mile season? I'm guessing that's about how many miles I do per year. Are you using race tires or street?

 

[MFE92]

For years, I had two T5's, one in the car, one under the workbench. Every time I blew up the one in the car, I'd swap in the one under the workbench, rebuild the one in the car, and stick it under the workbench. It was always 3rd gear, and sometimes the cluster went with it. If it was just 3rd, I could rebuild it pretty cheap, but the cluster started adding money, and when I started buying z-spec gears in a futile attempt to make them last, it get really old due to the expense. I've been accused of granny-shifting and I've never made more than about 260/300 RWHP/RWTQ in front of any of them. They just don't last.

I was going through at least 2-3 sets of pads a year until I recently switched to Raybestos ST47's, which are the closest thing to unicorn dust I've ever had in a brake pad. They're rotor-friendly, incredibly effective, and long-lasting. I bought 2 sets and still haven't killed them both. Tires are probably 2-3 sets a season, hopefully a little more durable now that I'm running a wider wheel. I was going back and forth between street tires and R-comps depending on what i had on hand and how much time I had to prepare but more and more I'll be sticking with R-comps.

Cooling is another potential problem area. I have a big aluminum radiator, an external oil cooler, and I'm still running 230+ on coolant and 270 on the oil on warm track days. Part of the problem is I still have working a/c so the condenser is sitting out in front of the radiator blocking air flow.

Another area that has caused me a ridiculous amount of grief is overheating/pressurizing the gas tank. I've re-routed the lines away from heat sources, wrapped them, shielded the tank, wrapped the tailpipes, removed the tailpipes, put them back on, and nothing made a bit of difference. I've since learned that the system is WAY sensitive to being over-pumped and will aerate the gas any time it's worked hard, or even looked at, if it's a hot day. Pro-M just came out with a hanger that runs larger lines and submerges the return line to reduce this problem. I may pull my pump and add a submersion extension to see if that helps, but even stepping down from a 190lph to a 155lph made a big difference. I put an access panel in the floor of the trunk years ago for easy pump access if that gives you any idea of how goddamned many times I've had to be in there screwing with it. Beats the hell out of droppign the tank.

The miata, being smaller and way lighter, is cheaper on EVERYTHING. It just sucks ass watching everyone else fade into the distance on long straights. If you can add reliable power to the miata, that's honestly the way to go IMO.

 

[stpete]

Yeah, I agree about the Miata. But, I'm 6'3" so it sucks as a street car for me. To make myself fit in the car I had to modify the floors, bolt race seats directly to the floor and extend the steering shaft. Makes for a great car on the track, but one I have to tow there.

I was hoping a lighter Fox wouldn't be as bad as a Vette or new Mustang, but sounds like you burn pads/tires as quickly.

 

[General karthief]

All this makes me wanna build a road course car, I can feel a fever come'n on

 

[Mustang5L5]

That looks like a blast. I sure miss my autoX days.

I almost want to find a cheap beater fox just to build for fun.

 

[jrichker]

For years, I had two T5's, one in the car, one under the workbench. Every time I blew up the one in the car, I'd swap in the one under the workbench, rebuild the one in the car, and stick it under the workbench. It was always 3rd gear, and sometimes the cluster went with it. If it was just 3rd, I could rebuild it pretty cheap, but the cluster started adding money, and when I started buying z-spec gears in a futile attempt to make them last, it get really old due to the expense. I've been accused of granny-shifting and I've never made more than about 260/300 RWHP/RWTQ in front of any of them. They just don't last.

Another area that has caused me a ridiculous amount of grief is overheating/pressurizing the gas tank. I've re-routed the lines away from heat sources, wrapped them, shielded the tank, wrapped the tailpipes, removed the tailpipes, put them back on, and nothing made a bit of difference. I've since learned that the system is WAY sensitive to being over-pumped and will aerate the gas any time it's worked hard, or even looked at, if it's a hot day. Pro-M just came out with a hanger that runs larger lines and submerges the return line to reduce this problem. I may pull my pump and add a submersion extension to see if that helps, but even stepping down from a 190lph to a 155lph made a big difference. I put an access panel in the floor of the trunk years ago for easy pump access if that gives you any idea of how goddamned many times I've had to be in there screwing with it. Beats the hell out of droppign the tank.

Thank you, your real life experience just added reinforcement to the two items I have been saying for so long.

1.) T5's aren't a reliable option for a race car, especially road race or street /trip car that gets driven a lot. A Tremec 3550 or one of the TKO variants is a better choice for any kind of race that lasts more than 1/4 mile.

2.) Everyone wants to put a 255LPH fuel pump as a replacement for the stock fuel pump. They don't give a thought to what happens when you heat up the gasoline by continually pumping it to the engine and having the fuel pressure regulator return the large volume of hot, excess gasoline back to the fuel tank. It stinks, pressurizes the tank and the fuel boils off and mileage suffers. This is especially true since most people remove or disable the carbon canister and the gas tank vent system because they don't know what it is and think that it will improve performance.