As one scrotum challenged Miata driver was overheard saying, “That guy has some videos on YouTube of how not to drive a Mustang fast.” This event was apparently not much different with me placing 4th out of 6. The respective times were 47.322 (s197), 47.411 (4th gen f-body), 48.225 (sn95 “new edge” GT), 51.637 (my lowly fox), 51.792 (sn95 Cobra), and 52.066 (same sn95 GT – 2nd driver). Also of note was the fact that I was the only driver not on race compound tires. (Notice I didn’t say “slicks.” Slicks are used in the prepared and higher classes – they are not DOT approved. DOT approved race compound tires are not slicks.) Be sure to watch me in that video as I go through the finish lights. Every time I seem to jump up in my seat as if to try and lift the car over those last few cones. Good times.

The first thing I noticed was how much more grip the warm surface had as compared to the previous event. Much, much nicer. The only complaint would be that the course could have used a few more directionals in a few places. (Directional cones lay on their sides next to upright cones letting the driver know which side of the cone he’s to pass.) The first several runs I was hunting for the course, and there were quite a few DNF’s in those places, so I wasn’t the only one having a hard time. But no worries, after the first 2 or 3 runs it was all good. So as not to be a Negative Nelly, I’ve got to give props again to CenLa for putting on a great event. The event organizers always do such a great job!

I remain amazed at how well my budget car has performed, and just how much fun it is to drive. Those H&R race springs are beastly on anything but smooth roads, so the car doesn’t get driven much except for events, but man do they work well for their intended duty. Foxes are notorious for going into a corner with massive understeer, then snapping into oversteer at some random point during the corner. That last run I finally started putting together some decent driving – I was finally getting down the right amount of braking on corner entry inducing just a hint of trailbraking to get the car to rotate, then balancing it with the throttle through the rest of the corner. No doubt some R compounds would improve my times, as would a horsepower injection (I have a set of 93 Cobra heads and cam on the bench) and a little more suspension work (I also have a 3-link and panhard yet to be installed). And this is in no way saying the nut behind the steering wheel isn’t in need of sharpening.

Next Steps
Seeing as fox chassis cars are pretty uncompetitive in their class, me not caring to spend the money to be competitive, and wanting something with a little more power – and power is the reason I play with the V8s – it looks like I might be leaving ESP later this summer. Not that I don’t think that I couldn’t be locally competitive with a little more practice and the above mentioned mods, but there’s a motor sitting in my truck that isn’t getting used and just may find a new home between the Mustang’s strut towers.

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Although built for towing with a torquey 4×4 cam, and heavy with a set of World Product Windsor Sr iron heads, this 408w has zero miles and has only been started a few times. When I sold my race chassis a few years ago I no longer needed a tow vehicle and so lost all interest in this truck. And it’s been sitting in the garage uninsured ever since. So it looks like I might be moving to Street Modified where I’ll most certainly be even less competitive, but I’ll get to play with the car more as I’ll certainly enjoy the extra power.

Hmmm. Stay ESP, or go to SM. That, folks, is the question.

The previous owner had bypassed the heater core and I’ve never fixed it, so the day started with me driving down the street poking my head out the window because I couldn’t see through the fogged windshield with the temperature in the 40s. A few miles down the road we made a quick stop by the coffee shop, then we were on the road to Zachary.

Although it did warm up a bit as the sun came out, it was still cold and there was a small turn out. Props to the CenLa folks for still running a smooth event, even though it was almost cancelled due to lack of volunteers.

Did I mention it was chilly? Well, the first thing of note was how little grip there was. The two driver cars definitely benefited from the extra heat in the tires – it wasn’t until my 4th and 5th runs that my car had more than wet weather traction. Also, after having put a few miles on the car and breaking the brakes in, the bias was all out of whack – the fronts were locking up way too easily. Every run I added a little more rear bias, the course warmed up, the tires got a little heat in them, and I got a little faster.

There isn’t a whole lot more to say about this event. I simply had an off day and couldn’t put together a decent run.

More videos: www.vimeo.com/shortlinegarage

It actually took me a bit longer to get back out to an autocross than I’d hoped. At the last event, the left rear axle ate the bearing. I knew the axles were bad, but the event finished them off, as well as causing some serious popping from the right front ball joint. After a few weeks of my mechanic not returning my phone calls (I’ve since found a new guy), I decided to do the work myself. I replaced the rear axles, bearings, and seals, rebuilt the a-arms with new ball joints and offset bushings, and gave the car a brake job with freshly turned rotors and pads from Maximum Motorsports. First, the axles had to be custom made since nobody stocks SVO axles any longer, and the offset bushings were on back order. After getting all of that taken care of, I dropped the car off at Fisher’s to have the chassis straightened, and the subframe connectors and strut tower brace installed. The previous alignment wasn’t all that great because of a slight twist in the chassis limiting the amount of camber and caster that could be dialed in. After all was said and done, the car was back on it’s own feet (or since it’s a Mustang, maybe hooves?) and I was ready for another event.

During the last event the car’s rear brakes were locking well before the front even with the bias adjusted fully to the front, meaning turning and braking had the car sideways in a heartbeat. For this event I’d put a fresh surface on the rotors and a matched set of pads from Maximum Motorsports. The first couple of runs the front was locking a little too easy. I backed off the front bias a little and the rest of the runs were much better – I was actually able to do a little trail braking. The front still likes to wash out if you overcook it though, which I guess is just typical for the breed.

At this point in the car’s development, it’s an excellent learning car. The chassis is stiff and straight, and the handling is actually pretty predictable considering how poor the fox platform handles in stock form. This ratty old Mustang is a pleasure to drive at this point, and is much more capable than it’s driver. With these last few mods, the car crossed the $5500 point, so I no longer think it can be considered a budget build.

In the final results, I finished 26 out of 52 cars, which isn’t bad considering I’m just getting my feet wet again.

More videos: www.vimeo.com/shortlinegarage

The school was put on by CENLA Region of the SCCA. It was a great way to get some seat time, dust the cob webs off the driving gloves, and shake down any bugs in my car. They set a cap of 36 drivers, which were divided into three groups of 12. Each group of 12 was then divided into six drivers and six course workers, which would swap half way through the heat. The three groups each took turns on three different courses, and then everyone got a short autocross at the end of the day. As far as I’m concerned, I got to run the courses in the most favorable order, from good, to better, and finished with the best.

First up was an acceleration and braking course. A simple straight line where you accelerated as quickly as possible, then broke at the last possible moment to get your car stopped before hitting a cone at the end of the straight. It seems pretty simple, but most people (myself included) seemed to brake too soon the first few runs, and ended up with 30 or 40 feet to the cone. With six cars in the drill, you get to go again almost as soon as you get off the course and are able to make the loop back around through the grid. Making a guess, I’d say I got in at least a dozen runs, probably a few more. This course brought out my car’s first flaw – too much rear brake bias. At first I wasn’t too concerned, thinking I could just adjust it out with a quick twist of the bias knob. Unfortunately, the rear brakes already were tuned to the least amount of rear bias possible. Even having to manage the rear locking with no ABS, I got zero brake fade and modulation was very good.

The second course my group got to run was a slalom. Imagine a very tight oval where one straight was a slalom, and the back straight was the grid. Again, with only six cars running the course at a time, it seemed like you were running again almost as quickly as you could pull through the grid. The course was a little tight as the U-turn leading into the slalom was so tight I couldn’t get enough speed to enter the slalom as quickly as I’d liked to have, meaning I was actually still accelerating through the first couple cones of the slalom. If I’d had a lighter, less nose heavy car, I probably would have been fine. But not with my pig. Here I noticed the lack of turn-in response in the Sumitomos I was running. We got a light sprinkle during the middle of this, which I think actually helped because it put more emphasis on “smooth.”

The third course set up was a short straight with a constant radius loop to the right, then to a decreasing radius turn to the left once you crossed back over the center line. Here the Sumitomos impressed me with the level of grip they had for such an inexpensively priced tire. I was also very impressed with the car’s very neutral handling around the loop, as I was expecting quite a bit of understeer. But then on the decreasing radius that followed, a second problem with my car popped up; it seemed as soon as the rear started to step out, I was getting some massive axle hop. The axle hop was causing the car to lose it’s composure and the whole thing would wash out into a slide until it’d scrubbed off enough speed to regain its grip. This emphasized the reward on smooth driving, because as long as I was smooth and not over aggressive, the rear wouldn’t step out and I wouldn’t get the axle hop.

Then came our little lunch break. What followed was the final event, a short autocross that put everything together. Up to this point, the Ratty Little Mustang ThatCould had been run continuously the whole day. It got driven during my runs (duh), and because I was running with a co-driver, when I was corner working for a course, the car was being driven by him. We autocrossed over 3/4 a tank of gas out of the car between the two of us that afternoon. Other than the brake bias and axle hopping, the car took everything we threw at it. Quite a testament for a $4100 (at this point) underachiever. The short course was around a 30 second course, and my times were right in the middle of the pack.

I’ve got to say that CENLA put on one hell of a well organized event, and gave all of us in attendance plenty of good instruction and seat time. I’ll probably do it next year.

I was on a high all the way home, as well as the rest of the evening in anticipation of Sunday’s event, “The Tortoise and the Hare.” And this event didn’t let us down. Even with 64 drivers, we were still able to get in five runs each. That’s right, five. This shows how well organized and how good these guys are at holding these events.

We got there a little early on Sunday, and decided to try and tune out the axle hop by seeing if we could soften up the rear shocks. While doing this, I made a little discovery. It seems that while very diligent in checking the nuts and bolts under the car and in the engine compartment, I completely skipped over the shock bolts in the hatch area. When I put the shocks in, I apparently only tightened the nut to where the shock body started turning, and never went back with a pair of wrenches and snugged it down. This, obviously, completely cured the axle hop problem. However, with the solving of one riddle, up pops another. When the car was sitting in grid, it started running a bit hot unless someone kept their foot on the gas to the tune of about 2000rpm, at which point the fan would keep the air moving through the radiator quick enough to keep temperatures at bay.

Over the runs, with the exception of a spin, I got a little faster throughout the day and my final run netted a time of 51.562. While good enough to rank 38 out of 64 in the Pax, it only got me a fourth place finish in ESP’s class of five. The good and bad of it all is that first and second in ESP seem to be quite competitive in the region, ranking third and sixth overall with some very respectable times of 45.318 and 46.018. These guys shared the same WRX, and a second WRX took third. Yes, I got beat out by a station wagon.

All runs available here: www.vimeo.com/user689664

Other times of note were a few other Mustangs in SM, who got best times of 47.494, 49.558 (very neat 08 Roush), 51.511 and 52.104. All in all, I am very satisfied with the outcome of this event. I have a few bugs to work out of the car, and I have a lot of improving to do if I want to keep up with Matt and Damon. A lot of improving. On to the next one…