My 83 is coming together and should at least be mobile in the spring. It's mainly meant for weekend cruising and a little spirited rip every now and then.
I've been thinking of using it for some local autocross just for fun and the experience. I do not intend to be competitive, just to have a little fun. It looks like I'm going to end up in CAM-T for a class. I'm in Canada, but the organizing bodies all seem to use the specs from the 'States organizations for rules. Like I said, I don't really care what class I'm going to end up in, I just want to push it around a few cones and have a little fun.
Drag racing is not in this car's future. Well, no more than maybe and occasional romp away from a stop light on street tires.
This is also kind of a budget build. Mostly stock parts swapped between years with a few aftermarket bits, some DIY stuff and my labor and skills to pull it all together.
The powerplant is an 89 HO roller engine with an edelbrock performer RPM air gap and a holley 750 vac secondary (Hold your "too big" comments to yourselves please). The rest is pretty much stock right up to the E7 heads. I'm considering a set of aluminum heads, but more for weight savings on the nose rather than HP gains (never going to be much more than a 300-400hp power plant). T5 backs it up. Rear end is a fox 8.8 with SN95 31 spline axles and Traction lock 3.73's.
Brakes in rear are SN95 discs, up front is 99+ PBR's. No cobra stuff, just production SN95 bits. Stainless steel lines and a 94 SN95 master and booster. Haven't had opportunity to run them yet, so not sure if I need to mess with the MC sizing.
What I'm wondering about optimizing is the suspension setup with what I have planned/purchased.
First the front end: Fox V8 sway bar, narrow K member slid forward 3/4", engine setback 1" (per Mathis book recommendations). 2003 cobra A Arms, 2003 Mach 1 springs, 95 SN95 spindles. Struts are either a 2003 Bilstein takeoff's or NIB KYB AGX (single adjustables) shocks. I have both, I may run both for a couple runs and see what works best for me. Caster/camber plates, grabbed off eBay for now. No coil overs (or ever plan to) so these will be fine for my purposes. Please, no "MM" this or "MM" that. I'm well aware of their products and great rep. They may make fine kit, but it's just not in my budget.
Steering: 94 SN95 steering rack (pulled from a V6 car) and OEM replacement inner/outer tie rod ends. I'll get a replacement spec'd 22-2200 one down the road sometime. Machined my own Al bushings (I have a metal lathe) and built my own fox column to rack steering shaft (indexed it the way I wanted so no rack or column modifications).
Rear end: Axle as already mentioned. Stock lower control arms. Mustang GT OEM rear sway bar. KYB AGX shocks. 2003 mach 1 springs. Upper arms removed. I'm building my own panhard bar and torque arm. Again, I understand the "MM" arguments and the safety issues with DIY components. I understand the geometry requirements and will be tack welding my components together and having them professionally finish welded. So please, no "i wouldn't do it" or such pointless comments. I may not have time to get the TA done this winter, in which case I was thinking of maybe running the "PM3L" setup for this summer.
Full length subframe connectors (welded). I'm considering building rocker/jacking rails.
Wheels are 16 SN95 oem takeoffs. I'm limited to no less than treadwear 200 tires so these will do fine. A little more sidewall (compared to 17") will hurt me a touch in cornering, but give me a little better street ride.
No lowing planned other than where the springs/components end up. Looks like it's about a 3/4" drop from stock. Hard to tell as the car was a v6 with broken springs to start with.
My biggest limitations for autocross (that I can see) is going to be driver skill (new at it) and tire width/compound (class limitations and what will fit). But I am doing cones just for the fun of it. I could care less where I end up on some points board.
So, any coneheads want to point out any items or adjustments that may be helpful in car setup? I'm thinking right off the rear spring rates might be a bit too low with the PB/TA setup.....
Everyone loves pics, so I'll chuck a couple "project in progress" ones up:
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