Easy Horsepower?

[MooStang05gt]

Originally Posted by BlueFirePony

I am running the stock 3.55s and on the 1.7mi road coarse at cresson I was able to stay in 3rd the entire time w/o redlining (got close on the long straight though) or losing too much coming out of turns.

I don't think 4.10s are for me cause I'd be shifting all over the place and that's just lost time, but on the strip its definately worth considering. I've heard of several who have daily drivers with 4.10s.

How much experience have you had running road courses..?? The fact that you are running the course in 3rd gear will not get you around the track quickly... You must downshift and upshift on an open course if you want to turn fast times... there's no other way.

The formula for making fast laps is to keep your car running in the power band, that's why in tight corners downshifting is required to keep the RPM high enough to keep 'on the cam'. Selecting the gear that allows you to release the clutch and be in the gas with the RPM near the center of the power band is what you want. If your suspension will allow you to apply full power and not get excessive wheel spin or wheel hop, you are moving forward with the engine pulling at it's max. Some corners require 2nd, some 3rd and some like Chicanes or S's may not require downshifting at all.

Let's say, you just made a 2nd gear, hard right hander, exiting onto a 2000 ft straight... your coming out of a corner full on the gas, pulling hard in the power band, shift to 3rd, then 4th, pulling toward the top of the gear, coming into a decreasing radius left hand sweeper, tap the brake to set the suspension, blip the throttle, drop down to 3rd, maintain RPM into the sweeper to the next corner.... and so forth..

3.73 gear will be an improvement, but 4.10's will help you on the street and the track. That would be my choice...

Bobby M.

[JohnnyZ]

Easy Horsepower.

Nitrous Kit.

150 horsepower at the flip of a switch!

[Manny78]

yup nitrous is the cheapest/easiest way to get extra HP. I'd get a zex kit. it's relatively cheap and you can adjust your shot. I'd say stick with 75 for now. You can also increase it later as you get used to it.

[BlueFirePony]

MooStang05gt, I did not say I don't shift, I was just using that one example as a data point..the 1.7mi configuration at that track is far less technical than the 3.1mi with a high percentage of large radius turns....in that one example I was not putting down race lap times but it was fast enough to lap an entire field of advanced DE drivers in 3 laps.
FYI, I have my SCCA and NASA licenses - I think I had to shift at least once to get them.
-B

[sfcwoodret]

Put some performance tires on it! Keep the rims around 16" and make sure they are aluminum. Drop weight off the car!

[CB2L]

i rolled 4.10s on my 05 GT DD and loved it. you'll rev a little higher on the interstate (and so, burn a lil more gas), but other than that, there's no down-side. you definitely will not be stuck at the speed. i drove from az to fl and never went below 90. you'll def love on-ramps; 0-90 in no time. only problem is, i drove a 2010 gt w/ the stock gears, and it felt neutered.

[BlueFirePony]

So a year later and this thread is still active...gotta love car guys/gals...the dialog is eternal. Not really cheap power but acceleration gain with 4.10s on the street is fine...I still think 3.73s for this car on the street and on a wide variety of road courses is ideal (unless you have the time and energy to swap track-to-track). The strip is a different story depending on how you are running and what else you have on the car.

I've been able to pass plenty of people just having to do a 3-2 shift and not unsettling the car deep into a brake zone where they are doing a 4-3-2 shift (checkout Have Mustang, Must Pass video on my page or go here for an example).
These cars are a pain to RPM match compared to other cars so having to do a double shift under hard braking while changing your angle of attack is not w/o is troubles. I watched the Mustang Challenge race at Mid-O a couple weeks ago and quarter of the field had trouble matching revs coming down the back straight into the T4 braking zone toward China beach (btw, that Andrew Cadell is the real deal...I timed his laps...he matched laps to a 10th of a second lap after lap even in traffic!)

BTW I am still running the stock 3.55s with a lightweight flywheel in my '05, and since my last post:
I've done equal time (sub 2:00) to my buddy in his GT3 on a track I had never driven before;
Finished second (my first podium!) with 4th fastest lap in a field of 25 on the course I referred to a year ago (the guys that had faster laps than I did were a the 2008 AI Rookie of the Year and future NASA AI Champ, the 2008 CMC Champ and the 2007 CMC Champ)

In both cases I ran the entire session in 3rd gear..just to prove a point

[CB2L]

besides the fly, what else have you done?

[BlueFirePony]

Originally Posted by CB2L

besides the fly, what else have you done?

As far as HP, not much - C&L Intake/tune from Brenspeed and UDP. To the topic of the post, those were the quick, relatively cheap HP mods to keep the car N/A. The flywheel definately helps climb the revs faster than stock and worth the $ for the results and feel. I upgraded the clutch after a catastrophic failure @ 11,900 miles...the thing just blew apart driving home....1 in a million thing but since it happened I decided I would go with a more durable clutch for racing anyway.

Still have the stock exhaust, stock driveshaft (though both of those are going to be taken care of after the season if I have time/$), stock cams, In fact I still have the compressor in there 'cause I am such a lazy @$$ I have not bothered to take it out yet.

To go off topic, most of my mods are handling and aero - for all intents an purposes, BlueFirePony *right now* has the same power/weight as a CMC2 car, with better handling. If you are going in a straight line, then yeah HP is a big deal but if you have to turn much, power can be a crutch. I've got vidz on my page here of me walking a string of cars in 4 laps (3 supercharged minis, 3 vette's including a mod'd Z06, and a porche). All of those drivers were advanced DE and half of them were exceptional drivers. Power/weight advantage to each of those other cars but I still caught and past them in a fairly short time.

Lots of guys though have found decent, reliable HP in the 4.6L and you can get 350rwhp pretty quickly but it takes work to get above the 400HP point N/A (which we can't use power adders in our series). I am actually really happy with the overall managability of the engine in the S197. I've literally beat the crap out of my car over the last three years (with care and feeding of course) and she's still running strong.

I've started a writeup on our web site -(BlueFirePony Build Writeup) - might be able to finish it this weekend - if anyone has any specific question's about the setup/config let me know and I'll put the answers in the build writeup (and reply here of course).
I won't give you all our secrets outright (gotta make sure I keep something in reserve for the competition but like most of the club racing folks I'm happy to share what I learned, especially since I learned a lot of it from someone else .

[DannyShelby07]

I have a 2007 Mustang Shelby Gt with about 6000 miles. This is my first Mustang & love it!!! Shelby says the HP averages 320hp, I have been thinking of adding another +100hp. The super charger installed would be about $6000 & a cam $2000. Does anyone have a suggestion in the $1000 range?? Thanks