Welcome!  The Blog goes live today on 10-27-2012 and in this post I'd like to address my goals for this car, give a little bit of a history about my driving experience, and what I'm starting with on the car.  So lets get on with it!

About me and my car:
My name is Chris and I pilot the #11 STX 2009 Mustang GT in the beautiful classic Ford Color of Dark Candy Apple Red with the 5 speed manual.  The car was purchased in 2009 from a local Ford Dealer for a very reasonable price and it came with the following options added to the premium trim level:

GT Appearance package (includes hoodscoop)
Interior upgrade Package (Power, heated, leather passenger and driver seats and interior lighting package)
3.55 rear gears
Premium 18x8.5" polished aluminum "Bullitt" wheels with "high" performance all seasons

As you can see, I didn't do myself any real favors for weight in stock trim.  The car has the leather interior, extra lights, hoodscoop and in general a little too much of the "comfort" items that jack up the weight of the base car.  When the car was purchased in 2009 I had ZERO idea what Autocross was or that I would take it to STX where the car is neither proven nor the car would even be in the ball park of the other "known" competitors.  The only advantage that really I got myself was the 3.55 rear gears which are critical for taking the car up to 67 mph in 2nd gear.  I can't say I have any "idea" on what the actual weight of the car is but my choice in the premium package and the other options but I know that the only way I could have made it worse was to opt for the glass roof or a convertible!

I started autocrossing in 2011 after a co-worker begged me to come out to an event.  I ran that first year completely bone stock fighting understeer and learning the car's weaknesses.  About half way through next year I really got the itch to start modifying the car and I found Terry Fair's (of Vorshlag) build up on their 2011 Mustang GT in STX and I became fascinated by the build up and the rules.  At the end of 2011 I purchased the first modifications for the car intending to stay go into Road Tire Rear.  Over the winter I found two smoking deals on some lightly used parts that I wanted for the STX build up and by the first Solo Points event I had fully committed to STX prep level.

Why STX?:
Let's just say that there was no one particular reason why I chose STX.  The one big thing for me was the competition.  Locally the competition was light and friendly and this was probably the largest reason why I chose STX vs running the local Street Tire index (Road Tire Prepared) and ESP.  ESP in the Nebraska Region is a continuous arms race.  The two main competitors are both National level drivers running in fully prepped cars and the RTP class had no known interest from any locals (this turned out to be false).  The other big reasons were I really like the premise of running Street Tires vs the Hoosier A6 and now the Goodyear R1S.  The final reason is because no one thinks it can be done with a Mustang.  The current competition weighs from 2800-3000lbs and makes about 240 RWHP and is relatively narrow.  The combination of light weight and relatively low power puts to use the class limited 265 wide tires a lot better than a significantly heavier Mustang with more power.  I enjoy a good challenge and what better way to have one then to take an estimated 3550 curb weight, live axled Mustang, throw on some 265 wide tires and compete against cars a significant portion lighter and narrower?

At the start of this year's Solo Points events I had already made modifications to be in STX so let's recap that build up:

Tires:  Dunlop Direzza Z1 Sport Star Specs in 245/45/18 mounted on stock 18x8.5 rims
Shocks/Struts: Tokico D-Specs
Springs:  Steeda Sport Springs (1" drop front and 1.25" drop rear, 200lb/in front, 175 lb/in rear)
Swaybars:  Strano Performance Parts 35mm front bar, Strano Performance Parts 25mm rear bar
Other:  Fays2 Watts link, Steeda HD Strut Mounts (allows camber adjustment)
Alignment: -1.7º camber, +7.5º Caster, 0 Toe

This baseline set up seems a bit odd to most serious competitors as the car is under sprung, under tired and very little camber and I'll just address that straight away:  The decision to chose this set up was made after a discussion with several people and my desire to keep this car reasonable on the street.  At the end of the day the car does perform much better than stock but it has a few short comings made in the name of streetability as this car is my only car and must serve as a daily driver.

The picture above is pretty telling.  The car IS undersprung, and could use a little more camber up front.  Out back there is a big loss of camber due to the live axle nature but the care more than makes up for that loss for the ability to put power down coming out of a corner.  There will be some changes made for next year on the car as far as set up but in terms of spring rate, I'm not sure it will be going up.  Current budgetary issues will determine how much gets changed for next year.  The 245 wide Star Specs are about 1/16" above the wear bars and a flip on the rim could make them last about half of next year's events.  The lack of camber is still beating up the outside shoulders of the Star Specs and there are some car set up issues that should be addressed.

Of course the big "what if" left to ask is "What if this car was taken to Nationals in it's current form?"  The last Solo Points event of this year was the West Course from Nationals on the Nationals concrete (a Nebraska Region favorite!).  I ran a 65.197 as my fastest time which was good enough for second from dead last and about 3.87ish seconds off of Bryan Heitkotter's runs in the BMW 325i.  Had I maintained that pace through the East course it would have been good for about 40th.  Considering how underprepared the car is I don't feel that is a horrible place to be.  3.87 seconds is A LOT to stomach but there is a good amount of car prep left and I think a large portion can be made up in prep and in the all important driver mod.  I think there is about 2.5 seconds in car prep still and that may be a drastic overestimate but dropping 2.5 seconds at the 2012 Solo Nationals would have been in the trophies.  For sure there is 2.5 seconds between car prep and driver mod.  Do I think the car can do it?  Yeah I think it can so I'm going to keep pushing.

For next year I plan to address the car set up issues that created a fair amount of understeer throughout the season.  I also plan to flip the Star Specs on the rims to get another half season out of them and then switch to the currently top tire the Hankook RS3 in 265/40/18 unless one of the new tires rumored to come out next year also come in a 265/40/18.  I'd like to mount them on a set of lighter 18x9 rims but I simply can't afford to do that.  I would also like to purchase a gear type diff, most likely the WaveTrac, to reduce the wear and tear on the stock clutch based diff which lasts competitively about a season and a half, maybe two.  It was rebuilt a few months ago but it has to survive this winter into next season.


That about covers it for now.  I plan on doing a series of posts about the S197 Suspension and tweaks and fixes for the various short comings.  I also plan on a series of posts on "getting the weight out".  There is at least 165lbs in the major items like seats, wheels/tires, battery, trunk junk, etc.  Stay tuned! :)