i did the autocross again today. i am hooked. the only really change was the alignment. the front felt completely planted. the rear end is still really squirrely. in the first and third runs i spun out in the same place. the same place i was spinning out at last time too. its a section that i can floor it going into it but then have brake hard going down hill into an off camber turn. i forgot to turn on the camer the first run but here are the second 2 runs. i have a full 4 weeks till next race weekend. i plan on building a pan hard bar set up for the rear end. i am going to try to also put uniball pivots in place of the the leaf spring bushings.
Love your videos!!! Looks like great fun!! I've done a few autocross days over the years. Went to Bob Bondurant's school in Arizona when he was running 302 Mustang Cobras. I got a whole lot of respect for those Mustang Cobras after going to his school and being out with his drivers and driving them myself. Also did a couple of fun days at Mid Ohio with Bondurant. I'd love to autocross my Comet but it is too far away from your kind of setup. Besides. I have a `96 Mustang Cobra just sitting in the garage ready to go. Keep the videos coming!!
thats what sound deadener will do. i want to remove alot of it but it leaves a nasty tary stuff behind that im not looking forward to trying to clean.
i honestly dont know exactly. i think they set it at 0 toe, -1 camber, no idea on caster. i had maxed out the caster adjustment before i went to the alignment shop and asked them just to match the caster on the sides. some other stuff happened that distracted me from getting the actual specs. this is an old school alignment by hand shop so no print outs are given. i was happy with the front end feel during the racing so im going to leave the alignment alone for a while. ive been studying ron suttons posts about suspension on pro-touring and know that i can benefit from more caster than my current suspension can achieve. im thinking about rebuilding the upper control arms to get more caster and building custom strut rods that can go shorter than stock. on the upper control arms ive noticed some manufactures building caster in to their arms and would be looking to accomplish something similar.
Hotchkis has new Upper control arms for Mustangs that you should look at if you have not already seen them. http://www.pro-touring.com/threads/112527-65-70-Mustang-Prototype-Hotchkis-Parts-in-Testing-Phase! I think I am maxed out ~5* static caster. I could go more but would have to give up some camber to do it. Camber is ~ 1.5*.
Then there's this always this one too, Chris. http://www.mustangsplus.com/xcart/1968-1969-1970-Mustang-Tubular-Upper-Control-Arms.html Something to consider is that our cars are fairly light on the front tire(at least with the 8.2" deck stuff) and I'm leaning towards this ^ design myself since lightweight helps EVERYTHING so long as the designs failure limit is more than up to the task. And given the fact that Mike Maier is using these on their personal race cars.. I can't imagine they wouldn't be strong enough for our standards/requirements either. Main reason I say this is because every time I see those "super duty" beefy style parts.. while they obviously invoke the confidence to safely drive 200 mph.. I still cringe at the weights involved. They always remind me of the initial releases which were designed for the much heavier G bodies and such. Bryant, I'm all about the do it yourself attitude, but why are you considering building your own strut rods? Is there something specific to your combo of parts on this car that warrants its creation? Also you should know by now that I mean no offense and just try to give straight constructive "from the hip" criticism here and offer this as well. IMO, for the parts you have on this car, there is far too much sway in that front end and the rear is obviously lifting the inside tire too much which is exacerbating your traction issues coming out of those high speed corners/transitions as tire traction deviates with loading/unloading. A few questions that may help further your fine tuning. Do you have your sway bar bushings cranked tighter(pre-loaded) so they start to bulge a fair bit? Rubber wears out and eventually splits.. while poly allows far more pre-load. Sure they don't hold shape(deform/squish), need to be re-tightened(pre-loaded) as that happens, and can even be split on rare occasion.. but they are cheap enough and easy to maintain/replace at those optimum limits. This alone will "tighten" the reaction time of the steering inputs and makes things feel more predictable by reducing the lateral and also tangential cross loading variations that cause these old rear suspension designs to unload the rear tires. Basically helps stop more of the nasty weight shift since you work on reducing them right off the bat and before they really get started.. become bigger/multiplied/exaggerated. Have you thought about additional lowering the rear with adjustable blocks.. and even using some ballast on the tailend? This gives a natural weight jacking affect and greatly reduces dive into the corners. Sure as heck won't hurt your traction levels and could help times by allowing more power earlier and overall while still keeping it between the cones. Or heck.. maybe even lowering the whole shebang since the front is adjustable too? A "track day" ride height adjustment is usually what the big boys do when they have the parts capability. Just a thought. Hopefully this doesn't clutter up your "fun thread" and I'd be willing to put it into another if you wanted, or cared enough to openly discuss it. We all know how opinions can vary widely though, so I would easily understand if you want to stay in your current circle o' friends knowledge base.
it was those arms that had me thinking about that design. that mustang runs in the san diego autocross and is really fast. the driver is really talented. im going to leave the front suspension alone for awhile. no offence taken. i am hungry for any knowledge and help i can get with turning thing. please dont hold back. the cost of the already done strut rods seem really high for what they are. i can get all the pieces for a fraction of the cost and make them with the range of adjustment im looking for. let me explain first off im not trying to build the fastest autocross/race car possible. weight is not a major concern right now. the car weights just under 3000lbs and has 51% on the front end. i had my addco front 1 1/8 sway bar on the front and it made the car push bad in turns. i went back to the 7/8s bar and the front planted really well. i plan on switching the polyurethane end links out for hiem links. i feel that the pan hard bar will really help stabilize the rear end. i need to try it and evaluate the effect. im trying to keep the changes between races to a minimum so that i can figure out the cause and effect of each one. as for ride height, any lower and ground clearance is a problem. the long tube headers hang so low these cars.
