2006 Season Highlights

Highlights - I got really really bad about keeping this updated.  Let it be said that we had a good season and lots of things went our way.  The C-Prepared folks at the SCCA Solo Nationals are some of the nicest people I have met in my years of Autocrossing.

6/28/06 - Alabama Region Update - They are able to run at their old site at Birmingham Racetrack again.  They have had two events but I have not been able to get over there due to conflicts.  I am hoping to hit some of their events later in the year and maybe I can still get a championship there.  If not, at least we will get more seat time in the car and that is really needed right now.

My next event is the Atlanta Region Points #4 to be held on July 16th.

6/27/06 - My apologies for the delays in updates.  Been so busy.  LOTS has happened since the last update.  I did not get to the event on the 23rd of April.  Forry won the event so I have my work cut out for me for the regional points.  The front suspension was still sitting on the ground.  I finally was able to install my third set of lower A-Arms.  The Granatelli ones only work with their aftermarket K-member (would be nice if they said that in their advertising).  Bought another set from QA1, but they did not have sway bar mounts even though I specifically mentioned that in my order.  Finally, I bought another set of QA1s, the Eco-Comp version, and they bolted right up.  Many thanks to Downs Ford in New Jersey and JDsPerformance.com for working with me to get the right stuff and take the wrong stuff back.  The new A-Arms seem to have narrowed the track some as the only alignment needed was toe and I cannot get the extreme negative camber that the caster/camber plates should allow.  So, on the front we have the Granatelli coilover package, with QA1 tubular lower control arms, Maximum Motorsports caster/camber plates all installed.  I am able to get about 2 to 2.5 degrees negative camber so far and all the positive caster you can get.  I am going to put the crash bolts in before my next event to see if we can get anymore negative camber.

I did make the SEDivsional event in Atlanta the last weekend of April.  The car is definitely different now.  I may end up spending most of the rest of the year figuring out what it wants for a setup.  I was able to win the C-Prepared class that weekend which put me in good shape for the Divisional title.  Between days I brought the car home and lowered the front spring perches and dropped the car about an inch.

On Memorial day weekend, after working numbers for a week and having the wife volunteer to trade in her beloved Ford Escape, we ended up buying a new Ford Expedition.  It was one of those super deals that the dealer never has in stock when you get there.  They had it and we bought it.  I had been after my Father (codriver) to buy a truck for us to tow with and he wasn't buying.  So I asked, "If I buy the truck, will you buy the trailer?"  Imagine his shock when I pulled up with a new truck.  Now he had to buy a trailer.  We got a very nice, new 18' Anderson CarHauler from a local trailer shop for just over $2k (about 4 truck payments).  This is big because now it means that the mustang can become a complete autocross/track car with no more driving it on the street or to events.  We can start doing lots of things to remove weight from the car and make it a more purpose built unit.

We competed in the Atlanta Region event on the 11th of June.  First event to tow to.  Before the event I lowered the front spring perches as low as they would go.  Bad move.  Too Far.  By lowering the perches that much it left head room at the top so there was "clunking"  Before the next event I will raise them back up.  Anyway, I was able to pull out a win in the event, with Steve second and Pops third.  Ron is closer to me and Steve has stepped up as well so I will have my work cut out for me in Atlanta Region.  As far as points, Forry did not make this event so we both now have 2 events and he leads by about 4.5 points.

Next event was the divisional in Huntsville on the 17th and 18th of June. A very large level lot at a football stadium.  After raising the perches, most of the clunking was gone, still have some noise but it might just be the noises from having things so still, and the car is MUCH stiffer now.  I was not as fast as I would have liked to be, but I did win C-Prepared again.  The win allows me to accomplish my first goal of the season, winning the SEDivision C-Prepared Championship.  Feel free to check out the souvenir shop, things have been updated.

Overall, things are progressing pretty good.  I would not have thought at the beginning of the year that we would have all the changes made to the car that we have as well as having a Truck and trailer so that the mustang is now a dedicated racing car with all that that entails.  I will post new pictures soon.

4/9/06 - Another event update.  I am entered in the Atlanta event on April 23rd.  Ron is going to be out of town, but now we have another competitor entered besides me and Forry.  Steve Grala has entered his '66 mustang in C-Prepared as well.  Steve ran the first event in Street Modified, but I guess he decided to join us other Mustang guys in the C-Prepared class.   The class is just growing and growing!  Been nobody in it locally for years and now there are going to be 4 regulars it looks like.  Also, for those who have looked at the schedule, you will see that all the Alabama events are cancelled.  Alabama Region lost its solo site and currently has only one event scheduled, at TGPR, in July.  Since they only have the one event I won't be running there this year unless they get more events scheduled.  I have decided to skip the July event (though I love that track) to spend time with my grandmother on her 90th birthday weekend. 

4/8/06 - Well, time to finish all the suspension pieces.  Got all the old front stuff off, nice that you have to undo the steering rack to get the bolts out of the front suspension.  Also, have to remove a K-Member bolt to get the rear bolt out.  Sure is nice to have a southern car though, being from Minnesota.  Bolts actually loosen and come out instead of breaking off from rust.  Went to put the new A-arms on and crap....  they don't fit.  They hit part of the frame when traveling upward.  Ok, time to take pictures and we will be calling the manufacturers hotline on Monday.  No need to get upset, not much I can do until I talk to them.  Also going to talk to them about the coil overs as the springs don't seem to want to fit quite right over the perches.  Oh, for just a few eighths of an inch or less, everything would be fine.  I may post the picture of the front suspension issue.  Well, at least the caster/camber plates went on without issue.  Even though I had to drill a hole in the top of the strut tower, I was able to get them installed and they look pretty cool.  Lots of adjustment there, once I can get the suspension put back on.  I guess the steering rack thing will turn out ok too, as I has new bushings for that anyway.  It was pretty easy to get it out where I can remove the suspension bolts.  I will update after I figure out what I have to do on the front.

3/19/06 - First Atlanta Region Solo - Fresh off the test and tune event we came prepared for a good set of runs in our first local event.  Normally, I run the car first and then Ron runs.  There are lots of changes we have to make between the two of us and it's just easier if we don't have to keep switching.  Locally, this is not a problem.  Anyway, I ran my three runs (they were behind schedule so the number of runs was less then normal) and then Ron ran his three.  There was a new player as well, Forry Eisenhart and his 1998 Mustang GT (also black).  Forry has not competed in a while and this was his first event back.  I have him with a lighter car, but of course he has that V8 under the hood.  It was close, but Forry beat me by 2 tenths.  Cool.  I got someone to race with and judge the car against.  Might be his V8, or the HUGE tires he has compared to me...  I run 225/45/16s all around.  Forry has got 245/45/17 in front and 315/35/17s out back.  I didn't think you could get tires that big on the car!  Ron ran well too.  He was not the slowest, either in raw time or PAX. In fact he was happy to see that there were quite a few people he was faster than.  So far, the easiest thing to compare myself against is my former GS competitors.  The Bradleys traded their 2002 mini for a 2006 mini.  The 2006 is much faster then the 2002 and I am now competive and actually almost beat Jodi, which I could never do before.  So, from my relative perspective, we have definitely made improvements that show up on the course.

3/18/06 - Test and tune day at Gwinnett.  Ron and I both ran the car, a total of 20 runs between us.  The biggest thing we found was that the car seemed to like starting with equal tire pressures front and rear and it had a pretty good balance.  Full soft on the front shocks, full stiff on the rears.  I worked a lot of my driving style as it appears that some of the understeer may be attributable to how I was approaching and driving the corners.  First real test will be tomorrow when we compete in a actual event.  There is another mustang entered as well so there will be actual competition for us.

2/27/06 - Well we ran the first event, the SouthEast Divisional at South Georgia Motorsports park.  First day was rainy and cold.  So crappy in fact that we left the street tires on it.  I was the only C-Prepared there so the objective was to get some feel for the new parts.  It was fun in the rain as I now have the ability to induce power oversteer and get the rear to slid around.  Sunday was warmer, however there was still a mist in the air.  Our session was early in the day and there was still a dampness to the course.  We put the Avons on and pushed it harder.  The car definitely feels better with less tendency to understeer.  I won the C-Prepared class and accumulated points toward the seasonal championship.   We learned that we are making proper strides in the direction of car development as well.

2/19/06 - Installed the shifter, the rear lower control arms and the rear springs.  Shifter has a great feel to it.  2nd to 3rd shifting should be no problem now.  The front end stuff is going to have to wait.

2/11/06 - Picked up some mustang GT rear springs for installation with the other rear suspension stuff.  Got the Steeda Tri-Ax shifter

2/10/06 - Got the car back from Balanced Performance (BPM) and have put it in my garage.  Was going to work on it this weekend, but it is going to be very cold so we might have to wait.  BPM installed the traction-lok diff, full length subframe connectors, a BBK/Gripp strut tower brace as well as dyno runs and weighing.  I have a tip, watch where you jack your mustang.  By jacking on the short frame rails I did a good job of bending the floor pan and the frame rails.  The guys were able to pull it back down some but then welded in additional support strips between the subframe connectors and the floor.  Overall, they had to do a lot of work to get it back into shape.  We also found some bending in the metal around where the rear lower control arms connect with the chassis, so they seam welded the boxes where the control arms mount to the body.  Overall, it is much stiffer now then it was before.  See the mods page for Dyno and weight numbers.

What's been received this week?  Weight-jacker rear lower control arms, Tubular A-Arms, Front Coilover kit, Caster Camber plates, Camber Adjustment bolts, G-Load brace, Adjustable Rear sway bar, Urethane steering rack bushings, polyurethane spring isolators, and a set of Avon R tires that were on sale at The Tire Rack.

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