2009 FS

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Fri Feb 27, 2009 3:51 pm

I agree with Les. I hope Dishman comes out and urinates on all you Pony car lovers with his family sedan

Seriously, if he puts some R-compounds on it, he will be a force. - AB

Michael Westerfield · **Posted:** Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:39 pm

Aaron Buckley wrote:

Seriously, if he puts some R-compounds on it, he will be a force in Old Farts class. - AB

I can't believe you said that!?!?!

Michael Westerfield · **Posted:** Fri Feb 27, 2009 5:40 pm

AB, why are you not co-driving with him... don't you want to buy one of those GM loser mobiles?

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

Got my April SportsCar today and was amazed to find an article comparing a BMW 335 with a Shelby GT (as FS autocross cars). The Shelby GT in the article was equipped with TR Motorsports MT1 wheels, 18x8.5 (stock diameter/width). Wondering why they weren't on my shopping list, I checked on the Tire Rack site, and there they were - with a 35mm offset (15mm or 6/10ths less than the stock 50mm).

Now I was wondering why the SCCA would use an illegal wheel in the comparison test, so I reread the article, and saw that the Shelby's owner used to autocross an RX-8. Flashback to a conversation last Wednesday with Michael Moore about Mazda using the same bolt pattern as Ford. I went back to Tire Rack and searched RX-8 wheels, and found 18x8.5, 5x114, 48mm. I'll bet the Shelby's owner already had the wheels, and modified them to fit on the Mustang (perhaps enlarged the hub centers). That's a big detail to leave out. Anyone care to guess how many FS Mustang/Shelby drivers will drop $1200 on illegal wheels as a result of this article?

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Sat Mar 14, 2009 10:57 pm

Eh? If I understand correctly, you're saying the wheels listed for the RX-8 are legal on the Mustang. They just don't show up in the Tire Rack search for wheels for the Mustang. But an illegal wheel does.

This doesn't seem like a huge issue, since a Tire Rack search for wheels will generally always return non-legal wheels for stock class competition. It's up to the competitor to know what's legal and what isn't (and sometimes what can be made to be legal). Does sound like it would be worth inquiring to the writer of the article exactly which wheel was being run and what mods (if any) were required, though.

--Donnie

Keith Vail · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2009 10:10 am

I am not sure if you are talking about offset or width on this issue. If you are talking about width then the 18x8.5 is a legal wheel since the Shelby comes with that size wheel from the factory. As for offset, I cannot answer that question as I don't know. The RX8 runs a 18x8 wheel with a factory offset in the upper 40mm range. Now I know the owner of the Shelby in that article owned the RX8 that won the Profinale in BS in 2007 so I highly doubt he had illegal wheels on that car. Just my $0.02.

Michael Westerfield · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2009 11:35 am

Keith Vail wrote:

I am not sure if you are talking about offset of width on this issue. If you are talking about width then the 18x8.5 is a legal wheel since the Shelby comes with that size wheel from the factory. As for offset, I cannot answer that question as I don't know. The RX8 runs a 18x8 wheel with a factory offset in the upper 40mm range. Now I know the owner of the Shelby in that article owned the RX8 that won the Profinale in BS in 2007 so I highly doubt he had illegal wheels on that car. Just my $0.02.

They are talking about offset. It is legal for all GT's made in late 06 and up to use 18x8.5 wheels. All oem wheels on that size are 50mm offset though. It sounds like Art is talking about a wheel that doesn't show up on tirerack in the right offset because the hub bore isn't big enough for the mustang. The person referred to above must have had his wheel bore increased insize to make them work. I think Art was commenting on how many folks will think it is now ok to use the wrong offset wheels though b/c they didn't realize he started with a different wheel than what tirerack shows.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2009 1:28 pm

Art:

These guys will build you anything you want.

Just trying to help.

Keith Vail · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2009 2:09 pm

Karl Shultz wrote:

Art:

These guys will build you anything you want.

Just trying to help.

You forgot to include anything you want except a set of stock legal S2000 wheels. Since they have refused to build anymore. :lol:

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

Karl Shultz wrote:

Art:

These guys will build you anything you want.

Just trying to help.

I hear they'll build what you want several times, if you ask nicely

Overall I thought the article was pretty good, though it started me worrying about Quistorff suddenly appearing in FS. :shock:

Donnie's right - you have to know/verify your own equipment's specs, but I think they've left open a trap for a newbie by not mentioning the (presumed) mods to the wheels.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2009 4:51 pm

Arthur McDonald wrote:

I hear they'll build what you want several times, if you ask nicely

For that amount of money, they'll build them as many times as you ask them to. Which turns out to be twice, in my case...

Jason Mauldin · **Posted:** Mon Mar 30, 2009 11:10 am

So, how was the first Spec Mustang class?

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Mon Mar 30, 2009 1:52 pm

Jason Mauldin wrote:

So, how was the first Spec Mustang class?

I have a long learning curve ahead of me.... The mustang is NOT a 328 bmw, still damn fun though! Throttle steering is something I'm going to have to learn as well.

Arthur McDonald · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 1:54 am **Posts:** 2052

RodneyWright wrote:

Throttle steering is something I'm going to have to learn as well.

Rodney, it's pretty easy. Just push the skinny pedal to the floor and saw the steering wheel back and forth randomly. Like you used to do with the Cutlass

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Mon Mar 30, 2009 9:43 pm

Arthur McDonald wrote:

Rodney, it's pretty easy. Just push the skinny pedal to the floor and saw the steering wheel back and forth randomly. Like you used to do with the Cutlass

The Cutlass was an open dif, so the inside tire always gave way. This whole limited slip thing is new and interesting!

That said, and you guys can abuse from what I said previously about not spending money, but the new sway bar is about a week away from being ordered. The steeda bar looks nice and the price is right. With 3 holes at the end, lot's of adjustments. It's the cheapest mod right now. so on it goes.

That said, can you replace the front bushings w/ poly or do I have stay w/ stock rubber mounts? I figure the endlinks must stay stock, but was curious about the bushings on the sway.

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