Original racing art and prints
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Original racing art and prints |
S197 Mustang Drift Car  This one is not a personal project, but the car has long since been totalled and parted out so no harm in showing some pics of it. There was little media or print coverage at the time it was competing in Formula D during the 2006 and 2007 seasons, so good pictures of it are scarce, and there were some interesting technical features of the car that are worth showing. The goal with the car was to drift, obviously, but more so to drift while carrying very high speed (hopefully higher than the competition). That meant doing all the things that normally would improve rear end corner exit grip; as much rearward weight bias as possible, suspension geometry changes like lengthening the short upper control arm to minimize wheel hop, flares for a wider rear track and very wide wheels and tires, and relatively soft springs and stabar on the rear. Coupled with a very torquey supercharged engine and lots of steering angle, the car was very effective at carrying lots of speed during a drift, unfortunately during tandem drifts it really wanted a slightly different setup to allow easier control when behind slower cars. This would have been straightforward with some cockpit adjustable controls (stabars, etc), but logistics and crashes hindered development. It was a fun car to drive. Although I never drove it at a competition venue, just doing development work on it in a testing environment was quite enjoyable. At the end it was breaking TKO600 transmissions in 3rd gear on the throttle. It was making ALOT of torque. All in all a fun, if fruitless, project. Note: Livery changed from 2006 (red) to 2007 (blue), it is the same car throughout the pics | ||
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| S197 Mustang Drift Car Specifications Engine: Modular 4.6 4V, all Motorsport or OEM components, crate short block, catalog CNC ported cylinder heads (NOT the Livernois stage X port), high lift camshaft kit, Whipple 'small' 2.3 blower Drivetrain: TKO600, Exedy clutch, 8.8 rear with various diffs Front Suspension: modified front knuckles, widened control arms, Multimatic FR500C dampers Rear Suspension: long upper control arm, tubular lower control arms, Multimatic dampers Brakes: Wilwood Superlite 6 piston calipers and rotors Wheels: 18x8.5 front, 18x11.5 rear Tires: Toyo various sizes Body modifications: Vac formed flares, quarter windows, rear lexan, NO SPOILER!!! Pinstriping: On site by the great Dr. Ru | ||
| Build Pics: |
 False firewall cut out, engine set back as far as possible |  The amount of engine set back is very evident here |  BIW caged with driver's side mirror image FR500C cage minus Petty bar. Here checking front flare/wheel fitment |
 |  5 gal ATL fuel cell installed in passengers rear seat area |  |
 Radiator takes the place of trunk floor. |  Intercooler heat exchanged located in parcel try shelf |  Outlet ducting for heat exchanger, outlet is through rear of trunk lid |
 Control arm widened |  Using Bill Mitchell's WinGEO software, there was some question about the accuracy at high steer angle |  Wilwood Superlite calipers, hats, rotors. Also visible here is the Multimatic damper setup |
 Shell fresh from paint, time to reassemble |  Inlet air duct, no radiator up front means lots more room for ductwork, easier to see and appreciate the engine! |  Coolant hard lines and interior tinwork. The 4 holes in the rear panel feed air from the quarter window scoops to the radiator in trunk |
 Rear lexan scoop feeds intercooler heat exchanger, outlet through rear trunk of trunk lid |  Vac formed quarter window scoops to feed radiator in trunk. They're clear, so according the the rulebook, they're windows... |  Shakedown and 1st test session, exciting!!! |
 1st event, Formula D Chicago, 2006. Media ride along day before Friday practice. The first, of many... |  New Jersey, 2007, this was the last, frame stubs and unibody bent at both ends.... |  Along with all the mechanics and fabricators that worked on this, watching Dr. Ru pinstripe the dash was a treat |