Tweet
Well, after coercing one of the techs here at the dealership to help out with the SHO project, and a couple of Saturdays and an evening here, the SHO is pretty much ready to go on its first track outing. This is the 95 manual trans. car that I picked up late last fall off kijiji for $900. Definitely challenged cosmetically somewhat, but still presentable. It had worn out suspension and brakes, but that was not a concern since it was all stuff that I would want to upgrade or refresh anyway for open-track use.
So we got the Koni inserts installed in to some extra OEM strut housings, with the Eibachs over top, along with a 26 mm rear stabilizer bar from an 89 SHO. Those are in the car now, along with fresh OEM rear brakes and Hawk HPS pads, and SN95 Mustang Cobra 13" fronts with Hawk HP+ material. The 94-up Taurus front spindles accept the Cobra PBR brakes as a bolt-on, we only had to drill the 5 on 4.25" wheel stud pattern in to the rotors, and do a bit of filing on a big ridge of the caliper housings for the Taurus flex hoses to clear, pretty straightforward.
I had scored a deal on a clearout through one of the local wholesalers on a nice set of 18x8" Team Dynamics wheels (good quality Brit stuff, not crappy Chinese castings), they happened to have one set in the stupid Taurus / Volvo bolt pattern with the right offset. On those we mounted a set of Dunlop's extreme performance tires, the Direzza Star Spec, which are basically one step away from R-compound track rubber, but still have a 200 treadwear rating.
We got everything buttoned up this afternoon, and did a quick alignment to get it close to what should work for street and track. Once the springs settle in, we'll recheck it. Unfortunately what started as a beautiful day here, up in to the low 80s, changed to a big thundershower by the time we got the car off the rack. So I couldn't really push on things too hard yet, but let me tell you, those Dunlops hang on like a mofo, even in the wet. The tests and reviews on Tire Rack were all pretty positive, so I was confident they would perform well ... but even so I was very impressed.
The first track outing for the car was to be next Friday, but that event got cancelled. So the following weekend is the first Solo I school of the season, I've been invited out to instruct with that group again. It's on the small track at Mosport, so it will be a good opportunity to test things out with the car, see how it works under those conditions. I'm hoping that with the sway bar combo I have now, along with the adjustability of the shocks, that I can get the car to be fairly neutral handling. Understeer push is deadly slow in a FWD car, so getting it dialed away from that is important.
I'll get some pics with the new wheels and stance later, and post them up. The wheels are very low key gunmetal grey, the tech doing the work with me said I should paint the whole car that colour, and then it would like Robocop's ride. ;D
Of course I will also report back on how the first track day goes, it should be fun and challenging. I haven't raced a FWD car in more than 10 years, and didn't do a lot of it back then really.
cheers
Ed N.
So we got the Koni inserts installed in to some extra OEM strut housings, with the Eibachs over top, along with a 26 mm rear stabilizer bar from an 89 SHO. Those are in the car now, along with fresh OEM rear brakes and Hawk HPS pads, and SN95 Mustang Cobra 13" fronts with Hawk HP+ material. The 94-up Taurus front spindles accept the Cobra PBR brakes as a bolt-on, we only had to drill the 5 on 4.25" wheel stud pattern in to the rotors, and do a bit of filing on a big ridge of the caliper housings for the Taurus flex hoses to clear, pretty straightforward.
I had scored a deal on a clearout through one of the local wholesalers on a nice set of 18x8" Team Dynamics wheels (good quality Brit stuff, not crappy Chinese castings), they happened to have one set in the stupid Taurus / Volvo bolt pattern with the right offset. On those we mounted a set of Dunlop's extreme performance tires, the Direzza Star Spec, which are basically one step away from R-compound track rubber, but still have a 200 treadwear rating.
We got everything buttoned up this afternoon, and did a quick alignment to get it close to what should work for street and track. Once the springs settle in, we'll recheck it. Unfortunately what started as a beautiful day here, up in to the low 80s, changed to a big thundershower by the time we got the car off the rack. So I couldn't really push on things too hard yet, but let me tell you, those Dunlops hang on like a mofo, even in the wet. The tests and reviews on Tire Rack were all pretty positive, so I was confident they would perform well ... but even so I was very impressed.
The first track outing for the car was to be next Friday, but that event got cancelled. So the following weekend is the first Solo I school of the season, I've been invited out to instruct with that group again. It's on the small track at Mosport, so it will be a good opportunity to test things out with the car, see how it works under those conditions. I'm hoping that with the sway bar combo I have now, along with the adjustability of the shocks, that I can get the car to be fairly neutral handling. Understeer push is deadly slow in a FWD car, so getting it dialed away from that is important.
I'll get some pics with the new wheels and stance later, and post them up. The wheels are very low key gunmetal grey, the tech doing the work with me said I should paint the whole car that colour, and then it would like Robocop's ride. ;D
Of course I will also report back on how the first track day goes, it should be fun and challenging. I haven't raced a FWD car in more than 10 years, and didn't do a lot of it back then really.
cheers
Ed N.
Comment