Congrats to Alcino!

[78CobraII]

Congrats to Alcino for getting a pic of his car in the current issue of "Popular Hotrodding"! Its in the "Hometown" section (Readers' Rides). Its a great pic of him Autocrossing.

This link just shows the cover of the current issue (February 2006):
http://www.popularhotrodding.com/toc/phr_toc/

 

[alcino]

Thanks,
I always wanted my car in a mag and finally just sent a pic. After I sent in that pic I got a call a few days later from the editor asking about my car. He said that he was doing a lot of write ups on expensive cars and wanted to have a more budget minded project that reflected more of the readers rides to balance out the mag and thought my car was perfect. I tried to back out of it saying that my car needed this and that to be worthy of a mag. He said no, leave it the way it is and bring it over.

Next thing I know I'm driving to L.A. for a photo feature. Also there, were three other high end cars all getting photos and tested ( big green car was too new to test) that day.

I know our cars get ripped for being the worst looking and performing, and I was only hoping not to continue that thinking. How did I do? Read about it in the next (April 2006) issue of PHR. I surprised a few people including myself.


Alcino

 

[manny]

very nice . i do like the front bumper trick but my other question is where did you get those rear fender flairs? i'd like to put flaired fenders all the way around.i'm going for the road course look and with fender flairs i can add some serious meats at the four corners.

 

[alcino]

manny,
I got the fenders from a bucket of bondo and a sheet of fiberglass. If I could go back in time I would have just tubed the rear and left the panels alone. Gives way more room to raise the tire in the well to lower the car. But, everyone likes the look of the flares.

Also with wide tires all around you need to be careful with suspention geometry. learn about scrub radius, camber gain, and instant center before you start making big changes. I'll tell you now that deep dish wheels in the front is a suspension no no.

Alcino

 

[393 Boss]

Hi alcino, trick looking car. Just wondering what problems you ran into regarding "deep dish wheels" on the front, how big of wheels did you try?.

 

[alcino]

I feel our cars are small enough to use relatively small tires to handle great( I like to reduce unsprung and rotation weight as much as possible). At the moment I'm using 205/50/15 in the front and 225/50/15 in the rear. Very small for the "pro-touring" theme, but as you will see in the article I did rather well. Remember that tire compound is where you gain greater grip than tire width, and I use Toyo RA-1's which are an "R" compound. I used to have wider street tires and never could get close to the handling I have now.

As for the deep dish wheels in the front look at all the modern cars. Notice something? Shallow wheels ( at least in the front anyway). Why? Well there is lots of theory, but the gist is that
1. With a shallow wheel you can have the ball joints closer to the centerline of the tire tread. This distance is called scrub radius. the closer it is to zero the easier it is to steer (I know people that have power steering problems all the time), and the less bump steer you notice(car does not pull to a side on an uneven road or under braking)
2. With the shallow wheels and the ball joints farther out you can have longer a arms so that the suspension will have a more stable instant center over a greater suspension travel( car will feel more predictable and stable at speeds in turns).

I'm not an expert on this suspension theory, but I know people who are so if anyone has questions feel free to ask. you can also find more info in the www.pro-touring.com and www.corner-carvers.com forums.
Alcino

 

[78CobraII]

Alcino,

What a killer article! 5 pages of glorious Mustang II action in "Popular Hotrodding"! You have a great looking car and really outstanding performance.

.99G on the skid pad, a 13 second quarter mile time, and 105 MPH trap speed!

And they said it was the best handling car they had ever tested on the slalom!

The amazing thing is that you haven't done anything extraordinary. I've seen a half dozen other MII's with similar hardware (other than the racing tires and rear fiberglass springs), so your results probably apply to more II's. It really reflects well on the basic MII design.

I really loved that you beat up on the '79 Camaro that they have been working on for the last year. And you were down 80 cubic inches, had smaller tires and wheels, and didn't have their fancy air spring rear.

I'm looking at building a road course car out of my coupe and have a set of early Fox spec 15x7 wheels (smaller positive offset). I was looking at P225-50 tires all around. Did fitment problems on the front cause you to choose the P205's?

Great work!

 

[alcino]

Thanks for the good words.
This whole experience has been my dream come true and then some. I knew my car could handle OK but had no idea my car would break the slalom record and almost pull 1g. With the 1/4 time, that was the stickiest track I have ever been on. Never felt my car hook and pull like that before. Sadly (maybe not that sad)I thought I would dominate the braking. Was hoping for something under 120', but between runs took too long and my racing pads never got hot enough, plus I never tested braking down to zero so I never realized my car has a severe wheel hope from the rear below 20mph under full brake. but 146' is still good, I think the "Blackened" car got 139' and that thing had at least 14" rotors.

Your right that my car isn't crazy modded. I had so many plans for upgrading especially the engine. But seeing how good so little did, I think I will save my money and drive the snot out of it. Not really getting it ready for a magazine anymore.

As for your tire question I went with a 205 in front cause at the time bassett did not have an 8inch wheel with a 5 inch back spacing so I knew fitment was going to be tight, and it is. But now they do make that wheel so I would get the 225. But with the right tire 205 did just find don't you think?

Wish everyone here could have seen the frowns from the owners and builders of the other high dollar cars at the photo shoot. They could not believe my budget car was putting a wooping on theirs. Hopefully this article brings a little more respect to the II. I did my best. Hope others can continue the effort.

later
Alcino

 

[manny]

i have to ask, what issue was it in?

 

[alcino]

Its in the April 2006 Popular Hot Rodding. I'm on the cover!

 

[LILCBRA]

I just bought the issue earlier today and all I can say is wow!!! Great job!! I would definitely say that you have done a great job at promoting what a II can do, and almost demand a little respect. After so many years of being ripped on, I think we can all appreciate this article and your car. Again congrats and a big thumbs up!!!!

 

[roadsterII]

Alcino,
picked up the issue this last weekend, "nice going" and a big thumbs up!
Just one question, is your suspension only modified as stated in the spread? If so, alot of us other II owners should be able to follow your lead in the handling dept.

 

[alcino]

Thanks,

Roadster:
Yes my suspension is basically the write up. I did elogate the adjustment slots(not much, just a 1/8th inch) for the front a-arms to get a little more camber(-1.5) and caster(+4.0) in the front. Also I had the rear sway bar off which probably helped my slalom, but I think hurt my skidpad numbers. No traction aids in the rear, just one inch lowering block. I also inverted to leaf eyes on the fiberglass springs to lower the car one more inch. I think thats it.

But if I had to point to the main reason why my car did well it would be the tires.

 

[Vince]

I picked up the magazine too. Nice job.

 

[manny]

nice job AL . i've always wanted to turn my II into a real road course killer and you just added fuel to the fire. such a nice and simple platform that worked so well all together .

 

[feeble11]

alcino: A couple questions if you don't mind:

1. It said in the article you have a Canton Oil Pan. Which one do you have and did it need to be modified in any way to fit your car?

2. If your car wasn't lowered do you feel that you could fit 215/50R15 tires in the front? I'm trying to stuff the largest same size tires under all four corners of my car.

Thanks

 

[alcino]

thanks everyone

Feeble

1. It said in the article you have a Canton Oil Pan. Which one do you have and did it need to be modified in any way to fit your car?

I have the #15-600,funny, it says "fits all, but mustang ii". No it did not fit. I had to beat the pan in where it was touching the steering rack. Since I changed from power to the flaming river manual rack it gave more clearance and required less beating.

2. If your car wasn't lowered do you feel that you could fit 215/50R15 tires in the front? I'm trying to stuff the largest same size tires under all four corners of my car.

I could fit a 245 if I had the right back spacing(5" not the current 4). My plan for the future is 275/40/17 all the way around with out fenter flares. This will involve shallow dish wheels, moving the spindles outward and extending the a-arms. Now I just need the time to make it happen.

 

[78CobraII]

Alcino,

I have a vague memory of seeing a street rod suspension vendor that had "long" MII suspension arms for a particular body style...maybe a truck or 40's sedan. I also remember a comment on another website that indicated long arms ruined the geometry.

It might be interesting to talk to one of the suspension guys on the Corner Carver's Forum (http://corner-carvers.com/forums/index.php?) and see if someone would plug the longer dimensions into some suspension design software.

 

[Blue Thunder]

I could fit a 245 if I had the right back spacing(5" not the current 4). My plan for the future is 275/40/17 all the way around with out fenter flares. This will involve shallow dish wheels, moving the spindles outward and extending the a-arms. Now I just need the time to make it happen.

Great car, congrats on getting into the mag.
As for the 275/40ZR17s you mentioned, I happen to be running those on the rear of my II, and it's absolutely the widest tire you could possibly fit in that well. I had to trim off material from the inner lip to avoid rubbing when hitting road bumps.
I tested the 275/40s on the front, also, and they appeared to fit as well, but for now, I'm still using the 245/45ZR17s on the front.
I actually plan to add 3" flares front and rear and then hopefully be able to fit 315/40s or 335/40s on 17" wheels all around. If you click the link in my sig, you can see how I made the current 17" tires fit.

 

[alcino]

Alcino,
and see if someone would plug the longer dimensions into some suspension design software.

I did a little write up on my current suspension and plans for my future suspension at pro-touring. I used Suspension Analyzer to verify what was going on.

BlueThunder, glad to here that the wheels/tires should fit. Saw the pics of yours. Do you think the tires would still fit if the car was lowered down like mine is?