Hello all,
Though I have been and still am a 5.0 guy, I am now on my second 99-04 GT. This car kinda fell into my lap. A friend of a friend had this car since it was about a year old and have put it through its paces as a dual purpose street / track car and onto a full-on track car, which is how it came into my hands. I wasn't looking at the time but this guy has done a really nice job with this car and has sunk a TON of money into it. I have always been that guy who never wins anything, and never comes across those damn amazing deals I always read about on the internet, so for me to get this car with almost the entire MM catalog on it, a cage, 2 race seats, cobra brakes, and 17x9 koenig wheels on 275/40 Proxes RA1 raacing tires (AND two spares!) for the price of a bone stock '99 GT was a deal I absolutely could not pass up. My favorite part is that the engine is still mostly stock, it just has a BBK CAI, UD pullies, and full exhaust. It only has 69k miles on it (though 30k of those were nothing but track miles, after he took it off the street and used it solely for tracking, so, it has seem some hard use!), all the emissions equipment is still there and functioning, no CELs, drives like stock, and the AC even still works!
Here it is how I bought it:
I have to give a shout out to my 2011 F150 here. These new trucks are amazing. I've got the 5.0 and 3.55s in this thing, which is hardly the most stout combination of engine/rear gears for towing, and it still pulled it without any trouble. Love this truck. You can't own an older mustang and not have one of these things or something like it!
That is how I brought it home. I got to work immediately on cleaning it up (it had sat outside for a few years unfortunately. No rust or anything, just dirty) and taking the tylenol stripes off of it, in addition to the plethora of sponsor stickers, the previous owners name, aftermarket vendor stickers, and stickers for all the tracks this thing has been on. THE 3M ERASER WHEEL IS AMAZING.
This is with most of that done. Need to get the last few sponsor stickers off the passenger door and the last two sections of stripes off.
Looking much better IMO!
The previous owner was apart of a BMW M club (he also had a Z3) and he actually entered a NASA racing event with this car up against all kinds of race-prepped E46 M3s and a few Porsches and he actually came in second place!
I however, have very little track experience. I am just a few years out of college and in my career as an M.E. and have wanted to get on the track since I was 15, just never really had access, and didn't want to beat on my dd. As is typical for most broke kids in school, I didn't have the money for a newer mustang (thus the 5.0s), and, generally speaking, if the car is new enough, you're ok driving it to the track, tracking, and driving back home. If the car you're tracking is a little older, however, you start running into a greater risk of not being able to get home. So I pretty much just avoided that headache/time/money/aggravation.
I was getting ready to start turning my '94 GT into what this car is, however, with all the hard work already done for me with this thing, the '94 is now strictly going to be the fun dd and the '99 will be my track car. Additionally, I am going to detune this thing a bit since I dont have the skill level to really utilize the racing slicks its on, so I am going to get it street worthy again.
In order for it to get street worthy again, I have one major PITA problem, and two relatively simple (albeit expensive) problems. The major PITA is that the car has an exhaust leak at the passengers side header-to-mid-pipe connection. One of the studs coming out of the header snapped, no doubt due to the crazy high temps it saw from 30k miles of tracking. I have a few pics below and I'm interested to hear from all you guys who have done headers and mid pipes on these cars about what the best way to solve this is. it looks like a BITCH to get to, to me. The two simpler problems are the brake pads and tires, which I'm already working on.
Here's a general overview shot. Look at the two header studs.
Here is a closeup of the one stud that broke.
What do you all think? I think I'm going to have to shop this one out to a local speed shop. This thing rides about 2" lower than stock and even way up in the air on jackstands its still barely high enough for me on a creeper lol. It really needs a lift.
I found a guy on my local CL selling some '03 Cobra wheels. I wanted to stay with 17x9 and go with 275/40s since that matches the slicks its on now so I went for '03 Cobras.
These will be for the street tires. I'll put the racing tires away for a little while and when I'm ready for slicks I'll be able to just swap them. Easy peesey. God I love '03 Cobras and these things shine like mirrors! This dark cell phone pic doesn't do them justice.
Interested to hear all feedback on the car and especially the header stud issue! Thanks!
Though I have been and still am a 5.0 guy, I am now on my second 99-04 GT. This car kinda fell into my lap. A friend of a friend had this car since it was about a year old and have put it through its paces as a dual purpose street / track car and onto a full-on track car, which is how it came into my hands. I wasn't looking at the time but this guy has done a really nice job with this car and has sunk a TON of money into it. I have always been that guy who never wins anything, and never comes across those damn amazing deals I always read about on the internet, so for me to get this car with almost the entire MM catalog on it, a cage, 2 race seats, cobra brakes, and 17x9 koenig wheels on 275/40 Proxes RA1 raacing tires (AND two spares!) for the price of a bone stock '99 GT was a deal I absolutely could not pass up. My favorite part is that the engine is still mostly stock, it just has a BBK CAI, UD pullies, and full exhaust. It only has 69k miles on it (though 30k of those were nothing but track miles, after he took it off the street and used it solely for tracking, so, it has seem some hard use!), all the emissions equipment is still there and functioning, no CELs, drives like stock, and the AC even still works!
Here it is how I bought it:
I have to give a shout out to my 2011 F150 here. These new trucks are amazing. I've got the 5.0 and 3.55s in this thing, which is hardly the most stout combination of engine/rear gears for towing, and it still pulled it without any trouble. Love this truck. You can't own an older mustang and not have one of these things or something like it!
That is how I brought it home. I got to work immediately on cleaning it up (it had sat outside for a few years unfortunately. No rust or anything, just dirty) and taking the tylenol stripes off of it, in addition to the plethora of sponsor stickers, the previous owners name, aftermarket vendor stickers, and stickers for all the tracks this thing has been on. THE 3M ERASER WHEEL IS AMAZING.
This is with most of that done. Need to get the last few sponsor stickers off the passenger door and the last two sections of stripes off.
Looking much better IMO!
The previous owner was apart of a BMW M club (he also had a Z3) and he actually entered a NASA racing event with this car up against all kinds of race-prepped E46 M3s and a few Porsches and he actually came in second place!
I however, have very little track experience. I am just a few years out of college and in my career as an M.E. and have wanted to get on the track since I was 15, just never really had access, and didn't want to beat on my dd. As is typical for most broke kids in school, I didn't have the money for a newer mustang (thus the 5.0s), and, generally speaking, if the car is new enough, you're ok driving it to the track, tracking, and driving back home. If the car you're tracking is a little older, however, you start running into a greater risk of not being able to get home. So I pretty much just avoided that headache/time/money/aggravation.
I was getting ready to start turning my '94 GT into what this car is, however, with all the hard work already done for me with this thing, the '94 is now strictly going to be the fun dd and the '99 will be my track car. Additionally, I am going to detune this thing a bit since I dont have the skill level to really utilize the racing slicks its on, so I am going to get it street worthy again.
In order for it to get street worthy again, I have one major PITA problem, and two relatively simple (albeit expensive) problems. The major PITA is that the car has an exhaust leak at the passengers side header-to-mid-pipe connection. One of the studs coming out of the header snapped, no doubt due to the crazy high temps it saw from 30k miles of tracking. I have a few pics below and I'm interested to hear from all you guys who have done headers and mid pipes on these cars about what the best way to solve this is. it looks like a BITCH to get to, to me. The two simpler problems are the brake pads and tires, which I'm already working on.
Here's a general overview shot. Look at the two header studs.
Here is a closeup of the one stud that broke.
What do you all think? I think I'm going to have to shop this one out to a local speed shop. This thing rides about 2" lower than stock and even way up in the air on jackstands its still barely high enough for me on a creeper lol. It really needs a lift.
I found a guy on my local CL selling some '03 Cobra wheels. I wanted to stay with 17x9 and go with 275/40s since that matches the slicks its on now so I went for '03 Cobras.
These will be for the street tires. I'll put the racing tires away for a little while and when I'm ready for slicks I'll be able to just swap them. Easy peesey. God I love '03 Cobras and these things shine like mirrors! This dark cell phone pic doesn't do them justice.
Interested to hear all feedback on the car and especially the header stud issue! Thanks!