Road Racing / Track Days / HPDE

Brakes!!!!! Road racing is very hard on brakes and the stock ones on the S197 are not quite up to the task. Of course, it depends on the track, your skill level (ie: how hard you'll be pushing the car), ect. You can do a search for brake mods and get more info but at the very least, I'd bleed the brakes completely and change to a good DOT4 high temp fluid.

Ooops! Sorry. I just reread your post and saw you have experience. My brake mods and the larger tires were by far the best mods for my open track experience. The car is on the portly side and it's very hard on the tires. I'm running BFG KDW's for the street and track now but at the rate my street tires are being eaten up I'm thinking my next purchase is going to be a set of steeda ultralites and some good track only tires. I'm leaning toward Nitto NT01's

I'm running 275/40/18's on 9.5 inch wheels. They're almost exactly the same diameter as stock.

No problem, open track days are easily the most fun I've ever had with my pants on! Be safe and enjoy that car! It's refreshing to see someone else is driving a Mustang the way it's suppose to be driven.

http://www.panaviseonline.com/product.php?id=306

Best I can do. Hope it helps.

Yes, most Stang owners, if they even go to the track, usually mean dragstrip. Now I am not judging and saying that's a bad thing. Drag strips are fun.

But I too have found it hard to find info on this particular site. It doesn't even have a section for road racing. Mainly due to lack of member interest I suspect.

HOWEVER....to get to your question. Even with your experience, it's always good to go out in the car in stock form so you can see what you can do with it. See where you need to better tune the car to your skills.

When I say stock, I do mean of course you still doing the minimum preps though. Change the brake fluid, change the brake pads. As well as the long check list of other items I am sure you're familar with.

These newer cars are setup fairly well in stock form. Since you do have experience, eventually you will most likely want to bolt up any of the handling packages out there along with a BBK.

These packages replace the sway bars, springs, shocks and adds a strut tower brace. All designed to tighten the car up and allow for more grip. With the adjustable sways you can combat understeer as well.

If you are going to hit the track more than twice a year, investing in a quality coil-over kit would be wise too.

Light weight wheels and race tires would be good obviously. Reducing unsprung weight always a plus.

Our cars are nose heavy so I'd suggest running equal width wheels/tires at all four corners. You'll have to catch yourself at turn exit when you hit the gas but at least going in you'll be much more neutral. Allows you to brake much later.

Cooling wise these cars are setup pretty good. I wouldn't run in the summer months in the Southwest on stock cooling, but that's about it.

As always a race clutch and flywheel will only help reduce wear on your motor so that's something to consider. Different combos offer give and take for streetability versus tracking. So things to consider there too.

Good luck and have fun!

Hawk HPS+ track pads. They work very nicely.

As for wheels, picking up some OEMs in order to avoid banging up your stockers is fine. Light weight wheels run around $1800-$2600 for a set of four so you do really have to be commited to drop that kind of dough, heh.

As for shaving tires, I really don't suggest that. If you want to run a dedicated track tire there are plenty to chose from 'as is'. If you want to "test the waters" and run a compromise tire, something you can use at track and on road, the BFG KDs are the best bang for buck.

And I'm sure you know to use 3M blue painters tape all over the front of the car to keep it pretty!

Drive safe and have fun!

I've never run racer tape either but the front of my car has not suffered much from the track duty it sees. Two minutes behind an uncovered dump truck does more than 20 years at the track. As for running the stock brakes to see how they hold up, don't bother, they won't. At Hallet, the stock brakes would start to fade on the second lap and by the end of a 15 min session the pedals hitting the floor. Stock the brakes are simply not adequate for track use. I used HPS pads at first but have switched to HP+. I like them better for our heavy cars.

Oh, and this is a good site for info. These guys are hardcore and their site has very little B.S. Very good place for info.

http://www.corner-carvers.com

jlisle01 said:

Oh, and this is a good site for info. These guys are hardcore and their site has very little B.S. Very good place for info.

http://www.corner-carvers.com

Click to expand...

they are a little farther ahead of the game there. noobs beware.