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S550 AJ Hartman Aero's GT350 Build Build Thread Profile - S550 Mustangs

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Finally getting some time to tinker with this thing and doing my first track day at VIR on Sept 10th. Not doing anything to the car aside from check over a few things. Only spare parts I may pick up are brake pads. I'll do a video and data on the day. I'm a tad nervous cause the last time the car was on track with the previous owner, he was having issues with the ABS for some reason and he said it just locked up randomly one lap and thats why he went off track. So I have no idea if the ABS will work or not. To generate some discussions I put a few questions below.

1. What are common spares these cars need?
2. What brake pads do you like for track only? I'm open to suggestions.
3. Whats a good alignment spec on this car on street tires?
 
741
1,075
TX
Finally getting some time to tinker with this thing and doing my first track day at VIR on Sept 10th. Not doing anything to the car aside from check over a few things. Only spare parts I may pick up are brake pads. I'll do a video and data on the day. I'm a tad nervous cause the last time the car was on track with the previous owner, he was having issues with the ABS for some reason and he said it just locked up randomly one lap and thats why he went off track. So I have no idea if the ABS will work or not. To generate some discussions I put a few questions below.

1. What are common spares these cars need?
2. What brake pads do you like for track only? I'm open to suggestions.
3. Whats a good alignment spec on this car on street tires?
What street tires are you running? OEM-spec super sports or Cup2s? Or something else entirely?

Grippy tires like Cup2s will want all you can give it - I run -3.1 in front and -2 in the rear with the tiniest bit of toe out (1/16in or so).
 
What street tires are you running? OEM-spec super sports or Cup2s? Or something else entirely?

Grippy tires like Cup2s will want all you can give it - I run -3.1 in front and -2 in the rear with the tiniest bit of toe out (1/16in or so).
Michelin Pilot Super Sports. Says its a 300 tread wear. I havent driven on a street tire since 2009! haha
 

PaddyPrix

If breakin' parts is cool, consider me Miles Davis
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If you're going Track-only, the G-LOC R16f/R12r combo works nice, as does Hawk DTC-60 f+r. If you're going up to A7/R7/DH, jump up to DTC-70's or R18/R16.
 

EIGHTLUG

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Currently, the best street/track tire available is the GOOD YEAR Supercar 3R. Literal seconds faster than the Cup 2. Brake pads are definitely debatable. I run Ferodo, currently, but I've also run PAGID. The PAGID pads are AMAZING. What's really not debatable is moving up to GiroDisc rotors from OEM.

Spares?? Hummm... I don't bring spares of anything to the track, aside form a quart of oil. 5 seasons of tracking the same GT350 and I've never experienced a track day ending component failure. If you have a spin on oil filter, keep an eye on it. They like to loosen up, after a while. The hose clamp/safety wire trick works for that.
 
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Currently, the best street/track tire available is the GOOD YEAR Supercar 3R. Literal seconds faster than the Cup 2. Brake pads are definitely debatable. I run Ferodo, currently, but I've also run PAGID. The PAGID pads are AMAZING. What's really not debatable is moving up to GiroDisc rotors from OEM.

Spares?? Hummm... I don't bring spares of anything to the track, aside form a quart of oil. 5 seasons of tracking the same GT350 and I've never experienced a track day ending component failure. If you have a spin on oil filter, keep an eye on it. They like to loosen up, after a while. The hose clamp/safety wire trick works for that.
Thanks for the input. Tires a bit down the road since whats on there has decent tread left. I'm still used to older chassis mustangs where you'd run through pads every other weekend and rotors would be lucky to last 3-4 weekends haha. So spares were a necessity on those. These newer chassis cars seem much more stout and the car has the Brembo's on it already, but I'm sure a rotor upgrade will be done as soon as rotors are needed. I was able to pull part numbers off the brake pads that were on it and they happened to be DTC-60's which I'm familiar with. I also have a wholesale acct to get them at cost so gonna stick with them.
 
Finally getting some time to tinker with this thing and doing my first track day at VIR on Sept 10th. Not doing anything to the car aside from check over a few things. Only spare parts I may pick up are brake pads. I'll do a video and data on the day. I'm a tad nervous cause the last time the car was on track with the previous owner, he was having issues with the ABS for some reason and he said it just locked up randomly one lap and thats why he went off track. So I have no idea if the ABS will work or not. To generate some discussions I put a few questions below.

1. What are common spares these cars need?
2. What brake pads do you like for track only? I'm open to suggestions.
3. Whats a good alignment spec on this car on street tires?

Do what you can to check out the ABS prior to hitting the track, its important on these cars, if you loose ABS the rear will lock under heavy braking on stock spring rates as the weight transfers to the front and the inside rear tire will also lock on almost any trail braking event. The OEM bias is a bit optimistic for what the rears can handle. If you can slow down the weight transfer with a good set of coil overs and add some spring the OEM brakes are actually very good. Its a shame they force you into 19" wheels or we would put them on all the cars we build. The 2020 solid disks are a good upgrade to help with pad wear so when those are done get the non-drilled rotors to help extend pad life.

The pads are a personal preference but I have had good luck with me and my customers running the Carbotech XP20 in the front and XP12 in the rear if you are going to be running R comps and XP12 front with XP10 rears if you are going to be running 200+ tread wear tires. They are easy on the rotors and if you setup a dealer account the price is good. They can usually turn out pads in 2-3 days so that is nice as well. Its going to use pads if you leave the nanny's on and even if you turn it all off its going to use pads. She is a big girl after all. You are use to driving a 3200 lb car and you will be at 4000+ in fighting weight if you don't take the street car out of it.

I don't know that I would carry them as spares but wheel hubs both front and rear should be on the service list for every year if you run a lot of events and you are on stickies, every 2 years on 200+ tread wear tires. They don't fail in a catastrophic way but they will start to make noise, heat, and need to be replaced. If you are running the stock sway bar links I would carry them as spares or upgrade to something stronger. If you like the curbs they like to bend and snap.

Tires, Tires, Tires, these Mustangs eat them up, even after your get the tire wear dialed in with proper camber front and rear. Without a square setup so you can rotate front to back you will be replacing front tires 2 to 1. Just plan on longer front studs a 1" spacer and at track setup for wheels. this will pay for itself many times over in front tires. Start with the R alignment settings for front and rear and then use your tires to dial in the camber for tire wear. You are going to land with -2.5* to -3.1* in the front and -1.75* to -2.5* in the rear. Tow is a driver feel and until you replace all the rubber in the rear with bearings you will want a little more tow in for the rear and a little more tow out in the front. Once you have replaced all the bushings then you can work to less tow at both ends. If you take all the tow out before you take the rubber out the car feels nervous. Ride height and rake has a big impact on these cars and with most of your aero mods you will be tempted to slam this thing on the ground with lowering springs but the stock suspension will not like that. The car will start to plow and it will be hard to get rid of the understeer without at least raising the rear a bit. A good set of coilovers is needed to dial in the car at low ride heights. I don't remember if your car is a Maggie or not but its great on the street and OK on the track, with any aero you will hit the limit very quick as the stock springs are very soft compared to a track only setup.

Send me a PM if you want to chat, I am happy to help.

Dave
 
Do what you can to check out the ABS prior to hitting the track, its important on these cars, if you loose ABS the rear will lock under heavy braking on stock spring rates as the weight transfers to the front and the inside rear tire will also lock on almost any trail braking event. The OEM bias is a bit optimistic for what the rears can handle. If you can slow down the weight transfer with a good set of coil overs and add some spring the OEM brakes are actually very good. Its a shame they force you into 19" wheels or we would put them on all the cars we build. The 2020 solid disks are a good upgrade to help with pad wear so when those are done get the non-drilled rotors to help extend pad life.

The pads are a personal preference but I have had good luck with me and my customers running the Carbotech XP20 in the front and XP12 in the rear if you are going to be running R comps and XP12 front with XP10 rears if you are going to be running 200+ tread wear tires. They are easy on the rotors and if you setup a dealer account the price is good. They can usually turn out pads in 2-3 days so that is nice as well. Its going to use pads if you leave the nanny's on and even if you turn it all off its going to use pads. She is a big girl after all. You are use to driving a 3200 lb car and you will be at 4000+ in fighting weight if you don't take the street car out of it.

I don't know that I would carry them as spares but wheel hubs both front and rear should be on the service list for every year if you run a lot of events and you are on stickies, every 2 years on 200+ tread wear tires. They don't fail in a catastrophic way but they will start to make noise, heat, and need to be replaced. If you are running the stock sway bar links I would carry them as spares or upgrade to something stronger. If you like the curbs they like to bend and snap.

Tires, Tires, Tires, these Mustangs eat them up, even after your get the tire wear dialed in with proper camber front and rear. Without a square setup so you can rotate front to back you will be replacing front tires 2 to 1. Just plan on longer front studs a 1" spacer and at track setup for wheels. this will pay for itself many times over in front tires. Start with the R alignment settings for front and rear and then use your tires to dial in the camber for tire wear. You are going to land with -2.5* to -3.1* in the front and -1.75* to -2.5* in the rear. Tow is a driver feel and until you replace all the rubber in the rear with bearings you will want a little more tow in for the rear and a little more tow out in the front. Once you have replaced all the bushings then you can work to less tow at both ends. If you take all the tow out before you take the rubber out the car feels nervous. Ride height and rake has a big impact on these cars and with most of your aero mods you will be tempted to slam this thing on the ground with lowering springs but the stock suspension will not like that. The car will start to plow and it will be hard to get rid of the understeer without at least raising the rear a bit. A good set of coilovers is needed to dial in the car at low ride heights. I don't remember if your car is a Maggie or not but its great on the street and OK on the track, with any aero you will hit the limit very quick as the stock springs are very soft compared to a track only setup.

Send me a PM if you want to chat, I am happy to help.

Dave
Thanks for the insight. And by a "maggie" car do you mean magna ride? If so, yes, its a magna ride car. The car is upgraded with some type of Ford Performance swaybars and springs I'm pretty sure. Number on the front springs is Cm-5310-Y. Didn't feel like crawling around under to try and get numbers off the swaybars and rear springs. They are blue if that helps haha.
 

Fabman

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Thanks for the insight. And by a "maggie" car do you mean magna ride? If so, yes, its a magna ride car. The car is upgraded with some type of Ford Performance swaybars and springs I'm pretty sure. Number on the front springs is Cm-5310-Y. Didn't feel like crawling around under to try and get numbers off the swaybars and rear springs. They are blue if that helps haha.
Blue is the fastest color.
 
741
1,075
TX
Looks like the FP lowering springs and sway bar kit. Decent upgrade over stock - but nothing major.

I'd also make sure to check the plugs on the actual magneride sensors as well as all the bolts that attach the sensor to the arm/chassis. I had a physical bolt loose that allowed the actual sensor to move around a bit. Caused the car to go nuts a few times. Here's one of the worst ones - it was deciding to lock up individual tires. Loose sensor turned out to be front right.


That one woke me up real fast.
 
Since yours is a Mag Ride you will eventually need these if you are going to do anything more than stockish rates and aero.


Dave
 

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