SN95 RinerAutomotive's CAM-T Mustang Build Thread Profile - SN95 Mustangs

[RinerAuto]

Put together a quick comparison video of mine and Ashley's run in preparation for full video coming this Friday. I'll note that Ashley's heat had some rain. It's clear the big difference is that I carry more speed through the slalom.

Stephen: FTD/FTP
Ashley: 22 Raw/20 PAX
Total Competitors: 86

 

[Bill Pemberton]

No matter how many times you post this the honest truth is she is waaaay better looking, ha!

Interesting comparison, I always enjoy the posts from you two!

 

[RinerAuto]

No matter how many times you post this the honest truth is she is waaaay better looking, ha!

Interesting comparison, I always enjoy the posts from you two!

Can't argue with you there.

 

[RinerAuto]

Video for last autocross event:

Ladies class:


Raw time:


PAX time:

 

[RinerAuto]

Well mother nature had other plans for racing this weekend. Tropical storm coming up the coast cancelled Saturday's autocross. Hopefully Sunday's can happen. I did a lot of preparation things this week to get ready for this weekend.

2500HD Duramax:
When I got home from last weekend's event there was a red oil puddle under the truck. Hose from hydraboost to power steering was leaking. Got a new one from Rockauto and replaced this week.

My truck has standard mirrors on it, which make it difficult to see around the new trailer for changing lanes. Ordered some fancy new tow mirrors from Boost Auto Parts. Mirrors have features of newer trucks such as drive lights on the forward facing side and white lights on outside that come on with dome and reverse. Got those installed this week.

Lastly, the 12V power supply pin going to the 7-pin trailer plug is corroded. Ordered a new pin from Ballenger Motorsport and got that fixed. Now have working 12V lights inside the trailer.

Enclosed Trailer:
Checked tire pressures and added grease to the bearings. Moved tire pressure monitoring sensors from open trailer to enclosed trailer tires. Lastly test fitted air mattress in preparation for Ford Fest event.

Mustang:
Lowered upper control arms to original location, which raises roll center even more. This will be a trial to see how it feels. This setting should also have more jacking, which may cause undesirable effects. But that's part of testing to build the fastest car. Then had to recheck alignment.

Hopefully I can race this weekend to test the car before Ford Fest. I then start prepping and loading the trailer for Ford Fest. Plan is to leave Wednesday.

 

[RinerAuto]

Playing catchup after attending Holley Ford Fest (more on that later).

The previously mentioned Sunday autocross was able to happen. We left at 4am for a 3 hour drive down to coastal NC. The new trailer towed beautifully although demolished my fuel economy. I get 15 mpg with the open trailer and I was got 10 mpg with the enclosed trailer. So I'll definitely still use the open trailer for local day trips. But it was super nice having the enclosed.

The autocross lost a lot of entries due to the cut from 2 day to 1 day event, but there was still some good competition. In CAM-T there was only one other driver, but my target was topping PAX. As a refresher I changed the front roll center higher to see how it felt. The course was fast and had a nice flow to it. I had a co-driver, but he ran in CAM-C (although my car isn't legal for CAM-C..., but there weren't any other CAM-C cars present) as that is the class he normally drives in and is trying to win. I was able to finish first in class, but more importantly I finished 3rd in PAX/5th Raw out of 36 drivers.


For ladies class there was Ashley and one other lady (current CSP national champion). Since there were only 2 heats I was not able to ride or help her in anyway. Additionally, times were only available online on live timing and her phone was dead. So she really had nothing to base how she was doing on. She was off my pace by almost 5 seconds running a best of 45.392. Something to work on to always push the limits of car and driver.

Then they allowed fun runs in the after lunch. I thought this a great opportunity to test back to back in same conditions and course the roll center change. I was able to quickly adjust the upper control arm to lower my front roll center to the previous setting. I then eyeballed the alignment as I didn't bring any of that equipment with me (it was close enough). My best fun run time was 0.5s slower than the morning run. Now was that driver, car, or course? But I did notice some additional understeer going through quick transitions with the lower RC. Also during the fun runs I got to drive a CSP Miata that has been on podium at nationals for last 3 years. The level of grip was wild. I didn't run faster than myself in the Mustang, but first time driving it I was very very close with a 41s run. Additionally, the driver of the Miata hopped in my car for the first time and also ran a 41s run not knowing how the throttle or brakes felt. Fast drivers are quick at adapting.

Another objective of the weekend was to kill my tires in preparation for the new 285 RE-71RS I had at home for Ford Fest. We accomplished that by wearing through the outside edge of one of the tires. Would have been nice to kill all 4 but close enough.

 

[RinerAuto]

Before going to Ford Fest I had some preparation to do. Luckily I took the whole week off for Ford Fest, but I planned to leave Wednesday. Leaving 2 days to get everything done.

My truck needed oil and fuel filter change. I've also had a transmission hose that has been leaking forever. Since I have a 12+ drive ahead of me, I figured it would be good to get that fixed. Which of course took longer and required removing more than I thought.

The mustang I decided to try to get more negative camber by turning out the LCA rod ends one turn. One more turn is at the limit of factor of safety for the rod end thread length, but will hopefully get me to the desired -4*. To adjust the rod end the LCA needs to come off the car, so that's aways fun to do I also adjusted the roll center back to the highest setting from last autocross. Lastly the tires needed to be changed out. I've had 285/30R18 RE-71RS sitting waiting for their time. Removal and installation wasn't too bad, but the Bridgestones require so much pressure to seat the front bead.

Finally, packing up the trailer for spare parts that I may need or want to bring, tools, food, and other stuff for camping. I plan to sleep in the trailer on an air mattress.

 

[RinerAuto]

Holley Ford Fest - Day 1
As mentioned I competed in the Grand Champion competition, which is autocross, drag racing, and 3S competition (start/steer/stop). Day 1 has a morning and afternoon autocross session. Then at night there will be drag racing, where we will get 3 runs. Autocross is my strong category, so I wanted to go out and get in a good position. I also wanted to see how the car and myself stacked up against other drivers, some of which are national champions.

The venue is small with the course being tight in some areas and wide open in others. I was still able to almost touch rev limiter at the top of 2nd gear. After the morning session I was sitting 4th in class! Wait... what?!? Yea I was surrounded by cars with way more horsepower, bigger tires, and better suspension than my car does. I've often stated HP isn't needed for autocross and in some cases can hurt you. This (along with all the Miata's at every event) really shows that grip and driver can overcome higher HP cars.

Going into the afternoon session I was hoping to break the 39s barrier, which would get me closer to the top guys. Although I don't think there was any way I could compete with Sam Strano in the RX8 running in the 37s. I was able to get close with a 39.0 but dirty. However, going into the braking zone of the hairpin I heard a pop and the car did not want to turn. Not again, circle tracks are not friendly to me. I limp the car off track. It's not pulling like it did when the suspension tube broke, but it didn't brake very well.

Looking the car over the lower suspension tube is intact, but it's clear looking at the passenger front tire that the top was further out than it was. I then found that the upper control arm bracket welds failed towards the rear and started peeling away. With this I knew I was done, but the car was at least able to be limped back to my trailer and could drive into the trailer, which is a win in itself at times.

Overall, I am super stoked with how the car did. I did drop in position from lunch time, but not much. At the end of the day I was 6th in class and 7th overall. Only 0.3s behind Mike's Carbon Widebody Fox?!?! And all the other cars above us and some below have power adders.


Talking to one of my friends who was there drifting his 302W swapped BMW, he asked around and found someone with a welder. Maybe I can get the car fixed and continue on with the competition?

 

[RinerAuto]

Holley Ford Fest - Day 1.5
I was able to get the upper control arm bracket welded back together to continue on with competition. I will be routinely checking it to make sure. But the stick welding put a lot more heat into the bracket and it looks very solid.

My weekend is saved! Just in time to do my first drag racing with this car, which we know it's not set up for and on the lower side of horsepower, comparatively. For drag racing we get 3 runs or 1 hour, whichever comes first. We get one session on Friday and another on Saturday. But, I only have to turn in my fastest run.

My first race I lined up against Sam in the RX8, which we are only racing for time it's fun to try to beat the guy next to you. Although the RX8 had a turbo charged fusion 4cyl making I heard 400 hp. I had a terrible launch and just watched the RX8 walk away. I ran a dismal 14s something and the RX8 went 12.5.

The remaining two runs were better at mid 13s. I think my 2step rpm is too low (2900 rpm??), so I think I will try increasing that for day 2. I had lowered my rear pressures, but I think I will try lower and increase the front more for day 2 session. Overall it was fun, but definitely not a drag racer.

 

[Dave_W]

the upper control arm bracket welds failed towards the rear and started peeling away.

Looking at the pic of the broken bracket on the car, I don't see much (if any) weld penetration. It looks like maybe it's put together & welded like this -

and the welds might not have been the full length of the two pieces.

I'm neither a mechanical engineer nor a certified welder, but I would probably design & assemble the plates like this -

IMHO, there are 2 key things for this - 1) full weld penetration, and 2) weld the full length of the assembly. Then again, looks like the top / horizontal plate is notched to self-fixture the location of the vertical plate. That's a nice feature, and to keep that I'd grind the edges of both plates (maybe except the outer 1/8" of the vertical plate so it seats in the notch easily), so the weld looks like this -

Again, full-penetration weld the full length of the plates.

For even more strength, you could use some angle to make a gusset on the outside of the corner, and then after you've welded the plates, weld the angle over the top, with plug welds for extra strength.


If I were starting from scratch, I'd probably just use one plate and bend it to shape; that way you eliminate any potential problems from welding. SendCutSend can bend up to 1/4" plate.

If @Fabman would like to weigh in, I'd just do what he recommends.

 

[Fabman]

This is the correct way to weld that joint.

I’d also like to get a weld on the back side of the joint.

 

[RinerAuto]

This is the correct way to weld that joint.
[/ATTACH]
I’d also like to get a weld on the back side of the joint.

@Dave_W This is how it was welded but I didn't get on the backside and obviously it was lacking full penetration. I can't quite remember why I didn't weld on the backside as well. I think I was concerned about clearance between it and frame rail. But that isn't an issue. I think this happened now due to me raising the roll center which put more force through the arms.

I am lucky in how it broke and where, being on autocross. But that is also why I took on this project knowing the car is mainly an autocross car and won't be seeing track time. While things can still go wrong, much reduced at autocross.

I'm working on a bracket that is bent instead of welded. Although I do have a better machine now (220 tig instead of 140 mig), I think bending will be better now that I have proven the design and have actual measurements.

 

[RinerAuto]

Holley Ford Fest - Day 2
Day 2 of Ford Fest is pretty much a repeat of day 1 with 2 session of autocross and drag racing at night. I'll need to keep an eye on the upper control arm brackets to make sure they are ok. They are giving us less time for the autocross session due to all the other activities going on aka drifting and burnout competition. But the course is exactly the same, so that will make things easy.

In the morning session I got up to speed quickly and was able to duplicate my 39.0 run but clean this time. I am now 0.2s off of person 6th overall. None of the top guys ran any faster. The track just did not seem any quicker. It was hotter than the previous day and the track keeps changing due other activities happening on the same track.

Afternoon session also did not go any quicker. Since the top car was broken they took cars in positions 2-6 for the top 5 shootout and I was in position 7...damn! Although I know I would have been able to compete with those guys it would have been cool to get the exposure being in the top 5. Goals for next year.

Now for drag racing, I turned up my 2-step rpm to 3200 rpm, dropped rear pressure to 20 psi and increased front pressure to 40 psi. Now if I can get the car to launch and hit all the gears I should go faster than the day before (13.5s). On pass #2 everything came together and I ran a 13.327. Although I think the launch still felt boggy/spinny. On pass #3 the car launched good....but then I missed 3rd gear. Not bad but I know the other top cars in class were in the 11s. I think the fastest car in class ran a 10.9s. If I ever want to actually win this event I'm going to have to do something for drag racing. I now see why @PatientZero added nitrous.

 

[PatientZero]

I now see why @PatientZero added nitrous.

And I don't think it helped me at all because we ran less than 1/8 mile and my car can't 60'

 

[RinerAuto]

Holley Ford Fest - Day 3
Day 3 is the final day of Ford Fest and is the 3S Challenge, which is start/steer/stop. It's a side by side race down a mirrored course. Starts with a drag race down a straight into a sweeper short acceleration run ending with having to stop in a box without hitting any cones. This was my first time doing one, so figuring out the braking zone took some trial and error. Luckily I have cobra brakes with good brake pads (Carbotech and G-Loc) and ABS.

I started easy to make sure I could stop in the box then started to push the envelope to where I really could feel ABS kicking in. I feel cars with ABS had an advantage on this one. Anyway I only missed my braking zone once and took out a cone. On many of the others I stopped right before touching the cone. I did manage to get down to a 12.7 on the left course and 12.5 on the right course. I got pretty consistent at running multiples of those times, where the top guys were running 12.0 to 12.3. Finding the time was getting a good launch off the start to where the car accelerated forward and didn't waste time spinning tires. Then getting a good run through the sweeper to carry the momentum. Since we were side by side going into the sweeper I often saw the car next to me braking either too early or too late.

Overall the 3S is a lot of fun and is similar to a Pro-Solo but has the stopping in the box aspect. It would be fun to incorporate this type of event at my local autocross events. Now for results of the 3S, it adds your best time from each side to give a total score with the lower it is the better. I ended up finishing 9th out of 28 participating cars in Late Model class, which isn't too bad.

Now I also have the overall results after scoring all three events. The point structure was 100 points for person in first and then decreased by 1 point down the order. So how close or far your time was from the person in first didn't matter. As a recap in the Late Model class for Autocross I finished 6th, Drag Racing 16th , and 3S challenge 9th. So overall I tied for 9th place in class!

I hope to be able to do this again next year. It was so much fun and I enjoyed being able to compare myself and car to some of the top guys out there.

Link to results: Event Results (clubregistration.net)

 

[Dave_W]

Congratulations on being in the top ten across the three disciplines! Looks like a cool event. Great job on the videos, as always.

My Dad started autocrossing in the 60's (called it gymkhana), and some of the clubs used stop boxes back then, but you got a penalty for distance between your bumper and the cone (maybe 0.1 second per inch).

 

[RinerAuto]

Congratulations on being in the top ten across the three disciplines! Looks like a cool event. Great job on the videos, as always.

My Dad started autocrossing in the 60's (called it gymkhana), and some of the clubs used stop boxes back then, but you got a penalty for distance between your bumper and the cone (maybe 0.1 second per inch).

Oh how the use of gymkhana has changed. Measuring bumper/cone distance seems more precise, but I can see how that can be time consuming and opens the door for bad measurements.

 

[RinerAuto]

@Dave_W This is how it was welded but I didn't get on the backside and obviously it was lacking full penetration. I can't quite remember why I didn't weld on the backside as well. I think I was concerned about clearance between it and frame rail. But that isn't an issue. I think this happened now due to me raising the roll center which put more force through the arms.

I am lucky in how it broke and where, being on autocross. But that is also why I took on this project knowing the car is mainly an autocross car and won't be seeing track time. While things can still go wrong, much reduced at autocross.

I'm working on a bracket that is bent instead of welded. Although I do have a better machine now (220 tig instead of 140 mig), I think bending will be better now that I have proven the design and have actual measurements.
View attachment 90577

I now realize the bent bracket won't work. The die used for the bending is too large and will cause deformation on some of the elements. I could use a grinder to do a score line for a tighter bend. But I'm going to go back to using 3 pieces welded together. However, this time I'm going to use tab and slot and weld on both sides of the joint.

 

[RinerAuto]

Autocross Under the Lights
A local club did a night autocross at a circle track. This is my first night autocross. Turnout was amazing, usually this club pulls 50-80 people. For this event that had 101 people and it was a Friday night after work. However since it there was so many people and needed to finish around a certain time, we only got 3 runs. This is pretty normal for large SCCA events but use to getting 5-6 at local events. Three runs to get it done.

I ran in the second heat, which started around 8:00 pm. First run I went off course and I didn't even realize. Second run I stayed on course but caught myself slowing down in elements that I shouldn't have. Third run I missed second gear and slowed down at the same element as second run, but I found time in other places and the run was slightly quicker. What could have been.....

I found I had a hard time focusing on the task at hand. I'm a morning person and my normal bedtime is around 9:30pm. I found this night racing a little tougher. It was fun though and I would do it again.

While I still did well, I didn't do as well as I wanted to do. I finished 8th raw and 10th PAX. It's those pesky Street Class cars

 

[PatientZero]

It's those pesky Street Class cars

Amen. The Volkswagens around here are ridiculous.