06GT

This past weekend was my first time taking the BOSS on track.

I drove down to INDE Motorsports Ranch in Willcox, AZ (about an hour to the east of Tucson) with a coworker of mine and his race car. This is roughly a 3.5 hour drive for us from the Phoenix area.

Here is the track layout and website (we run the Main Circuit clockwise, 21 turns, 2.75 miles):
http://www.indemotorsports.com/site/



This review will be a little different from a "box-stock" review since I am running a few aftermarket parts and prep items:

• Nitto 275/40/18 on all 4 corners
• Camber plates
• Brake cooling ducts
• LS Trans Cooler
• Hawk DTC 60 pads in front, stock rear pads
• Roush Mufflers, K&N
• Strano adjustable rear swaybar
• Generic "bar" grille for cooling

Anyhow; We arrived late Thursday night and got to work via lantern getting our cars unloaded and prepped for the weekend ahead of us. During adjustment, I noticed one of my rear damper adjusters is VERY difficult to turn--I had to use vise grips around a small screwdriver to get enough torque to turn the adjuster! Hopefully nothing is broken there.

I started out Friday morning with the stock swaybar on the rear. As Cloud9 and I surmised earlier this year, the car was uncomfortably loose w/ the stock rear bar and a square tire setup. I had brought along the Strano rear bar for this reason, and swapped it on after the first session.

Note, this swaybar kit came with absolutely no instructions and required a bit of guesswork as to what bushings, collars, and washers went where. Sam--please include instructions for your future customers! On the plus side, once the bar was installed, the car was a blast to drive. Setting the bar in the "middle" setting got the car settled down quite a bit, maybe even a little on the "tight" side. More on this later.

Brakes: During the first session, I ran with my brake ducts taped off. The brakes in the competition car could tolerate a beating w/ no cooling. This wasn't the case in the BOSS. I ended up overwhelming the DTC60s on the long straight (combination of no cooling, stock rear pads, and trying to brake too deep) and had to use the run off area. After that, I opened up the cooling ducts and the brakes worked flawlessly; anyone considering tracking should definitely get the ducts installed. Brake dive was present, but nothing serious--this was all dependent on the braking style. Once I got my pedal application and pedal releases smooth, the dive diminished.

I started out day two running Trackmaster for GPS lap timing. My first session's laps were in the 2:12 range. Once I learned to start trusting the car more with throttle, the seconds started to drop. The car has so much rear grip that I could roll into full throttle with the wheel cranked and not spin the tires at all! The car would just plant and take off where it was pointed! I think this is the real magic of the car--it can maintain midcorner speed well, but the ability to power out of a turn without overwhelming the tires is what really makes it fast. Also this made the car very easy to trail-brake into tight corners without fear of the back end coming out.

By the end of day two, I was down to a 2:08.1, which is 0.9 seconds slower than the best time I put down in my coworker's 427R Track Pak competition car the previous year; that car is over 500lbs lighter as well! I'd say that is a pretty respectable showing for the BOSS.

Edit: looks like I may be closer to my benchmark than I thought, or maybe even matched it. Details further below.

Compared to the Track Pak competition car, the BOSS is not buttoned-down as well, likely due to the softer spring rates (but we are talking about a street car here). That took some getting used to as far as driver confidence, but once I learned to trust the car, it was smooth sailing.

I'm very happy with the engine in the car, as others have noted, there is a ton of torque on tap. I ran the entire course in third gear, save for an upshift to fourth on the main straight. For this reason, I don't have much to add about the transmission or clutch, but they both performed without incident.

Ambient temperatures were hot all weekend. Highs in the 95-98*F range, around 4400' altitude. I drained 36oz out of the radiator via the lower petcock before day 1, and added three bottles of Water Wetter to the overflow tank. I also replaced the factory grille with a generic "Bar" grille from American Muscle. I did not have a single overheating issue the entire weekend, and I never saw the temperature gauge move off of the "middle" range. I did not hook up my OBD sensor to see CHT or ECTs. This track involves a lot of fluctuation between 3000-7500 RPM in third gear, so there may have been enough off-throttle or part-throttle sections to not overtax the cooling system, but I was pushing as hard as I could. I will have more info at the end of this month during the next event at a different track w/ more gear changes. I also plan on trying out the "stiffer" setting for the rear bar at the next event to see if I can get the car to rotate a little bit more.

Here is a picture of the car w/ the bar grille installed. You can see the #88 Track Pak competition car in the background.







Here is a video of a couple laps on track. I will post another video later this week from a different session that includes a rearview camera as well.



Let me know if you have any questions!

06GT

One more picture of the pair in the paddock:

06GT

Also, we changed the rear diff fluid by lantern light after the first day. Replaced with Royal Purple 75-140. Many beers were killed during the night wrenching sessions on the BOSS and the race car. Rest In Peace, barleywater.

cloud9

Great writeup Drew. I think your comments about RPM and this track are relevant regarding cooling. It's clearly the sustained high RPMs that really drive the heat up in this engine so it will be interesting to see what you find at your next track the end of this month. It's impressive that your "street" Boss has already outperformed the 427R Track Pack car on your first day. I imagine after you get a little more seat time in the Boss that outperformance will widen even further.

06GT

Well I didn't say it outperformed, the BOSS was almost a second slower. But it's pretty close. I think there is more time left on the table as well. Edit: Looks like I was a lot closer than I thought, or even at the benchmark.

My coworker driving the competition car this weekend was two seconds slower than my time in the Boss, three seconds slower than my time in his car (but in his defense he hadn't been on-track in 18 months or so and this was his first weekend at this track, my second weekend).

I have a benchmark on the next track as well, need to match or beat a 2:09!

cloud9

Nice! It's fun benchmarking against prior rides where you have a ton of laps behind the wheel. I'm heading back to BIR Friday and I'm out to top 1:52.48. I already bested my lowest time in the heavily modified GT500 (1:55.10) after just 2 days in the Boss. There's more on the table if I can trust the car through Turns 1 (entry at 150 mph, exit at 140) and 2 (entry at 110-120, exit at 130)

5 DOT 0

Yikes, I've never entered a corner at 150 mph before. That would be a white knuckle ride your first few times through.

Nice write up Drew. Any comments about using the stock rear brake pads? Was the balance with the DTC 60's fine? And you're running the stock brake lines and rotors? Did you add the friction modifier to the diff?

I've ordered DOT 4, brake cooling ducts, and trans scoop and will install them before my first track day on 9/25 at Thunder Hill.

cloud9

Hey at least it's banked Yea you don't exactly run to the edge right away....you kind of wade in. I don't really want to find the edge because I'm not exactly sure what's over that hill

Here's a Youtube of a BMW E30 M3/S50 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnkhN...h_response_rev

06GT

That is fast. Don't have any turns like that out here! or maybe I mean
Rick: The stock rear pads were fine, I think the car would slow better with some performance pads out back but I'm too lazy to change them. Again, the brake dive is all about the driver. I am planning to keep this setup with DTC60 fronts and stock rears.

I did run a separate set of centric blank front rotors to mix w/ the DTCs so I don't have to re-bed every time I go to a track setup. They are a little grooved from driving 200 miles on the street to/from the track, but no big deal. Brake lines are stock, fluid is ATE Super Blue.

No friction modifier for the T2!

Get some video at Thunderhill, that looks like a fun track, lotta elevation change!

06GT

Also of note, some of you may recognize this track from s197ford's youtube videos of Boss prototype testing. In a way, the car was "getting back to its roots"

5 DOT 0

There's been some discussion on whether or not the friction modifier is needed. I believe Torsen says it's not.

Not me but here's member 4pipes, Dave, doing a lap at TH earlier this year. It won't be so green when I'm there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyGAF...e_gdata_player

06GT

Sweet!

I ran Trackmaster during days 2 and 3 this weekend, but they changed their data output options so I'm not sure how to export to RaceChrono2AVI to make my data overlay anymore

CaptDistraction

nice writeup. I'm trying to get a set of wheels, ducts, DTC 60's, and the trans scoop before my shot at Inde. Hopefully a grille as well (think the boss one is bad for cooling? See the GT's meager opening, just a few squares), if not I'll just grille delete / mesh the opening, Inde isn't the cleanest track in the world, don't want be shy a AC condenser because someone in front picked up a rock.

06GT

Not sure if you're going to have to worry about the grille/overheating w/ a GT. I know you have a BOSS manifold, though--how high are you going to spin your engine?

The main concern is sustained high-RPM operation--INDE doesn't seem to aggravate things too much if you just run the whole infield in 3rd. I'd just run it as-is, and if you have a heat issue, pull the stock grille off and run it like that. That's free and you can get an aftermarket grille for the next event if necessary.

CaptDistraction

True, I guess I could also just run the #15's Boss302R grille, only slightly damaged

My rev limiter is set to 7800, I usually try to shift around 7650 or so, the car's power output curve is very similar to the boss302, I know I can basically do FIR west in third as long as I don't mind lifting a half second before the braking zone on the main straight.

I'd imagine running inde the same way, third throughout, 4th on straight. Only places it might help to shift would be the right hand off camber turn after that uphill brake zone in midfield. Though I'm thinking in terms of the audi's, they had to enter very slowly due to their terrible push on corner entry and mid corner.

06GT

Run the 302R one!

For INDE I was in 3rd everywhere except for the straight, where I would tap the rev limiter at 7500 in 4th before braking around the 550 "marker" (between 500 and 600), heel-toe down to 3rd while braking, then tap the rev limiter in 3rd again just in time to brake for the right-hander after the straight exit. You might try holding 4th through the turn at the end of the straight, then downshifting during braking for that right-hander.

The turn you're talking about, 3rd gear seemed fine, it was enough to get on the throttle without blowing the tires away and still be charging hard coming out of it. 2nd would work fine if you can keep it controlled.

06GT

On closer inspection, trackmaster recorded "one" lap that was 4:15:03, in the middle of one of my sessions on sunday. Worst case, this would be a pair of 2:07.5s! That puts me only three tenths off of my benchmark time, potentially even matching it!

Too bad I will never know for sure. I'll have to dig into the logs later.

cloud9

What if it was a 2:16 and a 1:59!?!?







In any event

01roushstg1

Nice writeup and info about how the car performed, How do you think your Boss will stack up against Ron's Trak Pak.

SD GT

Drew,
Great post!
I'll keep an eye on your square tire results. When I get around to track tires, I'd like square for rotation capability, but want to keep the Boss driving well. But I need more experience, so no hurry, since I've got one Boss track day under my belt.
BTW, love the color of your car.