Surfergeek

Hi All,

Took the Mustang out for my first track in it this weekend. It was my first track day in 7 or 8 years!

We were driving Horse Thief Mile at Willow Springs Raceway in California. My first time at this track.


Bone Stock, except for the Borla exhaust.

First time using a GoPro as well.

Initial Impressions ...

Brakes held up fairly well for such a tight course but improvements should be made there.

The stock tires were awful for tracking. I have always had high performance summer tires and knew this was going to be a weak spot these will be changed.

Suspension was better than I expected it to be, but certainly can be improved.

Overall I came away very satisfied with the car and what it was able to do on the course in comparison to other drivers of similar skill levels in cars better suited to this tight technical track (Miatas, S2000, BRZ, FRS, etc..)

Will be doing more of these in the future!


A couple of Stills

A couple of stills:


IMG_3047 by jferguson photography, on Flickr


IMG_2984 by jferguson photography, on Flickr

Surfergeek

No Music Version of the video

Tron

Pretty freakin sweet! Well done.

Sky Hye

Awesome! I've always wanted to go to willow or Laguna seca. I'm here in SoCal so I usually do autocross in the oc but the scca will be in Fontana speedway this Sunday so that should be different. Is it a base, brembo or track pack? I find the track pack susp tires and brakes do much better. Do you ever make it down to la/oc?

Here are my thoughts on mine:

https://themustangsource.com/f726/20...review-509910/

Surfergeek

It's a base GT Premium. I know the brakes are the old track pack brakes, but they need an upgrade! I'll probably be getting a pair of the brembos and upgrading the rear pads.

Suspension will be upgraded as well as 18" wheels 9.5" wide with a 275 tire on all 4 corners.

I don't make it down to LA too frequently, I drove down just for the track event this last weekend, but with this car I may be down more frequently for events at Buttonwillow and Willowsprings Etc...

Thanks for the comments.

Krnnerdboy

Nice! Can I recommend the h&r rss coilovers. They were a perfect out of the box track ready setup. Loved mine and I would do it again. Also ran 275 squared and it was such a balanced setup. I couldn't induce any understeer with this setup

Surfergeek

Thanks for the suspension recommendation.

Coming from the Mazda scene, where you had 3 or 4 choices for most things this is amazingly overwhelming.

So many kits and ways to go out there, trying to make sense of it.

Trying to settle for myself right now coilover vs shocks/springs.

It is my DD so I don't want to get beat up every day with a coilover set that is overly stiff for daily driving.

Can you comment on daily driving with that set?

Fastoldman

Ran Spec Miata for around 8-9 years and frankly the views on the Stang are about as varied as those for the Miata --both cars have a ton of aftermarket stuff, depending on what way you want to go. A set of camber plates and sticky tires goes a long way improving this machine. The brakes can use a better pad and obviously , since it is not a Boss it is harder to get air to said.

I would frankly move slow, as it is your DD and there are so many options, you need to really see what is best for your needs?

Easy choices to make initially is an MGW short throw shift kit ( nothing is in the same league ), MM camber plates and sticky tires and rims -- again alot of choices there.

Then you can go from there after you decide how serious you plan to get.

Enjoy , it is a great car and a ton of fun at the track ---frankly though I think it handles like a big Miata, but then maybe the strong redline and that fact that it rotates great off the curbing is part of my thought process,ha.

Surfergeek

Yup ... Tires and rims when I run through the factory tires are first on the list. Going down to 18" rim, but one that will allow for a BBK in the future.

I have been down this road before and am getting a good understanding of what's out there.

The MGW was actually on my short list for improvements, the 2-3 shift under load sucks with the stock shifter.

It's a big huge 3,800 pound miata.. ha ha.

codeman94

that car looks huge out there with Mazdas, the Porsche, and the s2000 lol. I almost wish there was a Camaro and Challenger in that pic for scale haha

Surfergeek

Ha Ha, that's because it is. This track definitely favored the smaller lighter cars, short technical course with lots of turns.

This course was originally designed as a motorcycle course, thus explaining the tight track.

I will say though, in my skill group I was one of the faster lap times and keeping up with S2Ks that had coilovers and superior tires to the factory nero zeros I was on was nice. The power out of the corners saved it.