ITS Ford Mustang(s) Build - Stripper Stang Part II

[Robbie]

Ron, once again, great thread. Keep the updates coming!

[chuck baader]

Should have said this much earlier...welcome to the "no one else has built this car for IT so I will" club. Took me about 6 years to get reasonably competitive.

[Eagle7]

This has been one of my all-time favorite IT threads. Well done Mr. Earp.

[Knestis]

So, the really important question: How many BMWs and other real racing cars have you bashed into with your cheap-o 'merican POS...?



K

EDIT - For those of you not in on the backstory, when I was on the ITAC and it was proposed that these cars would be a good fit in ITS, we ACTUALLY had people object to including them, in public and "official" SCCA communication channels, on the grounds that this would be a problem.

[Ron Earp]

So, the really important question: How many BMWs and other real racing cars have you bashed into with your cheap-o 'merican POS...?

Well, I did have a very minor incident at VIR where I cut off another fellow in T3. He then had to hit my left rear quarter and caused a bit of damage, but nothing to his car.

Yes, I remember those days of discussion around the pony cars. Pure and utter ridiculousness and exposed the bias some SCCA members have against domestic cars. "It'll spoil the look of the class" was the best line I remember from one of the CRB or ITAC, I can't remember which.

I'm not joking about the interest with the cars though. People do seem to like seeing them in a sea of Miatas and Nissans. The only other IT car I've seen gather more interest from passer bys is Jeff TR8. Generally the comments there are from folks who are astonished that a) they are actually seeing a TR8 b) it is racing c) it is winning.

One more picture of more development, finding the fundamental vibration modes of the driveshaft. Measurements were made with the driveshaft in the car and out on the bench using an acoustic transducer, A/D converter, and some analysis code Jeff G drafted up in MatLab.

Jeff G has his Ph.D. in acoustics, specially engineering vibration type work, and his daytime job is as an acoustical and vibrational engineer for John Deere. Jeff G is convinced his car has a bad vibration that we've tried to kill to no avail. He thinks the driveshaft is the culprit and that we can tune it out by properly balancing the driveshaft.

Me, I was just watching and drinking a beer. My car has a vibration that certainly gets to be pretty bad around 5400 RPM, about our max RPM for a variety of reasons. I think he's on to something and he's devised to tests to check the theory out. Ford had a 110 mph governor on the V6 cars and a numerically low rear end ratio so it is likely they would never see the drive shaft speeds we run and thus no problem would ever be observed.

[Knestis]

...so you are quite literally tuning the drive shaft?

That one looks like a B-flat.

K

[dickita15]

I don’t think I have posted on this thread before but I have read it religiously. You have done a great service to the community by documenting the builds. Most people have no idea what it takes to build a car that has not been developed yet. When people complain that they have developed their car and it is not competitive I point them to this thread. When people say “I will build the car I have rather than buy a car” I point them to this thread.

[Ron Earp]

...so you are quite literally tuning the drive shaft?

That one looks like a B-flat.

K

Basically. Jeff just sent calculations indicating one of the vibration modes that most affects his car will hit around 4933 RPM and others after that. In consulting with a smart fellow at one of the driveshaft places here in NC it turns out they're already well aware of the phenomenon and have dealt with it on numerous cars over the years.

I don’t think I have posted on this thread before but I have read it religiously. You have done a great service to the community by documenting the builds. Most people have no idea what it takes to build a car that has not been developed yet. When people complain that they have developed their car and it is not competitive I point them to this thread. When people say “I will build the car I have rather than buy a car” I point them to this thread.

Thanks for the thanks, glad you enjoyed it. Somewhere along the way we picked up the "Bag of Yay" phrase which was used to described any situation, subassembly, job, or part that was going to end up causing us a buttload of work and/or make our build difficult. Suffice to say, in building any new car there are lots of of these situations. Looking back it'd be pretty easy to draw a build plan for one of these cars and significantly reduce or eliminate all of these problems so at least we're proving we can learn. But you know, building a car is fun because learning and solving problems is enjoyable and exercise for the mind. Those Bags of Yay, while annoying, are part of the process and milestones for how progress is measured.

[JeffYoung]

I don’t think I have posted on this thread before but I have read it religiously. You have done a great service to the community by documenting the builds. Most people have no idea what it takes to build a car that has not been developed yet. When people complain that they have developed their car and it is not competitive I point them to this thread. When people say “I will build the car I have rather than buy a car” I point them to this thread.

The thing you quickly learn is development is NEVER done. Ever. Always something to improve.

[lateapex911]

So, the really important question: How many BMWs and other real racing cars have you bashed into with your cheap-o 'merican POS...?



K

EDIT - For those of you not in on the backstory, when I was on the ITAC and it was proposed that these cars would be a good fit in ITS, we ACTUALLY had people object to including them, in public and "official" SCCA communication channels, on the grounds that this would be a problem.

Yes, I remember those days of discussion around the pony cars. Pure and utter ridiculousness and exposed the bias some SCCA members have against domestic cars. "It'll spoil the look of the class" was the best line I remember from one of the CRB or ITAC, I can't remember which.

yes, it's difficult to be on a committee and hear such utter crap, especially when it's trounced out as a legitimate reason to exclude a car from a class. "Ruin the look of the class". OMG!! After my shock of hearing that, it dawned on me...Who will SEE the class and how will the damage manifest itself!?!? Our 3.4 average spectators at each event!??

That was one of the more disturbing things I heard while on the ITAC.
And I took obvious heat for publicizing that particular comment. In my eyes, you shouldn't say something on a committee that serves the members if you don't want the members to hear it. I still think that the ad hocs should publish minutes, attendance and voting records.

The only other IT car I've seen gather more interest from passer bys is Jeff TR8. Generally the comments there are from folks who are astonished that a) they are actually seeing one b) it is running c) it is racing without long streaks of fluids, and d) it is winning against actual other cars running at the end of the race.

One more picture of more development, finding the fundamental vibration modes of the driveshaft. Measurements were made with the driveshaft in the car and out on the bench using an acoustic transducer, A/D converter, and some analysis code Jeff G drafted up in MatLab.

Jeff G has his Ph.D. in acoustics, specially engineering vibration type work, and his daytime job is as an acoustical and vibrational engineer for John Deere. Jeff G is convinced his car has a bad vibration that we've tried to kill to no avail. He thinks the driveshaft is the culprit and that we can tune it out by properly balancing the driveshaft.

Me, I was just watching and drinking a beer. My car has a vibration that certainly gets to be pretty bad around 5400 RPM, about our max RPM for a variety of reasons. I think he's on to something and he's devised to tests to check the theory out. Ford had a 110 mph governor on the V6 cars and a numerically low rear end ratio so it is likely they would never see the drive shaft speeds we run and thus no problem would ever be observed.

[JeffYoung]

I can testify to just a small percentage of the hours these guys have in these cars. It's ginormous. In 2 years they probably have close to what I have in the TR8 in 10.

I imagine it is a lot like what Speedsource did with the RX7 and Bimmerworld with the 325, just done after hours in a home garage. Pretty cool to say the least.

The net of it is we have an awesome group in ITS right now in the SEDiv. Guys are turning incredibly fast lap times in cars that 5 years ago were many seconds off the pace. As a group we have 6-7 programs that can run times equal to the near pro efforts from a few years back. Pretty amazing. And the Earpstangs are right there in the mix.