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

[CRallo]

cool, just checking glad to see it, figured you would be... If you gotta crimp, it's gotta be one of those.

Glad to hear/see you made out okay with the surgery. Nothing like sleeping it off!

[lateapex911]

You look a lot better after YOUR surgery than I did after mine!!!
Not that I could have stopped anyone, (honestly, i couldn't even adjust the darn hospital bed!) but if I could have, there is no WAY there were any pictures to be taken of me!

And if I were putting decals on my car the day after, I assure you they would be illegible, LOL.
Good job, great to see you back at it.

[CRallo]

Oh and nice pajamas! Lol I have been known to do that too...

[benspeed]

Hey Jake and Ron - hoping you guys are feeling better. Fantastic workmanship - I can't wire anything beyond red and black...:-)

[Ron Earp]

Feeling much better, almost 100%.

I got mucho more wiring done and tested. The panel was installed, checked for drains and so on, all good as I knew it would be. So, I continued with the fab work and now it is completely done and tested. Notice the power mirror switch - yep, the mirrors will work when connected.



I questioned keeping the power mirrors but when I took them off the car I couldn't believe how little they weighed. The entire assembly is light weight plastic with a tiny motor, 1.2 lbs each. The glass is paper thin that is mounted to a thin plastic substrate. So, if you got to have mirrors the stock ones are pretty good. Now, considering aero they might have to go but that remains to be seen.

Still, the mirrors are on our weight reduction at all costs list. Other items that populate that list are the engine fan, data/camera/gauges, wiper motor (EDIT - THE WIPER MOTOR CAN UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES BE REMOVED FROM AN IT CAR, THEREFORE, IT IS NOW REMOVED FROM OUR WEIGHT REDUCTION AT ALL COSTS LIST), fan blower motor, fire system, and cool suit plus some other odds and ends. Clearly some of those things you'd like to have, but if 40 lbs is the difference between competitive and non-competitive we could toss that stuff.

[JeffYoung]

I think we have all seen that 40 lbs is not the difference between competitive and non-competitive. In fact, I would never consider chucking the fire system over weight, and the cool suit (in my opinion) adds competitiveness by keeping you comfortable in the car.

In the past, with the cool suit, there were races where I was dying for the checkered to come out. That doesn't happen now. I'm generally as fresh getting out of the car as getting in.

[Ron Earp]

I too think that 40 lbs isn't going to make or break a car. And I for sure as heck want those items on the list in the car.

I believe we're going to be racing at about 100 lbs heavier than an RX7. I don't think that is too bad from a power perspective as I think we'll have more peak power and area under the curve than those cars, but that remains to be seen.

But the weight on the stang is not good with respect to tire loading. We do not have nearly the balance of an RX7 but we're running the same size tire. My rough calculations show we'll be loading the front tires about 20-25% more than an RX7 thus ultimately we'll high a significantly higher load per square inch of tire.

A larger tire, like a 245, might help. But I just got off the phone with Rodney at App Tire and he says that size on a 7" wheel is problematic. He indicates they used to put them on the BMWs in ITS back in the day but the weird thing was they would not always seat properly on the wheel, sometimes they would seat off center and there was nothing that could be done to correct it. When that happened they were worse off than the 225s and had a wheel/tire that was basically unusable. He advised to not totally rule them out, but be forewarned if they don't mount properly there isn't anything that can be done. However, at only $8 a tire more than the 225s it might be worth looking into for the larger side to side and front to rear contact patch. I'd like to mount one up and chalk it at pressure and under load to measure the actual contact patch.

I asked him about 275s and he says they won't even mount those up for a customer. They're pinched too much on a 7" wheel and he claims the side width tire contact patch will be no better than a 225, although the front to rear contact patch might be larger than a 225. I told him Jeff Y has used them and liked them, but he wasn't sounding too convinced. So I suppose they're off the table for the stangs since they won't mount them anyhow.

Maybe my memory is failing me, but why can you remove the highlighted items?

Well.....

D.3.e. Air conditioning systems may be removed in whole or in part.

In my shop manual there is a picture of the air conditioning system and it is the entire manifold, with blower fan, flapper valves, evaporator, etc. I can remove it entirely, or in part. I chose to remove the evaporator but the leave the plastic manifold and blower motor so I'd have some defrost action.

Wiper motors, I've still got mine but I think there is some language coming, or recently put in, that allows removal of wiper blades and systems, including the old faithful washer bottle. Mine is staying, both of them. The washer bottle weighs <1 lb and can become my catch can.

[Eagle7]

...the mirrors are on our weight reduction at all costs list. Other items that populate that list are the engine fan, data/camera/gauges, wiper motor, fan blower motor, fire system, and cool suit plus some other odds and ends.

Maybe my memory is failing me, but why can you remove the highlighted items?