by Ryan King
Edited by Patricia Kalin
1/06
...Sort of.
Normally I'd start a chapter by writing about the car in the title, but not this time.
This time the story begins with the Project GT Mustang.
I'll go into more detail in a later Project GT Chapter, but suffice it to say that clutch related difficulties have lead to an untimely shut down of that car for an undetermined amount of time due to (you might have already guessed it) the legacy of the Project LX Mustang.
Yes, its icy reach has been felt far and wide in my life.
With drained funds, I was forced to turn to the only car I had left that might still run, the Project 351 Mustang. I had put it away due to its own clutch related malady, specifically a raucous throwout bearing (while the throwout bearing was bad, it was only so under hard drag strip-type launches).
When I put it into storage, I was thinking that it was better to be safe than sorry. Now that I am in a truly sorry situation, I thought having a potential problem looming in the future was a lot better than a current problem I couldn't fix.
Driving the car wasn't quite as simple as firing it up and driving away. The passenger side front tire was flat and had to be replaced. This will set me back further for Stage 2 than the Project LX fiasco already has because it wasn't on my list of things to do, but it was considerably less expensive than the prohibitive cost of replacing all four tires with those that would be used for Stage 2 or fixing the GT.
I chose to use an off brand tire (a Republic Horizon) the same size as the Goodyear Eagle STs that were on the car. I was hoping the tire was decent, but was dumfounded to discover the tire was far superior to the Eagle STs. This just confirmed for me that the Eagle ST is one of the worst tires ever made.
Once that was done, the car was under way again...but not for long.
Before I put the 351 away, I had run into considerable drivability problems that stemmed from the poor condition of the ignition components on the car. To remedy the problem, I replaced them with the cheapest I could find because I didn’t have the money and I didn’t want to waste a bunch of money on parts, that at the time, I though would soon be thrown in the garbage when the new engine was installed. I paid $30 for those tune-up parts. That included spark plugs, wires, cap and rotor. $30.
Let's just say the parts were sub-par...but it ran better than it did before even if it wasn’t anywhere near well. I knew if I were going to drive this thing for any extended period of time, I was going to need to do a better job picking out the tune-up parts.
For starters, I hucked the off brand cap and rotor that were doing a good job of not firing on the contacts. I also threw away the off brand wires that didn't really want to stay in the cap. In their place, I installed an MSD cap and rotor (which were far superior, if not all aluminum contacts) and Autolite wires. The plugs were already Autolite, so they were suitable for the job they were meant to do. I didn't need to replace the points because they had already been replaced by a Pertronix Ignitor magnetic pickup before I bought the car.
I'd like to thank Brandon for his help putting the wires on. It took us two hours because neither the cap that was on the car (nor the cap I had purchased) had a marked number one spark plug terminal, so I had no idea the wires were off a contact. After removing and replacing the distributor repeatedly, we were forced to restart at TDC on the number one cylinder because we couldn't quite find the right distributor gear tooth to put the distributor on. The difficulty actually came from the original vacuum advance steel tube on the distributor which limited distributor movement.
Once the distributor was in and the timing was set an extra six degrees advanced to 12, we set off to see if the car ran well.
We were pleased to discover that the car ran better than it ever had. Rolling first gear burnouts were as easy as putting the throttle to the floor, and (I noticed after several attempts at launching) the throwout bearing troubles had gone away.
With the newly available possibility enticing me, I started chomping at the bit to see how she would run at the track!
To be honest, there was more Siren Calling drawing me to the track than just seeing how the ‘66 improved. The racing season was coming to a close with only two more opportunities to get to the track. I had only been out twice before the GT's clutch related issues caused me to put it to rest for the time being, and I still hadn't had my fill. That was the added incentive I needed to get me over the trepidation about the throwout bearing problems.
When I got to the track, the day was a nice 85 degrees, but it was hotter on the racing surface. I was concerned I wouldn't see any improvement since the last time I was here for what amounted to two passes in May of '04 (before the sounds the throwout bearing was making scared me off the track). With the throwout bearing roaring like a pissed off jungle cat, it managed two very unimpressive (even for the combination) passes that culminated with a best of 16.4 @ 83, both of which were slower than almost all the tire frying passes I'd run down at Portland International Raceway at the end of the previous season.
All it took to vanish my concerns about the '66’s ability to perform the minor miracle I was after, was the first pass. With the sun beating down on her, she managed to tie the best ET I'd made during the late fall of 2003, running a 16.2 with a trap speed 1 mile per hour slower at 82. And it managed this run without any throwout bearing noise! To say I was relieved is an understatement.
For my next pass, I attempted to improve upon my run by being more detailed in my prep for the race as well as attempting to be more precise with my driving.
This run ended up being against my Stepfather, Jim, who joined me at the track for the first time near the end of last season in his ‘71 Volkswagen SuperBeetle.
We were both on our games and Jim managed his best run to that point of 20.7 @ 63, which is good for a stock bug, but not enough to beat out the ‘66’s 16.0 @ 83.
That effort beat my best pass down at Portland by two-tenths of a second and put to rest a question I had of whether or not the "new" '66 that replaced the "old" '66 GT I had (which ran a 16.1 @ 83) could beat the factory 4-barrel car (see Chapter 2 for more details). More than that, my 60-foots dropped by a tenth of second into the 2.3s without any traction loss with the one-legger rear end, which made me wonder if she could handle a harder launch and drop me down into the 15s.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Project 351 Mustang is slow at this point, but it was still an exciting night of racing for me. I was challenging myself to do better and succeeding at my goals. I was considering quitting while I was ahead, after all, the car had made a record run and I still needed to drive the car to work on Monday, but the throwout bearing was still in good shape which quelled my concern and allowed the draw of the 15s and the desire to race win out.
Winning the next run was out of my reach even before I pulled up to the line. The fates had me paired up against a new black turbo Neon and (even though I'd like to think any Muscle Car could beat any Ricer or Ricer wannabe) I knew better than to think I had much of a chance against a car capable of running on the ragged edge of the 13s right off the showroom floor.
That didn't mean I wasn't going to give the run everything I had though.
When the lights dropped I pulled out a solid tenth of a second ahead of the Neon, had him at the 60-foot mark and managed to maintain the lead all the way through the 330-foot mark, but it was the "All Neon Show" from there on as he burned past me on his way to a 14.6 @ 98. Although I knew the Neon had my number, my run felt really good and as I pulled off the track I anticipated getting my timeslip so I could find out how the '66 and I had faired.
It turned out my assessment of the race was right. The time slip revealed I had pulled another 60-foot in the 2.3s which gave me an extra two-tenths on the Neon at that point, he was catching me by the 330-foot mark but the '66 continued to pull and my quick shifts resulted in a new vehicle record of 15.9 @ 84!
At this point, I again gave very serious consideration to giving the poor girl a break and not making another pass, but since Jim was there for a full night I decided to come back and see what I could do.
The next race found me poised at the starting line, the motor spinning at an aggressive 2500 RPM while the driver of a Red Civic and I waited for the lights to fall. When the lights finally dropped, I brought my clutch in hard and feathered it out of the hole until the drivetrain had finally caught up to the motor. She pulled hard and fast and I banged the next shift, just ahead of the whining Civic. It wasn't long before the driver of the Civic let me know who was going to take this one, by the 330-foot mark he had me by two-tenths of a second and he never looked back, but neither did I. The Mustang was running stronger than she ever had and I just kept working the shifter lever, the clutch and throttle until the little 289 pulled me through the finish line a second and a half behind the Civic.
Although I was disappointed to lose to the Civic and not uphold the great lineage of the Muscle Car tradition, I was pleased with the race I’d run. The timeslip was merely the icing on the cake that proved I was right about how well she and I did together. With a 2.295 60-foot, we managed a 15.8 @ 84, yet another “record shattering run!” I was pretty sure I'd just gotten everything out of her that she had to give, but I wouldn't ever know.
On the next pass the throwout bearing had a hissy fit and she lost time. Although I managed to beat the early model White Toyota Celica Supra I’d pulled, I had a feeling our night had come to an end. I decided to give it another chance because while it made a lot of noise, it didn’t feel like it was giving out and I thought it might just be a fluke. It did it again on the following pass and I called it a night before I lost my only running car.
Incidentally, I lost the last race to another Honda Civic but the Mustang was more competitive that night than I thought it would be, winning three out of the five races it ran. And while it was disappointing for me to find the throwout bearing problem was back, it was still a fun night of challenges and triumphs.
Jim managed to make a record pass of 20.3 @ 65 that night, and although he never found his goal of a pass in the 19s, he did shave quite a bit of time off his first run in the 23s!
As for the future of the '66, its new engine and the completion of Stage 2 yet to come, the legacy of the Project LX debacle may last for a while. However, I'm hopeful the 351 will ride again...soon...
| Project 351 Stage 1 Specifications (Updated) | |
| Vehicle | 1966 Ford Mustang |
| Exterior Color | Ivy Green |
| Interior | Standard Black Vinyl |
| Layout | Front engine/rear drive |
| Engine | 289 V8 (rebuilt) |
| Induction | 300 cfm Autolite 2-barrel carburetor |
| Horsepower | N/A |
| Torque | N/A |
| Transmission | Ford Toploader 3-speed manual |
| Gears | 2.79/1.70/1.00/2.87R |
| Differential | Ford 8"; 2.80:1; open differential |
| Steering | Manual; recirculating ball; 27.1:1 |
| Front Suspension | Independant; 292 lb coil springs; shocks; .625" swaybar |
| Rear Suspension | Solid; 85 lb multi-leaf springs; air shocks |
| Brakes | Manual, drum/drum, 2"x10"/1.75"x10" |
| Wheels | 14"x5" Ford steel w/hubcap |
| Tires | 205/70R14 Goodyear Eagle ST (1 Republic Horizon) |
| Length | 181.6" |
| Width | 68.2" |
| Height | 51.1" |
| Wheelbase | 108" |
| Track | 56"/57" |
| Curb Weight | 2720 lbs |
| CID/Weight | N/A |
| HP/Weight | N/A |
| Gas Mileage | 23 mpg |
| 0-60 | 7.8 sec |
| 60-Foot | 2.295 sec |
| Eighth Mile | 10.07 @ 68.1 |
| Quarter Mile | 15.8 @ 84 |
| Skid Pad | .84 g |
| 60-0 | 211 ft |
Copyright © 2002-2008, Classics and Performance is a copyright of Ryan King. All material in this website is a copyright of Ryan King or its creator and may not be reproduced without prior written consent.
