by Ryan King
1/06
It’s amazing what sorts of gains can be made by dialing in a combination...even a stock combination.
When I say “dial in,” I don’t mean retune the engine so much as perfect a driving technique that best suits that car and make sure it is in tiptop shape when it runs. Doing both those things, while not making any changes, such as modifying it while you are perfecting your combination and your driving, can result in dropping every bit as much time as spending a lot of time and money trying to make more power. True, it is a lot harder than reaching for your wallet to buy that new souped-up part that everybody is drooling over, and you won’t get to say to everybody during your bench racing sessions that you have the wango-dango bumpstick custom filed by performance gurus on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, but when it’s track time, and you win, what does it really matter?
What exactly did I do? As I mentioned in Chapter 1, I replaced the air filter with a K&N, the reason actually had little to do with performance since I have yet to see a real improvement in power from installing one of these in a stock car. What prompted me to make the change from a paper air filter to a K&N medical gauze filter was the gray hue the paper filter in the car had taken on, even approaching black in some areas. I went to Schucks to get a Fram replacement but found they wanted $16 for a paper air filter. I decided to see what a K&N would cost and at $45 it was a performance bargain as it would pay for itself in about 30,000 miles.
The next thing I concerned myself with was lubrication. And what I did there was a tried and true method: replace all driveline lubricants with synthetics and additives to keep things cooler and provide less power robbing friction. While I’d heard that running all synthetics was worth somewhere between one and two tenths of a second, I didn’t really believe it, but the improved lubrication and reduced thermal breakdown characteristics of the synthetics was enough to get me to put them in the GT. My choice was the time tested and readily available Mobil 1 and Prolong engine and transmission additives.
After taking care of the lubrication, I had my eyes set on a tune-up and a little extra timing. I used stock Motorcraft plugs, a set of black Ford Racing (cheaper than Motorcraft's but still very high quality) with accompanying black wire separators, a Ford Racing cap and rotor kit (which is just stock Motorcraft stuff, but far cheaper than the dealer) and for a little help, I included a Crane Cams PS-91 coil (the same coil Ford Racing offers under their own brand name). I eventually settled on 12 degrees advance, but there was some difficulty coming to that conclusion.
The car ran for a couple of years with those simple yet carefully chosen maintenance parts and supplies, but detonation and computer gremlins started rearing their ugly heads during that time and after some extensive research which included factory Ford and other manuals and some online searching, I came up with a plan. Not the cleanest, most focused plan, but a plan that would hopefully take care of the problems. I replaced the ATC (Air Charge Temperature), ECT (Engine Coolant Temperature) and O2 sensors followed up by cleaning the MAF. The results weren’t perfect, but the detonation did reduce some and it didn’t seem to matter if I was running stock or slightly advanced.
The only other problems I had with the car during the 40,000 miles Stage 1 covered were a grinding idler pulley and a warn out clutch pedal pad. Hardly “performance” related, but my plans for Stage 1 included replacing them. I chose to use stock Motorcraft replacement parts, but through a cheaper channel than the Ford dealership: 5.0 Resto.
The careful maintenance kept it in tip top running shape throughout Stage 1, even the tire pressure was kept at an optimum 30 psi. While some people may bach at the idea that 30 psi is ideal on the drag strip, the fact of the matter is, 30 psi with the Michelins and this car’s weight kept the most contact patch on the pavement and that is ideal whether you are road racing or drag racing.
And the results of all this careful maintenance?
Pretty darned impressive.
On the chassis dyno, I was a little disappointed, I had hoped to see numbers that matched the old 5.0s with the little additions I’d made, but the numbers just weren’t there. With 185 rear wheel Horses and 248 rear wheel Torque, they worked out to be only slightly better than the factory ratings of 215 Horses at 4200 RPM and 285 flb/ft of Torque at 3200. Using a 15 percent loss, that put the Horsepower at 217 @ 4600 and the Torque at 291 @ 3500.
The drag strip was where she shined. The first time back after my first night (click here for more info in Chapter 1), I was better prepared. I understood how the track system worked (as compared to street racing), I had a better feel for how she ran, how to get her off the line and how and when to shift her. I was rewarded on the first run breaking immediately into the 14s with a 14.9 @ 92. My approach was simple, launch at 1700 RPM and shift at 5500 and 5300 RPM, trapping in third at around 5000-5200 RPM. Before I went home that night, I was launching at a tire spinning 2000 RPM but still managed a 60-foot in the 2.2s and watched my times fall to a 14.8 @ 93, but it felt like there was still more in her.
I was back the following week with a new game plan, a better feel for the car, a better understanding of the techniques I needed to use to get her off the line as well as speed up my shifts. I feathered the clutch out of the hole while the motor spun a healthy 3000 RPM, planting the tires, shifting at what I’d figured out was optimum at 5400 RPM and trapping in third at 5200. The results were immediate on the first pass of the night as my 60-foots dropped into the 2.1s and the timer recorded a 14.6 @ 93.
The drag strip numbers weren’t the only impressive numbers recorded for this car. The 0-60 time dropped from an already Motor Trend beating 6.6 seconds (compared to 6.7 seconds) down to a Motor Trend shattering 6.1 seconds. It didn’t stop there, my previously horrible 141-foot stop from 60 was a thing of the past. It improved by 21-feet, beating Motor Trends 125-foot stop by five feet with a distance of 120-feet.
Sadly, I wasn’t able to get a skid pad test before the clutch and transmission gave out some time later, and since I didn’t, I can only say that the cornering was nothing short of stellar even if the handling is a little soft for some people’s tastes. But it will be back in Stage 2, the chassis will still be stock and I look forward to getting some numbers then.
Even without the skid pad test, I feel vindicated, if only from my previous failure to get out of the car what I thought she was capable of. But I found out that my feelings were correct, the ‘94-’95 cars still have quite a bit of performance left in them, it just takes a little better driving to find it. Until the next update, I hope all your projects are a success.
| Project GT Stage 1 Specifications | |
| Vehicle | 1995 Ford Mustang GT |
| Exterior Color | Clearcoat Black |
| Interior | Opal Grey Cloth |
| Layout | Front engine/rear drive |
| Engine | 5.0L V8 (302) |
| Induction | Ford EEC-IV SFI; 60mm Ford throttle body; 19 lb Ford injectors |
| Horsepower | 216 @ 4400-4800 (184 rear wheel) |
| Torque | 291 @ 3500-3600 (248 rear wheel) |
| Transmission | Borg/Warner T5 5-speed manual; OD |
| Gears | 3.35/1.99/1.34/1/.62/3.15R |
| Differential | Ford 8.8"; 3.08:1; Ford Traction-Lok limited-slip differential |
| Steering | Power assist; rack & pinion; 14.7:1 |
| Front Suspension | Independant; 460 lb/570 lb coil springs; Modified McPherson struts; 1.1875" swaybar |
| Rear Suspension | Solid; 170 lb/310 lb coil springs; Quadra-shocks; .9375" swaybar |
| Brakes | Power assist; ABS; disc/disc; 11"/10.5" |
| Wheels | 17"x8" Ford aluminum 6-spoke Pony |
| Tires | 245/45YR17 Michelin Pilot Sport A/S |
| Length | 181.5" |
| Width | 71.8" |
| Height | 53.4" |
| Wheelbase | 101.3" |
| Track | 60.1"/60.1" |
| Curb Weight | 3360 lbs |
| CID/Weight | 11.13:1 |
| HP/Weight | 15.56:1 |
| Gas Mileage | 25 mpg |
| 0-60 | 6.1 sec |
| 60-Foot | 2.138 sec |
| Eighth Mile | 9.41 @ 74.0 |
| Quarter Mile | 14.6 @ 93 |
| Skid Pad | N/A |
| 60-0 | 120 ft |
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