If we call ourselves Grassroots Motorsports, why, then, did we decide to build a vintage race Mustang? Isn’t that better suited for our sister publication, Classic Motorsports?
Simply put, packs of old Mustangs never failed to put a smile on our faces, and vintage racing also presents a relativity easy way to get out on track. So, we bought one of the most inexpensive Mustangs we could find: a roller 1965 Shelby GT350R replica.
The big question, then? How exactly do we plan to turn this rolling fake Shelby into a competitive vintage race car?
Stay tuned to find out, and catch up on the progress we’ve made so far here.
Will you race it in SVRA group 6? Apparently the Jaguar XJS is going to be in Group 6 GT. At least that's what has been confirmed so far. Talking to Group 6 people at Brainerd and Elkhart Lake I hear the gold standard is about 600 hp.
My first engine I'll be lucky to get 450. Hp while the goal for the replacement is 600.
In reply to frenchyd :
No, the whole point is to stay out of HSR Group 5 and SVRA Group 6. We are building for HSR Group 3, where with limited prep we can run against 2.o liter 911s and Corvairs. Always more fun to have a fast car in a slower group that visa versa.
In reply to Tim Suddard :
Then will you be up against 289 Cobra's?
Still noticing this: the front suspension is double A-arm, not strut. Unless you adapted it to a Fox chassis front end?
Tim Suddard said:In reply to frenchyd :
Always more fun to have a fast car in a slower group that visa versa.
Au contraire our fearless leader.................it may be less work but some of us revel in being the underdog. I've done both ends of the spectrum and there's a much bigger thrill scratching and clawing your way past cars. Of course I also like anchovy pizza.......so I could have this wrong.
Tom1200 said:Tim Suddard said:In reply to frenchyd :
Always more fun to have a fast car in a slower group that visa versa.
Au contraire our fearless leader.................it may be less work but some of us revel in being the underdog. I've done both ends of the spectrum and there's a much bigger thrill scratching and clawing your way past cars. Of course I also like anchovy pizza.......so I could have this wrong.
I enjoy both but realistically, I'm just happy if I'm on the track with a non-broken car and I'm not running into things.
In reply to APEowner :
There is nothing more useless and frustrating than an unreliable race car.
Tom1200 said:In reply to APEowner :
There is nothing more useless and frustrating than an unreliable race car.
True, and that is exactly why my primary race car is a Miata. Apparently they don't like being stolen and burning the rear tires off with no coolant in them but until that happened I raced my current one for three years with only basic maintenance. There were months at a time where I locked the car in the trailer at the end of the weekend and didn't even look at it until I opened the trailer at the next race.
APEowner said:Tom1200 said:In reply to APEowner :
There is nothing more useless and frustrating than an unreliable race car.
True, and that is exactly why my primary race car is a Miata. Apparently they don't like being stolen and burning the rear tires off with no coolant in them but until that happened I raced my current one for three years with only basic maintenance. There were months at a time where I locked the car in the trailer at the end of the weekend and didn't even look at it until I opened the trailer at the next race.
I'm just strange enough not to like that. To me a serious part of racing is about optimizing the car to the track and the weather. How wacko am I to carry an air density meter to the track and study the sky to predict the coming changes? I loved the quick change rear end where I could adjust the gearing to the coming air density, adjust the carbs to those changes, and change tire pressures to maximize cornering speed.
With the addition of the Seinz I can change individual gears. That's in addition to bleeding the brakes, changing ride height, and shock curves. Oh, and if it rains there are all those changes to do too.
frenchyd said:APEowner said:Tom1200 said:In reply to APEowner :
There is nothing more useless and frustrating than an unreliable race car.
True, and that is exactly why my primary race car is a Miata. Apparently they don't like being stolen and burning the rear tires off with no coolant in them but until that happened I raced my current one for three years with only basic maintenance. There were months at a time where I locked the car in the trailer at the end of the weekend and didn't even look at it until I opened the trailer at the next race.
I'm just strange enough not to like that. To me a serious part of racing is about optimizing the car to the track and the weather. How wacko am I to carry an air density meter to the track and study the sky to predict the coming changes? I loved the quick change rear end where I could adjust the gearing to the coming air density, adjust the carbs to those changes, and change tire pressures to maximize cornering speed.
With the addition of the Seinz I can change individual gears. That's in addition to bleeding the brakes, changing ride height, and shock curves. Oh, and if it rains there are all those changes to do too.
I enjoy all of that as well and when I race the Formula Ford I get to play all those games including selecting the correct gears to run in Hewland transaxle but it's a lot of work and makes for an exhausting weekend. A fun and rewarding one but exhausting. With the Miata I can just get in it and go.
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