The first S197 Mustang GT NHRA Stocker...it's official now and it was a 3V GT

Edit: ( 5-02-16) The thread title is incorrect. My apologies. It should read " The newest Ford Mustang GT racing NHRA Stock Eliminator is a 3 valve"

I found out this morning that my car is not the first S197 Mustang GT to enter Stock. A racer on the east coast did it in 2009 with a 2008 GT running the factory auto trans in F/SA. My apologies if I misled anyone.
It was not intentional. I had asked a friend to research the archives of the year end stats books and he just simply overlooked that the other driver did it in 2009)

I made my first official qualifying pass with my S197 Mustang GT in NHRA Stock Eliminator @ Indianapolis Raceway Park at the Div. 3 race.

This is the newest Ford NHRA Stocker running in the "traditional" classes ( i.e. Non-Factory Stock Classes)

When I first started this project I had 2 defined goals headlining the 2 phases of the project, with the number 1 priority was to keep the costs down as low as possible without compromising the safety of the car or violating the rules of Stock Eliminator as published in the NHRA rulebook.

Phase 1 :
Build my 3V Mustang GT and make my first pass with it at the Div. 3 race in late April @ Indy. It did not matter how quick the car ran, so long as the car passed tech, passed the scales check after the run, and also passed the critical fuel check while using a fuel from the NHRA approved fuel list.


Phase 2 :
To qualify the car under index at a divisional or national event while using the factory issued 5 spd. automatic trans and Spanish Oak ECU.


Phase 2 is yet to be determined, but this thread is about that day @ Indy that happened just 2 months after I purchased this red 2005 Mustang GT.



As you will see on the qualifying sheet, I entered the car as a 2009 GT only because when I weighed the car the first time it was not eligible as a 2005 in H/SA. It was 85 lbs. too light and there was no way I could legally add weight right then and there at the track. I could not claim it as a G/SA car because G class and quicker require a SFI harmonic balancer, of which my car was not equipped.
My only choice was to go to my backup plan and enter as a 2009 model because it could run at a lower weight as an '09..
It does not matter what year the car actually is, but rather that the car appears to be the year and model you are claiming it to be on your tech card.

Qualifying sheet after the 1st qaulifying. session :
# 74





Scale check before I discovered it was too light for H/SA:



Fuel check area: I was using VP Fuels C-11....not sure it was doing my catalytic convertors much good...lol



My one and only pass and I just happened to get paired up with the quickest 3 valve NHRA Stocker on the planet...C. Downing's 2010 3V Cobra Jet ( stick car)




Ignore the car #'s and classes on the top of the time slip...the people in the tower @ Indy had not yet received all of the tech cards, so they punched in the car number and it showed my car and class from last year ( '84 Turbo Coupe)

The class I actually ran was I/SA with an Index of 12.30 at a minimum of 3410 lbs with me in it.
My car weighed exactly 3500 lbs. on this run:



Before the run. I had to do a quick letter change with electrical tape and white medical tape:




Inside and looking out of the newest Mustang GT Stocker in the country:

For me it was a great day.It did not run under index, but that was not the goal for phase 1. There simply was not enough time to make it run under index before the divisional race.








So, phase 1 has been accomplished.
Now I have less than 4 months to accomplish phase 2 and run under index at the Divisional race at Bowling Green , KY the weekend before the Labor Day weekend.

outstanding - great job Alan! Can't wait to see your under-the-index slips later this year

Congrats and keep us abreast of your progress

Thanks guys.
Got the car ready now to remove the rear end and swap gears. I am hoping to drop the e.t. down to a 12.70 with the 4.56 gears and the upgraded suspension components as well as removing that extra 90 lbs.

I would be very happy if I could run on the index with the stock torque convertor, but I kinda don't think I would be so lucky.

You have lots of patience to figure out all those rules! Good luck and keep it up.

So my only experience with class rules is with SCCA autocross. And those rules can get pretty silly.

What does a "stock" car in this class mean? What things can you modify, and what can you not?

808muscle said:

You have lots of patience to figure out all those rules! Good luck and keep it up.

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Thanks ! It's alot of fun and I get a kick out of the challenge.

Sky Render said:

So my only experience with class rules is with SCCA autocross. And those rules can get pretty silly.

What does a "stock" car in this class mean? What things can you modify, and what can you not?

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There are certain mods we are allowed to do and the Stock Eliminator class has gotten a little more relaxed over the years, but here is a quick summary of the most important rules:

* Must use a cam (or cams) with the stock advertised lift. It can have any duration, lobe c/l, or overlap, so long as the max. lift is not more than what is published in the engine blueprint section.
* Stock compression ratio...stock dimension pistons
* Stock type of valve spring...single or single with a damper.
* No porting of the int. and ex. runners are allowed.
* Stock clinder heads with correct casting numbers...No grinding on the combustion chambers...they must c.c. within the published spec.
* Must use a totally stock un-altered intake with the correct casting numbers
* Throttle body must be no larger than in the spec sheet ( the 2009 model 3V can use a twin 62 mm t.b)
* Limited front and rear suspension mods-no rear coil over shock conversions--no adjustable lower control arms-no coil over rear shocks
* Must use all stock front suspension parts--No aftermarket front k-members

There are other things, but those stand out the most to me.
We just can't go buy a stock car and throw on a cowl hood, aftermarket k-member, a power adder, or gut the interior.
Only the back seat can be removed but needs to be covered with carpet.
We are allowed to use light weight aftermarket seats, but they must be covered and match each other. ( I personally like the factory S197 seats)

83-88T-Bird Guy said:

We are allowed to use light weight aftermarket seats, but they must be covered and match each other. ( I personally like the factory S197 seats)

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check locally for a V6 cloth interior and manual driver's seat. You'll shed maybe 20 lbs total (front/rear seats) going this route, and you can probably sell the leather interior bits and cover a portion of the converter cost. That is unless you're partial to the red leather, in which case I'll call you Huggy Bear

Interesting that you're allowed to change cams but basically nothing else on the engine.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 using Tapatalk

lindertw said:

check locally for a V6 cloth interior and manual driver's seat. You'll shed maybe 20 lbs total (front/rear seats) going this route, and you can probably sell the leather interior bits and cover a portion of the converter cost. That is unless you're partial to the red leather, in which case I'll call you Huggy Bear

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I kinda like the looks of the red leather Tom.

I can add 180 lbs. to the car and run the K/SA class. That index is 12.65 @ 3680 lbs.

That's 180 lbs in the rear of the car so that might help with traction.

Sky Render said:

Interesting that you're allowed to change cams but basically nothing else on the engine.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 using Tapatalk

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Yep, there are some rules that are somewhat odd.

The "Stocker" cams are sometimes called square lobe cams because it has alot of duration with not much lobe lift.
They sound absolutely awesome with open headers tho ( just not something you would ever drive on the street with)

We can run any valve spring pressure, but the springs have to be "drop-in" springs, meaning you cannot machine the heads to fits the springs.

Here is a video of the baddest N/A 3V Stocker engine in drag racing right now. Love that sound !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhRF-ZtjxnA&nohtml5=False

I finally got my first 12 seconds runs in the car today. All 4 passes I made in the 1/4 were in the 12's with a best of 12.96.

Special thanks to Lito for the tune !

The car is amazingly consistent and a pleasure to bracket race.
It's interesting to note that Lito's tune lowered the shift points from the "canned" tune I had. It was shifting at 6500 and Lito set the shift points to 6000 and trimmed the AFRs.
The car is running 2 tenths quicker now and the DBW throttle is no longer "twitchy" at the starting line as well as when I drive the car onto the trailer.


The car was at legal J/SA weight of 3545 lbs. and the index for NHRA J/SA is 12.45 so my car is a tick over a half second away from running the index with a bunch of stock stuff still on the car.

The car still has:
* stock rear 3.31 gears
* stock trans and torque conv.
* stock 2 pc. driveshaft
* stock exh. manifolds and stock cats and h-pipe ( tailpipe delete tho)
* stock engine ( only mods are CAI, short belt to bypass the PS and AC and an electric water pump)
* 93 pump gas

Sounds great !

83-88T-Bird Guy said:

I finally got my first 12 seconds runs in the car today. All 4 passes I made in the 1/4 were in the 12's with a best of 12.96.

Special thanks to Lito for the tune !

The car is amazingly consistent and a pleasure to bracket race.
It's interesting to note that Lito's tune lowered the shift points from the "canned" tune I had. It was shifting at 6500 and Lito set the shift points to 6000 and trimmed the AFRs.
The car is running 2 tenths quicker now and the DBW throttle is no longer "twitchy" at the starting line as well as when I drive the car onto the trailer.


The car was at legal J/SA weight of 3545 lbs. and the index for NHRA J/SA is 12.45 so my car is a tick over a half second away from running the index with a bunch of stock stuff still on the car.

The car still has:
* stock rear 3.31 gears
* stock trans and torque conv.
* stock 2 pc. driveshaft
* stock exh. manifolds and stock cats and h-pipe ( tailpipe delete tho)
* stock engine ( only mods are CAI, short belt to bypass the PS and AC and an electric water pump)
* 93 pump gas

Click to expand...

outstanding work Alan, enjoy watching the progress on this build! are you going to try to dip below the index prior to the transmission swap?

lindertw said:

outstanding work Alan, enjoy watching the progress on this build! are you going to try to dip below the index prior to the transmission swap?

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Thanks Tom.
I do not plan to make any more passes with the car as it is currently configured.
I believe the combo is pretty well maxed out without a rear gear swap.
With only being a 1/2 second from the index I am tickled it has run as good as it has.

Since I plan to put a 4.56 rear in it this winter, the 8.8 flange will be the common F150/Explorer flange and will work with the slip yoke 3650 trans as well as a C-4 trans.
So now I am thinking of trying the C-4 first with a 4K convertor and the Aussie 3650 later. The J/S index is 12.35 at the same weight, so it's only a tenth quicker than the automatic.

The only sticking point is to get the Spanish Oak setup to work with the C4 or the Aussie trans that does not have a provision for the driveshaft sensor.

46addict said:

Is this a class requirement or required by the engine's tune?

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The class requirements are that we have to pick a fuel (any fuel) from the approved Stock/SS list.

I was later told that VP makes an unleaded fuel that is on the approved list.

Not sure, but I kinda think that next year when the car does not have the factory cats I will continue to use the C11 with more ignition timing.

Congrats on hitting the 12s.

Let me know if you want me to send you my old manual trans ECU and the matched SCT 2 tuner. It's just collecting dust and will never be re-used.

Very cool man! love to see this!