S197 Drift Car Build...

Hi everybody. Im new to the forum and kind of new to Mustangs as well. Ive been drifting and building drift cars for both myself and for customers since 2004/2005 ish. Most of what we do is Japanese cars though of course as they seem to dominate the sport. Thanks to some inspiration from my friend JR i thought i would try out a Mustang chassis. They apparently work very well for drifting and after driving his 2010 street car around, i honestly... kind of had to have one, haha. I am selling my current Nissan 240sx Drift Car to fund this new Mustang drift project.

more info on my nissans and drift career can be found by googling "Brian Wilkerson Drift" or "Brian Wilkerson zombie car".

Now on to the mustang. The car i got was a 2008 Mustang GT with an auto trans. I got a great deal on the car as it was missing some parts and i couldnt get much info on the history of the car. I dont care much about its history though as i planned on just taking it all apart anyway.

Here is the car as i got it...



It was pretty much a bone stock low mileage GT with brembos and some missing body parts. I of course bolted my wheels to it right away, haha.

Well, i have more updates, but ive got to run for now, ill add more progress pics and plans later tonight.

Like the concept, hate the wheels & fender badges. Welcome to the forums!

Nice !

I love seeing different colors wheels rather then your average silver/chrome/black.

I might do my BBS LM Rep's in Red. We'll see.

can't wait so see the final product. Wheels look good, but the color does not match.
I know the drift crowd have their own style, and loud colors seem to be the thing.

What's the plans for the power and suspension?

Hey thanks guys. The wheels are right off my Nissan. I have always loved the basic wheel design and got bored of the polished look they had previously.


Plans for the car are as follows...


MDP 3rd link
MDP Rear Lower Control Arms
MDP Steering knuckles
Custom ZEAL coilovers im getting 2nd hand.
FRPP T2 Diff
4:10 rear gear
and some more to be decided

for power ill be most likely running a turbo. Maybe rear mount, maybe front mount, maybe twin, hell maybe a blower. That is all still to be decided. Whatever it is it will be on the stock 3v motor as its already there and has pretty low mileage.

We will be race wiring the entire car and converting it to a standard throttle body and throttle cable set up. Only reason for this is to run an Electromotive TEC3r ECU and simplify a lot of things for us.

Weight is something we are going to work on a lot with this car. Coming from drifting a 2350 lb. car i have to get a 3300 lb. car down as much as possible. For this we will be using fiberglass doors, fiberglass trunk lid, and all Lexan windows. That and removing absolutely everything we dont need.

This is how the car looks as of now...


Up on jack stands awaiting some base plates and cage work!

all the front end removed. Pretty sure im going to put a 2010 front end on it. Hopefully i can get those parts sooner than later.


here she is again. I cut the rear "speaker deck" out to save some weight. Ill be cutting out a few more things, but not much due to the Formula D rules.



I still need some more parts for my 5 speed conversion which im on the hunt for now.



More updates once we get the cage rolling...

Very Nice! can't wait to see this progress

sweet project! i'm looking forward to seeing progress on it

FINALLY!!! A drift enthusiast who isn't a complete idiot!!! (the last ones sure were) Subscribing so I can see this thing come to life. Looks like you have some good plans for it, keep us updated!

great project! what brand wheels are those? I actually love the green. Be sure to visit the offical weight thread for ideas

Cool project. I'm not into drifting so much but I do love a good build thread and this one looks pretty good.

thanks guys.


the wheels are made by a Russian company called Desmond. This particular wheel is known as the "regamaster". Its a super light weight forged wheel. Sadly they are no longer in business, so they are hard to come by.
The sizes on these particular ones are 18x9.5 +18. Ill be purchasing 4 more that i just sold, back from a friend of mine.

Hmm..a subscription-worthy drifter thread..who'da thunk it?

Brian W. said:

Pretty sure im going to put a 2010 front end on it.

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And now you've really got my attention!

DusterRT said:

Hmm..a subscription-worthy drifter thread..who'da thunk it?!

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No shit!!! lol.

subscribing

Pretty sure im going to put a 2010 front end on it.

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good luck with that. you do realize the only body panel on that car that is the same is the roof

STEVE_POE said:

good luck with that. you do realize the only body panel on that car that is the same is the roof

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Ive done some homework and scoped out some 2010s in person along with knowing a bit of info about what swaps and what doesnt. I also know the upper body line on the door wont line up, but im not to worried about that.

EDIT:


double post.

i like the 05-09 models...ken gushi and vaughn gittens older s197 cars look bad ass...

mykim72 said:

i like the 05-09 models...ken gushi and vaughn gittens older s197 cars look bad ass...

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Yeah, i like the look of the 05-09 front end too, but i REALLY like the rear and really like the front of the '10... so im gonna see what i can do. Vaughn Gittin is actually a good friend of mine, he is who i refer to as "JR". He was the one that let me drive his 2010 street car and made me want an S197 to begin with.