All Jacked Up!

I went to Harbor Fright today and picked up their top of the line 3 Ton jack. I did not know that they came in colors other than Yellow. They have three colors now, the Classic Yellow, a Deep Candy Apple Red and the one I got, Sunburst Metallic Orange.

I went for their best jack because it has grease fittings on the wheels and it comes with a 3 year warranty. It's a low profile design that lifts from 3-3/4 in. to 23-1/8 in. It has a very long handle to help with reducing the amount of pumps you need to lift whatever you are jacking up.

It's very heavy at 113 Lbs. The weight and the great wheels makes it super easy to roll around on the garage floor.

The first task it'll be used for will be for changing all the shocks on the F-250. I picked up two front and two rear Bilstein shocks to replace the original Ranchero shocks that are shot.

I already own the Pittsburgh Aluminum 1.5 ton Race Jack. It's pushing it with a full weight Mustang, but will be great once the GT gets down to race car weight. It'll be good to take to the track because it's light (33 Lbs.) and has a handy handle. Plus there was no way I was going to be able to use the race jack on the F-250.

That is all for now...

 

Inspiration

A quick post and a note to myself of my goal and what I want the project car to look like. Not in orange, but in silver and black. I will change my bumper to this Cobra front bumper. This bumper has parking light holes that make great brake cool ducts.

I'm not sure why this car does not have a rear spoiler, it might have been a rule when this car was built. They tweak the rules all the time. In fact some of the new rule changes have led me to want to build an American Sedan car. I'm able to re-wire the ECU and re-program it in the new rules. That will take care of my PATS problem.

U-Turn

 

Since my last post the project has been on hold. I was heading in the direction of building a fun, "budget" drag car. One that I'd take to test and tunes and to parking lot car shows. I have always wanted a race car ever since I was a kid building model cars in the garage. This project would have been me building a 1:1 scale model car in my garage once again.

The plan was to use a set of rules to keep my budget in check. I found a class in the National Mustang Racing Association, or NMRA. The class was Modular Muscle, or MM. 

It's a bracket racing class where you "Run What You Brung". Your low budget drag car can run against high dollar cars because it's a handicap race. You state a time your car will run and they do the same. The slowest car leaves first and then the fastest car leaves after the difference of each of your dial-in times. The racer that runs closest to his dial-in without going faster than that time is the winner. More information on bracket racing in the link below:

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/bracket-racing-basics

Now the problem. The Atlanta Dragway has been sold. The NHRA has sold the property to some developers that will put condos on it. The money from the sale will be taken out of state to fund other facilities. So, no test and tune night, no NMRA events and no more Southern Nationals. Atlanta's premier dragstip will be no more.

The closest dragstrip is Paradise Dragstrip. It's 80 miles from me and it's only an 1/8th mile track. The next closest dragstrip is Silver Dollar Raceway and it's 105 miles from me. Both are off I-75 and the traffic on both parts of that highway on Friday nights is terrible. 

The plan now is to build an SCCA American Sedan class car.

Looking through the SCCA rules for American Sedan (AS) I have found that this class has enough restrictions to keep my costs down. I have most of the parts I need to get started.

In the SCCA Solo rules it states: "Cars listed as eligible in and prepared to the current Club Racing American Sedan (AS) rules are permitted to compete in Street Prepared class B (BSP)".

The Solo events are held at the Atlanta Motor Speedway only 38 miles from me. They are held during the day on Saturday or Sunday so it won't suck as much towing a race car in traffic.

At first I'll run in Solo events to get some seat time. I'm also interested in the SCCA "Track Night in America" event that is held at Road Atlanta. That event will get you on a real racetrack for 3 - 20 minute runs. The cost is super reasonable at $155. Another great way to get some seat time on a real racetrack.

With the parts I have right now it probably won't be a competitive car, but I'll upgrade as I learn how to drive. I will post more often now that I have a direction to head toward. The upcoming posts will mostly be the teardown, the cheapest part of building a race car!   ;-)

The main goal to to get the car moving again. I'm tried of seeing my project car sitting gathering dust in the garage.

Stay Tuned!