Frank.JD.Perez Posted January 11, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2018 yes, this was my christmas present to myself 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanter Posted January 11, 2018 Report Share Posted January 11, 2018 Oh man I love that wheel. I'd love to upgrade to one someday 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prokiller Posted January 11, 2018 Report Share Posted January 11, 2018 that dust shield tho.... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted January 11, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2018 2 hours ago, Prokiller said: that dust shield tho.... What dust shield Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted January 14, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2018 T1 has been shipped out to @ThomasW 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted January 14, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2018 After installing my coilovers and tubular front a arms and getting my PHB installed i went to a "local" autocross event with American Autocross Series for a shakedown and testing of my car with the new set up. i was greatly impressed with the car, and it was unbelievable how different she reacted. the Miata belongs to my buddy Rob, i sold him my old helmet and hes been doing a little bit of autocross here and there. just a few track stangs yo run times Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted January 14, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2018 This track day was at the end of october with my broski, Andrew and his 03 M tech 2 540i M Sport. i wasnt able to break my goal of a lap time in the 130s (shooting for 135) on Thunderhill West (2 mile), but i did set a very low, 140 time (something like 1:40:1XX). The bad thing was during this track day i experienced a overheaating issue, so i only ran 4 of the 7 sessions for the day. the overall temp at the track wasnt that bad, but the car just wasnt having it, so i need to replace the ac condesor and get a new 3 core radiator. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted January 14, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2018 more track car porn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ttocs Posted January 14, 2018 Report Share Posted January 14, 2018 are you mr green jeans? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators LWARRIOR1016 Posted January 15, 2018 Moderators Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 I just noticed the fog lights in these pictures. They look awesome in there! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted January 15, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 22 hours ago, ttocs said: are you mr green jeans? Lol no that was Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted January 15, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 6 hours ago, LWARRIOR1016 said: I just noticed the fog lights in these pictures. They look awesome in there! Yeah they were perfect but ultimately I ended up taking them out (rather recently) because they kept on burning out 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted January 15, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 after the october track day i found myself running at a 105dB max level event in november on the one and only Laguna Seca. I later came to realize that my car how it stands maxed out at 85dB which means i can run all Laguna Seca track days (until the new motor goes in) some more track porn for you this is coming into turn 11 before the finish line. these pics were taken by my buddy Tim (who i will post about a bit later) these pics were from the track photographer for the event Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedTwilight Posted January 15, 2018 Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 How fun is that corkscrew?! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted January 15, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 1 minute ago, RedTwilight said: How fun is that corkscrew?! amazing! pretty intimidating the first time, but such a rush afterwards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted January 16, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2018 Some more pics of this steering wheel 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted January 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2018 FJD Performance race livery ver 2.5 finished on the car. Going to get some pictures up soonish 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White95 Posted January 22, 2018 Report Share Posted January 22, 2018 On 1/15/2018 at 9:46 PM, Frank.JD.Perez said: Some more pics of this steering wheel GiB!!! I need to replicate this, I think I may sell my FR500 wheel to do so. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted January 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2018 2 hours ago, White95 said: GiB!!! I need to replicate this, I think I may sell my FR500 wheel to do so. I absolutely LOVE the wheel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted March 2, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2019 wow i havent posted anything here in years lol 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted March 2, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 2, 2019 since i havent posted since january of last year lets i guess pick up where i left off... this was Sonoma almost a year ago. Mid March i made a rough draft headlight duct before fabulous ford and buttonwillow in april where i cracked my fr500 which has since been repaired and soon to be under new ownership i did later clean it up and it looks more professional shortly after this i geared up to head out to Mississippi and Louisiana for the engine swap Will and I did. I will post about that when i get home Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted March 14, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2019 in prep for the new engine i had to take care of some supporting mods, this was pulled from my site, so enjoy my shenanigans This weekend we got our shipments in for our Maximum Motorsports firewall adjuster and aluminum clutch quadrant and our 340LPH Quantum fuel pump and High flow Viton fuel pump check valve. We won’t mention how we ordered a e brake cable from our local Ford store, and that they claimed the cable would be at the store Saturday the 2nd at 3PM and actually arrived today the 4th… nope, not salty one bit… Anywho! Back to the installs! Being that we had to drop the fuel tank about 2 years ago, this was no big deal. However getting that 20 bucks we just put in the car the other day meant we had to drive the car quite frequently so we could loose some weight with dropping, and reinstalling the tank. Needless to say, we still had a lot of fuel in the tank, but dropped it anyways. We got the car in the garage, chocked the front wheels and got to getting the rear of the car off the ground. We used a skateboard, some wood and a brake rotor box to keep the gas tank level and get it down, and out of the car without damaging the lines or filler neck and gasket (whoop, done that twice now!). Getting the fuel pump housing out wasn’t that hard, but we soon remembered the little rubber grommet/cap that got damaged last time was completely toast, so getting a new one that would work was one of the longest portions of this install. The actual longest part of the install was getting the hose lengths for the check valve to fit properly without kinking or getting damaged. Once the check valve was all squared away it was time to get the housing back in the tank properly (kind of a pain) and then getting that heavy ol’ tank back in the car. Complete install was maybe 1.5/2 hours. If you’re unaware: when starting the project of dropping your tank you have to unbolt the 3 bolts inside your gas tank filler door. They should be 13 or 10 MM sockets. After you unbolt those you have to unbolt the 8MM bolt holding the filler neck brace to the tank, and make sure the brace is on when you put the car back together. Once those are done get to the three 13MM bolts holding your tank to the chassis, and make sure you have something under the tank, like a jack, to lower it slowly. When it’s down enough to unplug the wires get them off and slowly push the tank the opposite side of the filler neck as you want to make sure you don’t damage the gasket. Using some lube can make the job easier. Make sure you can safely get the tank on the ground, and get the fuel pump housing out of the tank without destroying the fuel lines. You can always undo the lines from the housing, but being the Mare is old, and from Illinois (Its pronounced Ill-eh-Noise, Andrew), we couldn’t really get them off easily. Once you have it all off and out it should be fairly simple and straight forward. At least that previous statement should be true if you’re dropping your own fuel tank. Sunday we tackled the Firewall adjuster and clutch quadrant. By the time we finished with the fuel pump it was already too late to start with the MM parts since we still had an appearance to make at a family party; First thing in the morning we pulled the Mare in the garage once again and started with the Firewall adjuster. We gotta say… the OEM firewall clip was the HARDEST OEM part to remove yet… That thing was a Dick. Once we had the clutch cable off the factory quadrant and out of the factory firewall assembly it was on to fitting and installing the MM firewall adjuster which, in all honestly, takes like 20 seconds. But why should all part installs be difficult? I for one like when its as easy as taking a breath. Next was getting the factory clutch quadrant off, which was a bit tricky because we didn’t want to break the assembly in case it needed to be reused. Once the stock plastic part was off it was time to install the MM part and adjust the cable. The project didn’t take too long to complete; we spent most of the time getting the plastic firewall clip off and after that it came down to adjusting the cable. shortly after this came the new clutch, flywheel, TOB, clutch fork and pilot bearing Welcome to today’s post Guys and Gals; we’re talking about the installation we did this past weekend of the Mare’s new clutch, flywheel, throwout bearing, pilot bearing and clutch fork. Since we don’t know for sure when the Mare last had a new clutch and flywheel go in, it was safe to assume that the ones we had been beating on over the last 70k miles needed to be changed. We picked up a stage 3 SPEC clutch, Billet Aluminium RAM flywheel and Ford Performance throw out bearing and clutch fork for a smooth install. We started Friday by getting the Mare in the garage and tearing her apart. We started at roughly 7PM and finished up for the night at 2AM with the new flywheel and pressure plate mounted to the engine, the pilot bearing installed and the new FRPP throwout bearing and clutch fork in. This is exactly where we wanted to be for the night. First thing in the morning we headed to Livermore Ford to FINALLY pick up that ebrake cable. Needless to say getting the old cable remnants out and the new one in was a HUGE pain. After getting back to the garage we got the clutch in and the flywheel and pressure plate torqued to spec. Next were hours of sweat, pain, obscene amounts of yelling and profanity due to trying to get the transmission in. We had the trans fall on us about 4 different times while under the car, but of course we finally got it in the car and bolted up. We also took this time see what it sounded like to start up the car with open headers. It was super loud… Since we had installed the MM firewall adjuster and quadrant the last weekend, it made for getting the clutch pedal adjusted just right. Even though the puck style SPEC stage 3 clutch material is Ceramic, it is super easy to use. The effort to engage is maybe 10 or 15% greater than the, possibly 100K mile, stock one in the car. Like every time we have the Mare in the garage for extended periods of time we always take off the front bumper so we can have more work room and access. Next was removing the mid pipe and draining the transmission so when we take off the driveline we don’t have trans fluid gushing everywhere. We also took off the front wheels so that we had more room to work in the front, less weight on the front of the car, and so we could flush the brakes when we were done with the install. Shortly after that with help from a younger sibling we got the trans off and got to work replacing the clutch fork and TOB. Next we used our torque wrench and an opposing breaker bar on the crank bolt to get off the clutch and flywheel. We left the Mare in this state and ready for more work in the AM. Quick trip to Ford and picked up the 2nd most annoying install part of the day. The first being getting the damn T45 back in. Roughly 25 miles on the new clutch and about 6 different firewall adjustments later the Mare is all set and ready for the journey to Mississippi for the new power plant, but before that of course a wash and photo shoot with a DSLR was necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted March 14, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2019 and here is the moment you've all been waiting for! the hard work from @LWARRIOR1016 on the new engine Hey there Guys and Gals and welcome to one of the most exciting articles to be published on FJDPerformance.com for the rest of the year! That’s right, this is about the assembly of the Mare’s new power-plant; a naturally aspirated, 12:1 compression ratio, Aluminum WAP block powered 2V which is capable of producing 350* horsepower at the wheels. You may be thinking… “Why is there an asterisks, *, on 350?” Well folks, that’s because the engine has not been dyno’d and finally tuned for the Mare. The engine is expected to produce between 350/370 (really pushing) at the wheels (400/425hp @ crank), which is more power at the wheels than any 94-04 Mustang made from the factory, but that’s not saying much with the cars we have now-a-days. The journey, and last push, to finally build this engine began last October when we took the Mare in to DeLeon Dyno in Santa Clara, CA and came back with 197.2RWHP and 267.6RWTQ on a Dynapack. We wanted to make respectable power, and to have a high revving engine that would be somewhat reliable on a racetrack for track days and the merge into W2W racing with NASA Nor Cal. Given that American Iron (AI) and American Iron Extreme (AIX) have restrictions on cars (9.5:1 HP & 9:1 TQ for AI) we opted to have a power to weight ratio that would allow roughly 350RWHP and a 3000lb raceweight without driver, but once we move to AIX we won’t have that HP and TQ restriction to worry about. We started the build by stumbling across a unused Saleen SMS 3V WAP block off craigslist from a former employee that used to build the SMS Saleen engines. The block had already undergone the normal machine work used to build the SMS engines with the stroker kits, but never made it to production since the company stopped making the SMS cars. Our seller thankfully decided to hold on to the block, and we later picked it up for a whopping $100. After we bought the block we went and got some Boss 302 forged piston rods from your friendly, not our neighborhood, Ford store for something like $23 a rod. After we got those parts we reached a little plateau and stopped buying things until we did the dyno day at DDP. About 2 months after our dyno day we sent the block and rods to our engine builder, and good friend, Will – who is known as Lwarrior1016 on the forums – to help with the build. Will gave us the following list of parts to buy in addition to parts that would make the install easy and finish up the front of the car: ARP main studs 4.6L crankshaft Complete gasket set Clevite racing bearing set ARP head stud kit OEM 3V Ford windage tray Bounday 3V/GT500 billet oil pump Trickflow camshaft gears Quantum 340LPH fuel pump CMS 2V exhaust valves CMS 2V intake valves 4V lash adjusters ARH long tubes MM tubular k member MM solid steering shaft MM solid rack bushings Cobra steering rack SPEC stage 3 clutch RAM Aluminum flywheel 15/16″ oil pick up tube flexible engine dipstick O2 wideband And plenty of other little things that needed to be done. With this build we wanted to be as close to completion of the Mare and the front suspension as possible. We slowly started to acquire the parts and sent them to Will to work on. Starting with the Short block, then moving to the long block parts, then on to the engine paint, and now finally getting parts like the rack and k member all shipped and ready for the swap at the end of this June, so by the end of the trip we will be roughly 6 or 7k into the build. When we originally decided to get the engine built we estimated a 4-6 month time frame, and the engine was completely built within that 6 month window thanks to all the hard work and dedication from Will. He is the definition of a man’s man, an amazing human being, and a great friend. Thank you for serving our country, and serving FJD Performance brother. We wouldn’t be where we are today without you. When Will first took possession of the block in mid December 2017 he refinished, oiled the cylinders and cleaned the block. Will also got to work on our PI heads doing some porting and polishing. Will got to assembling the short block starting with assembling the pistons, rods, valves and doing valve reliefs. Installing the ARP studs and prepping the valves for the heads. Since Will decided to take his own SN down a different path, we were lucky to get some parts off his previously built 13:1 N/A 2V which put out around 370RWHP. Will was gracious enough to sell us his Victor Jr intake, GT500 oil pump, Stage 5 cams (and the set of PI heads), the 6061 plenum, ARH headers and a couple other bits. Shortly after the long block was assembled we got the engine painted our personal favorite color. K7, also known as Bright Atlantic Blue. The engine received primer, paint, and clear like all cars do. After the paint dried it was time to continue with assembly, disassembly, reassembly, more paint and on to final prep for install into Will’s Rio Red SN. Unfortunately we couldn’t upload every picture due to the orientations of the pictures and wanting to keep everything aligned and visually friendly. If possible we will try to edit the missing pictures and reupload them. You can check out our posts and “engine build” story over at the official FJD Performance instagram account. As we sit currently the engine has about 1500 miles and is well broken in, so she will be ready for the install, dyno, tune and track abuse along with the 2400 mile adventure back to the California Bay Area. The engine is naturally aspirated with 12:1 compression ratio, a 05+ Aluminum WAP block weighting around 80lbs and bored .030″ over, with Boss 302 forged rods, GT500 billet aluminum oil pump, ported and polished PI heads, Stage 5 comp cams, Edelbrock Victor Jr EFI intake manifold, 6061 sheet metal throttle body and plenum and estimated for 350RWHP and a redline of about 7500RPM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted March 14, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2019 road trip time! Today we’re covering our trip from California to Mississippi for the Mare’s new engine. We started our trip Tuesday morning with 282,815 miles on the clock, and finally got to work on the car Friday afternoon with 285,078 miles. The drive to Louisiana (where we did the swap) was a hard one. Being that the BMW is a daily, we don’t drive the Mare as much, so we don’t constantly check to see if the A/C works. Well. Wouldn’t you know…the A/C was all out of R134a. Excluding the fact that the A/C didn’t work, and the rubber shift boot was thrown out and letting heaps of hot air into the cabin the drive wasn’t that bad. Yes, we did that whole trip without A/C. And to make things even more exciting the A/C system that was fixed in LA got broken again somehow, so the whole trip back was without A/C too! Luckily though we got a new shift boot on, so the drive was a lot better. Friday afternoon we took the Mare to the shop, and at 1430 the swap began. Around 1930 friday night we took an hour break to get some delicious food, and then around 2100 got back to work. The new engine was installed and all squared away by 2330, and at that time we called it a night and went back to the hotel. Saturday we got to a late start around 1100 and got to getting some new parts at the local auto parts store. A couple hours later we started up the engine, and celebrated with the occasion. First try and the engine fired right up. We finished off the day around 1800 with the car nearly ready to come back down. Sunday morning we got started around 830, and spent the majority of the time doing minor miscellaneous bits like rebuilding part of the Steeda STB so it would clear the JLT, wideband install and o2 sensor extensions (soldering involved), clearance the hood, painting, and adjusting the K member. Monday we dropped off the car to get tuned by Wednesday night so we could leave first thing Thursday. Unfortunately Wednesday night we ran into a hiccup… The Mare’s computer was essentially rejecting the tune which made getting the car tuned practically impossible. Fortunately enough Mike at RKG was able to get things tweaked in the computer so we could have a safe trip back to CA. A couple thousand miles and 30 something hours later we finally got back home, and are now in the pursuit to get the car tuned and on the dyno to find out our number, so stay tuned for that! Saturday morning Sunday Morning First start up with open X pipe 2nd start with full exhaust bolted on A very, VERY special thanks to Will, again, for everything he did, and for being on board with this crazy plan of ours! We couldn’t have done it without you brother, thank you again for all your help, wisdom, and hospitality from one SN95 fanatic to another. again, Thank You SO MUCH @LWARRIOR1016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators LWARRIOR1016 Posted March 14, 2019 Moderators Report Share Posted March 14, 2019 What an adventure this was!!! I often reflect back and question some of the decisions that were made. Like, who’s bright frickin idea was it to drive to the other side of the country, do an engine swap, then drive back?!?!? Lol 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted March 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 8 hours ago, LWARRIOR1016 said: What an adventure this was!!! I often reflect back and question some of the decisions that were made. Like, who’s bright frickin idea was it to drive to the other side of the country, do an engine swap, then drive back?!?!? Lol I think it was a 50 50 decision... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prokiller Posted March 15, 2019 Report Share Posted March 15, 2019 i can't believe you trusted it that much to up and drive back across the country. that's straight up some roadkill shit. goes to show how good Will knows these motors and what the pitfalls all are. congratulations to the both of you!! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White95 Posted March 17, 2019 Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 On 3/15/2019 at 8:18 AM, Prokiller said: i can't believe you trusted it that much to up and drive back across the country. that's straight up some roadkill shit. goes to show how good Will knows these motors and what the pitfalls all are. congratulations to the both of you!! Not to mention beats the shit out of it on the track! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators LWARRIOR1016 Posted March 18, 2019 Moderators Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 If it was roadkill, it would have overheated and never made it out of Mississippi. I like to think we did a little better than they do lol. I also also had that engine in my car and ran it hard for a couple thousand miles before he drove over to get it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted March 18, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 54 minutes ago, LWARRIOR1016 said: If it was roadkill, it would have overheated and never made it out of Mississippi. I like to think we did a little better than they do lol. I also also had that engine in my car and ran it hard for a couple thousand miles before he drove over to get it. Yes, this was all very carefully calculated 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted March 18, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 I need to put a couple more updates in from last year before we get to where we are now, but the car is doing great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
White95 Posted March 18, 2019 Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 I think Roadkill was meant as an endearing term in this case by referencing Motor Trend’s show: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators LWARRIOR1016 Posted March 18, 2019 Moderators Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 8 hours ago, White95 said: I think Roadkill was meant as an endearing term in this case by referencing Motor Trend’s show: Oh yeah, I understand that. Just every time those guys fixed a car and tried to drive it home, it overheated or broke down a bunch of times on their way home. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prokiller Posted March 18, 2019 Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 haha too true! they always have overheating problems and have to put the hood on the roof. glad you didn't have to do that! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted March 19, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2019 shortly after the trip back home i got a catch can for the car. i actually just recently rerouted the hoses and put it in a different spot, but this was the initial install... This past weekend we installed our Oil Catch Can kit on the Mare, and boy was it a pain figuring out placement, and trying not to bake in this near triple digit heat! We started off by ordering a 6oz Catch Can from Turner Motorsports. You may not be familiar with that name unless you’re somewhat of a BMW fan because this part is actually made for cars like Elise, a E46 3 series. However most of these kits are universal, so as long as you’re willing to make modifications you should be good to go. I mean… this article series IS called Custom Modifications… We got the OCC on Thursday, and immediately went to the engine bay of the Mare to try and figure out where to fit this behemoth of a can. We tried in multiple spots using the supplied brackets, but nothing really seemed to work efficiently, and were too far away. It wasn’t until we realized that we had some aluminum brackets in the garage that would help us place the OCC behind the intake manifold on the firewall. You may be wondering… “Why go with the Turner can?” “Why didn’t you just get a JLT or other brand?” or other questions that we could list, but really don’t care enough to type. We got this one for these reasons: it’s bigger than most quality cans (coming in 6oz, 8oz, and 10oz); it’s the same price for all the sizes, no increase between the three (189.99); it’s baffled unlike most cans. The JLT ones did not have any of these perks, and the JLT was only 40 bucks less than the Turner kit! One of the potential locations for the can was under the radiator cover on the frame above the fan, but that proved to be not only inaccessible, but the distance the air would have to travel would be too far. The next couple locations were on the passenger side coil pack mount (which also proved inaccessible) and under the STB on the driver side on a bracket. The location under the STB would of worked if we found a way to level out the can more, but that was when we remembered the brackets in the garage that we used. We had the right amount of clearance and placement with the Aluminium brackets sitting in the garage, so they got the green light. We had to measure and drill into the base of the bracket so it would sit under the bolts the connect the back of the STB to the firewall. How the can sits now, it is completely accessible and serviceable. The fit under the hood is now ever so tighter with all this stuff in the engine bay, but it looks great nonetheless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted March 19, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2019 before my next scheduled track day at thunder hill and my tune i went and took the car to ye ol stomping grounds at NASA Crows Landing... This past weekend FJD Performance found ourselves at the one and only NASA Crows Landing to do some Test N Tune on the Mare before we send her off to get the official tune at Caliber Customs. We went out Saturday with our good buddy Rob and his 1999 Mazda Miata. Helping him with his driving experience is also helping us to further our knowledge of other cars and driving characteristics. I believe his fastest time was a low 74 second run; our own was a high 70. We finished the day with some good news, bad news, things to work on and much needed seat time. So, Whats the good news? The good news is that the car did phenomenal out there on the Autocross course! Great throttle response, low engine temps, the perfect amount of torque to get out of corners quickly, the perfect amount of horse power, and the brakes still bite and bring the car to a quick stop given the new engine’s capabilities. Nearly everything about the car out there was perfect! Well then, what’s the bad news? Well… one thing, and we knew this coming in, is that we need new front tires, but we said screw it, send it anyways! So yea…we need to get new tires. In addition to the tire situation — which we found out about after the event there was wire showing — we noticed some additional body roll out there on the course which was eating into the times a bit during the slaloms. We were always planning on getting the rear finished up, but now we need to make it a priority in addition to the seats, harness, cage and new wheels and brakes. We feel like so much work needs to be done in what seems like such little time, but such is life. While out there we worked on pushing the car and testing some limits which you can see by the times we put in on course. Seeing that we haven’t had any seat time in the Mare since April, we knew that some Autocross time was needed, and we couldn’t be happier with the results. FJD Performance will see itself back out at Crows with AAS for the next couple rounds, and we will be back at Thunderhill this October 1st. Enjoy the full, unedited video of our fastest run Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted March 19, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2019 following the tune at caliber customs it was track time at thunderhill and man was it fun! This past Monday FJD Performance found ourselves yet again at another private track day hosted by Signature Wheel and the Ford Performance Racing School. This time however we were running at Thunderhill, just north of Sacramento. Fresh out of the last private track day we all knew round 2 was eminent, and 6 months later we were back at Thunderhill Raceway Park where a little over a year ago we put in a 2:37 with NASA and the Mares old engine and setup. We started the weekend by driving out to Willows Sunday afternoon and found ourselves meeting up with good friends in the Mustang and Track/Racing community. We were also very excited to meet up and talk with an old family friend who just so happens to be the driver of the GR40 Cobra, which by the way was the fastest car out there. Faster than even the new Ford Performance FP350S. At least on this track. Following this meet up with our family friend and the Griggs team at Southworst 737 Racing, we got to the track walk and then did a private track day dinner with all the participants. After dinner we prepped for the fun filled day at Thunderhill on Monday. Monday came and we started off the day with a bang! The morning progressed into our first session where we put down a 2:16:515 – already 21 seconds faster! – and then into our 2nd session where we got some rain, and put down an even faster, wet time, of 2:13:695; and by our third session we put down our new PB on Thunderhill Bypass with a 2:11:748! The new engine, tune from Caliber Customs, revised suspension, 200TW tires, and improved driving skills and mentorship from Steve (GR40 Cobra) helped result in a 26 second faster lap time, and a projected 2:10:468 based off all the quickest track sectors. The Mare performed perfectly out on track, and now we’re aiming towards even more racecar mods! We had a blast out there with our track friends, Ford Performance Racing School and the guys at Signature Wheels and look forward to our next event! Enjoy these phenomenal track photos from our buddy Rob Gluckman and our media on YouTube! a fun video of Frank passing a E46 M3 and a Shelby GT350 and here is our fastest lap! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted March 19, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2019 another day at crows! all photos not of the Mare were taken by me so thats why i decided to leave them in the post This past Saturday we saw Frank and Rob return to Crows Landing to run with AAS before they closed out the autocross season. The guys were also accompanied by Ethan, who also co drives Rob’s Miata, and is also a very good driver. The boys started out the morning by getting prepped for the first run group as Rob and Ethan were going straight into the runs; we were about 30 minutes late due to traffic on 580 east, and we didn’t have as much prep time like we normally do. Since Frank actually ran in class this event he was taking support duties during Rob and Ethan’s runs by making sure tire pressures were set, gopro footage was being recorded and pictures were being taken. Rob and Ethan both ran mid to low 73 second runs and did very well for the day; not to mention Ethan’s skills behind the Miata showed Saturday. Frank also did well getting some good action shots of the two out there. Following shortly after them, Frank got ready to run in class again and actually compete. The last time Franks ran in CAM-C was almost a year ago, so it felt right to end the season of AAS off in class. The Mare did fairly well, but Frank was experiencing issues with his brakes as they weren’t adequate for the course, and his gearing was also taking a toll on his acceleration out of some of the sharp hair pins on course. His fastest run was a 72.124 with Alice, and a close 72.147 without a passenger. Going into the 2019 season we are going to focus on getting our brake upgrade done as well as putting in our new diff parts and reworking the exhaust and top end of the engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted March 19, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2019 this was in february before sonoma this past weekend where me, @LWARRIOR1016and @ThomasW all had heart attacks and were scratching our heads trying to figure out this issue Hey there Ladies and Gents and welcome to the first edition of Track Day Recollection for the 2019 season! We have a good little review of our day at Crows Landing with good news, bad news and your typical FJD Performance entertainment. Do you want to start with the good or the bad? Of course! We thought so too! Good first! The Mare with the new wheels and rubber made a HUGE difference out there on course. The 315s performed flawlessly and the lesser rotational mass made stopping the car a lot easier. To be quite honest, how the car is right now, its pretty perfect save getting a proper seat and harness in the car along with some bigger and better brakes. The car did great out on the air strip, and we CANNOT wait until we hit Sonoma again, but of course.. with a Test N Tune day, you find little gremlins… and gremlins we found. Now onto the bad news… After our second run on the course we brought the car back to grid and proceeded to pop the hood and check the oil. We got ready to throw an extra quart in, but as soon as we took the cap off… Yep… You guessed it… Somebody had poisoned the water hole! Immediately after seeing this we went to the catch can to see what that looked like… Needless to say… It looked worse… Some bloke decided to poor 150mL from his cappuccino in the catch can! Indeed a total “Oh shit” moment… Sorry kids (not really). We put that quart in, put the cappuccino mix into the empty container and proceeded to clean the coffee stains from the can and cap. We then went ahead and did what any other sane person would do and ran the car again! After Run 2 we ran the car every other run and in between were checking the catch, oil filler cap, dipstick and coolant. Lots of texts and pictures were sent back and forth with our buddy Will and we couldn’t exactly figure out what was going on since there was no milky residue on the cams, dipstick or in the coolant. Sure enough though after some runs we would come back to this sight. Upon further inspection after lunch we looked at the T Inlet for the catch can hoses and saw that the driver side hose was clean, the passenger side hose was looking like a starbucks machine and then leading into the can was some more of the cappuccino residue. Screw it…fix the car… clean up the gunk and run some more! That’s exactly what we did! We finished off a couple more runs, and finally after our 10th, and second fastest run of the day, we called it quits for the Mare. During that time though Will and Frank eventually came to the conclusion that the liquid we were finding inside the catch can, and the motor, was none other than fuel itself. Some more clues were given by start up and watching the AFR at idle jump to high 11s and having fuel cut off during one of the runs. We think that a injector may be stuck open, and off our race tune, is just dumping fuel. We still finished the day in the Mare with a fastest time of a 42.018. Fret not though, as we still ran a handful of runs in Rob’s Miata! All in all we still had a great day out at Crows. Caught up with some AutoX buddies, shared good laughs with old friends and made new ones! Not to mention even though the Mare was having a hard time running, she was catching a lot of attention and turning heads! this was later confirmed to be moisture build up from this blistering california winter (lol) and from not driving the car enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank.JD.Perez Posted March 21, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2019 alrighty folks, here is the most recent update on the car! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
