1968 Mustang

Plenty of fun indeed...
A few days before Santa Pod the car started backfiring on a drive out shopping, lost almost all power but just limped onto the drive at home.
I was stuck for ideas but when I pulled the plug lead from the coil, loads of oil pissed out, the coil was toast. ARGH it's an MSD coil and I need one like tomorrow for the track, I rang Thunder Road and was so lucky that they had an old MSD coil on the shelf, he just gave it to me and said good luck.
I relocated the coil from the block (where they overheat) to the inner wing, fingers crossed it will last.
Next was Santa Pod day, about as exciting as it gets (for me), I brought my lad with me, helmet & box of tools. I had cable tied a coke bottle to the radiator overflow pipe, apparently it's a bad thing to drip anything while you are on track. We had a briefing, signed on and then queued up. Managed a cracking burnout, rolled into stage, waited for a green light and floored it.
I have a decent Z gate B&M shifter and in theory you can hold it in gear, I had set the visual red line on the tacho to a safe 5000 and tried to hold rpm to that for each change (C4 3 speed transmission) but the transmission had other ideas and just changed up when it felt like it, probably at 4000rpm.
That didn't matter, it was awesome, a massive buzz that the engine and trans and driver held it together.



The timing slip said mid 14 seconds which just blew me away, I was on cloud nine.
During the day we did a load of runs and then a head to head knockout competition, unfortunately I drew against Dan Dredge who was equipped with slicks and a tasty 347 crate engine, he knocked me out but not by much, I think mine was second quickest classic mustang there. His back window was covered with class letters and dial in numbers, I think he's done this before.



It felt like Santa Pod was the spiritual home for this car, it was just a brilliant day. Dan Dredge had a word in my ear, he's been competing in a class at the Pod called Nostalgia Superstock, apparently anyone running under 14.99 is eligible to enter. I'm like "that sounds interesting" but really I'm just here to have fun, but that thought had stuck in my head.

Very impressive, and your video was great!

It does go some !
It's not over yet, the drag racing thing is now in my head, I'm thinking what can I do to make it a tiny bit quicker, maybe into the 13's. The answer is a few beers + eBay = a second hand hi stall B&M torque convertor.
eBay also delivers an engine crane so its engine out on the drive, the bonnet is so huge it can stay on during the process



My lad is more than happy to get stuck in cleaning up the block and learning a few things



One OMG moment, there was a snapped stud on the aluminium intake manifold, luckily when we stripped the manifold off there was just enough thread to get it undone from the head with pliers, bit of a lottery ticket day

Vid is cool. Santa Pod is on my to do list with the Vette this year.

Nice, what times did you get with the 390's ?

The reason for the higher stall convertor is that the 289 is a high revving engine and there is not a lot low down so after putting in the 2400 stall we waited for the next Pod RWYB session. The Mustang clubs hire the place out several times a year and it's relatively cheap to rock up and get some runs in plus its very social. The buzz of doing the 1/4 mile is so addictive



This time we go on the amber lights, no waiting for green, it gets off the line way quicker with the higher stall and we run several back to back 14.0 times. Dan Dredge is there again, we run another knock out competition and as usual he beats me but again keeps planting this seed in my mind that the car is eligible to run in Nostalgia Superstock.



Some dodgy mobile phone clips from the banking

Love this. I remember when I bought my old Yank that the first 6 months it broke pretty much every time I went out in it so you're doing well

I don't know if you did it, but it is well worth upgrading the voltage regulator to a solid state one. One of the big issues with reliability etc with the original is it basicaly "flickers" but at a rate that the gauges don't get the chance to react. Solid state ones often give the chance to fine tune the voltage too, for more gauge accuracy.

Having built a TH350 box on my garden table, and done solenoids etc on my E61 530d, auto boxes aren't as scary to work on as you think! How is the TransGo kit?

Good call as I did use a solid state regulator, they are not too expensive and it seems fine. As for the TransGo kit, it was a while to wait for the next pod outing but well worth it. Initially we were still running 14's then when the bonnet was up I just wondered if the air filter was restricting it a bit so we whipped it off to find out. We were doing another knockout class race afternoon and really went for it, the next two times minus filter were 13.86 and 13.80 so we had finally broken into 13's, a very happy afternoon and a PB.



During the class racing I went up against Shaun, he's got a monster 525BHP 1965 Mustang Group 2 (363ci) so against my little 289 it would be tough. He was a fraction slower off the line but just powered past to take the win at the finish but it was one of the best races so far and very close. I finished that day absolutely buzzing with several 0.1 reaction times and was able to go to a much higher RPM in control of the transmission.

I just love this video:

Also.. A little trick for more power, is to machine out this divider in the inlet, ~10mm down or so.. Worth a look at.

Yes defo need a bigger filter but carb spacers are a bit marmite on a dual plane intake, probably would go for a multiple barrel one but try it back to back with/without as it may not help.
An advert pops up that Dan Dredge is flogging a set of steel rims and slicks, I popped over for a look and we got chatting about proper racing, in the end I took the rims as the slicks were worn out but I promised to look at the Nostalgia Superstock website.
It would only need a few minor mods to be eligible to race, prop loop & battery cut off plus fire suit & SFI rated helmet. I had a few months to think about it so decided to join up with NSS, membership is only £15 per year but it's the push I need to grow a pair, prep the car and sign up for a race weekend.

Signing up was another dilemma, I need to pick a race number. I love the look of the late 60's Trans Am racers and I know that Shelby chassis #15 was running around with number 21 on the side so I asked if we could use that, it was a yes, we were signed up. Most of the NSS racers have unique retro paint jobs or decals so I wanted to make a bit of an effort. Plus the big stickers would actually hide some awful flaking paintwork on the doors.

Trans Am Shelby chassis #15


One thing that was bugging me was I only had lap belts, another eBay purchase and a set of Securon 3 point belts were delivered at a whopping £28 each. Luckily there is a mounting point behind the headliner so it's one of the easiest jobs I have had to do on the car and instills more confidence when driving flat out. Check out that interior, it's mint !



Next the decals arrived, I had a mate in graphics and he sorted the TA logo, the rest are as usual eBay.
I even rang the insurance company and they added decals to the list of modifications but it is still dirt cheap at £116 a year (Tax/MOT exempt)