Well, this may be the end of me racing my 2002 V6. I have been thinking about upgrading for a while now. The car handles great, but I've been wanting more power. I agree that power is a small factor in how well a car can be at autocross and that the driver's line is by far the largest. I have ridden with other drivers that have cars much more powerful than mine that have terrible lines but they are able to cover up their mistakes by putting their right foot down and get similar or better times than me.
I felt like my car was at a point where throwing more money at it would either give me minuscule improvements or I'd be completely redesigning/rebuilding my car. Like I said earlier, I liked how the car handles very much. It's predictable and can be adjusted to fit different conditions. I truly felt like power was the limiting factor for my car. In my mind, this left me with 3 options. Out of those options, buying another car made the most sense.
*I had a lot here explaining the thoughts behind my decision but decided to delete it since I was rambling. Let me know if you want me to explain.*
Anyways, as all good stories begin, I was scrolling through Facebook Marketplace and this car caught my eye. After thinking about it for a couple of days and messaging the guy, I decided to take a 4-hour drive to go look at it. Everything looked good so I got it!
Introducing my new [to me] 2011 Mustang GT!
I am very excited about this car. It has 90% of the suspension modifications that I'd want, all the previous work has been done by a reputable shop, and it looks and sounds badass IMO, and all parts are from reputable companies! One of my favorite things about this car is that the whole driveline has been rebuilt recently. The engine has 30k miles on it, the rear end has 1k miles, and the transmission and clutch have 200 miles on them. All the parts that I'd likely beat on by racing the car [should] have a ton of life left on them. Between that scaring others away and the fact that the previous owner didn't keep it very clean, I was able to get it for what I believe was a stupid good deal.
I'm impressed with how it handles now, but it should be an animal once I get camber/caster plates, a square setup with 200tw tires, and transfer my Corbeau seats over.
Fun fact: My daily is a gray F-150 with the Black Package. Every single person that I sent pictures of this car to said "It matches your truck!"
Tomorrow is my first event with the new car. I'm nervous that I'll have to relearn how to drive fast. Luckily this event isn't with a group I usually race with, so I won't have to worry about getting points and can focus on learning the car.
I'll probably make a thread on either Track Mustangs or S197 Forums to continue documenting my autocross journey. I just wanted to make this post so that people didn't get confused if I stopped posting on here.
A big "thank you" to everybody who has helped me on this forum. My previous experiences on forums have not been great and this seems like a community of people who want to help by sharing useful information.
A special shoutout goes to
@Warhorse Racing who inspired me with his YouTube videos to get an SN95 when I decided to start autocrossing. He was correct about all the points he made in that video. Even though I chose to get out of the V6 SN95 game after a year, I would recommend one to anybody who is interested in getting into autocross. If you go into it with reasonable expectations (no, you probably won't be beating Porsches or heavily modified Miatas) you will learn how to become a good driver and have one hell of a time doing it.
Also, my car will be for sale soon. Message me if you or somebody you know would be interested. #ShamelessPlug
