First On Race Day

[RTHolmes]

I want to know how many HP the bushes or rose joints in IRS cost

of course you get a whole bunch more effective HP out of corners via improved traction (less axle tramp, better contact patches from better geometry etc.) theres no point having power if you cant put it on the road ...

I assume they use live axles because they are homologated from the road cars which use them, which is done for cost?

[CAP1]

they use live axles, 'cause they work. they've worked for.....well......since the car was invented. 

 in cars like F1, and indy cars, i can understand going to irs.........but it obviously isn't necessary here.

[Skuzzy]

The use of the live axle over an IRS is pretty simple really.

1)  It is cheaper and faster in production (saves Ford money).
2)  It can take more abuse in day-to-day street driving than IRS (saves Ford money in warranty claims).
3)  The average driver will never be able to tell the difference between it and an IRS.

That old live axle is one tough biotch.  You can get Mustangs sideways all day long and they never lose alignment, nor break anything.  After 50,000 miles, they still do it all day long.  Tough to make an IRS that can hold on that long, under a lot of abuse.  Certainly would cost a lot more to do so.

[Grayeagle]

Thanks CAP for the kind words .. I'd buy a used car ..even a Mustang(if I was interested in owning one) from you too
 
Yassir Skuzzy .. they recommend urethane bushings if yer gonna race 'em as the rubber donuts don't keep it 'straight' enough.
Personally .. I'd be hard pressed to tell the difference tween IRS/live axle until I am at 8/10ths or more pressin thru and off of an apex.
Even then .. tire choice is a huge variable.

I really like the look of the Mustang ..I have seen some (recently a Mach 1, dark silver, black hood stripes w silver lettering that said somethin about 32 valves and 4.8 litre or some such, grayspoke deep dish mags with polished lips, flares, looked very much capable of ripping faces off and sounded great ..we parked side by side at the same time comin into an Ace hardware store ..when I looked at the driver to wave he looked down and away ..no smile no nothin .. thinkin he was abused by one of the scary beasts runnin around Phoenix area, there are more than a few

I really should wear my camera in a holster on my hip .. there's a lot of nice lookin cars where I end up hangin out

-Frank aka GE

[CAP1]

i calls em like i sees(or in this case, reads) em.

 i think you, skuzzy, dicho, cvh, masher, and a few others.........all of us sittin at the local watering hole, i think would turn into some very interesting, and very fascinating conversations about our favorite cars. hell......we'd have the parking lot looking like a little car show.  

 check this vid out. the first guy talking is kinda not "mr personality", but the car seems pretty amazing...it's not factory, nor is it stock.....as should be obvious........

http://www.musclevehicles.com/shelby-gt500-code-red-1000hp-twin-turbo

check the second link.....THIS is a corvette.  
i had to take this link out.......there's a little language in it, and a pretty expletive post under it. follow the link to youtube from the first link above, and you can see the vette.

[Dichotomy]

I *love* the sound when I crank it up, when I run thru the gears, up an onramp .. just a blast to drive.
They are out there .. some need more TLC than others, some are truly beasts .. all are damn fine automobiles

IMHO

-Frank

SWEET!!! 

I love the tongue in cheek back and forth between Ford, Chevy, Dodge, people so long as it stays tongue in cheek.  Beautiful cars are just that.  Shufflers daughters green Camaro leaps to mind.  That is one seriously beautiful car. 

[CAP1]

SWEET!!! 

I love the tongue in cheek back and forth between Ford, Chevy, Dodge, people so long as it stays tongue in cheek.  Beautiful cars are just that.  Shufflers daughters green Camaro leaps to mind.  That is one seriously beautiful car. 

i like em all. i just happen to like fords best. like i said.........if i weren't hellbent on a gt, i would seriously consider a black, loud, face ripping corvette.......without hesitation. 
 i made a comment in another thread, being pretty "un nice" about the new charger, and i stand by that. to me, it is ugly, fudly, too big, looking like a revamped chrysler 300. it should be criminal that it wears the badge of a legend such as the dodge charger.
 the dodge challenger on the other hand........i wouldn't mind being seen in one of them. i had a road runner back in the 80's......with a 340, 4 speed, and it had a pistol grip shifter. i hear the challenger can be had with that.......and that is supreme coolness in my opinion. as much as i like the new mustangs, i think the challenger is the truest to its older brother, with the mustang being second best in that area. the camaro has the lines of the original, but it looks almost like a rolling blind spot, and it looks like they forgot tail lights when they built it....and had one of those "oh crap!" moments, and grabbed the first ones they found on a shelf...which look like they're from late 80's early 90's corvette. it's still a beautiful car though.

 the only thing that ever bothers me in any of these threads, is that there's a couple people that do seem to take them way too seriously. you guys(and you all know who you are) just need to chill out, enjoy the beautiful sounds, and lines of these cars, and have a lil fun poking fun at each other in here. 

[Skuzzy]

I totally agree about the new Charger.  It is one smurfy car.  Given the 69 Charger was probably one of the best/meanest looking cars of the 60's, it is sad to see what they call a Charger today.

When I was in high school I had a 69 Road Runner with a 383, 4 speed.  My neighbor had a 69 Charger with a 440 and an automatic.  We used to run against each other.  One week he would win, the next week I would win.  We ate big block Mustangs for lunch.  There was a Hemi Cuda one block over and that was the only car we never could beat.  My Uncle had a 63 Corvette with a 327 and 4 speed.  His car was pretty dang quick as well, but very squirrely at launch, or he would have given us some trouble.

Before it was all said and done, my Road Runner saw 163MPH and low nines, in the quarter.  Not bad for a normally aspirated street car.

My Mustang, on the other hand, was a rocket and built for road racing.  That was a fun car.

[PJ_Godzilla]

i thought i saw a challenger running a few weeks ago, but i'm not sure. the challenger is really too big, and heavy....it'd have a lot of trouble on most of these tracks.........

That was the case back in the late 60's as well - uncompetitive on the Trans Am circuit.

I happen to have a friend who used to work here at Ford in an attribute engineering function, got laid off, and is now at Chrysler. We joke and call it "Crapsler". In any case, he always offers me amusing anecdotes about how things are done over at America's last-place automaker. I chuckle and get a nice warm all-over schadenfreude buzz going. I'm sure there are plenty of adherents to Dodge Truck's Cummins diesels but, other than that, they've got very little to boast about over there - and having some foolish Italians swallow the poison toad won't help matters much.

I need to add, those are all personal observations and in no way represent the views of Ford Motor Company or its assigns.

[Grayeagle]

/agree on the new 'Charger'
.. just amazed Dodge decided to call it that when it had absolutely no visual tie in to a Charger at all.
4 doors? .. WTF??
Station Wagon?? no way in hell.
It's just not the Manly-Man Charger of my youth.

Whereas the Challenger was spot on.
Beautiful even parked beside the original.
And the SRT-8 w/the 392 Hemi .. NomNoms!
(altho Dodge did make a big deal of the 392 matching the rated hp figures of the 426
..the 426 was severely under rated .. they have to get 650hp or so to match the 'stock' 426 of the old days)

The vid you posted on the Mustang .. ohhyaa .. Nelson .. very ballzout supercar builder
I *really* like his rendition of a '69 Camaro that I posted a link to earlier .. similar setup to the Mustang, but
..the Camaro makes 2khp ..not 1k.
..even the Impala he built sounds magnificent runnin up thru the gears.

-Frank aka GE