The faster of our two test...
The faster of our two test cars was the '97 Cobra, commonly known as Superfly, DOHC (Destroyer Of Hideous Camaros). We've driven lots of Mustangs and hundreds of laps on this track and never, ever, have we been able to go so fast or experience such amazing g-forces. The test driver/author was exhausted and fatigued at day's end.
Makin' Tracks
To get things rolling, we spent the day at our 1.35-mile, 13-turn road course in New Jersey (which should be open to the public around spring of 2006) with two different Mustangs that were waiting here in the MM&FF stable, namely Superfly DOHC--our trusty '97 Cobra--and Primedia Associate Editor Scott Parker's '99 GT. Driving chores went to your faithful author, while our die-hard staff worked hard to calculate lap times, check tire pressure and tire temperature, and to make darn sure the wheels didn't fly off when I left the pits.
Our plan was to run each set on both cars, trying different pressure settings and recording lap times and our opinions as we went.
Superfly, DOHC, proudly sports Kenny Brown control arms, Tokico adjustable dampers (five-way rear shocks and its unique adjustable street/drag struts), HP Motorsports caster/camber plates, and for this test, Konig 18x9.5-inch Beyond five-spoke wheels. The super Snake gets up to speed with a hopped-up SHM short-block with 11.5:1 compression, a quartet of Comp cams, heads ported by Dave Jack, and a Paul's High Performance intake. After being tuned by JDM Engineering, the Snake made over 360 hp at the wheels. The DOHC is backed with a T56 and an 8.8 with steep 4.88 gears. It slows from breakneck speed quite easily with big 14-inch Roush/Alcon front brakes that could halt the Space Shuttle.
The GT, on the other hand, is more modestly fashioned with Tokico lowering springs and D-spec dampers, an MRT H-pipe, a K&N filter, a ported upper plenum, and Red Line synthetic fluids throughout. It has about 120 less horsepower at the tires, but benefits from Stainless Steel Brakes Corporation Force 10 four-piston aluminum calipers with 13-inch rotors. Out back, we installed the SSBC Cobra 12-inch brake conversion so we had world-class stopping power. Quaker State high-temp brake fluid was used in both applications.
Testing was completed on our...
Testing was completed on our closed 1.35-mile, 13-turn road course. In prior testing (with Nitto's NT-555RII in 275/40-17 inches) Superfly recorded a best lap time of 1:25.75 seconds. During this test, our best lap of 1:20.29 came with the Nitto NT01s.
We chose 18x9.5-inch wheels from Konig. It's critical when picking your wheel/tire combo to make sure you have wide enough wheels for your low-profile rubber. With 275/35-18s, we knew we needed a 9.5-inch-wide wheel. The Konigs weighed in at 23.5 pounds, which is quite reasonable for such a large chunk of aluminum. The Beyond design, which seemed to be on every '05-up Mustang displayed at the '05 SEMA show, works equally well on SN-95 Mustangs, as you can see from the accompanying photos.
To ensure we had enough petroleum and octane for the day, Sunoco Race Fuels generously provided us with 55 gallons of GT unleaded 100-octane gasoline. This not only saved us from having to leave the track to refuel, but it also ensured our heat-soaked engines would not be prone to detonation, even after numerous 20-minute banzai sessions on track. The stuff worked as advertised.
On to the track.