Re: Vorshlag 2011 Mustang GT 5.0 - auto-x/track build
continued from above
Vorshlag Not Buying 2015 Mustang
Yes, I know I have one on order (actually 2), and I'm disappointed that they aren't here yet. If we could have gotten the 2015 GT at least 8 weeks before SEMA we would have bought it, made some mods, and taken it to compete in the Optima event. But these cars, as everyone knows, were delayed. And they are a good bit heavier than promised.
Not gonna happen for 2014
For business reasons it just doesn't make sense for us to buy a 2015 Mustang right now - especially one that we aren't going to race. Spending $45K+ on a brand new car to then cut it up and ruin its value is nuts, but racing a 3800 pound car is equally as nuts, for us. We need an attention grabbing car to be campaigning, and the numbers just don't work for this new S550, for us. When the S550 "Body In White" is released, then we'll see. I also have a friend in the insurance business looking for a cheap 2015 Mustang for us - one with a front hit (I like the GT350 front bodywork better), a flood car or a "hard theft" recovery. This way we can MAKE IT LIGHTER without ruining the value of a $45,000 car.
Yes, it sucks that we won't own one - but we will still develop parts for these!
Honestly, we just cannot afford to purchase and own every car we want to develop parts for, so we'll be using customers' and testers' cars to develop the suspension parts, brake cooling, wheel sizes, camber plates and other parts Vorshlag is known for. We do this on lots of chassis. Stay tuned to see what we do with the 2015 Mustangs when they arrive at our shop. They are just NOW starting to arrive around the country... but our orders aren't scheduled to be built for weeks yet. It would have arrived sometime in November, well past SEMA. Funk that.
Other Recent S197 Work at Vorshlag
We're making good headway on Jamie Beck's 2013 Mustang GT, turning it from a street car into a dedicated (and class legal) road race car. The cage was wrapped up about 2 weeks ago and then I took it to Sherman, Texas to have our friends at Heritage work their paint magic.
After picking it up at Heritage and unloading it outside in the bright Texas sun it was blindingly bright. They did an excellent job and used a GALLON of paint on the inside, and spent 4 days prepping and spraying the interior, cage and trunk lid. The trunk lid and wing end plates were shot in 2 stage, water based, OEM matching white and the interior was super hard single stage paint.
Ryan has spent several days reassembling the car then getting the wiring harness de-pinned, wrapped, routed, and adding the mil-spec connectors at the front and rear bulkheads.
The defroster/heater core went back in and then the dash itself was mounted to the brackets that were welded to the dash bar. The center stack panel was from Watson Racing and Ryan is wiring in systems to use the toggle switches Jemie provided as well.
We have the main fire bottle mounted with dual pulls, one at the cowl (corner worker) and another at the center stack (driver). There is an additional Halatron 2.5 pound hand held fire bottle also being mounted in the cabin, to put out brush fires or other small flame ups that don't warrant blowing the on-board full fire system.
Ryan has worked on pro race teams in World Challenge and Daytona Prototypes, and his expertise there shows. Jamie comes from the battery industry, too, and once he spoke with Ryan they went a little further than normal on the electrical rework. Instead of re-using the fuseable links the factory uses at the power block fromt he stock battery location, we now have high amp/resettable circuit breakers in the engine bay, and a trick solid-state main power disconnect (kill switch) with dual kill switches - at the cowl and center stack.
New Steel Front Flares for our 2011 Mustang
Its no secret that I've never really loved the plastic flares we made for the front of our Mustang in 2013. We rushed the front flare job before the 2013 NASA Nationals, and after we had Heritage make steel rear flares the fronts in the Spring the front looked even worse...
Then I crashed the car at Road Atlanta and destroyed the plastic flares, so we "patched" them with plastic race roll and they look even worse. The difference front to back is alarming.
With our placement in the SEMA show in Ford's 50th Anniversary of the Mustang booth area, we had to step up our game. I asked our fab guys what they needed to make these flares in steel, and to look better, and they told me to buy these tools: an English wheel and a shrinker/stretcher. We already had the bead roller and welders needed.
So those tools arrived this week and Ryan got to town. The old plastic bits were unbolted and then he made the vertical arch piece, shown above at right. The main flare sections are made in 2 pieces, to match the factory fender - just bigger. The lower crescent moon shape vertical piece is nearly identical to the factory fender, with a rolled lower lip for strength and to give it a smooth edge. The upper flare section is all rolled out on the English wheel to get the curve right.
Lots of cutting, fitting and rolling later, the flare looked like the above shots. Then the old fender was cleared of paint at the flare joint and he spent time merging the 2 flare pieces (and somehow adding a radius to that joint?) and then joining them to the car. He is remaking the front portion as well, after he finished the main flares that weld to the fenders on both sides. The front portion will mount the the bumper cover, and might look a bit different. This has all got to be painted as well, so its a time crunch.
They look amazing, and I'm only sad I didn't get to see these coming together. Shop Manager Brad and I have been working night and day for the last two weeks at the new shop, getting the build-out done. We're really close, and have to be moved in by Oct 31st. We need to have Jamie's car and our Mustang done by Oct 25th, where we'll be running them at the Five Star Ford ECR track day. Then we start the move on the next day, the 26th, and have to be moved and operational in about 2 days. Then loaded up and headed to Vegas for SEMA by Nov 1st. So its going to be frantic!
Look for my next update... maybe right before we head to Vegas? Or maybe after SEMA/Optima are done. Its going to be tight!
What's Next?
Oct 25, 2014: Five Star Ford track day at ECR. We will be there hopefully with the finished fenders and paint on our Mustang with Amy giving some ride-alongs. This might be our last ECR event in this car ever... Come join us. You can sign up and pay here: link. More info on the Facebook Event Page. We will have our crew there for trackside maintenance, and they just repaved a huge swath of the track (Turn 5 to Turn 6), which should smooth out the worst of the bumps.
Oct 26, 2014: Vorshlag moves to its new location at 1703 Capital Ave, Plano, TX 75074. Our number should stay the same. It might be frantic for a few days, so we might have limited phone coverage for a few days that week.
Nov 4-7, 2014: SEMA Show! Look for our car in the 50th Anniversary of the Mustang Exhibit. We will be down to about 2 folks at the shop that week, as most of our guys are going to the SEMA show and OUSCI event (a different group of us is going to the PRI show in December).
Nov 8-9, 2014: 2014 Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational! Here is a breakdown with pictures and details about all of the USCA Drivers Invited to the 2014 OUSCI - link. Last time I looked we had 8:1 odds to win it all? I'm hoping to just finish in the top 10.
Until next time!
continued from above
Vorshlag Not Buying 2015 Mustang
Yes, I know I have one on order (actually 2), and I'm disappointed that they aren't here yet. If we could have gotten the 2015 GT at least 8 weeks before SEMA we would have bought it, made some mods, and taken it to compete in the Optima event. But these cars, as everyone knows, were delayed. And they are a good bit heavier than promised.
Not gonna happen for 2014
For business reasons it just doesn't make sense for us to buy a 2015 Mustang right now - especially one that we aren't going to race. Spending $45K+ on a brand new car to then cut it up and ruin its value is nuts, but racing a 3800 pound car is equally as nuts, for us. We need an attention grabbing car to be campaigning, and the numbers just don't work for this new S550, for us. When the S550 "Body In White" is released, then we'll see. I also have a friend in the insurance business looking for a cheap 2015 Mustang for us - one with a front hit (I like the GT350 front bodywork better), a flood car or a "hard theft" recovery. This way we can MAKE IT LIGHTER without ruining the value of a $45,000 car.
Yes, it sucks that we won't own one - but we will still develop parts for these!
Honestly, we just cannot afford to purchase and own every car we want to develop parts for, so we'll be using customers' and testers' cars to develop the suspension parts, brake cooling, wheel sizes, camber plates and other parts Vorshlag is known for. We do this on lots of chassis. Stay tuned to see what we do with the 2015 Mustangs when they arrive at our shop. They are just NOW starting to arrive around the country... but our orders aren't scheduled to be built for weeks yet. It would have arrived sometime in November, well past SEMA. Funk that.
Other Recent S197 Work at Vorshlag
We're making good headway on Jamie Beck's 2013 Mustang GT, turning it from a street car into a dedicated (and class legal) road race car. The cage was wrapped up about 2 weeks ago and then I took it to Sherman, Texas to have our friends at Heritage work their paint magic.
After picking it up at Heritage and unloading it outside in the bright Texas sun it was blindingly bright. They did an excellent job and used a GALLON of paint on the inside, and spent 4 days prepping and spraying the interior, cage and trunk lid. The trunk lid and wing end plates were shot in 2 stage, water based, OEM matching white and the interior was super hard single stage paint.
Ryan has spent several days reassembling the car then getting the wiring harness de-pinned, wrapped, routed, and adding the mil-spec connectors at the front and rear bulkheads.
The defroster/heater core went back in and then the dash itself was mounted to the brackets that were welded to the dash bar. The center stack panel was from Watson Racing and Ryan is wiring in systems to use the toggle switches Jemie provided as well.
We have the main fire bottle mounted with dual pulls, one at the cowl (corner worker) and another at the center stack (driver). There is an additional Halatron 2.5 pound hand held fire bottle also being mounted in the cabin, to put out brush fires or other small flame ups that don't warrant blowing the on-board full fire system.
Ryan has worked on pro race teams in World Challenge and Daytona Prototypes, and his expertise there shows. Jamie comes from the battery industry, too, and once he spoke with Ryan they went a little further than normal on the electrical rework. Instead of re-using the fuseable links the factory uses at the power block fromt he stock battery location, we now have high amp/resettable circuit breakers in the engine bay, and a trick solid-state main power disconnect (kill switch) with dual kill switches - at the cowl and center stack.
New Steel Front Flares for our 2011 Mustang
Its no secret that I've never really loved the plastic flares we made for the front of our Mustang in 2013. We rushed the front flare job before the 2013 NASA Nationals, and after we had Heritage make steel rear flares the fronts in the Spring the front looked even worse...
Then I crashed the car at Road Atlanta and destroyed the plastic flares, so we "patched" them with plastic race roll and they look even worse. The difference front to back is alarming.
With our placement in the SEMA show in Ford's 50th Anniversary of the Mustang booth area, we had to step up our game. I asked our fab guys what they needed to make these flares in steel, and to look better, and they told me to buy these tools: an English wheel and a shrinker/stretcher. We already had the bead roller and welders needed.
So those tools arrived this week and Ryan got to town. The old plastic bits were unbolted and then he made the vertical arch piece, shown above at right. The main flare sections are made in 2 pieces, to match the factory fender - just bigger. The lower crescent moon shape vertical piece is nearly identical to the factory fender, with a rolled lower lip for strength and to give it a smooth edge. The upper flare section is all rolled out on the English wheel to get the curve right.
Lots of cutting, fitting and rolling later, the flare looked like the above shots. Then the old fender was cleared of paint at the flare joint and he spent time merging the 2 flare pieces (and somehow adding a radius to that joint?) and then joining them to the car. He is remaking the front portion as well, after he finished the main flares that weld to the fenders on both sides. The front portion will mount the the bumper cover, and might look a bit different. This has all got to be painted as well, so its a time crunch.
They look amazing, and I'm only sad I didn't get to see these coming together. Shop Manager Brad and I have been working night and day for the last two weeks at the new shop, getting the build-out done. We're really close, and have to be moved in by Oct 31st. We need to have Jamie's car and our Mustang done by Oct 25th, where we'll be running them at the Five Star Ford ECR track day. Then we start the move on the next day, the 26th, and have to be moved and operational in about 2 days. Then loaded up and headed to Vegas for SEMA by Nov 1st. So its going to be frantic!
Look for my next update... maybe right before we head to Vegas? Or maybe after SEMA/Optima are done. Its going to be tight!
What's Next?
Oct 25, 2014: Five Star Ford track day at ECR. We will be there hopefully with the finished fenders and paint on our Mustang with Amy giving some ride-alongs. This might be our last ECR event in this car ever... Come join us. You can sign up and pay here: link. More info on the Facebook Event Page. We will have our crew there for trackside maintenance, and they just repaved a huge swath of the track (Turn 5 to Turn 6), which should smooth out the worst of the bumps.
Oct 26, 2014: Vorshlag moves to its new location at 1703 Capital Ave, Plano, TX 75074. Our number should stay the same. It might be frantic for a few days, so we might have limited phone coverage for a few days that week.
Nov 4-7, 2014: SEMA Show! Look for our car in the 50th Anniversary of the Mustang Exhibit. We will be down to about 2 folks at the shop that week, as most of our guys are going to the SEMA show and OUSCI event (a different group of us is going to the PRI show in December).
Nov 8-9, 2014: 2014 Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational! Here is a breakdown with pictures and details about all of the USCA Drivers Invited to the 2014 OUSCI - link. Last time I looked we had 8:1 odds to win it all? I'm hoping to just finish in the top 10.
Until next time!
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