When the SCCA announced the club spec mustang class, I knew I was going to build a mustang. I bought the cleanest one I could find nearby within a few days of the class becoming official. I ended up picking up an 06 with just under 80k miles. No rust, and a couple mods i was going to do anyway.
Pretty sure the previous owner spent most of his time sitting next to this car which is fine with me.
Parts mountain! This is almost everything that is allowed in a CSM car.
Oh hell yeah! Led light strips already installed. Can i get protested for this?
Pretty clean, and rust free.
This took an hour to remove the entire rear suspension. I am so glad i did not buy the cheapest car i could find, which is how i typically operate.
No rust.
I expect the diff bushing to be the only difficult part of the rear suspension install. 
We will have to find out tomorrow.
You are correct about the suspension upgrade, that one bushing is the most difficult part. What wheels are those, size and brand?
The wheels are enkei pf01 in 18x9.5. the class spec has a minimum wheel weight, and spec size. This wheel seems to be popular right now for the class. Tires are Goodyear F1 Supercar 3 (220 Treadwear), size 275/40R18.
Installation being the reverse of removal, I didn't really take any pics of the install in the rear. Everything went in without incident, and the car is truly a joy to work on.
I decided against doing the spherical bearing in the differential at this time. This car is supposed to be on track in just over two weeks, and the diff bushing is in perfect shape.
I forgot to mention that the car came with wheel locks. I took them off and threw them in the trash where they belong. I ended up grabbing this set from harbor freight, and they worked very well.
The wheels look really good in the back.
Everything in the front came out without incident. I am not sure if I have ever had a car that didn't have PB blaster as one of the main tools.
Even the dust shields are perfect.
Here are the only parts so far That actually needed to be replaced.
Thank you stranger. Anti seize on the brake hardware is a random act of kindness.
All the old stuff is out, and ready for install of the new parts.
Next up I will need to build the strut assemblies, before putting the front back together.
My favorite part about the Mustang is the availability of parts. The roll bar I bought is from Maximum Motorsports. There are many choices out there, and many are not good. These are the mounting plates that come with the bar, and they are very nicely made.
What rear bar is that? My Whiteline has the bar itself attached to the axle with the endlinks going to the chassis:
The swaybars are the stranoparts spec kit. I believe they are built by umi.
Car looks good underneath. It's a good reminder that spending more $ upfront on a better car can pay off as a project progresses.
When I'm 4 hrs into a 1/2 hr job due to siezed/broken bolts I don't care how much I "saved" buying a cheap car to start with. I am constantly trying to remind myself of this fact whenever I'm browsing used cars.
Front suspension went together with no problems. I set the front swaybar to middle, and left the shocks on soft. Camber plates are max camber/caster.
Sat the car down on the new underpinnings. Looking good.
These are the Maximum Motorsports mounts for their rollbar. These are the main reason I went with the MM bar. Got them painted up, and ready to bolt in.
Budget recoup?
Seats out ready to start fitting in the bar.
With the stock supports out, I had to do some scraping of the seam sealer.
First test fitting.
Scraped away the sound deadening on the rear wheel well.
Painting the roll bar.
Good looking blue.
Welded and painted. 
Final test fit. You never know what the heat will do, but in my case it seemed to pretty much stay put. 
View of the plates in the wheel well.
No more test fitting! It's in.
I have used a bunch of different belts over the years, and I prefer Schroth. 2" lap, and shoulder for hans.
The seats that I am putting in the Mustang.
I have learned to double check the centerline of seat mounts. Sometimes the bolt holes are drilled in the center of the mount, but the mount is not centered relative to the steering wheel. In my case the mount is square to the wheel. I still now mark the centerline of the steering wheel, and measure from that centerline for drilling.
Marking/drilling for side mount brackets.
Test fitting the seat. It fits well, and doesn't hit anything and slides nicely. Unfortunately there does not seem to be a good way to mount a sub belt to the floor in this car. I decided to build a piece to wrap the sub belt around that will bolt to the factory seat mount channel.
The ears that will bolt into the floor area.
Here is the piece.
Installed in the car.
Fits nice.
I bought a cricut machine. I want to do a bunch of cool graphics on this car, so it seemed like a good idea to just do it myself. 
First try cutting my own vinyl. I will probably go bigger.
I already had the one mount for my phone, but I bought the second mount for my Garmin catalyst. The mounts are made by proclip. I have a bunch of stuff from them in my other cars.
Im pretty happy with these mounts.
The car is "ready." Although I forgot to take pics of the passenger side seat install, it was pretty much like the drivers side. The car is now ready for it's first event coming up at Road America. The brakes are Hawk DTC60 front and rear.
Can't wait to hear how it performs!
is the class a time-trial class, Autox class or ??
were you able to compete with the car before the changes to have a baseline of sorts?
Curious why do you have different seats?
The class is time trial, and autox. My first time with it on track was at it's first time trial event at Road America yesterday. The car did very well, but still needs a little development. The seats don't match because I had them laying around from two previous projects. I made a swaybar adjustment this morning to try and eliminate some oversteer tendency in fast corners.
This car really was a joy to drive on track. The stock brakes are not really up to the task of slowing this heavy girl down on track. Even with DTC60 pads front and rear. As a result I was limited to no more than two flying laps in a row, and never really put a lap down that I was happy with. That said I was pleasantly surprised at the lap I was able to put down, and I will be back to Road America in a couple weeks hoping to go a little quicker. As the video shows, the wind buffeting is extreme at speeds above 110mph. I will probably put the rear seats back in and see if that changes anything.
Awesome! Way to send it through the "Kink"!
I really wish I could have made this event... Indy region used this as the season/series opener.
I decided I was not going to run there without a roll cage and 6pt harness, so thats what I'm doing now.
Way to send it through the "Kink"!
I agree. That looks like a lot of fun. Last time I was there we only had four gears in our four cylinder Lemons Mustang, so slow, you are moving.
The 05-09 cars are a solid easy button for a track car or dual purpose toy. Now with a series and recipe for success, the secret is out.
Torsens aren't legal are they? They transform the car almost as much the suspension upgrade.
We can do carbon fiber clutch discs on the stock differential. I am planning on doing that soon, as I could feel a little slipping/one wheel peel. This car is a riot, and I am excited for a great season, and to help grow this class. Next national tour event is going to be NCM in May. I am planning on doing the 14" brembo kit before that event, and some general improvements.
So you can do a Big Brake Conversion in the CSM class? On some cars that's a 3-4k buck hit.
The Ford racing kit is allowed part number m2300-s. If you buy the kit, it's $1500+. However I bought the components separately, and it was less than $1000.
In reply to Racebrick :
Got it. Saw that when I started (yer a troublemaker...) looking at the SCCA rules for CSM. Dammit.
I hope to see you out there.
Yeah those GT500 take off big brake kits can be found for a few hundred dollars. Or just buy them from Rock Auto. The next step up is the S550 Brembos, I find the four piston setup works just fine for my horsepower level.
My S197 project
I just picked up the GT500 Brembo "Autospecialty" kit from Powerstop for $237 on Amazon. It included the calipers, rotors and some crap pads but its 1/2 than the "big brake kit" that powerstop sells with the same stuff just colored in red.
Part number is KCOE4547. Surprisingly Amazon didnt require a core charge on it. Im sure someone screwed that one up.
That's a pretty good setup. I opted for the Ford racing parts, even though reman parts can be had much cheaper. Mainly to stop any issues with some scrub protesting me over a technicality. I did the front brakes in a little over an hour, since this car is in such good shape.
I was back out at Road America yesterday for a track day. My development goals were the following.
1. Test the new brake setup
2. Improve upon my best lap time
3. Try to eliminate the buffeting over 115mph
4. Make some shock changes to get to a solid baseline setup.
The weather was cool, and wet. Not ideal for me, but so it goes. New brakes were a definite improvement. I'm running hawk dtc60 front and rear. Between traffic on track, the weather, and setup changes, I did not improve my lap time from two weeks ago. I felt like the car was dialed in for the last session, but it started sprinkling again so I didn't get to find out.
Here is where I ended up after trying a few different things to direct some air around the windows and mirrors. It's just drinking straws under blue tape. I will 3d print a few prototypes and do more testing next week.
The Garmin catalyst had my theoretical best lap almost two seconds faster than my previous best, which is about what I was predicting. Confirming my pace was faster even if I never got a complete lap that was both dry, and traffic free. The buffeting was much better with the aero mods to the mirrors, but not quite good enough for me.
The axle seal started leaking from the LR, which is no big deal since I am going to repack the diff which new shims soon as well. Then I need to build a support trailer before the pull to NCM in just under 3 weeks.
Got the car out a few more times in the past couple weeks. Was on DTC60 pads front and rear for Blackhawk Farms. This track is great for testing brakes, it is easily the hardest on brakes of the tracks I drive in the midwest. I did end up getting a little fade at the end of one of the sessions. Here is a video of my fast lap.
I ended up switching to raybestos st43 pads in front, and porterfield R4e in rear. Over the last weekend I was at NCM for SCCA TT. This was my first time on this track, and it was quite challenging. I never really felt like I put a lap together, but I felt like I was starting to figure the track out. Here is my fast lap.
