Project Budget 400WHP S197 Mustang Track Car: Part 11 – Track Test

It is finally time to take our project car to the track and evaluate all of the components and work we have done up until this point.

The goal of Project Budget 400whp track car is to demonstrate that the 2005-2014 “S197” Mustang is not only a fantastic platform for an inexpensive track car, but that it is arguably the best and least expensive way to have reliable track car with over 400whp.

We have talked about how great handling the S197 chassis is, and how easy and inexpensive they are to upgrade.  In Part-2 and Part-3, we showed how easy it was to achieve our power goals of over 400whp.  In Part-4, Part-5, and Part-6; we covered an inexpensive way to make the Mustang handle well and still be street-able.

In Part-8 we upgraded the aero with the BOSS 302 splitter and Steeda wing to give our Mustang the same aero package that I won a lot of races with driving for Roush in the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge racing series.  In Part 9, we put track-focused wheels and tires on, and Part-10 we upgraded the shift linkage.  Now we were ready to hit the track and see how all of these parts came together.

We took our car to Palm Beach International Raceway for the shakedown and evaluation of our car.  We have tested multiple cars here including Project E90 M3 and comparing it to a S550 Mustang on the same Continental Tires.  While I had a lot of confidence and experience in most of the parts we chose, I decided to make a swaybar change simply off of street driving, which doesn’t always translate to the dynamics on the track.  But let’s see how it worked out.