Zippy's 98

[Zippy]

Strapped Down

Well after all the suspension mods were done.... it was time for some horsepower.
Since the car had a supercharger on it, a lot of things needed to be changed over and done to the motor to get it back to stock form.
New Belt, relocated the battery from the trunk to under the hood, reinstalled the AC.
Did fresh plugs, new to me Cold Air intake, new to me BBK Catted front pipe w/ a Flowmaster Cat back.
Bought a brand new set of Steeda underdrive pulley's to go along with the BBK Throttle body.
The car made a surprising number of 263/303 at the tire on 91.
Tuned by DCT, he whipped up two tunes for me, a street tune with some extra timing, and a track tune. Want to be able to hold my right foot down on the floor all day long without worrying about it at all.
Going to be adding a Upper Plem and a new JLT Cold Air to it this season. Will also be tuning it for 94 to see if we can't get some more ponies out of this little 2v.
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[Zippy]

Video of one of the dyno pulls. She sounds sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

[Zippy]

First Track Day
Well... after all this work to bring the car back to life... it was finally that time to take it to the track to see how it does!
A huge thanks to ZR for the long hours of sorting through this car. I think we had 75% of the car apart to get it to this point. Long nights of wrenching and working weekends to get this ready to go for track day.
Covid made things really difficult with getting parts in a timely manner... or even just getting the parts.
Really thankful to all the sponsors of TMC and all the people that had a hand in helping me get this car back on the road.
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I have done a lot of laps in the passenger seat at TMP... but only a handful behind the wheel. It certainly is a totally unique experience driving your own car at the track for the first time. Anxiety was through the roof!
Started off in the rookie group in the morning to make sure the car was good ... and most importantly the driver was good! I was thankful to have John, the previous owner of the car, able to come out to the event and ride shot gun. He was a HUGE help in showing me where I need to put the car. I picked up on it quickly and jumped into the intermediate group in the afternoon.
I have a pretty good understanding of what to do behind the wheel, just need more laps to put it all together consistently. More track days are ahead for the DECH... that's for sure.
Here are some pics of it rounding the final corner.
Also a pic of John & I. (Me Left / John Right)

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[Zippy]

Troubles in DECH land

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It wasn't always flowers and sunshine working on this car up to this point. Had some major hurdles to get over.
On one of the first test drives, there was a wicked noise coming from the middle/rear of the car... Turns out whoever welded in the driveshaft loop... didn't center it. Every hard right hand corner the rear end would move over just enough to make it so the weight on the driveshaft would touch it. It sounded really really bad.
Cut it out and sound gone!

Another teething problem we had with the car was it popping out of 4th gear. John, the previous owner, mentioned it to me prior to me buying the car. It never ever did it on the street... however, on the first track day, it did it a handful of times.
As I was buying parts to fix the trans, which cost an arm and a leg btw! I was able to find a spare T-45 from a reliable source. Going to hold onto both T-45's while I own the car as it's getting harder and harder to find good transmissions.

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The last major hurdle we had was inside the diff. When doing the Cobra Brake upgrade on the back, we found that the rear axles were smoked. Also found a couple of bad bearings inside the diff.
Replaced axle bearings w/ seals & bearings inside the diff. Raided the stock pile of parts we had kicking around to get me back on my feet. Shout out to Da'silva's for rushing me axles.
Doctor ZR had me fixed up in no time.
Next Diff upgrade will be a T2R diff and 31spline axles. (maybe next year)

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[Zippy]

New Wheels

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The DECH is getting some new street wheels this summer. Wanted to change it up. I was up for tires on my old Cobra Rims, so I figure this is the time to change up the rims.
Found this set of Enkei GTC02 rims for sale... was going back and forth with the seller on price for a week and a half. Finally pulled the trigger this afternoon and picked them up.
They are pretty much brand new, had tires on them and taken off. Never driven on.
Hoping they look good *crosses fingers and toes*
For people wondering they are a 18x9 square.
Going to buy a square tire setup for it so I can rotate them front to back for longer life. My aggressive camber will not be kind to front tires

Couldn't find a picture of these on a mustang... but to give you an idea of what they will look like...

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[Zippy]

New track rubber ordered!
Shout out to Fast Ed for making it painless once again on buying stuff.

Went with the 255/40/17 Nankang Ar1's for this season.

Should fit really well on my 17x9 Cobra R wheels.
Should be no BS on fender clearance /strut clearance. SUPER EXCITEDDDDDD!!!

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[Zippy]

Spare Tire Solution
Well it came to my attention last summer... how in the world am I suppose to put a spare tire onto the front of my car if I got a flat?
With the new brake setup, my old spare wasn't even close to fitting, the 17inch cobra rims barely clear it as is.
At the time, I wouldn't be able to put a rear on the front, then the spare on the back, as I was running a 10.5 on the rear.
The idea came to put on a S550 spare on the front.
Was able to purchase one for a great price and did some mock up.
Was able to make it work with a small spacer on the front. Looks pretty good for a spare too!
It fits perfectly in the rear where the spare goes.
Great peace of mind that if something happened... I'm not stuck waiting for a tow truck.

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[Zippy]

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Can't wait to get the car out of storage... won't be long now...
Major upgrades coming in the spring!

[Zippy]

Bought some aftermarket lug nuts to better suit the new wheels.
SALT GO AWAY ALREADY!

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[Zippy]

Messing around with my new to me race seat. Looked for along time for a halo style seat. Found one on an insane deal.
Can't wait to mount it in the car. This will be only used on track days as I don't think it'll be that comfortable on the street.
I really like the fact that the halo's unbolt from the seat so that it is safe to drive on the street.
Purchased new side mounts for it as well as a new seat base for it.
Will have to monkey around with it to figure out where I want it in the car.

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