I am continually impressed by the CSM concept.
I don't know why but it seems a lot better than the previous spec concepts.
Photography by Chris Tropea
More parts on the way mean a fresh baseline. Before we dive further into our Club Spec Mustang’s development, an important step: an updated baseline at Circuit Florida.
We’ve been doing a lot of testing lately at Circuit Florida, and we’re finding that the smooth, predictable surface makes for exceptional repeatability. As a result, it’s a great place to set up or shakedown a car. We also needed some fresh VBox data for our Club Spec Mustang.
And the verdict? Pretty impressive, despite having a few glaring shortcomings.
It’s fair to say the Mustang’s weaknesses were no surprise, and probably the greatest one at this point is the stock driver’s seat. It’s simply not up to track or really even proper autocross duty at this point.
The capabilities of the car are such that you expend a lot of energy just holding yourself in place on the flat, slippery seat, which compromises performance and safety.
Luckily, we have a proper seat, roll bar and six-point harness on the way, which will bring the car up to the SCCA’s Time Attack Level 2 safety spec. We won’t be surprised to see actual time improvements just from the addition of proper driver restraint.
As for the rest of the car, it continues to impress, despite its humble countenance. We turned a 1:34.72 at Circuit Florida, a full 2.5 seconds faster than the stock 2025 Subaru BRZ tS that we recently tested there. Honestly, we didn’t expect the Mustang to outrun the BRZ by much, if at all. The BRZ/86 twins consistently punch above their weight class, and are sneaky fast and easy to wring to 101%.
Well, it turns out, so are 2006 Mustangs with just a tiny bit of massaging–meaning the base SCCA Club Spec Mustang kit already installed.
We expected the Mustang to have the power advantage, but the Subaru should have been faster through the twisties. The Mustang simply dominated in nearly all phases.
Power? Check. While 300 horsepower may not be a lot by today’s standards, the Mustang 4.6-liter V8 and wide, long gearset propels it down the straight with authority and allows you to run third gear to nearly 100 mph. The Ford enjoyed as much as a 7-mph advantage at the end of some of Circuit Florida’s straights.
Handling? Also check. The Mustang had some impressive runs through corners, pasting the driver against the door or center console at up to 1.1g and sustaining more than 1g through longer corners. The BRZ could barely manage to peak over 1g and sustain about 0.95g.
Brakes? Okay two out of three isn’t bad. Actually, the Mustang’s brakes aren’t horrible … for a while.
With Hawk DTC 60 pads in place, the Mustang can produce strong deceleration rates, but the small rotors and calipers have no thermal capacity and getting even a full lap of threshold braking out of this setup is tricky. Luckily, we have a set of the rules-allowed SVT front brakes sitting on the shelf: 14-inch front rotors and four-piston Brembo calipers. Now that we have this baseline, we can install them.
The other glaring shortcoming that we’ve needed to solve on the Mustang is the completely smoked differential. It allows the Mustang to produce an epic one-wheel peel coming out of most corners and, well, this certainly limits acceleration. I’m pleased to report we have an Eaton Truetrac differential sitting on the shelf right next to those sexy brakes.
So, now, finally, we can take our Club Spec Mustang to the next level.
I am continually impressed by the CSM concept.
I don't know why but it seems a lot better than the previous spec concepts.
I like that the required suspension upgrades are an off-the-shelf Koni based setup rather than a custom $4300 Penske based setup, like Club Spec Miata does, as well as their tapping into affordable and common aftermarket allowances to create parity between the variants.
Even more enticing would be if they opened it up to the 2011-2014 V6 cars too, although that would presumably require some extra parity efforts on their part. A sporting fun second daily driver that manages to get worse fuel economy than my (larger, heavier, and more powerful) F150 is a tough sell though.
It's a great formula. My local track runs a one off locally hosted time trial series based off a very similiar formula. The only difference is they use the American Iron Shocks instead of the konis because they were doing this before the SCCA made their format.
In reply to Driven5 :
There is a lot less variance in the Penske shocks versus the old Bilsteins, which is why they stopped the "off the shelf" Bilsteins because teams would order multiple sets and dyno them to find the pick of the litter. I imagine Koni shocks will probably end up the same.
Tom1200 said:I am continually impressed by the CSM concept.
I don't know why but it seems a lot better than the previous spec concepts.
FWIW, I hear a lot of questions and comments about this project. People seem rather intrigued, and it’s a fun car to run.
In reply to Stueck0514 :
I imagine that build tolerances are also more critical on non-adjustable (Bilstein vs Penske) than adjustable (Koni) spec shocks.
I have also put a ton of street miles on the Mustang, driving it to and from Circuit Florida and to the Ultimate Track Car Challenge and back and it is a good street car that is totally useable as a daily driver too.
I'd love to see what just the seat upgrade is worth. I've driven a bunch of student's cars that I think I could be a couple of seconds a lap faster in on Suika's tight tecnical track with a good seat.
A 911 turbo stands out in my memory as being particularly challenging due to the stock seat.
Driven5 said:I like that the required suspension upgrades are an off-the-shelf Koni based setup rather than a custom $4300 Penske based setup, like Club Spec Miata does, as well as their tapping into affordable and common aftermarket allowances to create parity between the variants.
Even more enticing would be if they opened it up to the 2011-2014 V6 cars too, although that would require some extra parity efforts on their part. A fun second daily driver that manages to get worse fuel economy than my F150 is a considerably tougher sell.
The Penskes are also the spec shock for the road racing SpecMX5 class, so that was a consideration as well. Ultimately I'm not sure how many people will continue to climb the prep ladder with these cars and go road racing, but at least one of the major investments transfers over.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
I've said it before but if I ever ditch the Foxbody this would be my pick as a replacement.
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