AJ's American Iron 99 Mustang road race build. Surge tank install

[AJ Hartman]

car weighed in at 2995 in post race tech (me in it with a half tank of gas). Hoping for a little lighter next season since I am underpowered as is.

[doug]

car has come a long way.. awesome work.

[sil80wis]

this is a proper build thread...def love this mustang

i feel like i have seen this car at pocono i just cant find pics of it...will def be seeing you out there this season

[012.5RS]

car looks nice man, and ive always been a gm guy...

Originally Posted by Ciotti

Watch the first 60 seconds of this and you'll learn everything you need to know about the American Iron series

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB51MpEFWCc

the orange foxbody is hauling some serious ass...

[ambitiousCK]

~1:05......whats up with 3-4 cars going off in the second vid lol Def looks like a ton of fun though

[AJ Hartman]

been spending pretty much all of my time on removing weight off the front of the car. I cut out the factory rad support and deleted the ABS motor. Hooked up an adjustable proportioning valve while the brake lines were open. Took the wiring harness out and removed any dead end, or un needed wires, and re routed it across the bottom of the radiator mount. Future plans include ducting the radiator out the hood so I moved the factory overflow to the drivers side. Nothing really major, just a bunch of little things that will make the car quicker. I removed approx 20lbs from in front of the front wheels, but the addition of the strut tower brace and upper rail supports from the lower door hinge added about 12. So all that work I'm only about 8lbs lighter, but its 8 lbs off the nose and every little bit helps. Next up is a nice big splitter, and paint. If theres time before the first race I wan't to redo the brake ducting at the hub to be more efficient. Keeping up with the whole low budget thing, the only thing I had to buy was a little bit of brake line, some fittings, and the prop valve and some misc stuff like brake fluid. Only spent about $80.

[AJ Hartman]

Took the car out to an auto-x to feel it out. Every thing felt good so I'm pretty good to go for the season opener at NJMP on April 16-17. I finally got my splitter almost done. Here's some pictures so far. And yes, I made it out of plywood for several reasons. Its relatively strong, very easily accessible, easy to work with, and cheap. A sheet of alumalite, or alumacore is a couple hundred bucks. With the vulnerability of splitters, I'll make it out of something cheaper to replace. you can see my foot prints on the splitter. I can stand on one side of the splitter and bounce up and down and the whole front of the car bounces up and down so I feel its plenty strong enough.

[AJ Hartman]

Originally Posted by sil80wis

this is a proper build thread...def love this mustang

i feel like i have seen this car at pocono i just cant find pics of it...will def be seeing you out there this season

I raced there last season around the middle of july. If you go back a page or 2 I posted the video of that race. I will be racing there again this summer on July 16-17. Let me know if you are gonna make it out. You can always come out and run an HPDE on a very fast, and fun track.

[AJ Hartman]

Paint is done. Just some before and after shots. The top is staying black. I'm really happy with how the shaved side scoops turned out along with everything else. up next is finishing the splitter, putting everything back together, getting my numbers and decals made and put on, and then all those little things like changing all the fluids before the first race in 2 weeks.

[Teku18]

Car looks sick dude. Love the color.

[DelayedZ]

Wow car looks great!

[lownslow95]

Wow...color looks amazing. This is one of the few members build threads that I have read the entire thing. In for more updates.

[AJ Hartman]

Thanks guys. Its at the point where everything is starting to come together and all the work is starting to pay off. Its funny how lownslow95 said he read the whole thing cause I actually just re-read the whole thing myself. Its come a long way and even tho I am still underpowered for my class, I have a good shot at winning the whole thing this year with the pace I showed the last race of last year. In the beginning of this build I wanted to try and keep track of how much money I have into it to show it doesn't cost a fortune to go racing, but didn't really keep up on it. I did a quick run down of everything I could remember, rounded up to the nearest $100 and I'm around $6200 to right where I am now. I don't think thats too bad considering I'm running with cars that have 3 times that into their car.

First race is in 2 weeks so don't expect to many build updates, but I will be updating after races with videos. I already bought a Mach 1 motor that I will be slowly building up over the season to drop in next winter. More on that later.

[AJ Hartman]

Still have to finish some smaller details but here it is together.

[Chris B.]

I can't wait to see it at NJMP soon!

[qbcsvt]

Amazing. New Lights or tinted lights would make this car even better.

Love the color.

- amyn

[DelayedZ]

Originally Posted by AJ Hartman

Still have to finish some smaller details but here it is together.

Looks absolutely great, its come together so nice!

[AJ Hartman]

Thanks guys.

@ Chris B.
Are you going to be at NJMP the 16th or 17th?

And I will be smoking the lights. Just not very high on my priority list right now. I stopped by my vinyl guy and am having him cut me out some numbers and other decals. Next pictures it will be with a better camera, the car will be stickered up and clean. I'm almost as excited to get the car done as I am excited to race it.

[AJ Hartman]

Tinted the lights.

[motorvated]

Wow this build is awesome! Great job