Cobra Suspension Test

The suspension upgrades from Maximum Motorsports got a nice workout on Aug 20th at Pacific Raceways. The forecast called for rain so I didn't expect to excercise the suspension much, but it turned out to be a mostly dry day.

I'm very happy with the results; there is much less body motion and the -3.6 degrees of camber in the front really helps with the understeer and tire wear is much more even (instead of wearing out the outside edges).

Here is a 10 minute video from that day; I had a little fun by adding some of the common thoughts that go through my mind as I'm driving.



Next week I'm taking the Cobra to Sears Point (Infineon) Raceway. I'm very excited because I've never driven at this track! It's about a 1000 mile drive from Seattle; I'll be towing it on my trailer.

Here is the track:


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Here is my travel route from Seattle to Sonoma:


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Cobra Cooling and a Track Day at PIR

Happily, the cooling modifications have been mostly successful. After testing at Seattle's Pacific Raceways showed consistent mid 230F water temperatures, I pushed the car a bit by moving from the 3.1" supercharger pulley to a 2.94" pulley (gaing over 30HP) and took the car to Portland International Raceway where it was around 90F. And, the Cobra didn't like it so much! Water temperature easily rose to above 240F which is dangerously close to the 245F "limp mode" cutoff which really is a big damper on fun! Fortunately, by driving with the heat on full blast, the water temps dropped below 240F. It was a fun and HOT day! Below is some in car footage from the event. I'm chasing an Ultima supercar; which is always very satisfying to hang with such cars in a lowly Mustang :)



We've since then dropped back to the 3.1" pulley and added some heat shroudinng around the radiator to help air move more efficiently through it.

Now that the heat issues are resolved we are also replacing the stock shocks, Steeda street/sport springs and Steeda camber plates with a Maximum Motorsports coilover suspension.





On Aug 20th I'll have a chance to try out the new suspension at Pacific Raceways and shake out the car before our early September trip to Sears Point in Sonoma (my first time there!).