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Next phase for the 66 coupe

139K views 444 replies 71 participants last post by  Shaun @ Street or Track 
#1 ·
A series of events and improvements to my 66 test car made me step back, take another hit from the go fast crack pipe and decide to take the car to the next level.
  • Year after year the car (and me) has become more and more capable in the corners. Corner speeds are a lot higher than they used to be with less suspension and less tire.
  • The brakes are now at a truly impressive level. Glowing red rotors and stopping distances 50' shorter at some tracks. This puts me closer to the kitty litter/walls before putting on the binders.
  • The wiring has become a cobbled together mess. It finally resulted in a fire while on track in October filing the car with nasty black smoke.
  • Although the 289 made 300rwhp it just wasn't enough.
So with a long Michigan winter and my ADD I decided I needed to take the car to the next level in safety, power and reliability.
  • Install a full cage. With the addition of our 70 Fastback family cruiser there will be no need for the 66 to perform dual duty as the street portion of our Street or Track test car. I can go full bonkers with the 66 and build the track car I've always wanted it to be.
  • Install a new motor. I collected parts for years to build my own motor but decided on a crate from Ford Racing. Unless a better deal comes along before I'm ready to order it I'm going with the Ford Racing 363. $8000 for 500hp with a 2 year warranty is a great deal.
  • Re-wire the entire car. It was extremely satisfying to cut out all that crispy old wiring!
  • Ditch the stock gauges and install a full selection of accurate gauges so I can monitor things and hopefully protect that new motor.
So I sold the 289 along with pretty much everything that was bolted to it:


Gutted the interior. This is what I started with:




The roll bar was an ok place to hook the shoulder belts to but far from a full cage. The door bars will run into the door cavity so I hacked out the inner sheet metal of the doors. I removed a total of 113lbs of glass, window mechanism's, sheet metal, sound deadner and brackets:


I mini-tubed the rear wheel arches. I should be able to fit a 9.5" wide wheel and a 275 tire. I have plans to flare the car and have 2 sets of Hoosier's to use up so I may not modify my existing wheels now to be wider. I'll likely wait until the flares are on and do it once. Here is a link to a step by step process - http://www.streetortrack.com/Relocat...ches-p-15.html

For the cage I knew I wanted to hire 'the man'. I've bent and welded tubing but something this critical is better left up to a pro. I searched all over for a few months and finally found Chris Childs practically on my doorstep. Chris owns Angry Sheep Motorsports and builds lots of club racer cars as well as cars for GM and Chrysler. We had a few consultations and I dropped the car off last week. Its coming along nicely:








Pro driver at the wheel:
 
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#417 ·
Dropped the motor off at Survival Motorsports today. On initial inspection Barry thinks a rod let go.

Most of the motor looks trashed unfortunately. The block may be salvageable with a sleeve, the crank may get saved, maybe one head. The rest is door stops and paperweights.









 
#418 ·
Long time no update, these things take time.

I 'ummmed' and 'ahhhed' over what to do with the motor. Barry could sleeve the block and repair the heads and put it all back together with better components for sure. My dilemma is the typical 'while I'm in there'... You see, 500Hp seemed a lot when the car first got put together, after a short while it wasn't enough! I decided to upgrade things while in there. I took all the trashed parts to the Columbus Ohio swap meet we visit last Fall and a guy jumped on it as soon as it came out the trailer!

I also decided to switch engine builders. I worked with Barry on the 393 Cleveland in the '70 and while it is a fantastic motor it took quite a while. Before the lockdown/COVID issue we did have big testing plans on a few new products for 2020 so I was hustling to get those parts ready and needed an engine in a shorter time frame. I reached out to Tobias @ CHP. Tobias had sent quite a few customers to us for suspension and brakes to handle all the power he could build them so I wanted to return the favor. After a few discussions he really got it. Road race engine, sustained/regular trips to 6500rpm, must last longer than the 363 did! Oh, and make more power. I think he nailed it.

Decided on a Dart 351w block stroked to 427 with AFR 220 heads. Kept things simple with a 950 Holley Ultra XP carb. Didn't want to be fiddling with a laptop and fuel injection out at a race track when I'm surrounded with plenty of carb guru's. I'm OK with keeping it simple. The goal of the car is to develop and test components we design as well as scare myself and customers silly. I don't want to spend time messing with parts other than what we are developing. :)

Headers remain to be figured out. May end up having to make something.

Was planning on hitting Road America with the Northwoods Shelby club over July 4th. As of today it hasn't been cancelled but who knows...





 
#421 ·
Great build! What was the cam and compression?
So what new products don you have in the works for 2020?
 
#423 ·
'If' we can pull it off we have been working on something that I'm very excited about! We've been working on it for 3 years, I have no doubt it will be received well and will definately fill a needed void in the market!
 
#426 ·
Forgot to update this post with the latest motor's first outing:



Ran with Northwoods at Road America last summer. The new motor pulls like a freight train. Warp speed on the straights. 158mph into turn 1. I was braking early and tip-toeing through corners. Part out of practice and part wanting the motor to stay together. Luckily, just a few teething issues but it made it through 3 days.





 
#427 ·
So what is the new product? I feel like you are giving us a hint in the photos but I don’t see it.
I do see a PS pump so my electric steering guess was wrong.
Oh, the spindles? Any geometry changes with the spindles?
 
#428 ·
Our new Billet Big Spindles:

783056


 
#429 ·
Look at that! The tie rod is inside the wheel! Just what we need for wider tires....
this is a good alternative to the Maier Racing weldment units which an early version failed at an autocross event. Shaun’s spindles cost more than the Maier, but allow me to use my existing trans am brakes. So the SOT spindle will be a cheaper total install for me personally.
 
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#430 ·
Professionally designed and engineered to improve geometry, allow 17" wheels or larger to fit over the upper ball joint and steering arm, and, run serious brakes! 275-315 tires on 65-73 cars.

See our website for all the details.
 
#445 ·
An observation about that article is the car also has subframe connectors that look like they were there before the install of the rockers. If that car was used to form an opinion, then the SFC's may of had an effect on the outcome. I'd be curious to know the before and after opinion of vert rockers without SFC's. There also isn't any X bracing on the SFC's and they aren't tied into the floor, so the SFC's probably weren't as effective as they could've been.
Do you remember what you are using for an alternator bracket and crank-water pump pulley system?
Sure. Pulleys and power steering bracket are KRC, alternator bracket is a custom made up piece.
 
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