Autocross

Autocross.
What is it? Well, it's a form of racing. It's usually set up on airport runways, usually at airports that are no longer actual airports, old military bases, whatever area with a large amount of pavement where a coned course can be laid out for cars to run on.
The one I've gone to several times now is an out-of-service military base in Ayer, MA, and it has autocross events almost every weekend, coordinated by several different car clubs.
My fiancee and I have done the last 3 events together, me running my '13 Mustang GT, and her running her '08 Mustang GT500.
This Saturday (2 days from now) we have our next event scheduled, and unlike most of our prior events, it's looking like it might actually not rain!
We're both looking forward to it, it's a great way to learn your car, what it can do, and what you can do with it before getting into trouble.
In the event of a spin-out, there are no walls or other obstacles to hit, you just spin, get off course immediately if you can or get back under way immediately if you can, whichever option prevents less risk to the course workers around or the next car coming up behind you.
Here's a video of me in my Mustang running the course. The video is from 2014, and the occasional whine you can hear is the supercharger screaming as I'm laying into the throttle.

Another video, this was taken by somebody on the course, my first autocross event, in the rain:

And last but certainly not least, my fiancee launching her Shelby at one of the events:

My first car

My first car.
It was a 1984 Ford LTD, one of the smaller midsize LTD's not the full-size cop-car LTD.
Eight years old when I got it, it had a 3.8L V6 and rear-wheel-drive, and on the test-drive it had 45,412 miles on it.
Yes, I still remember the exact mileage on it, even though that was about 25 years ago.
As a young new driver with a 400-lb right foot, I beat the living hell out of that car for the next 3 years, while at the same time improving things on it, doing some of my own repairs, putting bigger tires on the rear wheels, and changing out the radio and speakers.
At one point the car had a stereo in it that included a CD player (in 1992 CD players were high tech, lol), 3 amplifiers, 2 12" subwoofers, and other upgraded speakers, a system that could deliver peaks of almost 2,000 watts.
It was a sound system on wheels, it was a car with 3 different shades of gray on its body panels, it was the car that got me to love Ford cars and rear-wheel drive.
I owned it for 3 years and put almost 40,000 miles on it, trading it in with about 83,000 miles on it.
Some pictures of it:

There's a good chance I may have caused some of those marks in the sand:

 Hood up, this was checking the fluids on the way up to NH for a 2-day trip with a friend:

And yes, being a young kid I thought that bumper sticker would be funny:

 

The local Police didn't.

2017 Ford Super Duty trucks - 925 ft-lbs of torque!!

Ford recently announced that their 2017 line of Super Duty pick-up trucks will be available with a turbodiesel V8 engine that will deliver 440 horsepower and 925 ft-lbs of torque.
Nine Hundred and twenty five foot-pounds of torque.
Nine hundred.
And twenty five.
Just think about that for a second.
That's about THREE times what a heavy duty diesel pickup truck was offering about 15 years ago, including the highly-regarded 7.3L that International used to build for Ford up until about 2003 when it was replaced by the 6.0L
And with that huge new power comes upgraded frames, upgraded transmissions, and of course, upgraded tow ratings.
How much of a tow rating?
Well, how does 32,500 lbs sound?
Cuz it certainly sounds like a LOT to me.
And while that huge number will probably only be offered by the F-450 in one particular short-cab/whatever bed/axle configuration, it's gonna be THE number we'll hear a lot when Ford starts advertising the new truck.
The 2017 Super Duty also has a new aluminum body and improved passenger comfort and infotainment options.
Best heavy-duty truck ever?
Certainly looks like it.
Yes, I want one. With the diesel of course.

2015+ Mustang GT350 and GT350R

A factory-offered Mustang with 526 horsepower and a redline of 8,250 RPM?
Yes please, sign me up!
I've had the pleasure of seeing a few of these by now, and heard their sweet-sounding exhaust.
It's left me wanting one, something that unfortunately can't happen since I'm nowhere near able to afford the $60k+ price tag for one.
But that doesn't stop me from dreaming about one.
I mean, 526 horsepower with no turbos, superchargers, nitrous, or other power adder.
Just a healthy V8, the way God intended it!
And a V8 with a much talked about flat-plane crankshaft, something that certainly helps deliver that lofty engine redline, and something that also delivers that amazing engine sound.
The car has been tested over and over by every car magazine out there, they all love it.
It's a track machine, it eats up corners like no Mustang that's ever come before it, and especially so the "R" model, with it's light carbon-fiber wheels, tweaked suspension and aero.
So, I want one.
What are your thoughts on it?

Electric or gas?

Electric cars have now been around a while.
As a motorsports enthusiast, I don't think I'll ever own one.
Personally, I can't see how an electric car will ever be able to duplicate or replace the pure thrills a proper V8 gas (or turbodiesel) engine can deliver.
Electric can certainly have its use in more pedestrian vehicles, your local city commuter car or even some industrial/commercial uses.
But for me, I don't see how they'll ever deliver the sensations that a conventional powertrain provide.
What are your thoughts?

BMR Watts Link install

Latest improvement to my Mustang was one for the suspension.
Last year I bought two BMR Watts Links, one for my Mustang, one for my fiancee's.
A few days ago I finally installed one of them, in my car.
It's quite a beefy-looking and -feeling item, every part showing high quality in its construction:

 

It took me a few hours to get it done, but I did it, and I'm sure the second one will go smoother and quicker.
I've only had a chance to drive the car for about a mile after the install, so I don't have a lot to say about how it feels, but that mile left me looking forward to many more, and certainly looking forward to the autocross event at the end of the month.

Here it is all installed:

For those of you that don't know what a Watts Link does, it replaces the factory-installed Panhard bar and Panhard bar brace, and it provides a much better way to locate and center the rear axle, and it provides added traction at the back of the car during extreme cornering.

More than one Mustang in the stable

My '13 Mustang GT might be a fun car, but I'm happy to say it's not the only pony in the stable.
It has a sibling, a 2008 Mustang GT500.
It's not my car, but they do share a garage.
My lovely fiancee Lisa gets to call that one hers.
It's also modified, has suspension and powertrain improvements, its engine currently delivering 643 rear-wheel HP and 608 rear-wheel TQ, numbers which translate to approx 755-774 hp and 700-715 ft-lbs of torque produced by the engine, before driveline loss of 13-15%
It also sees autocross tracks, as we've both attended 3 events in the last 2 years, and have another one scheduled at the end of this month.
Here she is wearing its fancy-shmancy Shelby Alcoa wheels:

During autocross events those lovely wheels come off and I get to install its factory wheels, which are equipped with factory-size front Goodyear tires and Nitto NT555R 305/40/18 rear tires.

Gabe's Garage

Welcome to Gabe's Garage, a blog about car stuff, car talk, automotive news and reviews
Check back often as I will be updating this frequently, and you just never know what I might come up with!
For now, some info about the toy in my garage.
It's a 2013 Ford Mustang GT, a fun car that I work on myself, have done most of the work on it myself and a car that I drive whenever the weather agrees. A car that I have raced and that I autocross at least a couple of times a year, as life schedule permits.
This is how it currently looks, with the current set of wheels on it, along with numerous other appearance and functional modifications/improvements:

The car has a 2.3L Whipple supercharger on it, currently putting out about 570 hp to the rear tires, and about 470 rear-wheel torque.
Those rear-wheel numbers translate to about 655-670 hp and about 540-550 ft-lbs of torque that the engine is actually producing before the driveline loss is taken into account.
That loss is typically 13-15% on one of these cars, with the manual transmission that this one is equipped with.
Here is the current view under the hood, an always-changing look, especially since I started having parts hydro-dipped with the new fiery skull pattern:

The car has been down the 1/4-mile track several times, but all those runs were before the supercharger was installed.
At that time it was tuned by a well-known company, but a company that is known for its safe-but-not-super-strong tunes.
The only other performance modification the car had at the time was an aftermarket air intake system, an Airaid "Race" set-up.
The car was delivering 390 rear-wheel HP at the time, and the best 1/4-mile time I could do with it was a 12.8 sec @ 111mph.
These days the car is estimated to be good for low 11-second times.
I will hopefully find out, eventually.