BMR 7 Second Mustang Buildup
The purpose of these pages is to provide a weekly status report over the course of 2-3 months on the BMR project Mustang. This will be a detailed buildup of the entire process so that the viewer can follow along and see just what it takes to build a streetable 7 second '05 Mustang. The car is being built to run in the Fun Ford Drag Radial class and maybe NMRA's Drag radial classes. The car will retain a full interior including power windows and mirrors, slightly modified wheelwells(no tubs), and most important - a complete, off-the-shelf BMR suspension! That's right, this car will run 7's with the same suspension that is available to any BMR customer. This car is being built solely to explore the potential of our current product line and , of course, to have a little fun along the way.
THE CAR: The car being used for the buildup is a brand new 2005 Black Mustang GT 5 speed. This car has already been a test mule for all of our '05 Mustang products and has already been taken apart more times than I can count. The interior will remain stock except for gauges, racing seats and an NHRA legal chrome moly rollcage.
THE ENGINE: The engine being used for this buildup is a Innovative T-88 turbocharged 360 cube small block Ford that will produce somewhere around 1300-1400 horsepower. "How is that considered a street car?" you ask. This is a somewhat controversial subject. While it won't see many street miles, it will be tagged and insured as a street car and periodically driven to cruise spots and local car shows. It will also attend and participate in many races that require 30-50 mile cruises before the race events. With todays fuel injection technology combined with a turbocharger, 1400 horsepower is much more easily streetable than it was 15 years ago. Motor details will be discussed further into the project.
THE SUSPENSION: As stated earlier, this project car will run off-the-shelf BMR suspension products. All product installations will be fully documented in this article with picture updates regularly. Driveline will consist of a PTC Powerglide, PST 4" carbon fiber driveshaft and a Custom BMR Ford 9" rearend. Rear suspension will consist of BMR Adjustable lower control arms, Upper control arm w/spherical bearings, HD Upper control arm mount, chrome moly adjustable panhard rod, weld-in relocation brackets, HD boxed subframe connectors, Tunnel brace and our Xtreme anti-rollbar. BMR rear springs will be combined with VariShock double adjustable shocks. Front suspension will consist of a BMR tubular K-member, tubular A-arms and Strange adjustable struts.
December 21st, 2004 update - TEARDOWN
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Here is how the car started out when we purchased it in mid November. We originally considered buying a "body-in-white"(this is something available through Ford, basically a steel body only with nose and rear bumper cover. It comes with no interior, no suspension, and no motor or driveline) which is what most racers use but for what we are doing, a complete car was necessary. Additionally all components removed from the car will be sold on Ebay to help fund the project. |
| The car has 433 miles on it and here is day 1 of the teardown. The exhaust, driveshaft, fuel tank, charcoal canister, and all related lines were removed from the car. Fluids were drained and the engine and transmission were prepared for removal. |  |
| On day 2, the car loses the motor and transmission as well as all of the engine bay accessories such as brake booster and master cylinder, radiator, and overflow bottle, etc. The parts pile gets larger and we start photographing parts for Ebay. |  |
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Day 3 consists of removing all unnecessary brackets, shields, and wires from the engine bay and under the car. The dashboard is removed to access the airbags, radio, evaporator core and wiring. The steering column is removed as well as all the speakers, rear amps and sub box (this car was equipped with the Shaker 1000 system by Ford). The Shaker 1000 stereo system consists of a 6 disc CD changer, two door subs, 4 speakers, two rear subs and 4 rear amplifiers. The combined weight of all the stereo components was 86lbs. once weighed! With the dashboard out of the car, all of the air conditioning vents and plumbing was removed as well as the airbags. The parts pile continues to grow and people start to question our sanity. |
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Day 4 starts the arduous task of removing unnecessary wiring and it's associated control modules. After unwrapping the entire harness and tracing each wire, approximately 18 pounds of wiring and modules were removed from under the dash alone. Together with the radio, air conditioning parts and airbags, we lost 161 pounds just from the interior! Once all of the unnecessary wiring was removed, the harness was tested and re-loomed. |
| The dash and steering column was reinstalled, the system powered back up and the lighting, power windows, door locks, trunk release, seats, and gauges are tested. Depending on intercooler location, we plan to use the stock rear seats and center console so the interior should look completely stock with the exception of front racing seats. For now, everything is left loose since one of the next steps will be designing the rollcage. |  |
January 3rd, 2005 update - MOCK-UP
Since our last update, we sold almost all of the parts we removed from the car on Ebay and made enough to pay for the rear end, wheels/tires, seats, and a good start on the chrome moly tubing needed for the roll cage. We still have the motor and transmission which will be sold at a later date. The car was moved off the rack to begin mocking up the roll cage, rear end and wheel/tire fitment. While it was still a roller, we took it to a local truck scale to get a base weight of the car. At this point the car still has the OE rear and the factory wheels/tires..... and it weighed 2100 lbs! Not bad considering the factory wheels and tires weigh 55 lbs. each and the OE 8.8 rearend and brakes weigh about 30 lbs. more than the 9" that will replace it. If these two components alone were replaced at this point, the car would easily weigh under 2000lbs........which is good because there is a whole lot of tubing being put in this car!
| Fun Ford's Drag Radial class limits tire size to 28" tall however, since we are building a multi-purpose car, we felt it necessary to make enough room for a 30" tall Drag Radial. With our wheels and tires on order and about 3 weeks out, a set of mock-up wheels and tires were positioned in the wheelwell. These are 315/60R15 BFG Drag Radials mounted on 15"x10" Weld wheels. To our surprise, they fit right up in the wheelwells. |
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Initially, before looking over the car, we thought it wasn't going to be this easy fitting a big tire under it but Ford must have had drag racers in mind when designing this car. The outer fender lip is non-existent and will require no modification whatsoever, it comes pre-rolled from the factory! The inner fenderwells just need moved in about 1" and they will clear fine. The frame rails are actually 6" wide at some points leaving plenty of room for tire clearancing without sacrificing strength. They also moved the springs inboard almost 6" further than the previous FOX based platform and went to a smaller diameter spring. The only part of the rear that will require some major surgery is the shock relocation. Fords newest thing in marketing is perimeter shocks. By placing the shocks as far out as possible on the rearend , it gives the car better stability and ride comfort. While this is great for handling, it is not necessary for drag racing and they are right in the way of putting a big tire on this car since they are mounted on the outside of the frame rails. Wheelwell modifications will be discussed further in the build after the rearend arrives. |
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