[Shotimes] RE: supercharging

[John Miller]

>> That I wholeheartadly will have to disagree with Ron.  I am putting out
>> hp levels close to a Z06, O3 Cobra, late model Viper, M5, E55, TT
>> porsche etc etc.  While I lose a few tenths in the first hundred feet to
>> these guys, after that I beating some and nipping at the heels of
>> others.

Not on a road course he's not.

> I'll agree that you'll still just have a Mustang with a blower I strongly
> disagree with the above statement.  I have an SHO and know how much parts
> cost.  I also have a supercharged Mustang and know just how cheap I could
> assemble one with new parts.  I could buy used parts (readily available)
> and build a mean MF'er for little money compared to eual SHO.

It comes back to numbers, and complexity.  Fox Mustangs are simple cars - 
they're junk, but they're simple.  And they can be made to go really fast, 
and the parts needed to do that fit hundreds of thousands of cars and 
because they sell in those quantities they're cheap.  Of course, the more 
specialized you get, the higher the price goes.

SHOs are, front-drive aside, much better cars than the Mustang.  They're 
also (a) more complex, which makes aftermarket parts development more 
expensive (b) rarer, meaning any aftermarket vendor has to recoup his 
investment over a smaller number of units, and since (c) they're also down 
in the throwaway price level used, you won't see much aftermarket 
development for them anymore except by fanatics.

Front-drive is also a serious weakness.  At 250HP with a Quaife a SHO can 
be made to go around a track pretty much as quickly as any other 250HP, 
3400lb sedan.  I don't think I've ever been passed by a stock-motored M3, 
and the only near-stock-motored Mustangs that could outrun me were fully 
Griggs-chassised and driven by guys a whole lot better than me.  But the 
SHO's chassis runs completely out of grip somewhere near 300HP, where an M3 
or a (suitably modified) Mustang will go to 400+ before you've used up the 
chassis.

John.
'91 SHO (3.2L stage 1 and not likely to grow a blower)
'00 M5 (fast enough on track, but soft brakes and eats tires)
'89 Mustang LX (351W, now at Griggs being turned into a real AI-series 
racer)