My 88 B4D LX Part 1

[mustanglimey]

Decided to get back into some strip action so sold my 97 cobra. A street/strip fox was my goal as they are hard to come by here in the UK and missing out on the one I had in mind took the plunge and imported the LX from the US in 2007.
My reasoning being that even if it went 'pop' it was still a good deal with the chassis and parts.
The car arrived at southampton docks in September 2007 after a couple of months.

Think they could not find the electric pump and killed the battery, yanked fuses, and pulled some wires. after sorting I fired it up! Oh my god..longtubes 3" x pipe & 1 chamber dumps...my wife and the cops would not be happy. Combine this with a spool, faceplated trans, manual brakes/steering this was a major culture shock from a tame/quiet cobra with 4.10s.
Also mike who I got the car from was 6'.3" 300lbs..Im 5'.7" 170lb if I sat in the seatI could hardly move the clutch or see over the cowl with the fixed seats Dlad I decided to trailer and not drive it 90 miles home!
Id sold the car to wife on the premise of using as a daily unlike my cobra which I thought was too nice...time to man up and drive a noisey, harsh street strip car....i seriously wonderd if I was up to it.

First jobs were to get the LX UK street legal, registered, MOT'd. Its much more strict here. No ET streets so had BFG D/radials fitted before it was shipped. Could only get 235s before shipping and later these would really hamper traction. Other mods were to lights, washers, some electrics and 2.5" 2 chamber mufflers and tailpipes. (more on these later)

Febuary 2008 was its first trip to the track. Its a 140 mile round trip which I drive.
1st pass netted a 12.7 @ 113mph followed by a 12.5. flicked the gas on for 1 last pass and ran 11.7 @ 126mph. After a 14 second car it was all worth it.
With more practise,confidence, learning about the car and myself and a bottle heater it times strated to drop along with my clutch in may 2008. Swopped the centerforce for a Spec 3 and on dropping the exhaust found Id blown the rear of the boxes out. went back to a 3" with race bullets & supertrapp caps for the street. These were dumped at the side but quickly dumped back under the car.



Done 3 passes 12.0 @116 and 11.3 @ 127....and lost a roll pin from a shift fork locking the trans and snaping the countershaft.




This would put me out of action until 2009 due to parts from the US and had lost over 2 months with the wrong clutch being sent, and a couple of other issues so did not get much seat time in 2008.
Part2 Slicks, trans and my 10 second ticket at last.

[mustanglimey]

PART 2


With a re-freshed Lberty faceplated tremec, I also fitted new brakes/cylinders and better rotors pads to help my feeble manual brakes. Amazingly I found another set of 4 lug bogarts same as mine over here and got a deal on them fitted with fron runners and 10.5/28" slicks. never thought of running slicks and they are too tall for my 3.55 gears but had to give them a go.

First pass of 2009 snapped a LCA spring perch on my weight jackers. Found a parts store near the track, and managed to cobble it together to get home.


Next outing ran 11.5 @ 115mph. flicked on the gas launched at 5k and ran 10.85 @128 mph... and wheels up, messy run hit the limiter but a 10s a 10:wink:
Got a slow motion and video of it...after reading US car mags since I was a kid had to believe I had a 10 second car that pulled the wheels.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHbzrfIyEXw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4PE-83Vrik

Time to start taking it more serious.
Im using have a 2 step to sort out a consistant launch, and started to play with my PMS for tune. Still not had the cahoonas to powershift, especially after locking the drivetrain up before...wimp!
Next outing was plagued with stability issues with the car getting loose mid track, so no full passes on the gas. This turned out to be a leaky valve that seemed to loose pressure in a slick..taught me to check things more carefully and clentch my bum
At the mopar euronats in august 2009 ran a new pb despite backing off the spray in 3rd as it got a twitch on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpYj2C5JVTU
10.77 @ 129...shame as was yet to have a clean solid pass, had cauliflowered a plug tip on no. 8 and was still finding a tune.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9SNMDr5GZg

Last outing was October 2009. Upped my best motor mph to 119 and spray 10.66 @ 132mph. The 1st solid pass Ive had on slicks/gas. That was my only spray pass on the Saturday, so sunday with a fresh bottle was hopefull. Unfortunately it was freezing, stuggled to get my bottle temp up (was 300psi when i opened it) and killed my battery trying to heat it.
Track was cold, got a bump start in the lanes and ran a 10.9 @ 130mph with the tailgate bouncing up n down..whoops!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyGKlpn4Ofw

This year I have my tune better, colder non projected plugs from the US so hope to run a 150 shot as I have been running on the rich side with the nitrous jetting.
Have a k member to fit along with Strange 10 ways, coilovers to loose some weight and tune the launch and an EVAC setup.

Terminal speed shows I have a bit in the car, just got to step up to plate and drive it.
Its been great fun and a learning curve and enjoy every part of it and met some fantasic people along the way...sometimes have to pinch myself that Im having a go and used to just watch from the stands.
Im not the sharpest tool in the box but willing to learn.
Thanks for letting me share my dream with you.
Shaun

[MY-S281]

Very cool write up!!

That looks like it was one hell of a nice Cobra too !!

[only90s]

Cool writeup and Bad Ass Fox.

Tell me a little about the motor

[TorchRedSVT]

great story....very cool to see the progression of times over the years.....love some of those pictures bro!!

look forward to seeing you break some more PR's this year!!

[Blue95GT]

Very nice!!!!

[SmokinStang]

Shaun.......Awesome Stuff.....and a great read. That's the way to do a SmokinStangs "DIGITAL STORYBOOK" - Now you got to keep it going.....to feed our fire!

Equally as cool seeing the Strip & Surroundings for your local. I'm going to post up some from here, and try to get others to do the same.

Thanks for letting me share my dream with you.
Shaun

That's what it's about......Brother!!
SmokinStang:burnout2 smiley:

[Scooter]

Very nice!!! Fox

[mustanglimey]

Thanks very much all. As requested his some lowdown on the engine/drivetrain.
Cleaned & painted the floor pan while the trans was out.


[U]SUSPENSIONU]
Front;
Lakewood 90/10s, 4 cylinder coils, EBC slotted/dimpled rotors & Green Stuff pads. No sway bar. Flaming River manual rack.
Will be updated this year to a tube K & A arms, Strange 10 way struts, 12" 150lb coilovers.
Rear;
Competition Engineering 3 way shocks, Stock springs, HPM upper UCAs, Weight jacker LCAs, Drag ARB,
REAREND
8.8" Richmond spool, Strange S/S 31spline axles, Studs, C/clip eliminators, TA girdle.
TRANSMISSION Poly mont
Liberty faceplated Tremec TKO II, Hurst Billet plus shifter, Centreforce steel SFI flywheel, Spec ST3 clutch, Lakewood blow proof.
Took some dumps..good as new after being blanchard ground


Old clutch & new Spec...sent me a 10 spline instead of a 26!


Heavier than it looks when your under the car in my 'workshop'



Dropped Trans 3 times in a week or so. Replaced clutch...trans locks that week..drop trans replace roll pin is 3/4 shift fork, new shift pads seems ok going thru gears on bench...back in drive up the road no 5th !!! dropped it and on pulling 5th/rev the end of the countershaft fell off New shaft/keyway/refresh and had all the shifts fork double roll pinned and or lockwired.
Seems okey dokey...untill... tremec & liberty had trouble diagnosing problem over the phone...till it fell off



ENGINE Solid drop mounts
358w 10.3-1 RHS/protopline 215 heads 2.08/1.60, Trickflow R, 75mm T/b, 80MM mass, Comp cams nitrous hyd/roller, 1.6 R/rockers, Stock crank, eagle I beams, SRS pistons, Girdle, Mac longtubes, custom 3" X pipe, Race Bullets, 18 plates on Supertrapp caps for the street. MSD dist/coil/etc; Anderson PMS. Nitrous works 125-175 shot.
Aeromotive pump/reg/rails lines.etc; Fuel lines enlarged from tank.

Well seems to be holding up well so far against them 'Dukeboys' :wink: