1968 Mustang Fastback Build Thread - GT350R Engine & GT500 Trans

[darkostoj]

A little back story

I bought the car when I was 19 from a friend I went to school with. The car was super nice & complete. He had rebuilt the engine, and didn't get around to putting it back together. I had bought it from him as a basketcase. The car has sat until I was able to afford to build it how I wanted. It is a 1968 Fastback J-Code with Factory A/C, Red/Red, & auto. My good friend and I who has experience with these cars & racing has decided to help with the project.

I recently build a pretty unique race car all on my own, and want to build an ultimate street/road race vehicle out of my beloved mustang. The race car I built is a 1977 Rolls Royce with a Viper drivetrain that competes in the 24 Hours of LeMons. www.instagram.com/rollsroycedoesntcare

First thing was disassembling, then had it sandblasted, dipped, and ecoated. We mounted it on a Rotisserie. We painted the bottom and interior in factory colors.

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Now we are trying to figure out what components to go with and what the best way to swap the drive train is.


Requirements:

Coyote engine swap (Already have 5.2L GT350R Flat Plane engine)
TR9070 DCT transmission (Out of GT500)
Would prefer a quick ratio manual steering with an EPAS column setup. Coyote engine does not come with a power steering pump from factory
Centerlock unit bearing style hubs
rear full floater axle housing
Mini tub rear
not cutting up/welding the body to an extreme amount (car was almost compeltely rust free) - would be a shame to cut it all up


Questions:

Would be great if I could get some recommendations on what companies to go with.

1. What company offers the best front suspension setup with shock tower delete and a coyote engine?

2. What company offers the best rear suspension setup for aggressive road racing? The options I have seen so far but don't fully love are:
-TCP rear 4 link
-TCP rear torque arm
-Street or track 3 link with watts link

3. What quick ratio manual steering options are available (if any) I know TCP offers a power steering pump conversion for the coyote, but a manual/EPAS setup would be really awesome for track performance and being able to dial in assist for street driving.

Next step for the car is ordering all of the suspension & getting them installed.

Any info would be great! Thanks!

[dhutton]

I would take a look at Detroit Speed for front and rear suspension.

Don

[Matt@BOS]

We've built a handful of pro touring Mustangs, and I'd use either Detroit Speed, Cortex Racing, or TCI. We've spent a lot of time either fixing or reworking some of the other companies' parts to get them close to the level or the three that I mentioned.

I would also suggest doing a lot of research into the special attention that Ford paid to the NVH dampening on the GT350s due to their flat plane crank vs the regular GTs' cross plane cranks. I've been warned by a few engineers that the importance of the bushings, etc. cannot be understated!

As far as the DCT goes, you're probably going to have to wait for the transmissions to start filtering into the aftermarket.

Matt

[darkostoj]

UPDATE:

I have been spending hours every day and talking to different companies and have made some pretty good progress.

One of the biggest things I came up with, is how many companies lack in the engineering department & don't necessarily engineer their parts to work optimally and just focus on having them fit a certain way and look nice.

Most of companies I talk to either said they couldn't give me suspension geometry (things like antisquat, roll center, etc) because they either didn't know what they were, or simply stated they don't give them to customers so they don't get bashed. I mean, that's a big red flag for me....like buying an engine and not being told how much horsepower it has....or a transmission and not knowing what the gear ratio's are...catch my drift?

I am not kidding when I said I talked to every company out there, but I did and it took a while. I don't want to talk about the negative aspects of what I didn't like about most of them so I will focus my discussion on the company I like.

Cortex Racing was the one company that blew me away, and left me really impressed. We spoke on the phone for two hours, and they took the time to answer all my questions with genuine interest. For everyone looking for a top quality product, I would look no further. I am a little different than most, where I enjoy the engineering and setup of the cars. Spending a day at the track and tweaking things like Roll Center, Anti Squat, Spring rates, etc is something I enjoy doing and wanted to make sure I had the ability to do these things.

Also, I don't know if anyone has looked at their cambered rear axle setup. It is one of the coolest things!

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I have also made some progress on the engine/transmission.

Transmission will be a BMW DCT Getrag 7 Speed (I have 10 of these at the shop). I found a company out of Poland that makes a stand alone transmission controller that will work with a stand alone ECU. I will be using a Motec, with the stand alone transmission controller. I will develop adapter plates for the BMW transmission to bolt up to a Coyote Engine, LS Engine, and Dodge Viper V10 then offer them for sale.

Good progress so far!