Anyone here do forms of racing other than drag racing? I have a 70 Maverick that I was going to get rid of but I'm thinking of seting it up as a AutoX / road racer. I used to have a built 302 mated to a 93 Cobra2 T-5 and a GRanada rear end. Was my daily driver for years. Now the engine is in my dad's boat, the tranny in my basement, and the rest of car in the back yard. If anyone can point me to parts / tips / tech on some ways to do the suspension I'd really appreciate it. For drive train I plan to go with a basic N/A 5.0 to start, I already own the T-5 and fatty rear end - leaf springs and coils are new. Major components needed are control arms, bushings, tie rods, adjustable shocks, disc brakes, wheels, and tires. Question is whether I go with upgraded direct swap components, new Mustang II, or something else. Thanks fellow Maverateers, Chris
beef it up there are all kinds of choices....for 2k you can pick up a rack n' pininion steering system from total performance....tubular control arms, coil over suspennsion and such. Lowering the upper control arms is another trick mod aka the shelby 1" drop. Sanner performanc in florida made me a 1" ant-sway bar. I'm sure they could make any size you want. 4 leaf springs in the rear...subframe connectors monty carlo bar anything to stiffin it up.
yeah - that sounds cool - money's not bad either. I dropped out of the Ford world about 4 years ago and jumped into Mopars. I've gotten used to everything being so expensive for my other cars that it's refreshing to think about building the Mav. I like the Mustang II route - makes lots of things easier. Car is going to get subframe connectors and a cage as well. Tank will come out to be replaced with a fuel cell. What about the rear? Think there's enough room back there for beefy race tires without relocating springs and/or narrowing rear end. Course with the car low to the ground I could flare the fenders a bit without it looking retarded.
I did this very thing back in the late 80s. Lowered the front upper control arms 1". Put the manual pitman arm onto a power steering box for lots less turns lock to lock. Used cut down front springs from a big block Mustang. Cut and reshaped bump stops. Used HD rear springs with 2" lowering blocks. Used Traction Master bars, again from a Mustang. Used big Addco anti-roll bars, front and rear. Made my own shock tower reinforcing bar. Koni adjustable shocks on front, Gabriel adjustables on rear. Front disc setup from a '74(?), rear discs from Stainless Steel Brake Corp, used non power disc brake master cylinder, again from a '74(I think). Put in 2degrees negative camber, about 3 degrees caster, and about 1/8" toe-out. With a hot 302 and a 4.57 9" Traction-Loc, the car was an absolute blast to drive. A custom built front air dam solved a high speed front end lift condition. Really had fun with that car, and still have most of the go fast pieces, should anyone be interested.
I fit 11.3" wide rears on my car. They couldn't get any wider. But for road race, 10" rears are probably plenty.
Roger that - great info I agree with the 10" on the rear for tire width... how about fronts - how wide can they be?
I run 235/60/15s in the front. I don't think they can go much wider, but I haven't tried. They're wide enough for me. 7" maybe?
you can go 245-45 in 16s on the front as well... 16s is the biggest i'd go for road racing though... fyi there are a few mavericks here in So Cal that roadrace at some of the shelby events. I belive one of them is owned my Coast High Performance or at least sponsored by them.
