May '10
| 10 May 2010
James Ray's NASA Racer
Webster’s defines as, “a change of form or structure.”
I have been driving road courses for a long time. Over the years, I’ve used my daily driver to double as a part-time track car. Adding safety equipment, including a roll cage to keep it as safe as possible was still a compromise for both street and track. For some time now, I have wanted to build a dedicated car for the track to give my son, Taylor, a safe and competitive opportunity to hone his racing skills. After selling my ’07 Steeda Q-400, the time was ripe!
Allow me to introduce you to Trigger! Trigger began his life as a black 2007 Shelby GT in Wisconsin. With 8100 miles on the odometer, Trigger decided to rollover & play dead. He was involved in a rollover accident that resulted in damage so bad the car could not even be sold with a salvage title!
I found him while searching the Coparts sight on the internet. I bid through an on-line live auction and won a bucket of bolts I had never even seen! Every body part on the car was damaged except for the front and rear bumpers. Those are the only two original body pieces you see in these pictures! I had a plan though… Trigger was about to go through a metamorphosis!
Just a couple of weeks before I purchased Trigger, I bought a leftover ’05-09 body-in-white from FORD Racing. This is a Mustang shell that has no VIN number and can never be a streetcar. No drive train, no interior, just a body, less the front and rear bumpers, which coincidentally, I would take from my donor car a few weeks later. FORD was clearing their warehouse of the old metal, making room for the 2010 bodies. They had 3 leftovers for sale at a deep discount and I bought one.
It’s funny how things work out. I sold my Steeda to a friend, Lee Hoffman. Lee asked me what I was going to do next. I told him I was looking for a racecar for my son Taylor to go road racing with. He said he had recently sold a trailer to a guy who was buying body-in-whites from FORD and building economical racecars out of them. So I called Steve Poe, the car builder, and the metamorphosis began! (Incidentally, Steve is an enthusiast. He has a full-time job and does this sort of thing as a hobby. What a talent!)
Basically Steve unbolts the entire drive train and suspension from the donor car (our Shelby GT) rolls it under the body-in-white and bolts it up! Now it’s a little more involved than that, but really, you don’t need much more to have a brand new car! All of the hardware is there, the wiring harnesses are there, just add a roll cage, some paint, and whatever modifications you want to make to the engine and suspension and go race! And when it’s all done, depending on the condition of your donor car, you have $2000-3000 worth of leftover parts you can sell on e-bay, or in my case, give to Steve as payment for his assistance with this project. The entire metamorphosis took place in less than 4 months! From concept in December, to the race track the last weekend in March!
Because it was a salvaged vehicle, there was a small question mark in my mind about the condition of the engine and transmission. We tuned it on the dyno, but until you get on-track, you just never know? Well I’m happy to report, Triggers “sorting out” weekend came and went with no issues. He actually finished mid-pack in the Sunday race. Not bad for a coming out party! By the time you’ve read this, he will have raced his 2nd weekend at Carolina Motorsports Park (CMP) in Kershaw, SC.
Trigger will run in NASA’s (National Auto Sports Association) Camaro-Mustang Challenge series throughout the southeast. As the name suggest, only Mustangs and F-bodied GM cars are allowed in this series. There are strict guidelines a car must conform to, including minimum weight and maximum horsepower and torque ratings. Sort of like the old IROC series, the idea is to have equal cars and test the SKILLS OF THE DRIVERS, not the depth of their checkbook.
CRMC will of course, host its 10th Annual Performance Driving School at CMP the 1st weekend in June. It’s not too late to register. Bring YOUR pony out to the track and DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT! Or if that’s not your thing, bring your car out and enjoy watching others do just that, while spending the day socializing with fellow club members. It’s a great way to spend your weekend! You might even recognize a grabber blue racecar wearing the number 68!