Hey Brian, Ive been following your progress at the turbo forum. Flying along as always. Looking forward to the mechanical part of the build now that your wrapping up the sheet metal work.
I'm just curious, if you don't mind answering this.
Years ago you sold your mustang because it got too race-y (not comfortable/easy to drive on the street).
You built the lightning nicely and you were very thoughtful to keep it street friendly.
You liked that the factory five car would do it all, go fast, far, straight line or curvy roads, and cruise nicely.
Then you changed your mind and went all out drag car. What changed your mind? I love seeing your builds either way, just wondering why the big change.
Thanks,Gary. I'm having fun with the build,but dam it's a lot of work! This is the biggest undertaking for me for sure.
All good questions! The simple answer is,I don't know what I'm doing! Just flying by the seat of my pants!
The Mustang is tough, loved it. But,the non synchronized straight cut gear trans was just annoying on the street. Thought about trans swapping to diff manual trans or an auto, but just wasn't feeling it. The Foxbodies are great cars,but after owning that one since new,1985,I was ready for something else. That of course was fueled by acquiring the Lightning,something I had wanted since they came out.
Had a lot of fun with the Lightning,and really was happy with the way it turned out. Definitely liked that it was less common than a Foxbody. Negatives were, I like to shift gears, but a stick in a truck just doesn't appeal to me for some reason. Then there's the 4000lbs+ weight. I just kept thinking about how good the 351 combo in the Lighting would run in the 2650lbs Mustang. The difficulty of fitting an 8.50 cage in the truck was another prob.
The FF Car is still a build I'd like to do, but just didn't fit with me at this time. I've been reading drag chassis books for over 30 yrs and have wanted to build a full chassis car for a long time. Now seemed like a good time to go for it. The Fairlane IS pretty much a race car, but the T56 will be granny friendly compared to the G101 in the Mustang,LOL.
It's funny that you ask this today, because standing the shop a few hours ago, my future son-in-law, and buyer of my Mustang mentioned something about the Fairlane ending up "over built", like the Mustang!