Dr. Gas's NASCAR Inspired Mustangs: $1,400 Shelby GT350 & Fastback Track Car

369 cubic inches. This is a track car. This is a Boss 302. Is this a real Shelby? Yes. Really? How much did you pay for it? 1400 dollars. Well, well. Yes, yes. NASCAR-style system. I need a "I drive a Ford" sign to put on this car because Ferrari owners used to make fun of me, saying it's an overhead camshaft engine with a carburetor. Do ITBs change the sound of the engine? I can 100% answer this question. Come in here . So, this is my tribute to muscle cars. Here is my CP class car. There are some memorable things here. We'll talk about that in a minute. This is my car CP , which serves as a tire warmer. It's me. And he was tuning this car. She was n't very well-adjusted. It took us about 6 months of testing and trying before we finally optimized it to work well. And, by the way, I can get it for you . Yes, of course. Do ITBs change the sound? Exhaust? Yes. Um, yes. In a car that has an intake manifold. Actually, if you want, I can 100% answer this question. Oh, actually, I have one here on... It looks like my workshop here. I have to scatter these things everywhere. Cut some of this out. Let me see, I have one here. Don't act like a kid in a candy store here. Will this fit in my carry-on luggage? OK. With a carburetor, when you have a camshaft with a large overlap, there are times when the intake and exhaust valves are open at the same time, the exhaust is closed and the intake is open, but there is overlap. So some of the exhaust gases are returned back to the intake channels. And this contamination in the intake stream causes uneven idling . So when you hear someone say, "Oh, this camshaft has an uneven idle." If you have an ITB system, problem solved. He doesn't twitch. No. Really? No. On the singles. It just works. This is because there is no pollution. There is no common chamber where contamination from any other cylinder could enter. This is not happening. So, come on, we'll go get him. Yes. Let's go around here so we don't I've never, ever thought about this before. Does this phenomenon occur mainly at idle, or also under load? No, you know, I would say the effect is just better throttle response everywhere, from idle and up. If I pressed the accelerator here more than a quarter of an inch, this engine would rev to 3,500 rpm instantly. Heat. Heat. But here is a small 5.25- inch three-disc carbon Tilton clutch. Quite, quite expensive. And the reason for this is the mass of the flywheel in a racing car. It is only useful during startup. Besides, you want to get rid of it. No, I don't want it. So what we have: I have a very short first gear for this car. What is the compression and other engine parameters here? She's not that bad. Around 11 or so. What is its volume? Bored and with a longer piston stroke. This, this is a Ford, small block. This is an 8.2- inch unit. 8.2- inch unit. And he, he was bored and has a longer stroke. And now it is exhausted to the max. That's 369 cubic inches. Class. And the cylinder heads are Edelbrock Highport. In my opinion, the Clevelands would be pretty close, but these, thanks to the offset exhaust ports, are much higher. The flow is simply phenomenal . And then we'll lift the car up, because there's a NASCAR-style system here that I'll show you. Is this a solid roller camshaft or hydraulic? Mechanical? Oh yes, you'll like it. The only real Ford parts in this car are the sheet metal. I see the radiator support. It looks like I've seen this before. Sheet metal. Only sheet metal. We use alcohol in it. It runs on ethanol, E85. We don't want to gas you here , so If you could feel it. barely touched the gas on it. Just Oh, yes. You see, it's like a small No mass flywheel. Very lively. Yes, he drives the same way . The reaction to gas is simply amazing . This door weighs about 16 kg? This door weighs almost nothing . I can even feel the play in the curtains just by lifting them. I bet that door weighs 10 pounds at most. So, did it have custom throttle bodies when you got it, or did you... Yeah, we ended up replacing the intake manifold, the cylinder heads, and had to sand everything down because there were vacuum leaks. And by the way, here's some of what we talked about earlier. Here is our firing order. This is the firing order of the 351 Windsor, which if the numbering was the same would match the LS, but the ones next to it , first and third, here they are. Therefore, these two fight each other in the collector. I painted this with copper heat resistant paint. It's from Forest Coatings, and it's a little scratched. This is actually from the trailer, right here. But here's mine, here's the first thing here. My X-shaped pipe. It eliminates that impulsive situation we talked about earlier. And so from here the flow moves smoothly here. Now here's another trick we use to muffle the sound. These are Borla mufflers that I use as resonators. I don't think they're anything special, but they're straightforward. In fact, the core size, you see, there is an adapter here. It expands to 3 and a half. 3 and a half passes here. And then we narrow it down to three again. By the way, let's go back up here . The collector here is for three. And then I make the transition right here. You see, this detail right here—we're moving to the oval. And that's the standard NASCAR size: 2 and a half one way and 4 the other. And this was measured as we discussed earlier to get a nice distribution. And then the resonators allow the exhaust, because they increase the size a little, the flow slows down . The speed slows down a bit here, and I'm quite far from the engine, so what's happening behind, the engine doesn't even feel or care about. So the exhaust that's left here is actually being held back a little bit because of the small amount of backpressure from my spiral trap mufflers right here. This is my design, patented. It was copied by another company, and I won't talk about it, but anyway, there's some back pressure here, and it forces them to work probably two or three times more efficiently than they would otherwise. You'll see that in a standard factory exhaust system, the resonators are always located right here in front of the muffler, where a little back pressure is created. So, up close, this system sounds like the car is really loud, but on a race track, where there are noise limits, we go a little further away and you can't even hear this car, you can only hear everyone else, but this one—no. I was surprised at how quiet it was when you turned it on. If you sent me a video of this thing, it would be audible, but you're right, it's not too loud, although I expected it to startle me a little. Yes. It's like it's really not like standing next to a Top Fuel car. I've done this before and you can feel your clothes vibrating. Here—no. This whole knot that I'm touching now. This is a movable lever. This entire assembly is driven by a rack and pinion mechanism and moves back and forth. And the reason for this is , why do such a big and complicated thing? Well, the answer is that I wanted to place the inner tie rods higher. Do you see where I am? See here? This is where I want the upper tie rods . Yes. Or inner tie rods , I should say, inner. This bolt here is where the outer tie rods would be . So the goal is for this element to be right here. This is internal, and this is external. I want it to be as parallel to the lower suspension arm as possible . And if he left here, he wouldn't be like this. This is your "bump steer" ( deviation from the course when the suspension is working), right? I would have a terrible "bump-sit". It would be so strong that I probably would n't be able to control the car, especially at high speeds. That would be scary. So what we have inside here under all these bolts is a linear guide. This is a round rail, and it is mounted on this mount. And then there I touch one here and there. These are bearings for a linear guide. And there is an intermediate plate that they are bolted to to maintain the correct distance. So this rod goes all the way down here. See this blue tube here? Yes. It's just a dust cover, it's just protection from dust. Oh, you see there are boots for the steering gear. And all it does is just move this assembly right here, which slides on those bearings. Oho. This is a pretty clever device . This is the device. But he is fast. Did that help a lot? Oh yes. This car is fast. We are in the top three in Class C Prepared nationally. Two years ago we took third place. Last year we were second. We hope we can become the first this year. We were first last year, but we hit a cone, which dropped us to second place. We actually had the fastest results , the "clean" time. We won last year, but we were fined. This happens, so what? So this is your main project right now? It was mine for three or four years, I bought it in 1919 and started working on it. This was the first thing I started working on here, I spent 6 months on it . So, you know, time is ticking, be careful out there . Time is running out. But this is really a great car. Um, Robert made the wings, did some pretty interesting work here. Come here. You see it. Look here. Come back here. You see, there are actually two wings here. Some of you may not know that we lived in a mobile home for 5 years, I for 6 years. And that thing only had a queen-size mattress. So, we have a big update that I really want to share. We received our Brooklyn Bedding king-size mattress in a box. We are going to open it. Ready to open the box? Do you want to open it? Are you excited? She is angry. She wants a mattress here already . When I first sat on it, I thought, "Oh, this is great ." You know, I don't think people really think about how important sleep is or how much time we spend sleeping in proportion to our lives. I know that if I don't get enough sleep, my productivity the next day or days will be zero. I really need to be disciplined and well-rested to work, be creative, and do everything else. And your mattress is the foundation for this. Brooklyn Bedding ships straight to your door from its facility in Phoenix, Arizona. It is also produced there. It comes in a box, all compressed and folded, you open it up, you unroll it, you cut the plastic, and it's like just You know how amazing it is. We slept together on a double mattress in a mobile home for years. Of course, I'm 195 cm tall, I'm quite heavy, but Logan isn't. Therefore, our preferences for density vary greatly. We had to somehow find a compromise. We chose the medium firmness of the Aurora model, and I find it quite comfortable to sleep on my side. And Logan sleeps on it like a baby. They have a 120-day trial period, so if you don't like something or want to try something else—no problem. Comes with a limited lifetime warranty and free shipping right to your door. Thank you to Brooklyn Bedding for sponsoring today's video and making our lives better. Go to brooklynbedding.com and use the code stapleton to get 30% off your order. 30%. That's a lot. You see, there's one detail there. This is a factory wing, it attaches to the car the way a factory wing should. And then they bought another wing. God, they did a real operation on him. See all these cutouts? Yes. And all this welding, these rods inside. Oho. Same thing at the back. When I was buying this car, I went to Robert Lewis. He was standing next to it, and I said, " You know, I've been following this car on the Internet and in sports car magazines." I just admired him. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. And he suddenly says to me: "Well, I'm building a new car, and this one is for sale." In short , here it is. Does the oval shape of the exhaust pipe affect the sound? Does it change the sound at all? No. If you make the hole the right size. I am often asked this question. The oval tube has only one purpose. Clearance. Nothing more. You know, interestingly, I looked under the Daytona 500 winning cars that are parked at DEI , and although I couldn't get a picture of it, Michael Waltrip's 2001 car... and Dale Jr.'s 2003 car . My pipes should have been on them. They are not oval. This shocks me. I expected to see the same thing as everything else. It is round from the very If they became real, we can do it too. Most often, I was approached for systems or for boom tubes, very thin boom tubes, which I made a lot of for them. How much did the boom tube change the sound? Not really, but there are some nuances here. I'll show you one system in another room. We'll be there in a minute. The boom tube really changes the sound, but most of the time, if I have a split system with two outputs, it hardly changes. It can make the sound a little quieter simply by compressing the flow, dispersing it, and when it goes out into the atmosphere, it covers a wider area. I learned this on my own to some extent, listening to records and experimenting with my own car, and it was a kind of coming of age for me as an exhaust geek—realizing that it's not the boom pipes that make the sound. These are the pipes between the cylinder head and the boom pipe that actually form it. Here. The sound is actually formed here. Everything in front of you contributes to the sound. And behind we just try to make it quieter, and most importantly, not to interfere with the exhaust signals coming from the engine . We want the flow to be as free as possible. I don't believe at all that backpressure in the exhaust system helps in any way to increase power . Yes. These are old tales. You've often heard this. You won't burn your valves. That's what they say. Oh, you'll burn your valves. No. If you need back pressure to increase power, then the camshaft, cylinder heads , something in the exhaust, exhaust manifolds, or settings are wrong. Because if backpressure adds power, it's only because it prevents a certain phenomenon when the valves are closed. When part of the intake mixture passes through the intake and immediately flies out into the exhaust. That's what back pressure does. He's holding it back, holding it back. Ahem. So your camshaft is wrong, your heads are wrong, your tuner, your entire engine setup is wrong. If backpressure adds horsepower. So, in the context of a standard 5.3 Silverado, if people say, "Oh, you need back pressure." Maybe it would actually work better with some back pressure? because the factory engine and manifold combination doesn't like it. It's possible, but the factories do a pretty good job. They spend a lot more money and time than guys like us. And they changed the cam camber angles (LSA). You will notice that instead of narrowing, they widen them. Like a few years ago, 114 degrees was considered normal. Now we're up to 118. Some of them are going up to 120. This completely eliminates valve overlap when the mixture is coming in or exhaust gases are getting into the intake. This overlap period is so short that it is simply impossible. Now, to increase power when you reduce it with a 120 or 118 degree camber angle, you have to improve the heads , intake and exhaust. So if you take the same engine and put a different camshaft in it, that's when you really see good or bad results. Because you are changing the camber angle, you will kill the low rpm and your high rpm will get better. A brief overview of cars. This is the Butler collection. This is a track car. This is a Boss 302. I installed tuned cylinder heads on it . These are Trickflow Cleveland heads. Works pretty well. Not as fast as Sledgehammer. "Sledgehammer" is the nickname of that car. How long have you had it? Oh, probably four or five years. And it's built like a track car. In fact, I would say it's a clone or imitation of Warren Toopes' '69 Trans Am car. I even have a model of him there. Aside from the stickers, this is as close a replica as possible of Warren Toups' car. And here's a '69 Camaro that I bought back in the '90s. I participated in mountain races and autocrosses on it. I'm going to put together a new engine for it . Here is the car. I got a lot of pleasure from this car. And here's the little Shelby Mustang I drove in the 80s. Is this a real Shelby? Yes. Really? Mhm. Yes. Look at this. When did you buy it? In 1976. Really? Somewhere in '75 or '76. Were they very popular at the time? No. Really? They were cheap. How much did you pay for this thing? 1400 dollars. It can't be. Maybe. Yes. Oho. I had others, I had...it could have been...I had another one, I bought it for 700 dollars once. It was rusty, and many of the original Shelby parts were already gone. My God . This car was filled with parts, but I'll get to it soon enough. 1400 dollars. I participated in the Virginia City Hill Climb race, organized by the Ferrari Club , and did very well. And I think my... not sure if that's spelled correctly, but warning: equipped with the best, because Ferrari owners made fun of me, saying it's a pushrod engine, a carburetor, no fuel injection, no overhead camshafts. So I equipped it with the best carburetor and pushrods money can buy. Just to rub their noses in, because I beat most of them. I ran a time of 3 minutes 28 seconds on the Virginia City climb. This is in Nevada, by the way. Virginia City. Yes, that's logical. It's near Carson City, and it's still a famous mountain climb. It is still being conducted. Is this the original paint? No, no, no. It is painted like a Hertz car. This car was originally green. It was a kind of "color of indigestion." That's what I call it. So I painted it the way I like it. I mean, maybe I'll repaint it, but as for any changes inside—no. I like... you have... You drive a Chevy, of course. Then I need, I need one of these. I need a "you drive a Ford" sign like this so I can hang it on this car. Yes. Look. Put them back to back, like this. This is quite funny. Yes. Well, what is your passion? What do you want today? I like both. You know, I'm not a fan of bones. Definitely Ford. Oh, that was a joke. This is cool. You have a '96 registration sticker and a Kodak film license plate. Do you see this license plate? I did it for a dispute. I wonder if it's in Utah, they're very conservative. So I wondered if I could get an "H toad". I wonder if they'll try to guess what the letter H stands for. H toad stands for " horny toad." Why? So, yes, I get it . Here it is. This car has a lot of parts from stock racing cars. When I first started doing stock cars, look at the brakes: disc brakes, Mark William axles, completely redesigned rear end. And, uh, there are 13-inch Coleman brake discs up front. rotors, stock brackets and stock hub. That's when I realized that stock car parts are what stock racing is all about. Everything that is raced in Trans Am or by anyone in the US, 90% of the time, was originally designed for stock cars. They make these things cheap and affordable, and you can buy parts for just a couple hundred dollars. You call Coleman or any of a dozen other companies and provide the necessary details. And they are. Did you get them from McClure when you were doing all this? These? No, no, no. Did you just order them yourself? I bought the brakes from Coleman. A. When was the last time this car was on the road? Oh, probably about seven or eight years ago. And it's just riding down the street back and forth. The engine...I built three engines for this car that I used in racing. I wore them all out, or broke a couple of them. But, uh, the engine is right here. In the early days, back in the 70s, we took—and this is one of them , right here. We took a 289 or 302 block and Cleveland dual-chamber heads and, uh, modified the cooling channels. And then, there was this company called BNA Ford that made an intake manifold so I could adapt it ...it's called a "cleaver ". I could adapt the Cleveland heads to the Windsor block. And in the 80s, we didn't have such high-quality spare parts as we do today. So in the 80s, it was a pretty cool collection. Oh yes. I've heard a lot about them. They worked just phenomenally. And this…