The cars were built on a special assembly line at Ford Motor Company's Auto Alliance International plant in Flat Rock, Mich., known as the home of the Ford Mustang. They were built for a new racing series that begins next year and is partially sponsored by Miller Motorsports Park. The series is called the Ford Racing Mustang Challenge for the Miller Cup presented by BFGoodrich.
The first race of the series will be held on May 4 at Road Atlanta in Brazleton, Ga., and the last race will be part of the Sunchaser 1000 at Miller Motorsports Park toward the end of September.
The series' organizers are negotiating with other race tracks in the United States and Canada as potential sites for hosting the other six races in the series.
The first batch of six cars arrived Nov. 17 at Miller Motorsports Park and shipments of six cars will arrive at the Tooele County race track every two weeks.
"The series is what is known as a 'spec' series, meaning the cars are identically prepared and driver skills make the difference between who wins and who loses," said MMP media relations director John Gardner.
"Once the cars arrive here, we still have a lot, like $20,000 worth of work to do and things to add to them to make them fully race-prepared," Gardner said.
The cars were created with no interior or airbags, and fitted with a gearhead's wish list of Ford Racing goodies: cold-air intake, high-capacity radiator, six-speed transmission with upgraded clutch, 3.73-ratio rear axle, Borla stainless-steel headers and X-pipe.
From Flint, Mich. the cars were shipped to Watson Engineering in Taylor, Mich., where they were fitted with a racing rollcage, lexan rear and quarter windows, tow hooks, Sparco racing seat and a dash-mounted start button.
At MMP the cars will receive their final race preparation, including safety harness, window net, data acquisition system, short-throw shifter, Torsen differential, four-piston Brembo brakes with brake booster kit, fire suppression system, racing steering wheel with quick-release hub, front splitter and rear wing and BFGoodrich g-Force R1 DOT tires.
The cars will be sold to individuals who want to own a race car and compete in the new racing series.
"People who want to buy the cars can buy them directly from us, online from the Ford Racing catalog, or from a select few dealers yet to be determined by Ford," Gardner said.
"We've had a lot of interest already with about 70-plus people interested in buying a car. There are quite a few who want to buy more than one car. They would rent those out to drivers who don't want to buy or can't do the whole series," Gardner said.
Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com
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