RinerAutomotive's SN95 Autocross Mustang

[RinerAuto]

For the past month I've been upgrading the front suspension. I'm changing the stock SN95 spindle with Griggs upper adapter to the Mod Squad Garage spindle. A proper double wishbone spindle with proper geometry.





Some changes I've had to make to:

Longer upper control arm
0.5" extended K727 lower ball joint
0.5" extended K772 upper ball joint
New coilover upper brackets
Wilwood brakes and rotors

Video of installing the Mod Squad Garage Spindles:

[RinerAuto]

The spindles perform as good as they look!

I took the car to a local event to shakedown before UMI's Muscle on the Mountain. The suspension inspired so much confidence. It felt like without even trying I was the fastest car on site. I finished 1st in PAX and 2nd in Raw behind a kart. Also due to timer issues only my 2nd and 3rd run had times out of 5 runs that did (I didn't see the point in taking more reruns and risking damaging the car, this was just a shakedown).

I'm so stoked with how the car performed. Now off to Muscle on the Mountain!

But first a one-night trip to Ocracoke to spend some time on the beach and relax.

[RinerAuto]

2026 Muscle on the Mountain Recap:

I got back from Ocracoke Island transferred most of my stuff over to the race trailer, then left for PA the next morning at 8am. The drive was nice other than my truck is still going into limp mode under heavy load. Unfortunately I found out while trying to pass a semi in the left lane while going up a steep hill. I forgot to bring my scanner, but I found a simple two button code reader/clearer in the trailer. I was able to clear the code and keep truckin'. I had replaced the fuel rail pressure relief valve as that is the most common cause of low fuel rail pressure. Some of the rubber hoses are looking old so I'm going to replace those next as they might be collapsing. Now that I knew it was still happening I could manage my right foot.

Muscle on the Mountain has some of the best looking cars. I am running in the Mid class with other cars from 80s to early 00s. As usual, I was the only SN95. There were several fox bodies and one new edge. Then lots of Camaros and Trans Ams. The course appeared to be a power course, meaning they didn't have as many elements as they have previously. I knew this was going to hurt me as I only have low 300 hp compared to many of the heavy hitters having 500-600 hp. But I know my car handles very well, so I just need to think Miata (yea I said it).

The car was running great and handling perfect. After day 1 I was sitting 8th position and 0.2s from 7th. For the shootout they only take the top 7 from Mid class. So had some work to do for day 2 but it's only 0.2 seconds.



For day 2 the course was changed in some places. This course had more turns, so I was feeling confident I might be able to gain that +0.2s I needed. The weather was much hotter on day 2 and that made it harder to find more time in the second afternoon session. So I finished 8th position, one out of the shootout, by 0.196s. But I had over a 1 second gap to 9th.



Some positive takeaways, in Mid class I was the fastest Ford powered car. There were two fox bodies that were faster than me, but they had 500+ hp LS engines. I think there was more in the car if I had gotten that mythical perfect run. Overall great event, I'm excited to see how the car does on a more typical SCCA course.

[RinerAuto]

Last weekend was my first outing to the Bristol National Tour. I've wanted to go, but July 4th weekend is usually a tough sell. This year I figured was worth it. Plus there was great competition in CAM-T class. On my drive up Colton, who let me jump into his car last minute at Nationals, said his car broke at the Pro Solo and asked if he could co-drive mine for the Tour. We've come full circle.



Well Saturday's course I quickly figured out the bumps and the surface. As I said I've never driven on Bristol's asphalt. My brakes felt great at initial application, but then the pedal went long as I stood on the brakes. It was like brake fade, but I know it couldn't be that. I think the ABS was doing something odd. It didn't inspire confidence, but I continued on. After the first day I was P4 with all different gen Camaros ahead of me.

Overnight there was a heavy thunderstorm. I went out around 1am to check on the canopy and stuff around our site. The amount of water running down the hill and through our site was unreal. I had just waterproofed the canopy and with trailers on 3 sides everything was pretty stable and dry. I parked uphill, mainly because it was one of the only spots left. Looking down by the creek it looked like there was water but it was dark and I couldn't tell the full extent. By morning light there was a lot of commotion as the creek water has been rising. There was about a foot of water in the low areas. People had tires and other belongings that floated away down the creek. We were lucky and had no damage. Lesson learned park uphill.



Not only was lower paddock flooded, a portion of the course was also flooded. They had to change the course slightly and reduced our runs from 3 to 2 to beat another incoming storm. If that wasn't enough of a challenge there was also a water patch flowing through the middle of the course that you had to cross twice. It was being fed from uphill and never dried even for the 5th heat in full sun.

I pushed a little too hard on my 2nd run through the wet patch. The car didn't turn and I hit a cone. I continued to push on the rest of the course cause you never know. There was a lot of spins, slides, and upsets. Overall, I stayed in P4 behind the Camaros.




After Bristol, I headed more west to Bowling Green, KY for Autocross Week. To Be Continued....

[RinerAuto]

After Bristol we traveled another 5+ hours west to NCM Motorsport Park in Bowling Green, KY for Summit Racing's Autocross Week! Autocross Week is a competition where we have 4 days of autocross at 3 different venues and we can only drive our autocross car with everything that we need between each venue. No support vehicles are allowed. Between tools, jack stands, jack, camera gear, Ashley and mine bags, coolers, chairs, helmets, grid bag, and other stuff there wasn't much room left in the car. I couldn't even fit my small 35L cooler. We had to use a cooler backpack and very small day cooler.



The first day is registration, go kart enduro, and welcome dinner. It was also our last night able to sleep in the car trailer. The rest of the week we'll be bougee staying in hotels. The classing for Autocross Week is similar to Drive AutoX or Optimum Series, which means my 94 Mustang falls into the GT class which is 1990 and later front engine RWD cars. Some of the other classes is Vintage, Sport Compact NA, Sport Compact Boosted, Unlimited, Truck, and Outlaw. I think I was the only car in my class from the 90s. Which means I get to beat up on newer cars 😁



The second day, first day of autocross was at NCM. The course was much different than standard SCCA autocross courses. It started with a slalom but the rest of the course was sweepers and straightaways. Having power would have been nice. I finished the day 4th in class. We then loaded up and drove to the two check points that we needed to hit. I rolled with several guys from the vintage class that I knew. The red dart has a 2JZ swap and a homebuilt 3 link, it's a quick car.





The second day was at Nashville Super Speedway. The course again was sweepers and straightaways but was short and tight, 30s. They also let us do parade laps on the speedway which was absolutely insane even though we were only going 60-70 mph. I again finished 4th in class (I'm sensing a trend).





After my last run driving back to paddock the car died and wouldn't restart. I checked the Noco lithium-ion battery and it wasn't outputting any voltage. It was quite hot to the touch, so I think the BMS shut it down. I pulled it out and let it cool down...11V. Jake in the Foxbody happen to have a lithium-ion battery charger and I found a random AC plug under the bleachers to charge the battery. In the mean time I used another battery and jumper cables to verify the car starts and the alternator charges. That worked (at least this time). The crew was packed up, so I grabbed the battery threw it in and was ready to go. Car started but alternator wasn't charging. Ashley found a Napa 6 minutes away that had an alternator. I thought I could make it, but the car died before even making it to the stop sign to leave Nashville. Derek in the Dart was nice enough to drive me to Napa to get an alternator. Swapped that and continued on our way to the next checkpoint of Lane Car Museum. Voltage was perfect along the whole way.



We headed back to our hotel to rest. Day 3 and 4 coming....to be continued.

[RinerAuto]

Continuing Autocross Week...

I forgot to mention that the courses were designed by Robert Bryd from the Racing Bryds out West. I can see why people like their events so much. He's very charismatic and designs fast course. A little different than SCCA style courses and uses a lot more cones to line the course but has less elements.

Day 3 started off at the Hotel with an impending storm and a 45 minute drive to Music City Raceway. And....the car wouldn't start. Turns out the battery was also having an issue even though it started every time the day before after replacing the alternator and it charged the entire drive. Luckily I still had the spare battery and jumper cables that a fellow racer lent me. I was able to jump the car and make the drive. It down poured through half the drive and with no defrost it was not fun driving with windows cracked/down.

Made it to Music City Raceway, I hoped the battery would be ok. But it would still not start the car. Ashley found a new Noco battery available at a local Autozone. I got a ride up to the store and no more battery issues. Just sucks, spent $400 to replace parts that were not very old.

On to the racing, due to the rain they pushed back the start of the event. Which was smart due to how treacherous the course looked with hills and trees. This also meant that it dried really quickly. This was easily the most fun course of the week and probably ranks in my top memorable courses. Also this was the first course that wasn't clearly a power course. I was able to push really hard in the afternoon and was able to finish 3rd in class.



​The drive back to NCM took us mostly through backroads to find a literal Fork in the Road.



Day 4 and the last day was back at NCM. Since I did so well on day 3 I had a fighting chance (<0.3 s) to get into 3rd place in class. But we were back to flat open courses where power helps find time. This course was slightly less point and shoot which is good, but there were still several drags. They were also doing a dial-in challenge, where after the morning runs you give them a time down to the thousandth of the time you will run after lunch. It's not any run it's only for the first run after lunch. I went optimistic, 0.7 quicker than my fastest morning run and chose 41.058 (58 for my number I normally run). Turns out for the afternoon they moved up the finish to make the shutdown area longer, safer. So my optimism turned out to help and I ended up running 41.054 right off the rip, 0.004s off my dial in! This was to win a $50 summit racing gift card.

After the morning runs I was 0.1s from 3rd place. I was feeling the pressure but so was the guy in 3rd place. Unfortunately, I coned away my fastest run. My fastest clean run was exactly 0.200 slower which left me 0.155s behind. Bummer....So I finished in 4th behind a 6th gen Camaro and two S550 Mustangs.



However, there were raffle prizes. For each checkpoint I went to I received a raffle ticket, so 4 total. I ended up winning two raffle prizes. I picked a cooler and fender covers. I at least didn't go home empty handed. Overall, autocross week is an absolute blast. The mustang was actually really comfortable. A/C has been on the list to get installed and would have been really nice for KY/TN summertime. Definitely would do it again.

[RinerAuto]

ABS woes continue.

Taking a look back during Bristol and Autocross week I was having an issue with the pedal going long during hard braking. I've bled the brakes so many times, I can't believe there is still any air in the system. During one of the events I disabled the ABS. The pedal felt way better, but since I had removed the proportional valve I easily locked up the rears. Which is a sketchy I have never felt before.

Additionally, the ABS module has an error code for lost calibration. Since I don't have an engine controller I don't have a VIN on the OBD2 bus. That means I can't reprogram it with Forscan.

I had the Boss 302R module as well to try. Quick and easy swap. Driving at my local event last weekend it took me two terrible runs to figure out that it wasn't cold tires but that the rear brakes were locking up any time I hit the brakes. I quickly learned that the Boss module has higher rear bias. Not sure why it wasn't releasing the brakes like an ABS should. I adapted by only braking in a straight line and trying to carry speed. I found it actually quite hard to change driving style and not trail brake.

Talking to someone that used the Boss unit on his S197 he ran stock rear pads to help with the increased rear bias. That is one option since I currently run Carbotech AX6 all around. I ended up buying another S197 abs to swap out the control module. They are so cheap, found many on eBay for $40-60. So we'll see how well it works.....

[Hertzv]

Great looking build, Stephen. A ’94 SN95 set up for CAM-T sounds like a lot of fun, especially with some UMI Motorsports Park time.

[RinerAuto]

Great looking build, Stephen. A ’94 SN95 set up for CAM-T sounds like a lot of fun, especially with some UMI Motorsports Park time.

Thanks. UMI is a great venue.

[RinerAuto]

King of the Mountain started out pretty good. I was out of the shootout (top 12) but only by 0.2 seconds.




However, on the first run on Day 2 the engine let go.




​Luckily, I looked at an engine prior to KOTM and planned to pick it up on the way home. I wasn't planning to install it with 2 weeks until Solo Nationals, but as they say plans change.



Some engine specs

Dart Iron Eagle block

347 stroker, 0.060 over, 352 ci

Forged bottom end

Custom cam

AFR Renegade 195 heads

Edelbrock super victor intake

Solid lifter and other valvetrain upgrades, should redline to 7k

[Josh@Ridetech]

Autocross week is in the plans for me next year too. It looks like a blast and that whole crew is awesome. The car looks like it's doing great!

Bummer on the engine but it looks like you've got a nicely built piece going into it. I had a longblock with the identical build sheet you listed in my fox body and it was a blast. Good luck!

[ryeguy2006a]

Really cool build. That stand alone ABS system is very interesting. I'll check out your link. Where in VA are you? I'm just north of Charlottesville.

[RinerAuto]

Really cool build. That stand alone ABS system is very interesting. I'll check out your link. Where in VA are you? I'm just north of Charlottesville.

I'm down in the Hampton Roads area. There are a few intricacies of the ABS that I and a few others are figuring out. I'm not liking the pedal feel. Others are still having some lock ups due to getting pressure and pad compound matched up.

[RinerAuto]

I did it! I was able to get the engine installed in time to leave for SCCA Nationals.



Does it run? barely. At the point of loading it on the trailer I had driven it around 10 miles around town and done two WOT pulls to get data logs to the tuner, Decipha. Luckily CAM-T was running on Thurs/Fri this year so I had a few extra days. During the 2 day, 1400 mile trip from VA to NE I got a few updated tunes. I pulled the car out in WV and again in KY to gather more data logs.



Pulling into Lincoln, NE on Tuesday I had an updated tune and was given the approval to rip on the car. I had two test and tune sessions on Wednesday where Ashley and I got 4 runs each to see how it would drive.



Thursday was first day of competition for CAM-T on East course which was basically several sweepers with high-speed acceleration zones in between. Car and engine felt great. I decided to disable the ABS for the first run, which was a mistake. Every braking zone the rear locked up because I had the proportional valve wrong and too much rear bias. I removed some rear brake and re-enabled the ABS. After day 1 I was sitting 19th and Ashley 30th. But I was only 0.3s from the trophies.



Day 2 we were on West course, which was shorter and more technical. These are the types of courses I started on and immediately felt comfortable. I managed to find a lot of time. I jumped up to 10th out of 45 which was a trophy position!! (Top 12 was trophy). My fastest run didn't record but here is my first run which was 0.400s slower.



My first Nationals trophy and redemption for last year! I'm so stoked to go from a blown engine 2 weeks ago, thrashing to get an engine installed and street tuned, to getting a trophy at Solo Nationals!