/DRIVE Video: Tuner Car Shootout

Maximum Motorsports thanks Matt Farah and the /DRIVE video production crew for creating this excellent video about /DRIVE's testing of MM's 2014 Mustang GT.

FAQs

Since this video was posted on /DRIVE we’ve received a number of questions. Rather than answering the same questions repeatedly in the YouTube comments section, we answered the most frequently asked questions below.

What is that Mustang, and what's on it!?
/DRIVE tested one of MM's R&D vehicles, our 2014 Mustang GT with just two factory options: Recaro seats and the Track Pack.

Equipped by MM for the /DRIVE Tuner Car Shootout and video shoot with these parts:

Why enter a 2014 instead of a different generation Mustang?

• Matt said "bring a street car." He and the team here at MM chose our 2014 because of its excellent balance of street and track performance. Even though it's equipped with a pile of track-proven MM parts, it's not a race car. This Mustang is often The Boss' daily driver, set up exactly as Matt and Leh drove it.

Why keep the engine stock, and not bolt on engine parts (headers, intake, etc.) to increase power?

• We wanted to show off the Maximum Motorsports suspension, not how much horsepower we could buy.
• The Boss hates to spend money buying power; he's okay with spending money to improve handling and braking.
• The stock Mustang drivetrain gives us the confidence to run the car at 100% for lap after lap on-track in extreme heat, which is what we encountered out there.

Why not add a supercharger to increase power?

• See above, plus even more here:
• Short answer: we didn't have time. Big power-adders mean dealing with big heat. Running continuously on-track with a supercharger on 114-degree days is a recipe for disaster without extensive cooling mods, entailing a lot of time-consuming testing. We're engineers, so we like to get it right. We don't rush or take unnecessary risks, which is why we produce stable, consistent, high-performance set-ups.
• When the reliability of the engine and drivetrain matches that of the suspension, The Boss has 100% confidence the car will not have any problems during the event, and he can relax. Adding 100hp at the last minute and risking problems on a hot race track does not relax The Boss. We all like it better when The Boss is relaxed.
• Adding a supercharger adds weight to the front of an already nose-heavy car, degrading the handling and braking behavior.

Matt said the road was closed, so why do I see other cars driving by?

• Just like with any Hollywood movie, the big-budget /DRIVE production hired stunt drivers to give the illusion that Matt was driving like a crazy man on a regular public road.
• Seriously, here's Matt's response to that same question, posted in the comments for the VW video: "The road is closed when we need it to be closed. So, I don't need the road to be closed during my speaking portions since I only have cameras mounted in-car and I only need my lane. But when we do drive-by shots, chase shots, tracking shots, the road is fully closed and ours. The CHP are awesome at this."

Why use these tires instead of a stickier, more track-oriented tire?

• We were asked to bring a street car, so that's what we did. We could have run a DOT slick and recorded quicker lap times, but we felt that violated the spirit of the competition.
• The Toyo R888 tires are competitively priced, offer excellent performance, have a good lifespan, and are sold in sizes to fit a Mustang. They're typical of what our customers use when open-tracking.
• Wider tires would have required modifications to accommodate them, and we wanted a setup typical of what our customers have.

What did the car weigh?

• 3,685 lb. without driver, with a full tank of fuel. Front weight: 53.9%.

Did you tune the car at the track?

• We didn't change any suspension settings. Damper valving, ride height, alignment, swaybar settings, spring rates, etc., remained at our standard high-performance street settings throughout the competition.
• We adjusted tire pressures solely to accommodate changes caused by the ambient temperature, which increased from relatively mild mornings to extreme heat in the afternoons. For those who are wondering, we liked the Toyo R888 at 38 psi when hot.
• No MM personnel or MM car had ever visited Chuckwalla Valley Raceway before this event. The MM 2014 Mustang was set up for general road and track performance driving, and was not tuned for this specific track or event.

What's the score?