NEW MUSTANGS TO TEST AT QUEENSLAND RACEWAY TOMORROW
New Ford Mustangs to test at Queensland Raceway tomorrow – Photo: Supplied
Ryan McLeod Racing Cars has been busy completing the build of three Ford Mustangs during the COVID-19 pandemic, these cars will hit the race track for the first time tomorrow at Queensland Raceway.
By DAN McCARTHY
It was announced yesterday that George Miedecke will drive a new FN Ford Mustang in the Bathurst 6 Hour, but he is not the only new Mustang owner.
Tony Quinn and Kyle Alford have also purchased a Ford Mustang each, tomorrow morning they will join George’s father Andrew Miedecke at Queensland Raceway to test the new ponies around the ‘The Paperclip,’ team owner Ryan McLeod is excited to see the cars in anger.
“The cars have been finished now for two weeks and all the customers have been and driven their cars completing basic shakedowns at Norwell,” McLeod told Auto Action.
“It’ll be good to get back to a track and put some miles on them, we will have an engine guy, a chassis guy and data guy there and we will work with the customers, there is a box of shocks and springs and sway bars to try.”
All three cars were originally set to debut at the 6 Hour during the Easter long weekend before the event was postponed due to the Coronavirus, the pandemic also made life difficult to complete the car builds.
“Once we knew the 6 Hour had been postponed we had to restructure our work environment here we went back to a skeleton staff,” McLeod explained.
“The composites team was working from home, my data systems guy was in Sydney working remotely and I was being his eyes and ears here. Some of the freight took longer to get here coming from America also.”
The cars themselves are not limited to the Bathurst 6 Hour event they can be raced in state level production categories as well as Improved Production and the Australian Production Car Championship.
In recent years the production car category has been dominated by BMWs, McLeod feels these cars will be a lot more competitive against the German brand.
“They should be good cars to drive, we will see how fast they will go but they have got plenty of power, this FN model is a bit more aerodynamically savvy than the FM that it replaces so that will help as well,” he said.
“It is exciting to have the cars, I think they are fantastic, they are loud and fast and I think they will be crowd favourites.”
To make the car race ready to and to meet the Group 3E regulations McLeod’s crew has made a large amount of changes.
“The car uses the factory ABS, stability control, power steering but we have changed the front brakes to go to a thicker endurance racing type pad,” McLeod told AA.
“The engine is pretty good but we do run it on a MOTEC management system like the whole car so we have made a customised control package for it with a power control module, as well as changing the pistons and conrods which is what we have done for years with the Coyote engine.”
Other changes include a motorsport sump, oil cooler, clutch, rear diff and all the safety gear including a safety seating system and on board fire extinguisher required by Motorsport Australia.
All these parts are able to be sourced through Racer Industries, a company founded by McLeod himself.
“We have been the homologation team for Motorsport Australia we have done all the vehicle homologation including roll cage certification, the brakes, special made ancillaries on the car trims,” he explained.
“All that is available through Racer Industries, which is what we always want to do we want to turn it into a marketable product.”
For more of the latest motorsport news pick up the current issue of Auto Action. Also make sure you follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or our weekly email newsletter for all the latest updates between issues.
