Team Winding Road: Epic-osity, 2013 Edition

Each year, your humble editors like to run one epic event. We do it because, well, it seems epic and we like epic. And, of course, we do it to share with Winding Road members and readers. Last year, we did Targa Newfoundland. This year, we thought we’d run the 25 Hours Of Thunderhill. Here’s the car we chose; it arrived over the weekend.

 

The Ford Mustang Boss 302S is a factory-built racecar using the now famous 5.0-liter V-8 from the road-going Boss—specially calibrated for racing of course (the car comes with an ECU calibration tool for different fuels). Ford builds 50 of these cars each year, or at least has over the few years. If your timing is right, you simply go to your local Ford dealer and place a parts order for part # M-FR500-B302S. That’s what we did. Ford builds the basic car in a batch during the winter, sends them to Watson Engineering for completion and base set up and then you pick up the car from your dealer. All the 2013 cars are sold, but Ford has annouced they will build a 2014 batch later this year. For 2013, the base price was $85,000. The only option is an upgrade from 2-way to 3-way adjustable dampers.

 

The Boss 302S is designed for Pirelli World Challenge GTS class, where it was quite successful last year, particularly in the hands of Justin Bell. The Boss 302S had nine podiums in 2012 World Challenge, matching the points-leading Acura TSX and outpacing the Porsche Cayman, Chevrolet Camaro and BMW M3 among others. Of course, the Boss 302S can also run in SCCA or NASA racing. The latter sanctioning body, which is the force behind the 25 Hours of Thunderhill, was part of why we chose the car. The Boss 302S fits in NASA class E0, which keeps us from being thrown into the effectively open ES class with Porsche Cup cars and CSRs.

 

As you might guess, the car is not street legal — it has no VIN number, just a build order number (ours is number 14). This reflects another beauty of the 302S, which is that it comes from the factory ready to go racing. This means we can spend the spring and summer getting to know the car and preparing for the race, a particularly important feature when you are not a full-time race team.

 

Oh, and we voted the 302S the Best Racecar in our Top Cars Of 2013 awards. Put your money where your mouth is?

 

It’s hard to miss that big wing on the back, but the car comes equipped with many goodies that make it lighter, safer, and faster through the corners. You will note the FIA cage, stripped interior and data system. There are many other racing bits that Ford has attended to and we’ll try to cover these as we get to know the car.

 

Keep up with our motorsports escapades here and on our Winding Road Racing Facbook page.