Topic: 1996 Mustang V6 Governor Reprogramming (and other build tips)

We are a first-time Lemons team working on building our own car for the race in Sonoma this coming December. We have our car, a '96 Mustang V6, and we are working on getting all the necessary safety equipment together. As far as actual performance tweaking, we're really not doing much to the car. We are upgrading the entire brake system, dropping weight everywhere we can, and getting some strong racing tires, but we are not planning on doing anything else. What are some good budget-friendly ways to squeeze out a bit more speed and get the car running a little nicer? So far, the only idea that has come up is reprogramming the governor. As far as I can tell, our car is capped at 115 mph (I have a feeling my research yielded false results, and the actual cap is significantly lower), and while I doubt this will be much of a problem, I would like to dismantle this cap so we don't have to worry about it. Have any previous Lemons race teams done this? Is it worth it? What is the cheapest and simplest way to reprogram the speed cap? Aside from that modification, where should we look to improve our performance? Feel free to email me at anewman0623@gmail.com if you have any tips or bits of information you want to share.

Re: 1996 Mustang V6 Governor Reprogramming (and other build tips)

Not sure where in the country you are located but I think the highest speed I've attained on any of the west coast tracks was in the low 120s indicated.  That was in a 300hp car.  I doubt you'll reach 115 in a V6 Mustang and if you do it will be only briefly before you have to brake.

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Re: 1996 Mustang V6 Governor Reprogramming (and other build tips)

Don't sweat the speed limiter at Sonoma. Your car is very unlikely to get that close.
Work on suspension and setup and brakes.

Don't over lower it, Foxbodies get their rear suspension all bind-y. Leave stock rubber upper arm bushings in the rear control arms if you replace them.

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2/25/24

4 (edited by bobnowoc 2020-06-11 05:52 AM)

Re: 1996 Mustang V6 Governor Reprogramming (and other build tips)

Do not worry about more speed on your very first race.  Worry more about reliability.

As a first timer, it is unlikely you will be able to drive every MPH out of the car.  It is very likely anything you tinker with will break, resulting in down time in the pits.

Make the car bulletproof reliable for this race.
Worry about speed the next

Former Captain
1996 Crown Vic. #55
Team Racing Cosmo

Re: 1996 Mustang V6 Governor Reprogramming (and other build tips)

You DO NOT want to spin the Boat Anchor Ford V-6 any faster. They already like blowing head gaskets as it is.

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Re: 1996 Mustang V6 Governor Reprogramming (and other build tips)

I'd probably be trying to get to 115 quicker.  Not sure if Diablo makes a tuner for that car, but I used one on a 06 Magnum R/T and the difference was night and day. I dropped almost a full second off my ET.  FWIW getting any extra weight of the car is probably best bang for the $ and it will help all around.

"get up and get your grandma outta here"

Re: 1996 Mustang V6 Governor Reprogramming (and other build tips)

My same stpry for every team building their first car:

Make it pass tech
Make it reliable
Make it stop
Make it turn
Make your pitstops perfect
Then, maybe make it "faster"

All of the above make you more likely to to win in that order.  Makeing it "faster" by removing a limitter or adding speed parts will literally gain you nothing if you cook your brakes, minivan waxes you ass in the turns, or your 15 gallon fuel stop with driver takes 4 minutes.  More importantly, absolutely none of it matters if you don't pass tech or blow your egine because you did nothing to upgrade cooling.

Finally, cars are "easy", people are hard.  Make sure all of the team are on the same page (what do you want from Lemons and racing overall), personally and finacially committed.  Even then, from start of build to first race it seems the average team looses about 35% of their members and if rhey are not all on the same page, more like 50-75% before the second race.  Work on the team and passing tech.  Everything else is just noise.

Re: 1996 Mustang V6 Governor Reprogramming (and other build tips)

Another thing: December race means cold (i.e, it's been cold enough to start to freeze the crash truck water tanks, nice because I got an extra hour of sleep) or rainy or foggy or none of the above.

Keep your wipers and defogger working.

Re: 1996 Mustang V6 Governor Reprogramming (and other build tips)

You dont want to be going over 115 in December on your first race.  This is an Endurance race, not a quarter mile drag.

Get a bulletproof reliable set up and race experience before you 1. fritz your computer, 2. blow your head gasket, or 3. slide off the corner after the straight trying to beat 120 mph

Former Captain
1996 Crown Vic. #55
Team Racing Cosmo

Re: 1996 Mustang V6 Governor Reprogramming (and other build tips)

Sounds like you have a good battle plan as it is!!   Drop the weight, put good brakes on it, and make sure the rest of the car is up to snuff. 

For the first race I would focus more on making the car reliable, not screwing up and getting black flags, and doing good pitstops.

After you get all that down, then you can look at speed.

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