Paul's SHO investments, #35 STX Me and My SHO at Oakland (McAfee) Coliseum in mid-2007, image courtesy of RWoods, Pro Auto Body
EngineSnakes In A Car! Standard Yamaha-designed 24 Valve V6, dual length intake runners transferring at 4,000 RPM. That is a pretty engine!

Full servicing done at 120,000 and 175,000 by BaySHO Performance, San Jose (Nick Chrimes). Water pump done as a precaution as well. Very little valve clearance adjustment needed.

ACCEL washable oiled filter panel installed in original airbox, recently replaced with a K and N. Airbox silencer in fenderwell removed. BORLA stainless steel exhaust installed downstream of stock catalysts. Has needed repair once due to cracking caused by loss of support from rubber isolator failures. After second failure of mounts, replaced with non-BORLA mounting solution. Regular compliments received on the sound. It's got that neat "ripping paper" crackle at full throttle on the secondaries.... Engine is currently being run on MOBIL1 Tri-Syn 10W-30 with various filters meeting the upgraded SAE standards, (such as K & N 3001) using about 1 quart per 3000 miles, generally changing at 4-5,000 mile intervals. Recently underdrive pulleys and SHO SHOP Y-pipe with high-flow CARSOUND catalytic converters were installed. ODYSSEY lightweight battery replaced OEM-type with a fabricated hold-down, but it started blowing DIS modules so I went back to OEM battery. Now it's in the trunk (courtesy Nick and the kit from MOROSO).

Engine output: At almost 150,000 miles DynoJet testing at "BaySHO Day at the Dyno" showed 198 BHP max, which is very close to the 220 BHP flywheel OEM specification. This included UDP's and Y-pipe with high flow cat's. So far so good! Great engineering and regular maintenance, I guess. The graph doesn't show the last few mods. The heater core began leaking just under 170,000 miles, replaced at BaySHO. That job is "a real pig" according to Nick!

Brakes Car had 3 sets of Ford brake rotors before 60,000 miles because of warping, and I don't use them that hard. Rear caliper pins froze up once due to cracking of rubber seal and loss of lubrication. At 60,000 miles all rotors replaced with SHO Shop rotors, Performance Friction carbon metallic front pads (model uncertain) and SHOShop carbon metallic rear pads. These pads were too cold for street use. About 90,000 miles front caliper slider pins failed, damaging knuckles, apparently due to poor reassembly work at SHOShop. Replaced with 1996 rotors and calipers, SHOShop carbon metallic pads. At 133,000 a rear slider pin on the other side froze too. Keep checking those dust boots! New brakes pads installed, Porterfield R4S, at 139,000. The SHOShop pads were only about 50% worn, in over 40,000 miles, but I need better cold bite as it's my daily driver. Brakes reflushed with Valvoline synthetic brake fluid. Have replaced pads now with CARBOTECH BOBCAT pads sourced from SHONut, and they have massive cold bite or "torque". Excellent!

Between 110,000 and 120,000 the ABS light came on and stayed on. BaySHO Performance diagnosis indicated ABS hydraulic control module failure, brakes functioned normally but no ABS function. Replacement used module installed, complete fluid change done at ~130,000 miles. Update: at 170,000 miles, occasionally the ABS light comes on. Cycling through a startup seems to reset it. Diagnostic codes were pulled with no clear result. Finally Nick changed out the electrical box under the connector next to the radiator, driver's side, and that fixed it.

Suspension Stock swaybars were 24mm front, 23mm rear (fairly standard 1992 sizes). Not a bad combination for street use. Initially for autocrossing, however, heavy wheelspin occurred exiting corners. In the Stock class changes in front bars and springs are allowed, so I replaced the 24 with 21 mm front bar from wagon, with some benefit to reduced wheelspin and balance front/rear.

I then ran the car in Street Touring S class, with Eibach springs. Decent street ride, until you put on the 17 inch wheels and tires needed to be truly competitive. Next moved to SCCA Street Touring X specifications. I used INTRAX semi-progressive (well, about one turn looks progressive) springs, which drop the car maybe 1.5 inches front and 0.75 inches rear. They _must_ be fast, they're powder coated purple! Other items non-stock: stock 24 mm front swaybar, 29 mm adjustable SHOShop rear swaybar, SHOShop TPR replacement swaybar and subframe bushings, SHOShop TPR strut mounting cups, replacement swaybar links, SHOShop front and rear powdercoated strut tower braces, SHONut / Moog tension strut/lower control arm bushings. KONI single-adjustable (rebound) orange tube insert cartridges, installed at 60,000 miles. The rears have been replaced once about 95,000 miles due to both having failures. Update - Fronts revalved at Koni to go with the new coilovers.

Alignment currently altered to approximately -2.7 degrees camber, 2.8 degrees caster front. This was done by slotting the strut tower tops and the strut tower brace to allow more movement. Rear camber maintained at -1.5 degrees camber. Need some more? I'm not sure. The front negative has evened out competition tire temps across the tread fairly well. I run as much front tire pressure as needed to keep the tire from rolling over, which is about 44 psi. Rear tire pressure is a personal choice - you can decrease grip by underinflating or overinflating, and I run about 50-51 psi.

Update! GROUND CONTROL coilovers installed (Thanks for advice, Fred P.!). Currently running 450 pounds/inch front, 350 rear, no front bar, 23mm rear. One major headache is that the Moog tension strut/LCA bushings take a set in about 6 months, necessitating frequent replacement. STX rules do not allow replacement of subframe bushings with metal, nor engine mounts with any support with more metal than stock.

Transmission and Powertrain Five speed Ford MTX. Running RED LINE transmission fluid. Clutch replaced at ~20,000 miles for recall, tried SHOShop HiRevs Jr. model. Clutch replaced at ~30,000 miles with all Ford OEM parts. Clutch replaced at ~60,000 miles with all Ford parts. Transmission rebuilt by BaySHO Performance at 115,000 miles with new Ford clutch, new blocking rings. The new rings do not shift as well as Ford's original ones, which were metal. For 2004 on the change to STX class, installed QUAIFE torque-biasing limited slip differential. For racing, I use 235/40-17 tires as noted below, which gives a slight drop in gear ratio. The speedometer shows about 3 MPH faster at 70 MPH - this is beneficial to torque and I've only once ever hit the rev limiter in 2nd on an autocross course.

The wheel bearings have been replaced, originals lasted over 100,000 miles, but as I have adjusted the front camber to more aggressive negatives the life has decreased. A non-Ford set lasted only 18 months. Ford bearings are recommended and even at -3 or higher are lasting a couple of years at least, and that is with about 12,000 street miles per year in addition to autocrossing.
Tires and Wheels

(been there, bought that.)

ProRace1.2 		(Tires that are no longer available are no longer mentioned.) In autocross Stock classes, once you are out of Novice, you can use what is called an "R" tire, which is street legal DOT but way too soft for use as a regular street tire. I used Kumho Victoracer V700 225/50-16 R-type autocross tires, on the original white 'slicer' 16 x 6" wheels for G/Stock class. Nowadays you'd buy the Kumho 710 model. Daily driving, I am running Kumho SPT street tires on the FD wheels for improved ride, with decent handling and very good wet performance. For what it's worth the large negative camber does not seem to reduce tire life much; I do rotate the street tires a couple of times during their life. However if you let the toe out get bad, which is what happens when tension strut bushings compress, then the inner edges get fried quickly!

For SCCA STX class, used initially 17 x 7.5" TEAM DYNAMICS (white powder coated not stock) wheels. MICHELIN PILOT SPORT PS2 provided comparable grip to FALKEN Azenis Sport but were not as durable. Most wheel studs have been replaced once at this point, and Ford's wheel nuts also replaced once. Ford's nuts seem to be a great deal and are soft enough that they don't wear out the studs, so I don't mind changing them every couple of years. I highly recommend hand torque in a progressive star pattern application.

Update! New wheels! For 2005 TEAM DYNAMICS "Pro-Race 1.2" alloy wheels, 17x8" @ 38mm offset, thanks to Josh at SHONut Performance for getting these! 2005, I ran KUMHO Ecsta MX 235/45-17 tires. Not any worse, and an at least tolerable street ride. The Ecsta's lasted one year of competition plus street use (~15,000 miles).

For 2006 - Yokohama AD-07 "Neova" in 235/40-17, shaved to half depth, on the 17x8's. Excellent wet weather grip. Reasonably competitive with everyone else's Falkens in the dry, but not dominant so far. Bigger $$ though.

Went through 2 and a half sets of the Neovas, great tires. Just changed over to DUNLOP DIREZZA STAR SPEC tires, still 235/40-17, sourced from Tire Rack. Shaved to 5/32 or half depth. These seem to be competitive with the Neovas and the Bridgestone RE-01R that most others are using. And they are a third less in price which is a very good thing!

Driving Events - Trophy results shown (top third of class) 2003 2nd place overall in San Francisco Region fall season Slush racing series, Street Touring S.

2004 1st place overall in Sacramento Chapter Championship series, Street Touring X, and 1st place, SFR fall season Slush series, 2004.

2005 3rd STX Sacramento Championship, 4th STX SFR Championship series, 3rd STX SFR Slush series. Those darned Subaru drivers are getting faster! I'm only giving up like 200# in curb weight, 50-100# in driver weight, 7 inches in wheelbase, and 7 horsepower / 20 lb-ft torque. Oh, and two fewer wheels driven. Chump change. But this was my first trophy finish in SFR's regular series, which is a seriously big pond with tough competition.

2006 AND 2007 2nd place overall in San Francisco Region Championship racing series, and 1st place in the Sacramento Chapter Championship, Street Touring X class. For what it's worth, these are the best overall results that I know of for an S.H.O. in SCCA competition. Take that, Subie drivers! (wink) This may be as far as the SHO, which is more of a GT than a sport compact, can go in Street trim. Check out Fred P. at the Bremerton SCC, running in C/Prepared!

2007 5th place (last trophy spot) in Solo National Tour event, Street Touring X.