{"id":18423,"date":"2015-09-22T10:30:28","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T17:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=18423"},"modified":"2018-08-22T14:21:26","modified_gmt":"2018-08-22T21:21:26","slug":"five-questions-with-matt-farah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/five-questions-with-matt-farah\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Questions with Matt Farah of The Smoking Tire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt Farah is the colorfully outspoken host of The Smoking Tire<\/a>, which has been the premiere destination for auto reviews and videos for more than half of a decade. \u00a0Whether he is reviewing a new Porsche 911 or a viewer’s \u00a01993 Pontiac Trans Am in his One Take<\/em> series<\/a>,\u00a0 Matt is considered the auto-journalist for the everyday car guy. Oh, and he’s got some pretty mean cars of his own.<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/a>
Photo: The Smoking Tire<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1. You\u2019re the owner of a track focused \u201888 Ford Mustang with a wide body conversion. We all know these cars are popular choices at the drag strip, but what does it take to get a Fox Body to handle the twisties?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are a lot of ways to significantly improve the Fox\u2019s handling without breaking the bank. Watts Links, tubular front K-members, subframe connectors, and a good spring and damper combo would work wonders for a road car. But I only wanted to do this once, so I kinda went nuts.<\/p>\n

I love the idea of new(er) tech in old cars, so I worked with the Mustang geniuses at Maximum Motorsports to basically stick an American Iron racing setup in the car, but dial it in for primarily road use. Realistically, even if I go to the track \u201ca lot,\u201d we\u2019re talking two or three times a year with my schedule. But I wanted to drive this car a ton, so it\u2019s set up not to be punishing to drive every day.<\/p>\n

We wanted to completely eliminate the Mustang\u2019s worst handling trait: bumpy road performance. With MM\u2019s tubular front K-Member suspension on custom-valved Bilstein dampers, subframe connectors, and 8-point roll cage, the front wheels are more connected to the steering wheel than they have ever been in a car like this. Plus, we installed a complete 2004 Cobra steering system, from the rack on up, for much better feel. But the front is nothing compared to the rear. We took an independent rear suspension (IRS) from a 2004 \u201cTerminator\u201d Cobra and completely rebuilt it with a Torsen T2 limited slip differential, all Delrin bushings, new swaybars, endlinks, just tore the whole thing apart and rebuilt it. The terminator was 6\u201d wider than my 1988 notch though, so you either shorten the axles or widen the car. You can see which direction we chose. Used full brakes from the Terminator too, with stainless steel lines and track pads. We put the biggest, meanest, widest wheels and tires we could fit on the car without rub (the car doesn\u2019t rub under any circumstance, rubbing is a pet peeve of mine), custom fit HRE RS105\u2019s at 18X10.5 with Continental ContiForce Contact 295\/35R18\u2019s, so the grip is just ridiculous. It\u2019s mental. The tires are R-compound, which is a road legal track tire. It\u2019s gotta be like what driving one of those Trans-Am Mustangs from the 80\u2019s was like.<\/p>\n

MUSTANG BUILD SHEET:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/a>
Photo: Wheelwell.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2. Have you noticed any trends coming out of America as far as performance cars go?<\/strong>
\nThe most worrying one is that the quest for horsepower is overtaking the desire for consistent performance. We\u2019re seeing too many forced induction engines that make big power, do well in the EPA\u2019s fuel economy test, but when you run them hard for a while or in hot weather, they just don\u2019t deliver, and the real-world fuel economy isn\u2019t any better. The best thing about the C6 Z06 Corvette was that it made the power as long as you could keep driving it. Didn\u2019t matter the conditions. Always consistent. My C5 Corvette from 1998 is modified to 500 horsepower and will return 32 miles per gallon.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the Shelby 350 looks insane, the ATS-V and CTS-V offer better chassis than their competitors, magnetic ride is awesome, the Viper ACR is pretty much the fastest road legal car you can buy, and this winter, I\u2019m going to take delivery of a 350-horsepower, All-Wheel-Drive Hatchback that was designed and built in Germany, but that says \u201cFord\u201d on it. I think America is doing well.<\/p>\n