Performance Planning
Follow Kenny's User's guide and "road-map" to create your own high-performance Mustang or comfortable spirited daily-driver exactly the same way every Kenny Brown Mustang is created.
Beginning with the end in mind
When you start your project have some sort of plan of where you want it to end up, or at least where you think you may want to end up. Whether you are planning a little or a lot, two months or two years worth of work, always keeping in mind your goal. This will help you better organize your project and maximize your time and budget by making sensible decisions along the way so that you don't have to re-do something that you have already done.
Decide if you want to build a street car or a race car.
Another big decision is whether you plan on building a street car or a race car. In our system, building street cars and race cars, the parts, engineering and planning are very different. How do you differentiate? Simple, if you plan on running your car only on the track, you have a race car. If you plan on driving on the street, but also take it to open-track events, consider it a street car.
Please note: all Kenny Brown high-performance street car suspensions and components are street-friendly while fully track capable, which means that you don't have to give up the benefits and comfort of a performance street car just to do open-track events.
A common mistake that we see many people make is using race car components on street cars because they participate in open track events. Well, the race parts may work, but if you are not prepared to deal with the harshness, noise, service and maintenance issues that race car parts require, it may not be you best choice.
Align you budget and your expectations.
Everybody has expectations on what their performance car is going to be and everybody has a budget. Sometimes the budget is a one time shot and sometimes it continues over time. Be sure in your planning stages that your expectations and budget are in sync. If you have a budget, but don't know how far it will go, our performance consultants are very good at recommending and planning (based on Kenny's proven philosophy) the best steps and components to help you maximize the resources you have to get you where you want to go.
Follow a proven philosophy or create your own R&D project.
This is a big one. There are a lot of parts and a lot of places to buy parts in the aftermarket. Some of those parts outlets offer "packages" of parts, but very few provide you with a proven philosophy of performance and component compatibility.
At Kenny Brown Performance we offer you a proven philosophy of building performance, not a confusing array of parts, and Kenny Brown components are tested, tried and engineered to fit and work together. Kenny's philosophy, developed over many years and highly acclaimed for street and track, work because at Kenny Brown it's about the car first, your car not a bunch of random parts.
Kenny's performance Mustangs are legendary as the pinnacle of street performance and the hands-down favorite of open-trackers. Kenny builds his cars first then supplies you the same parts he uses. The engineering, testing and developing are already done -- so there is no-muss, no-fuss just bolt them on and go.
When you buy parts from different companies, you are never sure if everything you are getting will work together or how they will work together. If you have issues or problems it will be difficult for one single supplier to help you, so you now are engaged in your own R&D project.
At this point typically trial and error, trial and error, trial and error is your path to a solution. Now some people have the time, money, aptitude and interest in R&D projects and that is great. If you don't, relying on experience and a proven philosophy will maximize your budget, your expectations and your enjoyment of your Mustang.
Build your performance foundation first.
No matter what your project - large, small, daily driver, street scorcher, open-track demon or full-out competition racecar - Kenny's starting point is always the same -- Your Foundation!
Kenny's Performance Foundation consists of three basic elements that are discussed in more detail further on.
- Chassis
- Suspension
- Wheels, tires and brakes
Whether you are building a house, garage, sky scraper or improving the performance of your Mustang, a solid foundation always gives you a quality result. The flimsy Mustang unibody construction and OE suspension rob you of power, performance, handling, grip and ride quality even before you do anything.
Adding a lot of power to a basically stock car is a recipe for disaster or at least a jolt of major excitement as you try to control, turn or stop a speeding rubber band. Building your Performance Foundation first won't give you any more horsepower, but it will allow you the opportunity to actually use more of the power you have.
Many times we have installed only a chassis kit and suspension on a Mustang only to have someone drive it and then say - "Hey what did you do to the engine, it runs great!" The reality is that Kenny didn't even touch the engine, but he did make more of the power available and usable.
For those that have ever been to one of Kenny's Performance Driving Schools or Open Track events you know first hand that there is a lot more speed in the chassis than there is in the engine.
Use common sense and be careful of what you read.
Magazines and the internet are a marvelous resource of information for the performance enthusiast. But as you peruse the pages, approach the editorial and comments responsibility.
Most of the magazines have a small staff and they don't have the resources to double-check and verify everything they write about so they have to rely on information presented. So complete and total accuracy is sometimes difficult to achieve.
The editors work extremely hard to give you a quality read each month so as you read articles that may apply to your car or project just keep an open perspective. Just because someone else did it, doesn't necessarily mean that you can, or it will work for you or it will fit with the rest of your plan.
Keep an open perspective, use commonsense and enthusiast magazines (and the internet) can be a valuable resource for information and entertainment.
If you have questions, don’t guess, ask us for help.
A lot of information can sometimes be overwhelming and create more questions than it answers. Not to worry, Kenny Brown Performance Specialists are just a call away - 317.247.5320. Kenny Brown Performance has a well earned reputation for some of the best customer service and technical support in the industry. If Kenny's phone staff can't help you with the answer, they'll ask Kenny himself.
Put your total “package” together
It all comes down to this. The "Package" -- your "Package".
If you follow racing or any professional team sport, you already know that no single element can create a winner. It takes the whole package, the whole team of components working together to achieve a winning result.
The same applies to your Mustang. From a small series of upgrades to the biggest project, building one step at a time or all at once, planning and coordinating your package so that everything works together will insure a winning result. And it will probably save you a lot of time, money and aggravation too!
