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2013-14 Shelby GT500
Science experiment - can the IRS from the S550 be transplanted into a 13/14 GT500?
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<blockquote data-quote="Tob" data-source="post: 14494758" data-attributes="member: 83412"><p>Do you know how close we were to having an S197 with an IRS? I invite you to take a few moments and read through the following article.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.drivingenthusiast.net/sec-blog/?p=11329" target="_blank">http://www.drivingenthusiast.net/sec-blog/?p=11329</a></p><p></p><p></p><p>This past summer I was lucky enough to be invited to join Rehagen Racing in the pits during the Pirelli World Challenge races in Toronto. A great weekend, including the inadvertent opportunity to discuss the Hellcat with Ralph Gilles of Chrysler (he went toe to toe and didn't miss a beat) as well as pick the brain of Filip Trojanek of Cortex (he was there in support of Rehagen that weekend). No doubt, the highlight was getting the chance to discuss a number of S197 related items with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pub/dean-martin/3/a7b/624" target="_blank">Dean Martin from Rehagen.</a> Dean won the race in the <a href="http://blog.forgeline.com/2014/07/22/martin-wins-at-wc-toronto/" target="_blank">GTS class on Saturday</a> and Hooper West (who also took the photograph in previous link) and I were lucky enough to be asked if we wanted to go out to dinner that night to celebrate with the team. We ate at a fabulous Italian restaurant at the edge of the city limits. Sitting next to Dean, I took advantage of the opportunity to ask him a few things about our beloved S197's.</p><p></p><p>I had followed the mumblings about an ill-fated S197 IRS and seen a few photos then pretty much forgot about it. So when Dean started to talk about Coletti, '03-'04 Cobra and R development, etc, I asked about the IRS that was earmarked for the '05. He confirmed it was killed as mentioned in the above Drivingenthusiastblog link. I then asked him how it actually drove. He said he was tasked with driving one of the development cars that was equipped with the IRS. He stated that it didn't take long to realize that the car was pretty well sorted out. He said he pulled up, got out of the car and handed over the keys, and let it be known that he felt that the car was ready <em>as is.</em> That it was <em>that</em> good. I think I uttered a "you gotta be kidding me" and he looked me square in the eye and smiled. I mentioned seeing an entire prototype assembly floating around (one popped up in a post here at SVTP) the web. He then yelled over the table to his ace mechanic Jesse and asked him if he remembered the two IRS S197 cars that he bought from Ford for next to nothing. I asked him whatever happened to the IRS portions and he said something about John Vermeersch at Total Performance having a couple of them.</p><p></p><p>So I suppose in the above context, you could see why anyone might have an interest in doing what should have been done in the first place. You can argue about weight, blah blah blah, but in the end, the pig that the GT500 was would have been a heck of a car with the IRS that was killed off. The chassis rails would still have kicked up (unlike the S550) and thus allowed solid axle swaps with ease for the knuckle dragging crowd. But it sure would have been interesting with a factory IRS. And you know that the aftermarket would have made it even better.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tob, post: 14494758, member: 83412"] Do you know how close we were to having an S197 with an IRS? I invite you to take a few moments and read through the following article. [url]http://www.drivingenthusiast.net/sec-blog/?p=11329[/url] This past summer I was lucky enough to be invited to join Rehagen Racing in the pits during the Pirelli World Challenge races in Toronto. A great weekend, including the inadvertent opportunity to discuss the Hellcat with Ralph Gilles of Chrysler (he went toe to toe and didn't miss a beat) as well as pick the brain of Filip Trojanek of Cortex (he was there in support of Rehagen that weekend). No doubt, the highlight was getting the chance to discuss a number of S197 related items with [URL="https://www.linkedin.com/pub/dean-martin/3/a7b/624"]Dean Martin from Rehagen.[/URL] Dean won the race in the [URL="http://blog.forgeline.com/2014/07/22/martin-wins-at-wc-toronto/"]GTS class on Saturday[/URL] and Hooper West (who also took the photograph in previous link) and I were lucky enough to be asked if we wanted to go out to dinner that night to celebrate with the team. We ate at a fabulous Italian restaurant at the edge of the city limits. Sitting next to Dean, I took advantage of the opportunity to ask him a few things about our beloved S197's. I had followed the mumblings about an ill-fated S197 IRS and seen a few photos then pretty much forgot about it. So when Dean started to talk about Coletti, '03-'04 Cobra and R development, etc, I asked about the IRS that was earmarked for the '05. He confirmed it was killed as mentioned in the above Drivingenthusiastblog link. I then asked him how it actually drove. He said he was tasked with driving one of the development cars that was equipped with the IRS. He stated that it didn't take long to realize that the car was pretty well sorted out. He said he pulled up, got out of the car and handed over the keys, and let it be known that he felt that the car was ready [I]as is.[/I] That it was [I]that[/I] good. I think I uttered a "you gotta be kidding me" and he looked me square in the eye and smiled. I mentioned seeing an entire prototype assembly floating around (one popped up in a post here at SVTP) the web. He then yelled over the table to his ace mechanic Jesse and asked him if he remembered the two IRS S197 cars that he bought from Ford for next to nothing. I asked him whatever happened to the IRS portions and he said something about John Vermeersch at Total Performance having a couple of them. So I suppose in the above context, you could see why anyone might have an interest in doing what should have been done in the first place. You can argue about weight, blah blah blah, but in the end, the pig that the GT500 was would have been a heck of a car with the IRS that was killed off. The chassis rails would still have kicked up (unlike the S550) and thus allowed solid axle swaps with ease for the knuckle dragging crowd. But it sure would have been interesting with a factory IRS. And you know that the aftermarket would have made it even better. [/QUOTE]
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2013-14 Shelby GT500
Science experiment - can the IRS from the S550 be transplanted into a 13/14 GT500?
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