dr.apex

I'm getting lost in the sea of different suspension options out there, and need some help.
I'm looking for roadrace type suspensions for my gt. My wife is into autox and I like takin the car to the road course on trackdays. I realize that the suspension setups are different between the two but hope that its possible to strike a balance between the two with adjustability.
This car was bought for the sole purpose of having fun with and to make it as close to a track car as possible while keeping it legal enough to take it to cruise nights.
The problem I'm having is finding true racing suspension components. Most of what I find still caters to ride comfort. We are not concerned with ride comfort as this car is a toy to us. So, if it rattles our fillings out of our teeth on our way to a trackday, but handles the track how we want....we're happy.
Can you guys point us in the right direction to find the components that we need to setup a true competition suspension?
Thanks

Jazzer The Cat

Dr. Apex... I wub you

If you want an AX ride and roadcourse ride, you are building the same car, so no compromise needed. The easiest way would be buy/install an MM Maximum Grip Box and your Stang will eat corners for breakfast, lunch, dinner and have a BMW for a desert (well, some of them anyway). As for rattling your teeth out, this is not necessary and can actually be counter productive on a car that sees any street time.

Exactly how commited are you to going all-out? I can recommend no one better than Griggs Racing to dial up your ride to the eat Farrari's level, if you want to go big $$$.

Jazzer

dr.apex

We are very committed to getting it as close to a race car setup as possible. Like I said before, comfort isn't a concern. The packages that you recomended look to be spot on. The unfortunate thing is the price tag. We will more than likely have to buy/install piece by piece or smaller groups. The most street time the car is gonna get is takin it to and from the track and cruise nights.

Jazzer The Cat

OK, if you want *****-out, I would recommend Griggs completely. Not that there is anything wrong with MM, just Griggs builds flat-out race cars for the track with the exact equip I have on my own DD car.

I would recommend you contact Bruce or John and ask the best way to go about building your car. Personally, I did it in a couple stages for cost concerns and was just fine. I would start with the SFC's (upper and lower) and the MCA 4500 S LCA's.

I would then focus on taming that 4-Link "quadra-bind" out back and go CO's, WL and TA for a completely new and improved feel in the corners. Later on, when funds get replenished, I would go Griggs "K" and consider going SLA if you really want to to get the 100% most of your ride on the road course.

Jazzer

Aereon

Yessir, another one is bitten by the cone bug. I am a week or two from completing the MM max grip IRS box with my car and agree, MM is a great company but if money was not a factor, Griggs is the way to go. And besides a handful of people here, this isn't a great place to get suspension advice as most just go in a straight line. I'd go check out corner-carvers forum, or look for a local scca forum.

dr.apex

thanks a ton for the heads up. It really takes some of the stress away when someone else has been there and done that.
Please bear with my noobishness but I have no idea what "co's", "wl", "ta", and "sla" is. I know "k" is k member.

dr.apex

yeah, nothing against the straightline guys but the quarter mile is like a quickie when Id prefer to really get off.

Money is always an issue but I'd rather take my time and get the best of the best to get it done right.

My wife does the auto x thing with her neon srt-4 and rips it pretty good. I thought I could get setup ideas from her ride but there is really no comparison.

Aereon

yea, ford really gimped the sn95's with the stock 4 link setup as far as handling goes. I went with MM due to the fact that I have had more experience with them than Griggs, Griggs and Maximum Motorsports both have cars in AiX (if memory serves correct) so both are race proven, Griggs has a much bigger rep than MM does tho Griggs designs are also much more structurally sound (i.e. reinforced welds and such). I still find it hard for myself to justify the extra cost of Griggs, but if I had the money I would have definitely gone with them.

Great thing about both companies is that their customer service department is beyond reproach, when I contacted them both asking questions and letting them know I've been researching the other companies parts, they were very professional and stuck with just their strengths while avoiding anything that can be construed as negative towards the other company.

Good luck with your future setup and the most important thing is to have fun=P

Aereon

too lazy to edit my other post,

CO's = coilovers, they replace the current setup where the coil sits at an angle to the shocks, moving the coil over the shocks allow for a much better suspension travel as well as allowing you to increase the spring rate without much sacrifice to ride quality.

WL = Watt's link (correct me if I'm wrong here Eric)
TA = Torque Arm, both those two parts together allows you to delete the factory UCA (upper control arms), this would be one of the first things most would recommend as far as increasing the handling on the sn95 platform. The stock setup with the control arms set angled towards each other are one of the largest sources of complaints when pushing higher g's in a mustang. If you've ever felt the rear step out from underneath your car, it is attributed to them. Most on here will recommend stiffer UCA's but that is the exact opposite of what you should be doing.
Also, as a side note, when deleting the UCA's you will want to go with some heavier duty LCA's (lower control arms)

before moving into the next description, the UCA's control the axles side to side movement while the LCA's control axle windup (or hop/vertical movement) With stiffer LCA's you can delete your quad shocks, it's a little shock thats mounted on your rear axle, it's there as a bandaid to the crappy 4 link setup.

SLA = Short Long Arm, What this setup does is it deletes your stock k member/a arm/mcphearson strut setup with a coilover/double a arm setup. Kinda lazy at the moment to get too technical with it, but basically it allows you to run a high spring rate, it will make the ride a noticeable bit harsher. I did not go this route as I still DD my car, I have lower back issues and cannot accept too much of a harsh ride (even though I'm running some pretty stiff springs with the IRS lols) There are only 2 companies that do this for the sn95 (Griggs, Agent47)

Oh 1 last thing is invest in a good set of SFC's (sub frame connectors) go with a set of full length, if you have the money, the griggs unit is the best on the market, the Maximum Motorsports full length sfc's are good as well, I'd recommend a powdercoated one so you do not have to worry about rust. Make sure you hit the welds with rustoleum to prevent rust.

Eric's gonna chime in when he gets on and he's the guy to ask most of the questions to as he lives and breaths this stuff, I'm closer to a novice in comparison to him lols=P

Thats all I can think of atm, sorry I'm not all here atm as I have been stuck at home for a week now with h1n1=/

Jazzer The Cat

Thanks, Wai Wai

I was gonna refer the Dr. to my Official Suspension Guide (in sig) and read up. I recommend you get a good understanding of all this stuff BEFORE you go dumpin money into your ride. My guide is by no means the most technically proficient thread on suspension, but has more than all the basic components to understand all the lingo that goes into it.

Jazzer