H0SS302

how would a TA and PHB with coil overs ride on the street? pretty tame or no?

optimus prime

My advice to the OP is to look at what some of the best are doing and ask them:

http://www.griggsracing.com/index.php

You'll get a lot of opinions on here that are based on a lot of "personal" research and experience. Some professionals might be able to point you in the right direction. In the end it really comes down to you, your budget and goals for your car. Personally, I'm going to keep my SRA and go with a watts link setup. Good luck, and keep us posted on whatever you decide.

Novanutcase

OxfordGT is correct! a modded SRA can be made to perform just as well as an IRS if not better. The only people that will be able to tell the difference would be Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. or Jimmy Johnson. In other words, put the money into your existing SRA. It will do what you want and more.

John

H0SS302

I bet carl edwards could tell a hell of a lot better than any of those slackers lol

2000AZ5.0GT

I kinda agree. A modded IRS vs a modded SRA, I don't think so man. The IRS will out handle the SRA every day of the week with everything else being equal. It was a night and day difference for me, so I don't think you can say "the only people who would notice".

It's a pretty big difference if your running any power at all. With an SRA, you will bottom line have less grip. You can mod all you want, but it's only going to get you so far, and adjustable suspension with the IRS is capable of soooo much more.

Now, if your putting a modded SRA up against a stock 99' IRS, you're right, the SRA probably will out-handle the IRS with "everything else equal". There are alot of variables that go into how a car is going to handle, weight distribution and everything else. A 2V SRA car with a full coilover setup will handle differently than a 4V SRA car with a full coil over set up.

There's alot that goes into it. Since Cody isn't looking to make a ton of power ever, I think that it's perfectly suitable for him to stick with the SRA and mod it a little bit, but if he were going to be pushing for anywhere near 500+rwhp, I'd say IRS no contest.

Novanutcase

I agree but I also don't! The 'stang IRS is marginal at best as far as ideal geometry!

My perspective comes for starting with a stock SRA system versus a stock IRS system and modding it to handle the way you want it to. Yes, the IRS system will be smoother but at the end of the day it will cost much less money to make the SRA system handle just as good if not better than the modded IRS system.

Keep in mind that all the hoo haw about this control arm and that don't mean squat. What matters is how much contact patch you can get and keep on the road when you are in a turn.

There are so many more factors that go into making the IRS system perform well. They suffer from the same issues that a front suspension does like roll center, SVSA, bump steer, scrub angle, etc. so to properly set up a IRS is a lot more complicated than most think.

I think it's much easier, and cheaper, to setup and adjust an SRA system to do what you want it to as the differences in performance are nominal between the two if you set it up right.

John

2000AZ5.0GT

I think you and I were disagreeing about different things. Basically what your saying is that it is much easier to set up a stang SRA than to properly set up an IRS, which is true.

It's far cheaper and far easier, but I think if your pushing anything more than say about 400rwhp, I think a properly set up IRS will greatly out-handle the SRA set up car.

like you said, there is a lot that goes into setting up an IRS, but stock for stock, IRS>SRA

If IRS parts weren't so damn expensive, I don't think there would even be a contest.

BTW, that Nova that you're building is absolutely sick, I went through that thread drooling the other day

teej281

I'd keep my SRA if i were you. Less money to upgrade and less money to spend if anything breaks...which could very well happen when racing. Just stick to the SRA. You will probably be more than happy with it.

Novanutcase

Well...yes and no! LOL!

Theoretically, the advantage of an IRS system is that in bump or droop the contact patch is better defined since there is no angle change like a solid axle will have in a hard turn which effectively will yield less contact patch but an IRS system suffers from a lot of the other issues I mentioned earlier. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that, yes, pushed to the ultimate limit an IRS system should theoretically work better than a solid axle but there are so many remedies that can be implemented on a solid axle that the difference in terms of performance is nominal. The only real issue after that would be cost which, as already mentioned, would be considerably more for an IRS system. The OP already has an SRA system so if he can upgrade it to perform as well as an IRS for much less money that would seem to be the solution in this case.

Thanks on the Nova! She's gonna be quite a handful! LOL! I'm assuming from your screen name you are in Arizona? There is a guy named Chris Fesler that builds some pretty badass american muscle in Phoenix!

John

DIY

This is very true. The Cobra IRS was an afterthought on Ford's part. Rather than design a highly capable unit from scratch, the engineers were restricted to creating something that could fit within the parameters of the Mustang's existing chasis. Everything (bolt holes, suspension arm travel, etc.) from the IRS had to be compatible with a chasis that was originally designed for a SRA. Thus, the limitations of the stock Cobra IRS.