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Here's my 2 cents worth from the perspective of someone who knows nothing about the 1/4 mile but has some experience running an 08 coupe with a Roushcharger on a road course;
Steeda PB and PB Brace. - brace may be overkill, PHB will let you center the axle
Steeda LCAs and adjustable UCA.- I'm swapping out my Steeda poly/poly for UMI poly/rod as I am concerned that the present ones might bind on hard cornering
Steeda HD strut mounts (is the 1% of camber adjustment enough to keep front suspension within specs).- they wil allow you to get to factory spec but if you are serious about corner carving then more negative camber is required.
Steeda rear LCA relocation brackets.- a good idea for a lowered car
Steeda front control arm relocation kit.- probably not necessary
Steeda bumpsteer kit.- probably not necessary unless you are noticing the car has bumpsteer
Steeda GTrac brace.- your 08 may already have a factory brace in this location, mine did. I installed the Steeda one as well because I already had it and figured it couldn't hurt
BMR strut tower brace.- general position is that it is not necessary on the S197 chassis but with yours being a vert it might be different. I'm running the Roush one because with sticky 285/40/18s up front on the track I figured it couldn't hurt and besides it looks good. Make sure the BMR one clears your Roush SC
Steeda HD race engine mounts (not suspension related, obviously).- no comment
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White 08 GT Roush S/C 445 HP/KDW2 285/40/18 tires/18 x 9.5 Steeda Ultralite wheels/ Steeda Competition springs/D Specs/FAYS2 Watt's Link/LCA/Adj UCA & Mnt/Upper strut mnts/GT500 Brake Kit/GT500 Front LCA/X5 Ball Jnt/Bmp Str + more
Do these things as you find you need them, rather than as a checklist to complete.
Steeda PB and PB Brace. - for the PHB itself, first check to see how closely the axle is centered (ideally, you'd check the axle more against the chassis and the front wheels than the fenders). Replacing the brace is unnecessary from a strength point of view, as the stock piece seems to hold up just fine for autocrossing and open-tracking on R-compound tires.
Steeda LCAs and adjustable UCA. - ditto the idea for poly/rod LCAs. I'd do the LCAs first and see if that took care of any wheel hop. UCA if LCAs weren't enough.
Steeda HD strut mounts (is the 1% of camber adjustment enough to keep front suspension within specs). - depends on where your camber is to begin with. The factory acceptable range goes at least as far negative as -1.25°, and a quarter of a degree past that is probably not unreasonable, particularly if your "normal" cornering tends to be a good bit harder than that of the "average" driver.
Steeda rear LCA relocation brackets. - good for a lowered car at the strip, can be either a good thing - or too much of a good thing for hard cornering (depending on how much your car is lowered and how much the LCA pivots are relocated).
Steeda front control arm relocation kit. - this is something you'd do in order to eek out as much from the chassis as possible. It's well beyond what's legal in most autocross classes, and won't by itself benefit you anywhere without re-thinking the whole spring/sta-bar/roll center/etc. combination as well. Put this on your trailered C-Prepared car or open-tracking beast after you have enough seat time to appreciate it.
Steeda bumpsteer kit. - if you notice that you need it.
Steeda GTrac brace. - if you've already got a brace there (and I suspect that you do), don't bother
BMR strut tower brace. - convertibles benefit more from this item than coupes, but the improvement is still more about things like reductions in cowl shake and NVH than in any noticeable and repeatable performance increase.
Steeda HD race engine mounts (not suspension related, obviously). - I'll defer to the drag strip guys for the performance aspects of this one. But if it matters any, expect a little more powertrain NVH to sneak through into the cabin.
Is all this stuff overkill or are there more things that I need? - I'm of the opinion that you should let the car tell you what it needs. It definitely helps if you can get somebody (or a couple of "somebodies") more experienced to either ride along or even drive the car to help you sort things out. Don't take this as flame, but right now the car is faster than you are, at least as far as the hard cornering part is concerned.
Thanks Sleeper and Norm. Your advice helped a lot. I'm going to order some of the stuff and see if I need anything else. Might have saved me almost $1K.
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08 Mustang GT convertible, Torch Red, Roushcharger, Shelby GT500 wheels, Roush Stage 3 suspension kit, Flowmaster American Thunder axlebacks, Shelby Super Snake Stripes, Roush light bar, CDC aggressive chin spoiler, Side scoops
Thanks Sleeper and Norm. Your advice helped a lot. I'm going to order some of the stuff and see if I need anything else. Might have saved me almost $1K.
Glad to be able to help.
One alternative to the Steeda front control arm relocation kit are the Steeda X5 balljoints.
Ok i'm looking for some opinions here. My 06 GT is all stock suspension. I'm thinking about going with side mounted exhaust and in doing so I'm trying to avoid ripping the pipes off. So I was thinking keep stock springs, get Eibach pro dampers , front and rear sway bars and a strut tower brace. What do yall think? Please be honest....
I'm afraid I don't see the point in buying nonadjustable shocks that were specifically designed to work with lowering springs if you aren't also going to use those springs.
Nor do I see any reason for needing camber bolts when your intention is to maintain the OE ride height for reasons involving exhaust system clearance. If your camber situation is fine now, not changing the ride height won't create a need to correct it later.
If you buy the strut tower brace, do so for reasons involving appearance or maybe to reduce NVH a little. Not for any measurable performance benefit.
That leaves the bars. Don't know whose, or what diameters they are, but if you track down some of Sam Strano's posts on the subject you might find some information concerning 35 mm front with 22 mm rear bars.
Well I was looking to do the adjustable shocks but wasn't sure if I should also get different springs. I'm figuring that if I have the adjustable shocks and factory springs then I should be able to adjust the ride hight if need be to handle the side exhaust. Am I wrong in thinking this? I live in TX where most of the roads are new and flat for the most part, only in a couple of places do I see a possible problem.
Adjustable shocks adjust the amount of damping (think either "stiffness" or resistance to movement) that the shocks provide, not the car's ride height.
Set stiff, they might reduce car movement enough to keep your car from crashing down into a few of the obstacles that you'd hit if they were set soft. But they won't protect a side-exit exhaust with 3" of ground clearance against 3.25" tall speed bumps no matter how slowly you drive over them.
Thanks Norm for clearing that up for me. I guess that makes sense. I would have to put a lift kit or taller tires to left the car itself, right? Side exhaust is starting to sound like much trouble than it's going to be worth. Thanks for the help
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