GameCock5.0

I just bought a 1993 Mustang GT hatchback. I have been reading up on different suspension set-ups and what would be best for what I intend on using the car for. It will be my daily driver for the most part, but I would also like for it to to be able to handle decently up the mountain roads when I take a weekend drive to the mountains. With that being said, I would really like for this car to hook on the drag strip. I would place drag strip traction over cornering capability, but still want to keep it streetable. So far this is what i have come up with as far as suspension goes. I have about a $3000 limit for the suspension part of this car. All parts to be ordered from Maximum Motorsports

Coil-overs front and rear
Caster Camber Plates
Full length sub-frame connectors
Pan-hard Bar
Anti-Roll/Sway bars


Any insight on how this setup would perform for my intened usage, or if I need all of these or possibly more suspension parts?

GC5.0
Thanks for any and all help!

GameCock5.0

Just wanted to add that the 3k budget is not set in stone. It's not going to kill me if it goes over a few hundred bucks

Jazzer The Cat

You will certainly have to compromise, to maintain good cornering and hit the drag-strip.

I look at it in the following way... A fantastic twisty car, will be OK on the 1/4 mile, where a fantastic 1/4 mile car, will be HORRIBLE on the corners. If one wants BOTH activities, even if one much more than the other, my recommendation is to build it for good cornering, but fall well short of a corner-carver.

1/4 mile specific rides are generally (nowhere NEAR my specialty, so may not be an ideal list here):
Very light spring rate up front
Fairly heavy spring rate out back
No front sway bar, or disconnected for the 1/4 mile events
VERY ridged rear sway bar
Very good frame support
Upgraded LCA's
Relocated UCA's
Lighten car and shift all available needed weight to the rear (battery is common)
Small diameter, but wide rear wheels (15", usually) and skinny width up front to save weight.
Hight profile, soft sidewall slicks

Corner-carving specific rides:
Heavy front spring rate proportioned to rear
Heavy rear spring rate proportioned to front
Both sway bars balanced to spring rate with understeer/oversteer tuned to driver preference
Very good subframe support
Upgraded LCA's (adjustable length is nice option)
Convert 4-link, due to funky design of UCA's (PHB or WL with TA is most popular)
Lighten car and attempt as close to 50/50 weight distribution as possible
Wide as possible and generally same dimensions at all four corners
Low profile, stiff sidewall semi-slick or minimal tread blocks, depending on your weather conditions.

Probably know most of this, but kinda interesting to see how much these activities differ, huh? The common items:

FLSFC's
LCA's
decision time...

I recommend you build the springs/shocks more toward corner-carving and look to a set of relocated upper control arms. This will be fine on the street, yet help with weight transfer on the launchpad. Run an OEM sway bar up front and probably a slightly stiffer one out back (<--- very dependent on spring choice). Disconnect one side of the front sway when you get to the 1/4 mile event.

Tires are gonna be a BIG part of the equasion here and recommend you purchase a set of 1/4 mile specific tires/wheels, if it is possible to do so. Swap them at the event, or if you are close enough to the track, drive careful to the event.

Lots of info so far and what say you?

Jazzer welcomes you to MF's

GameCock5.0

I say WOW, your knowledge for mustang suspension components is mind blowing. I have been a member on here for a few years, but lost my email account connected with my original user name. And I would say your fairly right about setting it up for good cornering and still use it at the strip.
So i need to add Upgraded LCA's to my list as well?
And the panhard bar will change up that 4-link out back right?
What spring rate would you recomend for the springs on my coil-overs?
Should i get really stiff adjustable sway arms, and just unhook the front and stiffen the rear when i get to the strip?

I am most likely going to just run a good sport tire on the mustang constantly for DD and the weekends in the mountains. And i am thinking about getting a set of slicks on a set of spare rims for the track.

Thanks for all the help Jazzer. I can build an engine with my eyes closed, but am a complete noob when it comes to setting up a suspension.

Norm Peterson

Be a little careful what you consider to be "upgraded LCAs. I think Jazzer has a bit of reading regarding this, but the Cliff's Notes version is that the kind with polyurethane bushings in both ends are only really good at the dragstrip. Even in normal street driving, they'll cause the car to toss your head from side to side more than is really necessary in anything but a car that mainly sees dragstrip duty only.

You want a spherical joint in at least one end if you want the hard cornering behavior to not hold any snap-oversteer surprises in store for you or for the handling balance to gradually shift as the poly stuff starts taking a cold set. This may have you re-thinking how to run that rear sta-bar, but they work a lot more effectively once you get them off the LCAs anyway.


What you're shooting for by trying to make your car lots better at both the cornering and straight line measures of performance really needs you to build some adjustability into the suspension. Maybe not initially, but eventually. Sort of like having your strip tires for the strip and a decent performance tire for everything else, just with stuff a little deeper in. Google "Project Unfair" if you want to see this thought taken to extremes.

When you move up to either a panhard bar (PHB) or a Watts link (WL) on a corner-carver, it's really best if you ditch the skewed OE upper control arms entirely and replace them with either a torque arm (sort of like the 3rd/4th gen GM F-body cars) or a real 3-link (like the current S197 Mustangs). The reason here is that the PHB or WL will try to put the rear roll center at a height that's different from where the OE triangulated (or converging) 4-link arrangement is already putting it. When it comes to cornering, this apparent conflict ends up behaving like putting a way-too-big rear sta-bar on the car. Properly setting the PHB/WL height - meaning set to the same height as the UCAs in this one situation - will minimize this issue. However, you aren't gaining in the corners what you should be gaining (a lower rear roll center, down around axle shaft height), and the gains will be somewhat in spite of having done this mod.

Poorly set, a WL or PHB plus the OE rear suspension with lots of poly in it will be a lot like running a drag race "antiroll bar" on the car full time, and you may have seen where the people who make the dragstrip bars are pretty consistent about stating that they're not intended for street use.

Which does suggest one place where "adjustability" would be a good thing. Front bars can be deactivated at the strip by removing one endlink, leaving you with only a rear bar. Or you could perhaps do something similar at the rear with a drag race rear bar for the times when every last bit of grip is really important. Most street-intended or road course-intended adjustable rear bars don't adjust to anywhere near as stiff as the drag race bars are.


But the first place to build in adjustability should probably be in the dampers (shocks & struts). The general setting that you can expect to work better at the dragstrip (soft front, firmish rear) will as Jazzer has already mentioned be horrible in the corners, so you'd like to be able to easily swap between settings. Never mind that adjustability here gives you some room to experiment to find out what works best for you - ultimately the package sort of needs to suit you unless you're up for a lot of driver instruction and retraining.


Not yet mentioned but also useful is the ability to set your own alignment - and swap it around among drag race, daily driving, and hard cornering setups. This is nowhere near as difficult as it sounds, particularly with camber- or caster-camber plates. If you can measure clearances, ring gaps and installed spring heights and get roller tips to contact the valve stems in the right place, DIY'ing this'll be cake.


Norm

Norm Peterson

BTW, MM is certainly one of the better places to be shopping for Fox/SN95 suspension parts, and Jack Hidley has been there about forever . . .


Norm