whats the best front suspension choice for a 65 track/road car?

is it worth the difference in cost to go from a .

1,,sway bar, 620-1 springs 11,, discs roller bearing parts like the open tracker parts and the shelby drop

to a

front strut coil over disc and rack steering system. the kits iv been looking at are the bolt in fat man systems wich use late ford parts


lots of kits/set ups available all claiming to work well so its a bit confusing
i want it good but dont want to waste money

thanks guys

 

Check the rules of the racing organization you intend to compete with. Drastically modified steering and suspension may not comply with class rules, if "stock" is the baseline.

 

You can spend a lot of money on R&P, coil overs, etc. for sure but I think unless it's a track only car it may be overkill. I'm doing a similar setup that will be 90%DD and track, road course, etc. when I can. I decided to stick with improved stock especially for my budget, for 1/2 as much $ or less I can drastically improve steering and suspension with choice upgrades (adj. strut rods, roller perches, Shelby/Arning drop, 1" lowering springs, 4 1/2 mideye leafs w/poly bushings, 1" sway bar, export brace, MC bar, better shocks, etc.)
Here's a good beginners article to explain the mustang suspension and points of improvement:
http://home.bresnan.net/~dazed/suspension101
I did the DIY adj. strut rods with Daze's instructions.

John at ORP tracks his cars with mostly stock upgrades he's designed, some of his stuff is overkill for the street (roller UCA, etc.) and work best for a track car but his other products will give you an idea of where to upgrade to:
http://www.opentrackerracingproducts.com/products/

Due to budget I had to concentrate on how I will use the car 90% of the time - DD, this kept me from going overboard on suspension choices that would make it uncomfortable to drive on the street but improve it's handling.
Jon

 

iv no intentions of competing except on a fun basis. tho iv seen the classic racers and tbh they seem to hang on pretty well! prob more than my nerves!

 

I have autocrossed my car in events sanctioned by the NCCC, and if I had a coilover or R&P I would have been forced upward into "modified".

If you simply duplicated the 1" UCA drop and 1" front bar of the stock 65 GT350, your car would be a whole different vehicle.

 

For a street car I would keep the stock suspension, or even tcp . But double control arm for the street because of the camber gain. That way you can have your cake and eat it too. If you want the same overall camber gain with a strut, you have to add it in the alignment because it will not have the gain like a double arm will. But if you still consider it, I'd look at an AJE kit long before fatman for a strut stlye

 

sorry what do you meen by ,double control arm,,

il google the aje stuff
thanks

 

brilliant link jonk thanks

2+ thanks for the imput. what im trying to say is the events im talking about are free for all track days.theres no regs/classes

so if those classic mods do the trick and its not nesc to shell out extra for a coil over set up would that meen that upgrading the standard stuff with say open tracker like jonk would be the best bet overall?

having said that the price of upgraded parts plus a disc kit springs r&p kit etc may well be very close to simply buying the fat man or equivelent ford sourced kit anyway

 

Double control arm, or "double wishbone" on some cars, or LSA(long-short arm) uses 2 control arms mounted to the spindle, an upper and lower. That's the stock arrangement on a classic Mustang. By using the right length arms with the right mounting locations a double control arm suspension changes it's alignment as it corners. When set up right, the harder you corner the more the alignment changes to help you corner. The extra negative camber it generates when you corner helps to offset tire deflection that occurs under heavy cornering. That's also the same basic setup used on most sports cars, even to this day.

Modified stock suspension can handle EXTREMELY well. A good coil over conversion is nice because you can get the same handling with softer spring rates, but it's a lot more expensive.

 

If you choose key quality components wisely you can have an great suspension for little more than a cheaper repop kit. For example:
ORP
UCA-$200/pr.
LCA-$160/pr.
roller perches-$200/pr.
$560

Repop kit with thinner metal UCA/LCA and rubber perches -~$300
The quality stuff is about double but they are better made and will give a better ride.

Shelby/Arning 1" drop ~$20 (template/drill bits)
Springs (1" drop, or stock 480#-620# - $85
1" sway bar - $100

The adj. strut bars are $$$ to buy so I made my own with Daze's instructions, my '67 cost ~$150 due to machine work on the thicker '67 rods, for the 65/66 Daze did them for $110, still 60%+ less than buying them.

If you have manual steering a roller idler arm ($160) makes turning easier along with at switch to a larger steering wheel if you have a smaller one.

Even with all that you're at $900 if you do all of them.
Disc brake conversions can be had for $500-$1K depending on what size wheels you plan to use 15" vs. 17" or larger and how 'fancy' a kit you want - stock, upgraded 'stock' with 13" rotors (17" or > rims), Wilwood, Baer, etc.

That would put you ~$1600 to do all of that with quality parts and it would steer/drive better than new.

The fatman kit is $2K plus you have to supply:
struts, spindle & brake assembly, pwr R&P assembly w/tie rods, $500+??
and/or? disc brakes $525
Plus any fabrication to mount? you're looking at $3K at least I'd say.

This doesn't replace the gearbox either so if it's worn you'd have to rebuild or replace with either route.
Be sure to ask opinions of any kit before you buy as I've heard some of the cheaper ones can be plagued by bumpsteer issues, etc. and there are original parts of the car that must be cut off (strut rod mounts for one I believe) so if you don't like it and have to go back you'll spend more to have all that welded back on correctly.
I'm not trying to sway you one way or the other, just want you to be aware that you need to fully research an option before jumping in as it can get costly if you can't weld/fabricate yourself and that one option could cost twice what another one will for a fun street/ novice time track car.
Good luck and let us know what you decide on.
Jon