06VALimer

I'm thinking about replacing the factory struts/shocks on my 08 GT/CS. The car will only be driven on the street. It's a DD (but not really since I have a company car for that). I also don't plan on ever lowering it but I would like to improve the handling/ride some. I do plan on on putting on an adjustable panhard bar and stiffer panhard brace. I was wondering if anyone had any opinions of the Tokico "blue" non-adjustable shocks/struts or the Steeda non-adjustables. I know alot of people are going to say get the D-specs but I honestly don't feel I need the adjustability (and that's $200-$300 I could find better uses for elsewhere since I don't race).

Thanks in advance

F1Fan

Hi 06VALimer,

Don't bother to change your dampers unless you are going to install D-Specs for your application. If you are going to keep the stock springs and want to improve your handling feel and ride for a DD street car or weekend driver you have to have the adjustability of a D-Spec or Koni Sport damper to tune the dampers for your springs. Thisis one of the reasons they work better than the stock dampers or ANYother non-adjustable damper kit and the whole reason forhaving adjustability. The main problem with the stock dampersis they'retoo stiffincompression at high damper piston speeds and under dampened in rebound at any speed. I suggestD-Specs for you because they can be adjusted to ride softer than the Koni Sports while still providing excellentcontrol. I doubt you will be happy with anything less based on the dampers I've driven on and what people have reported back to me. Many other folkshave tried the non adjustables with stock springs and many have moved on to D-Specs due to poor ride and th lack of any way to adjust damping to solve the problem. The one case where a non-adjustable dampers worked very well was the Steeda Sport/Ultralite springs and Steeda Pro-Action damper combination. But they should work well together as Steeda developedthe damping rates under contractfor Tokico'sD-Specs using Steeda's linear rate sport springs. Steeda used this info to spec the Pro-Action dampers andTokico builds them. This is a very good combinationfor a DD car, sporty without being too firm.

HTH!

EDITED for clarity and typos.

Poco

You could change your dampners but why not FRPP(Eibach) front and rear sway bars.That will stiffen up your ride without changing stock dampners.

F1Fan

Hi Poco,

You didn't read what the OP said. He wants to improve his car's ride and handling, not make it stiffer and more unpleasent. The stock dampers suck.

HTH!

06VALimer

Thank you for the advice F1Fan. I guess maybe I will just save up a bit extra and get the D-specs...

F1Fan

Hi 06VALimer,

Well worth the small wait, you'll be thanking me and happy that you did.

Cheers!

Poco

I read it...your saying sway bars don't make your car handle better? He said he wanted it to "handle better".I also read he wanted it to ride nice. I added bigger sway bars with stock shocks and it handled better.My sway bar is adjustable up front and the ride isn't stiff or unpleasant(soft setting).It doesn't have have lateral roll out any longer.I've added Steeda non-adjustables and it rides a lot nicer.

Maybe his tires suck and make it ride bad.You never know.

F1Fan

Hi Poco,

No that's not what I'm saying, replacing the stock anti-roll barspotentially couldhelp improvethe OP's car handle better withthe costpaidforwithadditional NVH, reduced bumpy road grip and handling and losses in ride quality. Butanti-roll bars do not address what the OP was asking about, look at the subject of the OP's the post "Shocks/Struts for non-lowered car."The OP posted andasked specifically about changing out the"factory struts/shocks" on his 2008 GT/CS.

Many people new to the relatively crude American pony car suspension(yes even with the new 3-link + Panhard barS197's haverelatively poor rear suspension) wish theirpretty new S197 Mustangsrode and handled better than they do. This is no surprise to anyone who knowsjust how well modern sporty cars can handle and rideif the car was developed to address these issues. The S197Mustang chassisaddresses some of these issues but due to cost and drag strip durability the decision was made to retainthelive-axle rear end out backand update the control arm layout design to a "3-link" plus Panhard bar.

As you probably knowby now themain problems withthe stock S197 Mustangsare the very high unsprung weightof the rearlive-axle andthe fact that the factorydamper valvingsucks. In practical terms we can't really do much about reducinga live-axle rear end's mass. Butanybody who can find the money toupgrade their suspension eventually realizes that thesource of the problemswithride qualityand transistional handling is caused bythe factory dampers even on the verysoft factory springs. Ride quality issueson a production car isnever caused by the spring rates and is almost always caused by damper valving or quality.The OP figured this out sooner than most people do and is specifically asking about replacing the dampers. Additioanlly the OPhas already figured out that aside from rplacing the stock dampers the next most important thing to improve the S197's handling isto improvethe rear axles laterallocation and handling feedback and tosquare the rear axle in the chassiswith an adjustable Panhard bar and brace. When he is done with upgrading his dampers and installing his adjustable Panhard bar and HD PB brace his car will ride better than yours overany road surface and be capable of much better transitional handling than your car is capable ofwithliterally a 2 minuteadjustment of the dampers all around.

Addressing the OP's question regarding improved ride,all stiffer (larger or shorter bar length)anti-roll bars or stiffer poly bushing or spherical bearing AR-bar upgrades by necessity increase road noise, vibration and harshness. This is the nature ofinstallinga lower compliance suspension to improve steeringresponse and handling feel,it's simply a fact of life when making such performance and hadling improvements.As far as handling balance goesthe OP's car will not have the handling balance tuning capabilites of an adjustable front anti-roll bar as you have. But that can be quickly and cheaply resolved by simply drilling a couple of additional holes in the ends of hisfront anti-roll bar which is pretty easy to do and when finished his car will be capable of the same handling balance as your car is.

Regarding the Steeda non adjustable dampers if you had read carefully you would haveread that I addressedSteeda's Pro-Action dampers in post #2. To repeat and expandon mypreviously posted comments the Steeda Pro-Action dampers are the only decent quality,better riding and handling non-adjustable dampers I have seen and this is doubly true when used with Steeda Sport or Ultralite sport springs. Havingsaid this the samepotentialfor even better ride and handing than the Steeda Pro-Action dampers remains when installing a set of TokicoD-Spec or Koni Sport dampers. The ability to match dampening to spring rate and road or tack conditions is extended to any reasonably designed street or sportspring from anyS197 springswhich no non-adjsutable damper can even possibly hope tomatch. Even the very well matched Steeda Pro-Action dampers andSteeda Sport/Ultralite Sport springare no match for the D-Specs or Koni Sport dampers when combined withidentical performance sport springs. Forthesmall difference in cost there isnothing else you can buy for your suspension that can even come close to the performance, handling and ride advantages ofa set ofD-Sepc or Koni Sport adjustable dampers.

You'recorrect, I don't know what wheels and tires the OP has on his car.But he has anew car with new tires, why would his new tires suck? I guess he could have purchased his car with heavy, chromed 20" wheels and really crappy noname Japanese tires mounted on them but I doubt it. Maybe the OP will post what wheels and tires his car came with. I'm betting he has the stock Ford 18" Bullitts and O.E tires which BTW don't suck once you get some miles on them to reduce thetread depth.

HTH!

06VALimer

F1Fan is correct. I have the stock 18" polished Bullitts with the BFGoodrich KDWS tires.

I've had the Mustang before that "handled like it was on rails." My first Stang was a 93 GT that was pushing close to 400 crank horsepower naturally aspirated (the block and pistons were OEM... that was it if you looked under the hood). It had Ford Racing progressive rate springs, Factory Five Racing upper/lower control arms, full subframe connectors, poly bushings, 4 point strut tower brace, and 4 point K-member brace. It had 17x8.5 rims with 245/45zr17 tires. The car had zero body roll... but I had to approach speed bumps at 2 mph or I'd scrape something. It also let me know anytime I hit a pothole. At the time, I was 25 years old. Now, I've got 12 more years on me (complete with all the grey hairs and aches/pains that go along with a career in public safety). I love my S197... I loved my old Fox too. But Idon't want to sacrifice the comfort that the new car has in it to improve the handling some. I figure the stock springs will be sufficient for what I'm looking for, provided the dampers are upgraded. Especially considering the S197 platform has alot more rigidity built into it than my old Fox did from the factory.

Thanks again for your input F1Fan.

F1Fan

Hi 06VALimer,

With thedirectionyou are going inI canhighly recommend installing a set of Eibach CamberBolts for $30when you install the new adjustable struts and dampers.Seeing that your car is new, has not been apartyet and you aren't installing stifferSport springsI might suggest installing a set of GT500 strut mounts. The GT500 strut mounts are nota necessity but at $65 a pair a very fairly priced investment in steeing feel and strut bearing longevity.

I like the camber bolts so you can dial in some additional negative camber. In the 2005 Ford Factory Shop Manual (odd as it is most commonly supplied on CD these days) the stock camber spec is -0.75 degrees of negative camber and allows for up to 0.5 additional negative camber and still be within spec. I suggest you set your camber target at -1.5 degreesmax. which is a bit more than Ford's maximumcamber spec (based on expeiencewith the S197 chassis) or your tiresmaywear poorly with excessive inside tread wear. More negative camber is good forfront end grip up to a point but as you pass -2.0 to -2.5 degrees negative camber your braking distances will start to suffer excessively which for a road course or the street is a no-no. AutoX'ers haveno problem with-2.0 to -2.5 degrees or morehelps turningmore than hurts braking so you can get a way with it if it helps you drop time by providing addtionalfront grip.

The only other suspension item I can suggest for your situation is Steeda's Competition UCA/UCA mount system. This part is the bomb and helps you all around with little NVH penalty and significantly increased rear traction at launch and on corner exits. Do a few searches on this with posts made by me to get the long story on it. Works great for reducing/eliminateing wheel and brake hop while improving rear axle traction. I'd stop there in your situation and see if you are happy with the ride and handling for a few weeks. If you need more you can try adding bars but like I said you will have to pay a bit in NVH and it only gets worse as you add more suspension stuff that actually works.

HTH!