To safely use seats and harness you need at a minimum a proper rollbar in the car. Have you driven or ridden in a car with proper seats and harnesses? It makes a tremendous difference. I drove all season in stock seats and CGLock, it was ok, better than nothing. But, after riding in many proper seats and reading Ross Bentley's Speed Secrets I'm looking at these as my next upgrades - you feel the car in three spots: hands, feet and backside. Having your backside firmly locked in not only allows you to feel the car move more but frees you from having to brace your knees against the sides to prevent you butt sliding around (my knees will thank me for this).

 

I did some research and asked a few friends and I have been told that KW's are either off the shelf re-labeled Koni's or built by Koni to KW's specs.

RodeoFlyer can you confirm or deny that?

 

KW's are not re-labeled Koni's. Koni *may* make the KW dampers to spec (frankly, I don't know for sure) but do not believe thats the case.

I respectfully disagree that you *need* Double adjustables. Compression damping is there to deal with unsprung weight. Most folks don't know how it works, and mis-use it as some sort of additional spring rate (to their thinking). Rebound damping is what deals with damping the spring rate and the motion of the car. In fact I have Double Adjustable shocks for my Camaro, and I run on Singles. I have also whipped up on many a car with up to Triple Adjustable shocks ranging from Penske to JRZ and Moton.

Coil-overs can be useful to corner weight the car, play with rates, etc. If you know how DA's work and how to tune them, or want to learn, by all means consider them. May or maynot make the car faster depending on any number of other things.

You can do amazing things with suspension changes, and aren't the biggest and baddest whiz-bang things around. I like Koni's, I think they are proven bang for the buck, and consider them better than say D-specs. They are not full out race shocks that need maintaince and have rod-ends instead of bushings, etc. They are performance street shocks that happen to be able to give you a lot of performance for the buck. And if you can tune the car in with them, you probably don't need more. And you can add coil-overs to them if you like later. There are a lot of great "normal" springs out there of varying rates, even some that are damned stiff if you go for that sort of thing.

 

Have you given any consideration to which roll bar you would get?

Ditto on driving a car with proper seats and harnesses. For me it was a long long time ago but I still remember it was like being a part of the car (an Alfo Romeo 1600 Spider). One concern with the roll bar is if the insurance company sees it they might have a fit.

 

I've gotten to ride in a couple of Porsches with proper seats and harnesses. One 997 GT3 and one 1972 911 race car. Both of those were on the track and yes, you can tell a huge difference. Haven't gotten a chance to drive one yet, but even riding you can tell the difference.

Argonaut, I know what you mean about the sore knees... I always end up bracing my knee against the corner of that black plastic trim on the side of the console. That thing ends up hurting after a while, trust me. I actually had a bruise after my last AutoX...

 

Wear knee-pads..

 

it's worth it to avoid the verbal rape I'd get for wearing knee pads, lol.

 

Funny you should mention knee pads Sam - at the last two day event I attended, by middle of 2nd day my knees were really sore. I looked over at my tool chest, spied some knee pads and put them on. Big difference, it was so much more comfortable those last few sessions.

The only non-custom roll bars for the S197 I've come across are from Jegs (which is almost all drag racing equipment) and Autopower. If you know of others speak up, I don't really fancy spending several thousand for a custom install.

 

I was checking around here in Dallas to have a rollbar custom made for my car just a 4 point for the moment. I about crapped my pants when this race shop quoted me $4500. I really would have like to have it welded in for safety but that was just insane. I then went with the Autopower but I tell you what that Jegs kit caught my eye it is really cheap. I just havent welded in forever and could see me accidenatlly catching my car on fire. I think my local shop only charge me $70 to install the rollbar so I am very happy and a lot safer.

Here is a cool article on installing the Autopower 4 point in an S197 with lots of pics.

http://mustanglife.tenmagazines.com/...ticle&aid=3659

 

Steeda offer a bolt in bar with a removable harness bar 017-52262 at $476.95 on their web site http://www.steeda.com/products/roll_bars.php

I just checked the Autopower Industries web site and their part number for their bar is 52262 so it looks like Steeda is selling the same bar.

Unfortunately up here in Canada the same bar sells for $894.93 CAD.