clintster77

The 7%-70% is the advertised stiffness over stock gt.
But I have read good results about using GT Takeoffs front and rear on a v6.
Also some get the gt rear sway takeoff only.
There is a large difference in no rear sway and any at all for sure.
The overall effect would be a very stiff sway setup for sure.
If I put the rear at its lowest setting to start with and leave the front stock this should give me a oversteer condition right?
If it is too much I can install the front 4way on the front .I suspect on the softest setting it will put it back to an understeer condition since their should be a larger stiffness difference between the v6 and gt stock sways
(much like the front springs of a v6 are softer than a GTs but the rear are closer in stiffness because the rear of the v6 and the gt are closer to the same axle weight)
So with the front sway on the softest setting I should be able to move the rear to the middle setting or the stiffest setting and be close to balance .
That is assuming that the range of adjustments is wide enough for that to happen.

I want to do this before I buy my rims and tires so I can see if I need wider tires in the back or the front. or the same on front and back.
Most people don't think of tire width as being a huge factor on the cars balance and when they put those extra wide tires on the back they also increase the understeer. so at the very least I will produce a oversteer condition that I can put wider tires on the back. Wider tires on the front compared to the back Is not an option for everyone but for me it is.

( when I see a car with huge tires on the back and skinnys up front I think of how much streetability they are missing out on.)

RodeoFlyer

I run a stiff spring/soft bar setup. I only play with mine for fine tuning. Everybody is different. There's really no way to tell you where to set it because it's a preference thing. If it were me i'd start out with both of them on the softest setting (furthest from the bar), and dial it in as desired.

Jazzer The Cat

same as above

clintster77

what would the differences between a ..
(soft spring/stiff bar setup) vs (stiff spring/soft bar setup)

what my thinking behind a soft spring/stiff bar setup is more of a duel purpose .
It should have fairly good cornering balance because of the sway settings . But it would also have a fairly nice weight transfer for the drag strip due to the softer spring setup also I think it would be good for the street even though on one wheel bumps it would be a bit harsher than stock . There would be no change from stock in even dips or most highway driving unless you hit a bump on the corners.
BMR Fabrication sells a rear drag sway that is recommended for drag use only but can you imagine the oversteer on that monster? If you get your sways like you like them you have the potential to corner very respectively even if the weight shift from front to rear and vice versa is different than a stiff spring setup. Not better just different uses

I may also play with different springs if I have to.
I already have a set of 08 gt springs that one of my friends gave me for helping him put his lowering springs on. I may cut 1/2 to 1 coil off the front set that would give me something else to play with .
Am I wrong that rear gt springs are the same as v6 springs (there both coupes )?
Any thoughts?

RodeoFlyer

on the swaybars - yup. That's why the Roush/Saleen/etc cars still come with relatively soft springs and big bars. They ride like crap because the shocks are junk.

I don't know anything about the factory springs.

Norm Peterson

That is the traditional OE approach, where ride quality targets are at least as important as handling. It's also being explored in circle track racing, from NASCAR Sprint Cup on down, as a means of improving cornering aero. You let the nose drop (keeps air out from underneath) because the springs are relatively soft while controlling roll and avoiding outside airdam/splitter scraping on the pavement with an extra-heavy front bar. The roundy-round racers term this the "Big Bar Soft Spring" approach (BBSS if you read 'Circle Track' magazine). IIRC, the initial trend went way huge with the bar, but I think it's swinging back the other way a little now. Compromises in other factors may be at work here, such as alignment settings.

I don't think BBSS is quite as useful for track days or auto-X though. At least partly, this is a shock/strut damping issue, and what happens is that it becomes more difficult to get the damping good overall when there is a huge difference between the wheel ride rates (springs only) and roll rates (springs & bars).

Hopefully, you aren't cornering hard enough on the street for differences between BBSS and conventional approaches to matter much.


One of the books on my shelf at home suggests a range of how much roll stiffness should be due to the bar(s) and how much from the springs (and something about how much from roll center heights as well). It's not a set of fixed numbers, and even the ranges of values provided are probably for a more conventional suspension setup (as opposed to BBSS, which came later than the book).


Norm

Sam Strano

I tend to be more bar, less spring (within reason). I think I've proven it works for cornering where aero isn't a concern.

Norm Peterson

Fair enough, Sam. Definitely "reasonable".

As a "really Big Bar" datapoint, BBSS at the Sprint Cup level goes well over 2" bars for those 3500# cars.

http://www.1speedway.com/608175.htm


Norm

Sam Strano

Yeah, we're not talking that big....

Considering a GT and GT500 comes stock with a 34mm bar, unless someone downgrades to the smaller 28 and 31.7mm V-6 bars (which are still pretty good sized) in front we're all running "big bars", just to different degrees. And that's not to say that more and more is always best. I don't run the front bar on the Shelby full stiff because when combined with the rest of the setup it's just a bit too much for balance in my particular case.

RodeoFlyer

KW's opinion was that the factory bars are way too small. The ones they may come out with (big IF right now) will be completely different than what we see on our cars now. It comes down to budget and the "building a better mousetrap" factor.

This is of course because their off the shelf kits have pretty soft springs.