Norm Peterson

Sneak up on your solution.

Shocks/struts, springs (once you've decided on rates, amount of 'drop', and your own personal tolerance for ride 'firmness'), adjustable bars.

Koni yellows, Steeda Sports, and Sam's adjustable bars is a good place to start if you want an inch or slightly more lower.

Then drive it, and maybe run it a few times. If you don't have wheel hop and the handling and launch grip is satisfactory, you're done. Keep in mind that tweaking the bars can be used at this stage to dial in more or less understeer.

If you do have some shortcomings, that's when you start adding the other things (LCAS/UCA for wheel hop, relo brackets for instantaneous launch grip, Watts link for making left and right turns behave and feel more like the same as each other). But find out that you have things to solve first, otherwise you're just spending money.

Some of the items on that list are really only for the hardcore competitor. A DD will not benefit from $400 A-arms because you won't be driving it hard enough for the small difference in weight to matter. Shouldn't be driving that hard, anyway. Save them for when a couple of hundredths of a second matters for position or elimination at the dragstrip or autocross lot, which won't be right away.


If it helps any, I'm on Koni yellows and Sam's bars, but still on stock springs (I do most of my own work including alignment, so it doesn't bother me too awful much to do the whole job with the struts twice). Part of my reason for holding off on springs is that I like where the geometry is with the ride height where it's at. I know why I'd like a little more spring, but nobody seems to make springs that are stiffer but only a little lower (as in maybe half an inch). I'm not 'into' doing the drag racing thing myself, so axle roll steer is much more important than having lots of anti-squat (the fancy name for what relo brackets are mainly intended to give you more of).


Norm

Menace

Thanks Norm,

I came to the realization that the Ford Racing package, and Roush, Saleen, etc... don't really include any relocation brackets or any such when they lower their vehicles. I think I'll see way more dragstrip use then I ever will, if ever, autocross type use.

It's hard to say what I want out of the car. I just want it to grip the road and perform flawlessly... I couldn't really tell you what oversteer, and understeer really meant because I have no clue.

I think I would want to get the lowering springs, for the appearance purpose but hoping that the performance from lowering would be there too. I hear so many people going with the Steeda Sport/Tokico combination that it seems to work, and based on the pictures I am satisfied with the amount of drop (which is like 1")

I think I like the idea of the Watts-link compared to the Panhard setup. I've never driven a watts-link vehicle, but it just seems better designed.

Sam Strano

I'm happy to talk this stuff over if you want to call me. It's part of what I do, I don't just sell parts.

I see some issues with your list (IMO). You do NOT want a bigger front bar without a rear bar to match. I'd strongly urge you to go with Steeda or Fay2 on the watts link over Saleen because both of those offer you adjustable roll center height and I feel are stronger too. In short the Saleen piece is as much or more expensive than the others, but more more limiting to you setup.

I sell D-specs for $589/set shipped, and have some in stock. I prefer Koni Sports to them myself, but think D-specs are a decent option.

There are two different sets of Steeda Sport springs, I use one, won't use the other. I am a full Steeda dealer, and can supply you with any of their parts--and will when they are the best option.

Menace

Hey Sam,

I'm currently deployed so calling is going to be impossible, but I sent you a PM hoping you could get back to me that way. Are the Koni's -that- much worth a $200+ increase over the D-specs? I also don't know if you do any type of price matching, but there are vendor's here and I'm sure it won't be too hard to figure out but offer those items at a significantly lower price with fast free shipping. In the end the more money in the pocket for later mods is best.

Thanks,
Kal