This is why shocks matter.....
 

Take a few minutes to read this article. Note that it's a Brembo car with the upgrade shocks. As you read page 4, you'll see why the first mod my car got was a set of Koni shocks (and later set of even higher end AST shocks for my autocrossing--though they are very, very nice on the street).

Here are the pertinent quotes from Randy Pobst--who like me is an SCCA Solo National Champion. Though he's gone onto some other things. :)

"That live rear axle setup? A non-issue for both of us. "The undulations I felt at high speeds in the bumps did not appear to be coming from a lack of control of the rear axle," says Randy, who suspects a damper issue. "The shocks can handle the car up to 60 to 70 mph. At 80, 90, 100 mph, we have a really challenging set of curving bumps and braking zones for which the shocks are overmatched."

But the BMW shines where it matters most: "The BMW has far better shock control when being driven hard, which gave tremendous advantage on the hairiest part of this track," says Pobst. "I don't know for sure how fast my speed was, but it sure felt a lot quicker in the BMW."
Which is why when pressed, Randy admits that he believes he set the fastest lap in the M3. So do I. "I think the BMW is faster because of its superior shock control at high speed," he says. "It has very little nose dive, very little brake dive, which gives me more confidence as a driver. It's more refined, a more conservative car than the Mustang is and far better controlled."

Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...#ixzz0xSOW3Djv

I'm always on these forums and shocks/struts are the first thing I recommend doing to make a car drive better, because they give you confidence and stability, and when they adjustable allow you to tune how the car reacts and rides to what you want, not what some engineer wanted.

Thanks Sam,
That article was worth the read. While I'm obviously a fan of the American Mustang, the results of that test were quite surprising...And pleasing!

++1 on the article being worth the read...very entertaining. Just waiting for the bank account to fatten up enough to get some springs and Konis from Sam. Based on all of the info he has freely posted here on the forum, when the time comes I will definitely be contacting him for the best setup for my '10 vert and happily giving him my business.

The M3 is pretty much the standard when it comes to handling and driver fun, if Ford was serious about making a true drivers car and not just another straight line brute then it has to go through the M3 to claim the throne of drivers car, I can only Imagine the hurting the Boss 302 is going to put on these boys.

Yes, Ford brought up the M3 comparasion in their Boss is Back article... "For us that meant a production Mustang that could top one of the world’s best – the 2010 BMW M3 – in lap times at Laguna Seca. We met our expectations"

"http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=33064"

Very informative-thanks.

Good info sam.

I had one of the original M3s a 1990 back when it was new and one of the first things I did was put springs and Bilstein shocks on it. You can almost always do better than the compromises that the factory chooses. Those were fantastic track day cars. I won't go into everything else I changed modded or tuned but I had a ball on the track with that car.