timothyrw

dan edmunds of insideline.com (of edmunds.com; no relation) is a former suspension engineer and does "suspension walkarounds" of their long-term cars. they had a 2011 shelby gt500 for a few days and he took the wheels off and jacked it up and took some pics and gave a description and his impression of the suspension:

http://blogs.insideline.com/straight...alkaround.html

a lot of it is stuff most of you will already know but there were a couple of other interesting tidbits in there. also, interesting to get a "dis-interested" engineers point of view.

find more walkarounds here:

http://blogs.insideline.com/straight...n-walkarounds/

Argonaut

Out of curiosity, what are the "other tidbits" you are referring to? I haven't kept up with the changes made in the last couple years, thus I found it interesting that this suspension is no different than the 2005 design (shocks, struts and sways are different but the design is identical). Every magazine is raving about how much better the 2011 handles than the 05-09, but they are identical (or am I missing something)...the changes are all in the tuning area. Cool.

timothyrw

i agree, it all looks really familiar.

(i had a longer reply but lost it.)

i found it interesting that the optional 3.73 gears gain the gt500 nothing in performance due to the larger wheels. i would have completely missed that and figured ford was offering them for more competitive 0-60 and 1/4 times to compete with the z28.

also, the tuning of the stabilizer bars in combination with the wider rear tires. v6 front, gt rear (apparently mounted "bass-ackwards"). "Taken as a whole, it all fits together."

a little more subtle, dan always focuses on the metal used in the suspension components (control arms, knuckles, etc.) and a lot of the luxury cars he has reviewed use a lot of aluminum.

"About those trailing links: Despite what you may have assumed earlier, they're not made of aluminum. As you can see here (yellow), they're made of two pieces of stamped steel that are welded together. Let's hope the choice of silver as a paint color wasn't intentionally made to make the casual observer believe these are lightweight aluminum bits."

when did ford start painting them silver? appears purposely mis-leading...

Norm Peterson

Looks like Dan swung and missed on that one. The way it's mounted makes it almost entirely sprung, and it's far more effective than the LCA-attached bars of the Fox/SN95.


That article managed to attract the usual elitist comments relative to it being a stick axle.


Norm

Argonaut

I'll venture to say people who sneer at the stick axle have never driven this car and have no idea what they are talking about. Easy to make the mistake though...since every automotive rag in the world sneers at it.

Norm Peterson

I think I read somewhere that a UCA pivot point was moved slightly, but don't quote me on it.


Norm

marcuskeeler

I agree that the live rear end of the Mustang isn't the best idea but cost savings are cost savings. Besides, for every Mustang owner who would ever think of pushing the car on a road course there are 1000 who prefer to drag race it. I still shudder at the thought of Terminators being stripped of their IRS's in the name of drag racing

I have managed to calm the squirrelly nature of my rear end as it tracks round uneven turns with a Watts linkage but there's no disputing that a fully adjustable IRS hanging under the back is always going to win out in terms of sheer road course pace.

timothyrw

i remember reading in motortrend's "we hear" section (i think that's what it's called, not having my latest in front of me) that ford insiders were in fact saying the live-rear axle ended up costing $100/car more then what it had originally estimated developing an IRS would have cost.

i recall it had something to with the fact that the s197 chassis wasn't originally designed for IRS and after it was all said and done (i also think partly due to some indecision on which to go with) and all costs were tabulated the live axle actually cost more!

of course, ford still pushes the drag-strip/cost reasons. i think there was no formal comment from ford when they asked them about it.

it's no secret they are developing an IRS for the next generation, so i think they realize it is overdue, although i'm not complaining.

my concern is i had a 2003 explorer with IRS and i was unimpressed with it's ride-quality compared to a grand cherokee or trailblazer with the live-axle.

wish i had kept that article...

Norm Peterson

If you know about when it was, I can probably track it down.


Norm

timothyrw

i want to say it was w/in the last year; but i can't say for sure when. i used to keep them all but never looked at them again so threw them away! i tried googling but came up empty and as far as i can tell you can't search for those sections on their website.

it was either in the "we hear" section or the "confidential" section. it might even have been w/in the last two years but no longer then that i'm sure.