kustomizm

is it ok to get tokico spec d's or konis that are adjustable and keep the stock springs and not change ride height? i want to upgrade sway bars as well but i was curious about the shocks. thanks

157dB

Yea, but one has to ask, WHY?
Shocks are shocks and being adjustable,
they will work fine with the OEM 4X4 springs.

kustomizm

because to autocross and be is fs stock class you can change shocks and front swaybars and thats it really. so i think its beneficial to get better dampers before adding springs and other stuff and changing classes.

kustomizm

im not sure shocks are shocks is a very accurate statement. im sure ford didnt put the best part tokico or koni had to offer.

Sleeper_08

Did you read this sticky from the top of this forum

https://mustangforums.com/forum/s197...ks-matter.html

parchisi

Unless I'm really misreading your post....shocks are NOT just shocks, and the adjustability has nothing to do with the ride height.

But as for the original post, yes, you can just swap the dampers and you will see a benefit in handling. Sam Strano won nationals in FS with his 2011, I think he was using Konis but I'm not sure. You can talk to him if you want.

DPE

I have Koni Sports on my 2010 with OEM springs and bars. Also added Steeda upper mounts in front for a little more negative camber. Dramatic improvement, to say the least. The car turns in much quicker, and there's no slop in the initial inch or so of suspension travel that was there before. The car just takes a set and turns, right away. Dive and squat are reduced quite a bit as well. And that's true even with the shocks at full soft. Just plain better as far as body control and the overall feel of the car. Might be a small ride penalty in the sense that high-frequency bumps transmit through the chassis a bit more, but my wife drives the car regularly with no complaints so you know it's not too bad.

As for my 'Why?', just to perhaps make the thread more useful to someone, I have no reason to worry about autox classification so it has nothing to do with that. My thought was that the car didn't seem particularly 'under-sprung', but definitely seemed underdamped. And I like to do things one at a time so I can tell what parts are making what kind of difference. I knew I needed more negative camber for the track, and I knew I wanted better shocks, so I did mounts and shocks at the same time but figured I'd wait on springs and swaybars. And I doubt I'll ever do springs, though I may do sways one day just for fun.

I love the look of the car when lowered, but I don't feel the performance benefit (fairly small with my current setup I'd guess) is enough to offset the hassle of having a lower car. The thing already sits pretty low in front, and is decidedly too high in back but I jumped off the style train awhile ago so no worries there. Trouble is I take a lot of road trips to various places that may occasionally have unpaved roads or iffy parking lots etc., so the last thing I need is more ways to scrape up the undercarriage. The car works very well as-is; I'd like to stabilize the axle with a Watts link as reviews of such things have been quite positive, but in due time. Anyway, my 2 cents.

157dB

sarcasam at its finest