eolson

Sam or anyone. On the Steeda track test above, I was surprised at the small decrease in the total track lap time, while the cornering G force was improved by .9 G's on the same tires. Wouldn't that increase in cornering force = faster speeds through corners for a lower total track time more than .5 of a second? Or was the course really short? Erik

BlackBetty

I think they meant to write .09 G... an increase of .9 G just from dampers, springs and swaybars would be ridiculous; and impossible when you consider that the car would be pulling 1.8 G laterally at that point! The lap times for that course were in the low 1 minute range so that seems like a reasonable improvement to me, especially when tires are such a big part of the equation (and they weren't changed).

Sam Strano

Meanwhile just a few days ago a customer posted that he went some 6 seconds faster with some shocks and springs we did on his Mustang. Here's the link I was looking for, it was on this site, in this forum!
https://mustangforums.com/forum/7719885-post1.html

A few years back I did a basic bolt-on kit that was written up in a GM magazine, and it was the same way. 3.4 seconds on the baseline tires (Michelin Pilots) and a total of 6.9 quicker on Nitto NT-01's when they were added (showing the suspension was capable of much more an was tire limited the first time).

On top of that, as some of you know this past season I split time between my 2011 GT and a 2010 Corvette Grand Sport. The Mustang was on average just as quick as the Corvette (also setup, on Hoosiers, -2.4 camber in the front, mono-tube Koni's, etc). And I had no power mods on the Mustang. No headers, no light flywheel, etc. That was all suspension tuning and good limited slip.

Now, here's where I hate my job when other vendors are around. *sigh* Let me preface this by saying I use Steeda springs as my first choice almost always (but not always). Skidpad testing in the video was to the right the first time, but if the video is accurate to the left the second time. That matters. Driver's weight, how the Panhard bar works are factors, real factors. Also the before/after pics of brake dive. The before was purely on the brakes, the after was upon turn it, and judging from the front wheel angle and how I know cars to look at phases of the corner there couldn't have been a lot of braking going on there.

As for lap times: Well, I feel the GT rear bar @ 24mm is too large and they went bigger. I went smaller. I still run my adjustable 22mm bar (it's still an S197 chassis and that was fine before). Here's the rub with my doing that. Folks think bigger is better. Stock is now bigger than my rear bar where before it was smaller. Business wise it's easier to just do a bigger bar than Ford and sell it vs. trying to explain things to people, and reason to them why the rear bar is IMHO too large.

UPRSharad

I'm quite sure they meant .09 Gs, but in all fairness to my friends at Steeda, a .5 second reduction in lap times on a 1 minute course is hardly indicative of the improvement that suspension made. I'm a contributing editor at 5.0 Mustang & Super Fords Magazine. Ironically (since I work at UPR Products), my boss at the magazine and I came up with an idea to test budget handling suspension on my '06 GT and we decided to use Steeda parts since they were sponsoring a track day here in Florida. We took my car to the Track Guys HPDE at Sebring International Raceway and installed the Steeda mods between each session over the course of the weekend. Based on some of the videos we shot and my sporadic use of the in dash timer (hardly scientific), we dropped about 5 seconds off of my lap times over the weekend. (1:46) It was a dramatic improvement in handling, and I didn't get the shock & strut upgrades they used in the Steeda video above. Mind you, people typically lower their lap times in consecutive sessions as they become more familiar with a new track, but I can assure you that the improvement was not merely psychological. The car was running close to 10mph faster through various spots on the track. Conclusion: the Steeda parts flat out work!

And here's the UPR Products plug: since that test at Sebring several months ago, I've swapped UPR suspension onto the car and it feels more stable at speed, but it's not an A-B comparison since I added more mods and the car sits a little lower now. I'll write a build thread soon and post it here at mustangforums.

Now a little something for my good buddy Sam: I'm sure he's right about the rear bar. A friend of mine told me the FR500S track cars don't even have rear swaybars. That sounds crazy, but it is a reminder that all of these parts work together as a system. Swaybars are a tuning aid (especially when they're adjustable). Furthermore, one driver might like the handling balance on his car completely different than another driver.

Bringing this back to the original topic. Again, the boxed kits are great. Anybody's gonna run faster than stock with any of these boxed kits. However, I think it's a good idea to get out there on the racetrack, even when your car is stock, and get a good baseline. Then you can add the parts one or two at a time and see how they impact the handling. You know... either that or you can pile on the parts and let 'er eat! Either way!