ccwebb

With my '08 Bullitt nearly paid off I can finally get serious about addressing the car's suspension.

My suspension upgrade plans have run the gamut from a simple damper/spring swap to exotic overhauls a la Griggs packages and everything in between.

Reality check: Budget with dictate my choice, so I'm trying to go with the fewest parts that will deliver the biggest results for what I hope to remedy.

I live in L.A. and this is a full time street car. It sees lots of twisty, hilly, bumpy roads so I'm looking to improve the car's general handling characteristics on such surfaces.

Right now my car's my stock suspension characteristics are lacking in the following ways:
1. An overall springy, divey ride with a pronounced lack of rebound dampening.
2. Wheel hop when the rear wheels encounter bumps in the road and lateral shifts of the entire rear end when encountering bumps on curved roads.
3. But what I find most interesting is that even with all four tires on a smooth road, my car feels most nervous when turning into a sweeping left, particularly downhill or uphill. As if the car's center of gravity is literally being held higher than it wants to be by something...is this the panhard bar finding its limit in that direction or...?

I can't really afford changes that would result in lowering to the extent that I would need additional parts to change/correct the car's suspension geometry i.e. Adj control arms, etc.

Was thinking:
1. Stock springs + Koni Sports + Watts link
Or...
2. Steeda Sport Srpings + Koni Sports + Watts link

Can I swap/add just these components or do I still need additional parts to make them play nice with my car?

Any benefit to swapping stock springs for Steeda Sports?

Thoughts and suggestions from the suspension gurus...and anyone else...greatly appreciated.

JFitz

I, too, have the side step in the rear over bumps. Curious to see what might help kill that.

tigercrazy718

the steeda springs will def be an improvement over the stock springs, and combined with the konis they make a hell of a difference. and im not sure if you need to get camber/caster plates with that drop but i went ahead and did because they were on sale lol. i cant wait to get my watts link though it apparently really settles down the rear over bumps

JFitz

I'm wondering if my plan of adding Koni SRT and Roush rear springs will exacerbate the "stutter" in the rear end.

I'm not looking for autocross. Just stability when I push it a bit.

audioAl

I really went budget build as I did Stack Racing springs on the rear only, no struts or
shocks till I do the front springs. This leveled my pony, with just adj. J&M panhard, BMR
rear lca's & Whiteline brackets. The handling is greatly improved, it grips much better
and "roll center" in the rear is much better. 14,000 miles on the pony.

Ansibe

CCwebb, I went with your option 2, plus an adjustable PH bar and upper strut mounts. I'm very happy with the way my car behaves.

You need a PH bar to recenter the rear axle after lowering, BUT, with the Steeda sport springs it's out so little you could easily skip it and add it later.

Strong upper mounts are nice, but my car is quite balanced at only 1.5 degrees of camber. You can probably achieve that with the OE mounts.

The rear end skips sideways because of the stick axle/ PH bar suspension. I just live with it, but a Watts link will make it go away at the cost of some nvh. Make sure your tires have some sidewall if you're going to stick (HA!) with the PH Bar. Tire sidewall and soft bushings are the only way to absorb the side step. I would not go less than 100mm of sidewall for road work.