427Roush

My car originally came with the Roush Stage 2 suspension and was tracked at six HPDE events during the first year of ownership. The second year saw the upgrade to the Roush Trak Pak suspension and new tires. If I had to do it all over I would have bought my dampers, springs, sway bars from Strano Auto. I now track the car about eight times a year and really feel the biggest improvements in this order are the dampers, tires and watts link.
I don't think you could go wrong with a Stage 2 suspension kit for your current needs/wants. Take the car to a local HPDE event, if and when you get hooked the list of mods will grow to match your speed and confidence around the track.

F1Fan

Vista dude, I'm not putting down the Roush suspension, I'm just telling you how it is. I don't know where you are but if you could drive a well setup S197 chassis in your area you would know why I posted what I did. The main issues with the S197 chassis have mainly to do with the damper calibration that many manufactures of "sport" dampers feel they have to use (too much bump and not enough low speed rebound damping), the soft bushings used to isolate the average buyer from the road and once you fix the squishy bushings the panhard bar. The stock geometry and stick axle are both positives for grip and handling though the stick axle will come back to haunt you in terms bumpy surface ride and handling.

The problem is that the S197 chassis is so much better than the typical inexpensive "sport" suspension kits out there are delivering. Don't kid yourself, the Roush kit is very inexpensive for a complete suspension which is part of the problem. Trust me it's very easy to spend more than the Roush kit price on a single damper if you are a serious suspension nerd. Heck, any of the good Watt's links will cost you at least 80% of the whole Roush kit cost.

The reason you are bored with your Roush suspension is that the chassis does not speak to the driver very well and even though we have paid the price of being so isolated from the road the S197 does not ride very well. The main reason for poor communication is too much isolation in the steering and bushings not engineered to let through the right feedback while isolating most of the bad stuff. If you lose the huge oil filled control arm bushings on the back of the front control arms and the soft strut mounts and soft bushings on the rear dampers and improve the damper curves to actually dampen at low speeds the chassis will communicate with you much better. Getting rid of the stock and Roush dampers that are over damped in bump/compression and under damped in rebound with proper slow speed damping curves and the car becomes better riding and better communicating what is going on to the driver.

LOL, you are a handling person or you would not be bored with the chassis. I am talking about street cars, race cars for the most part don't use inexpensive dampers, rubber bushings and low rate progressive springs that excessively lower ride height.

F1Fan

Replace your dampers with some fabricated struts and use Koni Race double adjustable dampers front and rear and your wife will think the car rides like stock again. You will need some springs that are appropriate for the job and local roads if this is really a street car. Depending on what bars you have start at about 400lbs in front and 175lb or so at the rear. Or you could just call up Ground Control and have them build you a set of Koni D/A coilovers and save a lot of time and money. Be sure to buy race camber plates so you can get enough camber in front.

HTH!

F1Fan

IMO with all the marketing and parts sales emphasis on maximum grip people have forgotten about handling and fun driving. Upgrade your kit dampers, upgrade the things that improve steering (front control arm bushings, X5s, bumpsteer and FCA relocation to optimize geometry) and get a good Watt's link (Steeda or Griggs, yes there are others and they remain so for good reasons) and stay on skinny tires if fun is your goal.