Newer wheels on a 65

I had 18x9 upfront and 18x10 rear boyd codingtons on my fastback and they tucked very nicely. 305x30 rear and 275x35 front. The wheels are long gone from the fastback. Now they are on a certain lx


Any of the older members recognize the car? It's my old 92' lx with all black interior and 80K original miles....and the hood yup it's from my old supercharged HCI motored 89 GT

Big red X

Darkhorse845 said:

Big red X

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I can see the pic...

sally....big red X here too

68rustang said:

Personally I think 18's are too big for the little 65 and 66 cars. I was just wondering if you have the math to back up that statement or if you are just talking out of your ***? If you do I would like to see it. Sorry I couldn't help but ask, I have been hanging out at cc.com too much lately.

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Generally speaking, no I don't have the math. However, anytime you raise the ride height of a car you affect steering geometry. In the case of a raked car (rear higher than the front), it has the most affect on Roll Axis, Caster, and also Camber settings as the suspension moves through it's motion.

For straight line stability it is best to have positive caster within a reasonable range, say 3* to 6*. There are very little adjustments that can be made with a stock 65-66 suspension with 2* - 3* begin about the maximum you can get with shims and strut rod adjustments. Raising the rear has a negative effect on caster, bringing the degrees closer to zero. It also raises the rear roll axis. The affect on steering is it has less on-center feel and may tend to wander more (especially with the wider tires up front). Depending on your spring setup, it can also introduce more oversteer. Caster also has an effect on Camber as the suspension moves through it's motions. The more Caster you have, the more negative camber can be achieved. However, too much caster has a negative affect on bump-steer. For instance, going to 10* Caster could be disasterous on a high-speed bumpy sweeper.

I experimented a lot with my '99 Mustang Cobra running Maximum Motorsports Caster/Camber plates and running different toe-in and toe-out settings while autocrossing for a couple of years. I found it best (for me) running 6* caster, -1* Camber, and about 1/16" toe-out for Autocross. I'd adjust it for street at 0* Camber and 1/16" toe-in. I also had Grigg's FLCA's, Coil-Overs Front/Rear, and Dual-Adjustable Koni's (and a ton more). The car was also lowered 1.25" in back, and 1.5" in front. I found that lowering the front any lower had a negative affect on cornering ability. I attributed it to the FLCA not being level and hence not having as much negative camber when suspension was compressed in a turn. Bump-steer wasn't an issue since most of the courses I competed on were completely flat with very little variation in road surface.

No math, sorry, just real world experience.

I also agree that 18's are a bit large on the 65-66. However, if you mini-tub the back, lower the car evenly, and tuck all the rubber behind the stock fenders it does look really good for a street hot-rod. I still think performance wise you would be better off with smaller rims, taller sidewalls, and a more realistic ride height than what is depicted below.

Here is a link to a mini-tubbed example using 17s:
http://www.mustangweekly.com/2000/june/65/65p1.asp

66P51GT said:

Here is a link to a mini-tubbed example using 17s:
http://www.mustangweekly.com/2000/june/65/65p1.asp

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I would just like to chime in and say....

All the friggen work to his mustang and he added ZERO bracing to the car. WTF is that. Stock shock tower supports. No export brace upgrade. No monte carlo bar. Looks like a low speed cruiser to me. Lots of great craftsmanship done to the car but Geeze...it also has an air bag suspension so the picture of it sitting there is not the way it runs down the street. remember that flash forward ebay stang with the arse end the looked great parked but shot up 5-6 inches when he needed drive?


If you car is a cruiser its great. If you are building a car for track uses, then you start to worry about optimizing the suspension and the corners you can't carve unless you are low and level, or the tight lauches you can't make with a back end up too high. Even with a heavy rake, a mustang with a mildly hopped up engine will still take a stickered up, yellow seat belt painted, side ways cap wearing, boom boom rolling, import

dodgestang said:

I would just like to chime in and say....

All the friggen work to his mustang and he added ZERO bracing to the car. WTF is that. Stock shock tower supports. No export brace upgrade. No monte carlo bar. Looks like a low speed cruiser to me. Lots of great craftsmanship done to the car but Geeze...it also has an air bag suspension so the picture of it sitting there is not the way it runs down the street. remember that flash forward ebay stang with the arse end the looked great parked but shot up 5-6 inches when he needed drive?


If you car is a cruiser its great. If you are building a car for track uses, then you start to worry about optimizing the suspension and the corners you can't carve unless you are low and level, or the tight lauches you can't make with a back end up too high. Even with a heavy rake, a mustang with a mildly hopped up engine will still take a stickered up, yellow seat belt painted, side ways cap wearing, boom boom rolling, import

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I couldn't agree more.

dodgestang said:

I would just like to chime in and say....

All the friggen work to his mustang and he added ZERO bracing to the car. WTF is that. Stock shock tower supports. No export brace upgrade. No monte carlo bar. Looks like a low speed cruiser to me. Lots of great craftsmanship done to the car but Geeze...it also has an air bag suspension so the picture of it sitting there is not the way it runs down the street. remember that flash forward ebay stang with the arse end the looked great parked but shot up 5-6 inches when he needed drive?


If you car is a cruiser its great. If you are building a car for track uses, then you start to worry about optimizing the suspension and the corners you can't carve unless you are low and level, or the tight lauches you can't make with a back end up too high. Even with a heavy rake, a mustang with a mildly hopped up engine will still take a stickered up, yellow seat belt painted, side ways cap wearing, boom boom rolling, import

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lol, everything you said is true but remember, different cars for different purposes.

How about now??????