Sold drag Suspension, need help making car handle better

MustangLife

Active Member
Jan 5, 2003
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Chattanooga, TN
I sold my lakewood 90/10's, sold my fox body 4 cyl springs and reinstalled my front sway bar. I put the eibach sportlines back in the front. Always had the eibachs in the rear. I'm still on stock struts and shocks. I have x2c upper and lower control arms, welded torque boxes, and kenny brown subframe connectors. I might do a couple autocross's a year. I got tired of the poor riding of the drag type setup. My quad shocks are removed. I still have to sell my nitto dr's and get some good max performance tires on the rear. The only thing left really is struts and shocks. Not really educated on sporty type struts and shocks

I was thinking tokico premiums front and rear cause I can get them for $300 for all 4 corners. Would I be happy with them. What about Steeda Sway bars or bump steer, off-set a-arms bushings, or some kinda endlink kit for lowered cars. Thanks any input is appreciated.

Josh
 
If I was going to autocross I would buy stiffer than tockico premiums. they are cheap though. kyb has some ajustables for $350 or so. dont' know how they compare to illumina's or koni's.
adj
kyb ~$350
Illumina ~$450
koni ~$550

non-adj
bilstien ~$470-500

basically hp's might give you a nice ride but at the track there are better opions.
 
MustangLife said:
I sold my lakewood 90/10's, sold my fox body 4 cyl springs and reinstalled my front sway bar. I put the eibach sportlines back in the front. Always had the eibachs in the rear. I'm still on stock struts and shocks. I have x2c upper and lower control arms, welded torque boxes, and kenny brown subframe connectors. I might do a couple autocross's a year. I got tired of the poor riding of the drag type setup. My quad shocks are removed. I still have to sell my nitto dr's and get some good max performance tires on the rear. The only thing left really is struts and shocks. Not really educated on sporty type struts and shocks

I was thinking tokico premiums front and rear cause I can get them for $300 for all 4 corners. Would I be happy with them. What about Steeda Sway bars or bump steer, off-set a-arms bushings, or some kinda endlink kit for lowered cars. Thanks any input is appreciated.

Josh

If your just looking for a marginal upgrade in handling and what not, dont go too overboard and spending money where it isn't needed. Just keep your stock shocks and your EIbach springs and purchase a C/C plates and get around 1.8-2.0 negative camber and as much castor as possible(+5 or up).

Next, get you simple/cheap adjustable rear swaybar, the Steeda one works pretty good for the 100$ it cost. Also, when re-installing your front swaybar, really crank down on the endlinks, the bushing can take the abuse, you want it pretty tight.

I agree the X2 balljoint and bumpsteer kit would help as well, and be cheap at the same time. Both good choices.

As for tires, just keep your drag radials, put about 30-35-psi in them and they'll be fine, youd be surprised how good actually. Well, i am assuming you have Nitto's.

Good luck, and believe it or not, the 99>'s really dont need THAT much to be good handling car. Yes, there are tons of hop-ups out there for them, but for your needs, it'd be kinda crazy to do K-members, panahard bars and coilover conv. kits. Just enjoy your ride, and get some seat time in at your local autox's. Being a great driver with a stock car is kinda like have N20 in your trunk! :D
 
I agree with keeping it simple. I first started out with Steeda lowering springs and used the stock struts/shocks. They worked fine, but eventually I noticed the stock pieces wore out. I replaced them with ’03 Cobra Bilstein Struts and Bilstein HD rear shocks. The car really came alive after that. My suspension set-up coupled with my 17x9’s w/ 275’s on all four corners handles very well. I am impressed with the set-up. One thing though, the ride is rougher than stock. A small price to pay for the much improved road handling. The only regret I have is not getting adjustable shocks in the rear. You might want to go that route.