Suspension guru's.....a balance I'm in need of.

[Mr_Q]

Alright. Anyone who tracks (roadcourse) car knows it's a gruesome balance between keeping your car streetable (and stock in appearence) yet performance driven on the track.

What I am trying to do is get as much an edge possible without going too far. Currently the Ford Racing kit on my Shelby is very nice. It's nearly 80% of what I am loooking for. What I am considering, and this is where I'd like opinion, is putting the best adjustable coilover on the car I can find and wider wheels.

For coilovers I want something that I can set to their softest and highest height (which should put me right around where my FRP setup is now) when not at the track. And then when I take my car to my local Stang shop so they can slam it to the ground and set the dampeners to race mode.

For wheels I want to go with the Shelby Torque Thrusts because they look the same as stock nearly. They're just the meaner and wider version that will allow me to put more rubber on the road and generally make the car look even more bad ass.

So anyone have a suggestion for a good adjustable coilover set up? And if I do that what other suspension wise will I be looking at for this? I figure which such an agressive lowering for race day I'm going to need an adjustable panhard bar and upper diff mount. Anything else? Driveshaft going to be an issue? I know I will need some CCPlates up front ideally as well.

Thanks!

 

[Sparty92]

If you're looking for hard core racing stuff, you might look into Griggs Racing products. I'm sure they have coilovers. Koni has a coilover kit, Agent 47, H&R has a kit...there's quite a bit out there for the S197.

You can slam/raise the car yourself in your driveway, but you'd need to get an alignment whichever way you go (up or down).

I had Koni adjustable shocks on my cough, Honda Civic, cough...when I would auto-x. They were not coilovers, but they were adjustable for firmness. They were easily adjustable with a knob, right on top of the shocks.

Good luck!

 

[walter]

Unfortunately my experience with coilovers is that they are mostly for racing in perfectly smooth race tracks. No matter how much unsprung weight you remove from the car they will beat you up on anything that is slightly irregular.

The only compromises you can find that are alright are good spring/shock combos with some matching swaybars but as you say (with the FRPP kit) they only satisfy 80% of your performance needs the rest is all in a coilover and full heim jointed setup. That's where you will lose street civility. That said Roush does make the Trak Pak which is supposed to be excellent and SOMEWHAT decent on the street but it's 2.5 grand which is a lot of cash.

I learned my lesson I'm not going to buy more suspension then I really need, I don't think anyone should.

 

[Mr_Q]

I pretty much would love what is on this page.

But yup, looks like anything much more than I have and I am going to be hating life on the streets. Time to suck it up and push harder I guess, heh.

 

[walter]

I pretty much would love what is on this page.

But yup, looks like anything much more than I have and I am going to be hating life on the streets. Time to suck it up and push harder I guess, heh.

Yeah I drool over that setup but who the hell has 15K bucks for something like that?!?

Honestly you already have a decent setup what I'd do is get a watts linkage and try putting a smaller sway bar up front (go with an OEM) and see how that works out for you.

 

[Sparty92]

Yeah I drool over that setup but who the hell has 15K bucks for something like that?!?

It's only $9,164.

 

[NastyStang113]

It's only $9,164.

Not for everything ...

 

[Mr_Q]

Well one can make a serious improvement with these two packages they offer. It's some cabbage for sure, but not as bad.

Coilover and Geometry correction kit for rear +$1,100 If I want the Watts Link and required diff cover added to that package.
Coilover kit for front
It's around $3200 installed. (less the Watts Link option)

 

[walter]

Well one can make a serious improvement with these two packages they offer. It's some cabbage for sure, but not as bad.

Coilover and Geometry correction kit for rear +$1,100 If I want the Watts Link and required diff cover added to that package.
Coilover kit for front
It's around $3200 installed. (less the Watts Link option)

Not necessarily I have the Fays 2 engineering watts link and everything mounts on the watts arm which replaces the panhard bar and bracket so you won't even need to mess with the diff cover. I prefer this setup over the diff cover setup because 90% of the stress is on the passenger side bolts so worst case scenario you strip the propeller bolt which can be replaced at a common hardware/fastener store not the whole diff cover.

Jim Fay really did his homework on this piece hence why Steeda has a nearly indentical setup now.