Doogie

thanks for the feedback. Think I will pss on the Sport ones and just get the Ultralies.

sound wave

yeah, don't worry. i have a very similar set-up. it will settle more. just give it some time. of course it still isn't going to be as low as the frpp's, but it looks pretty good.

07 GT/CS

I think if I had known the FRPP springs were going to be a bit lower, I would have gone with them. Oh well, I hope they do settle some more. Looks like my mods are similar to yours. I have the CHE adj panhard bar and support on the way as well. I have a question for you on your KDW2's. I have the stock KDW's now but am coming up on new tires. I have been pleased with the performance of the KDW, but want to move to the 255-45 18's and they don't make that size in the KDW. My car is a daily commuter and I want decent performance in the rain. I am concerned that the KDW2's will not be as good in the rain as the KDW. What has your experience been?

sound wave

well, it is my understanding that the kdw 2 have replaced the kdw, so i would guess that there must be improvements on the newer model. the kdw 2 is the only non-stock tire i have had on my mustang, so i can't give you a direct comparison. it does appear that the grooves are wider that the kdw so i would suspect that it would perform better in water though.

compared to stock, there is more road noise, but nothing annoying. other than that, i have been very happy driving with it under all road conditions. during heavy rains, the car has handled very well.

sorry i couldn't give a side-by-side analysis, but fwiw, i am happy with them. plus the thing i like about our tires is that it has the rim guard. haven't needed it yet, but it is nice insurance to have.

07 GT/CS

My bad, I have the KDWS, not the KDW. The KDWS is the all-season and the KDW and KDW2 is the summer tire. I was looking at the Nitto 555 as well but that is also a summer tire.

sound wave

being in hawaii, i don't need all-season. my understand is that their only advantage is that you can drive them in the snow. all-seasons can be used year round, but don't excel in any one type of condition. kdws stands for (Key Feature: Dry Wet Snow) i think being that you are in northern california, you should be alright with the kdw2. the "2" meaning 2nd generation of the tire. it is a much more high performance tire.

nittos have a great reputation. they don't have the rim guard though. between the two, i would still go with the kdw2's though.

about the frpps and the steedas. frpp advertises a drop of 1 1/2" all around. while the steedas advertise 1" front and 1 1/4" rear drop.

i think in real world driving, the steedas are more practical. while it doesn't look as good as the frpps side-by-side, it gives enough of a drop and still clears (in my experience before my turbo) all steep driveways, parking garages, and speed bumps.

here are a before/after settled pics of my car with the stock tires. if you step up to 255's as you are planning, the gaps will look even smaller.

before


after (only kind of good pic lowered with stock wheels)


after (with rims)

Doogie

Thanks for photos as that really helps my decision as well. As I had the same springs and tire sizes in my winter "to do" list. I really do not want a huge drop, just enough to get 'er looking better without sacrificing too much on the handling front. I think yours is the perfect drop!

And since it is on an Alloy car, all the better!!

SteedaGus

Just out of curiosity, what made you choose the FRPP swaybars?

07 GT/CS

I didn't choose them. I actually ordered Granatelli sway bars from Tillman since they had a sale on them and they were a very good price. The box that came from Granatelli via Tillman contained a front and rear FRPP sway bar but Granatelli hardware. I went to install the front bar and found that the Granatelli bar does not have the welded on collar that goes by the center mounts so the use a very wide poly bushing and bracket. The Granatelli mounts then would not work with the Ford bar that I got. I didn't bother trying to mix the Granatelli brackets on the rear bar and I am waiting for Chris to tell me why I got the mix and match set from Granatelli. I think Granatelli is not responding to his inquiries and I am getting irritated with Granatelli's slow response.

I will say the I did look at every sway bar from different sites including Steeda, Granatelli, Spohn, BMR, CHE, American Muscle, and others. I found that the Steeda, FRPP, and BMR were all very similiar offering nearly identical sizes and billet end links. The Spohn and Granatelli bars are identical and look to be made from the same source. They did not offer billet endlinks which I would have preferred. CHE sells Eibach which is identical to FRPP. Since they were all so close in size and configuration, it came down to price. Steeda makes great products, but are almost always the most expensive. In some cases the money is worth it, in other cases I don't think the cost is justified. For example, I bought the Steeda HD upper strut mounts and they are excellent and worth every penny. However, when I looked at the Steeda LCA vs. CHE vs. J&M the additional $40-$80 difference just didn't seem reasonable. I have no problem mixing and matching components as I try to get the best quality piece for the most reasonable price. In some cases you get what you pay for, but in others, just having a certain name brand isn't worth the mark-up.

07 GT/CS

Thanks for the pics, I can really see the difference. I think mine looks about the same and so I should be content. The Ultralites do ride good and the handling is much better so I am happy with the performance. I really like those rims too. I have been wrestling with keeping my stock 18" polished rims or going with something else. I like yours, but I also like the Shelby Razors as well.

EagleStroker

oooops

Looks great man glad your happy with it!

SteedaGus

When you look deeper from the surface, there is value to our components. For example. Your LCA comparison. CHE & J&M = mild steel, Steeda = chrome moly alloy steel. Twice the strength, less weight, but only slightly more cost.

Our front swaybar does cost a little more, but there is a reason for that. Our front swaybar uses welded billet ends instead of flat stampings. The welded connection is far stronger than stamping the end and having billet construction also makes for far greater strength for a practically bulletproof swaybar.

Our LCA relocation brackets cost about 30 dollars more than competitors, but are FAR stronger than any of them. We offer more adjustment range with additional positions for the arm. We do ask you to weld it instead of bolting it, but the loads transfered during drag launch make this a part you should not be bolting on. Don't let this happen to you:


So yes, there is a reason some of our parts cost more. But its worth it

Cavero

07 GT/CS

I ended up going with the CHE anti-squat brackets. I looked at the Steeda brackets but from the pictures, they actually looked less beefy than the CHE's. I planned on welding them no matter the brand since I have a mig welder anyway. The CHE brackets are very strong and the overlap on the stock bracket match the contours of the existing bracket exactly. The J&M brackets looked like garbage and even the BMR brackets did not look all that heavy. However, Steeda certainly has the edge when it comes to adjustability with the multiple mounting locations. The LCA's are mild steel, but to be honest when I compared all of the LCA's on the market, there were few that advertised themselves as being chrome moly, including the absurdly overpriced FRPP ones. I gave the J&M ones a shot since they are pretty cheap and if they are unsatisfactory after a while, I can swap them out without a huge investment. As for the front sway bar, it sounds like the Steeda bar is built better, but I wonder if it makes that much of a difference. The stock Ford bar looks to be stamped on the end, as do most of the other brands. I suppose under very hard racing, one could separate the stamped ends, but for average street use, is it going to be a problem? The FRPP front sway bar I received has a stamped end and I have not heard any complaints yet about the Ford products. I do like many of the other Steeda products that I see and most of them appear to be very high quality. As I said before, sometimes spending the extra cash is worth the peace of mind. But, in some cases it is just overkill.

07 GT/CS

Another suggestion I would make for Gus and all vendors is to provide better pictures and descriptions for your products. I comparison shop quite a bit and I like to see multiple views and close-ups of each item so I can compare it to the same item from another vendor. Gus, you mention the advantages of your front sway bar, but this isn't clearly defined in the product description on the website. It simply states that the ends are patented. This isn't going to be enough to convince a buyer to pay the extra money. I don't mind spending a bit more to get much better quality but I need to be convinced that I am getting my money's worth.

Doogie

I agree! I am going through the same thing right now doing a ton of research and still not convinced I have found the right parts based on my needs, expectations, etc. There are a ton of options out there, limited data, and enough reviews (good and bad) that can make your head spin about every brand. Although budget is not super important, I do want to get the best parts for the money and not need to swap them out in 6 months because they did not perform as "advertised".

07 GT/CS

That was what I ran into with the LCA research I was conducting. Few sites actually said what the product was made out of except Steeda and Spohn. Most just said steel, but no mention of what steel. Then I ordered the J&M's due to their advertised ability to grease them through a zerk fitting to find out when they came that they eliminated that feature to my dismay. The poly bushings were also varied in their design and only a couple of companies elaborated on why their's was better.

shaun_beauchamp

I did my suspension in 2006. I hunted everywhere for info and found it minimal and limited to marketing facts. Since then, there have been some good articles showing suspension mods and proven driving improvements. There are however a few pieces of information that would help buyers when changing suspension parts.

1.) % means nothing without numbers. If a swaybar is 10% stronger than stock, it doesn't tell us anything. What if the stock bar preload is 1 lb? Then the difference is completely marginal. Give us some data we can use.

2.) Poly bushings squeek like a *****. Put some **** zerk fittings on the ends and give us a tube of silicone grease and a mini-gun with the kit.

3.) Ford cries about "torque-to-yield" one-time bolts. How come nobody includes bolts in their kits?

4.) Shocks and Struts are never published with rates or values. If Tokico D-specs are so great, then give us a reason WHY and we'll buy them.

5.) Tire Rack has a great rating system for tires. They use color and number to give values to several different performance characteristics. Wouldn't a chart system like that for springs, shocks, and strut combos be great for a consumer to make an educated purchase regarding ride and handling trade-offs?

My car is "done" and I run some Steeda, some CHE parts. I would have done all Steeda, but at the time of purchase I wasn't getting questions answered. I bought CHE based on a friend's recommendation and excellent customer service support over at CHE. My car is harsh, has tons of NVH (noise, vibration, harshness), but can out handle most S197s. I have minimal suspension mods, but the BEST thing is the Steed Competition Springs (bought from a TMS sponser - Thanks Marcello). I did the Eibach camber bolts and the thing doesn't eat tires and corners amazingly. You need the LCAs for hard launches and I did the Panhard Rod and K-member brace w/torque limiters for good measure. Been 14K miles now and everything is still tight and rattle free. I do bi-annual torque checks and lubrications to ensure proper performance and longevity.

07 GT/CS

I would second CHE's customer service. I ordered the CHE extreme duty adjustable panhard bar and brace and then a few days later, ordered the CHE anti-squat LCA brackets. The brackets came quickly but after a couple of weeks I still had not received the standard e-mail from CHE notifying me that the panhard bar had shipped. Finally I sent Chuck Dworek an e-mail asking if I should seek another source for the panhard bar. Not only did he apologize for the delay, CHE refunded me some money back from my order to make up for that delay. The panhard bar shipped a few days later. I don't know too many vendors that will give you a bit of your money back on a product when they are delayed in shipping. Two thumbs up for CHE in the customer service area, very impressive and they will get more of my business as a result given that their products are pretty good too. Chris Rose has also generally been pretty good at Tillman Speed but I am a bit peeved that my sway bars are still sitting on my garage floor while he tries to get Granatelli to explain why they shipped FRPP sway bars and Granatelli hardware. I think Chris has a lot of business and it is tough to keep up. I hope to have that resolved soon. The Tillman tune, FRPP Bullitt intake, and other items I ordered from them came quickly and Chris has been very helpful on the phone when I have install questions.

Bigjht

I've noticed this a lot since looking for stuff for my S197. I tound a lot of spring rates for my 99GT when I was setting it up but for some reason it seems no one publishes the spring rates for the newer stangs. I've been wondering why this is.