On my 07 GT I have Steeda Ultralites, Koni STR.Ts, and 275/40/18s in the rear. I'm pretty happy with the handling except for one thing.

On the street when I make a quick turn, hitting any sort of bump or groove causes the whole axle to jump/hop, really decreasing the grip during the turn. Is there any easy cure for this? I don't do drag racing or road racing but would like a little more confidence for spirited street driving.

I was thinking LCAs might help?

How about an adj panhard bar? (I thought the adj panhard was unlikely since the ultralites don't lower it that much and shouldn't necessitate re-centering the axle)

Or it could just be what I was afraid of: Live-rear axle + bumpy turns = skiddish handling

 

When you lowered the car with the Ultra-lites, did you change the bumpstops too? You could be running out of suspension travel and hitting the stops in the turns.

 

I didn't, I always thought that bumpstops were for excessive drops, not the 1 to 1.25" of the ultra-lites

 

I don't think LCA's will help w/your issue. I have them and they're great for off the the line, but not really applicable in a handling situation. I have 275/40/18s on all 4 corners and I'm pretty happy with the car's handling. If you want oversteer, get smaller tires. 235-255 should give you what you want.

 

Panhard bar and a brace may help. I have that and the str.t and steeda sports and noticed a large improvement when turning on a bumpy area.

 

If you're hitting the bump stops you'll loose traction fast.

 

Swap the ultra-lights for sports or similar. I'm not a big fan of ultra-lights on a street vehicle, better suited to the strip.

You didn't mention what brand tire, but even so, you can play with pressures a bit. Tires have the largest impact of anything, although with a 40 series sidewall, you should have enough sidewall flex to help take up the smaller bumps.

You could run a smaller rear bar - at some tracks we don't even run one at all depending on the conditions.

Swap the PHB for a watts-link and be done with it - it's what we run on both our street and race cars. Adjustable roll center, equal chassis load distribution, and better control of the axle are all benefits. We use and recommend the Fays2, and are a dealer for them (full disclosure), although we can get the others that are available. Bang for the buck, one of the best changes you can make, and really not that much more than swapping to a good adjustable PHB for the difference you will get.

Just my .02 since you were asking

 

Marcello -- can you disclose why your price is $50 higher than others?
Meaning other than the running a business, feeding your family part...


You might move more of them if your price were more competitive...just saying...

 

No problem:

You can buy them directly from Fays for 650.00 + shipping charges to your location.

You can buy them from us for 695.00 to your door anywhere in the USA, or to an APO address for our military friends.

The cost actually works out to be about the same, but since the majority of products on our site are ours, it is easier to calculate a standard shipping rate rather than "exempting" that one item from the free shipping calculations.

And yes, we do have to feed our family, but trust me when I tell you that the shipping on the watts-link will not take care of my son's appetite. And these are not "margin heavy" products either by any stretch - I offer them because I believe in them, not because I plan on retiring from their sales.

 

How much NVH is produced with the watts link? Is it rattling and creeking to where I'll need a ton of sound deadner or blasting the radio to not hear it wokring down there?

 

Marcello--
Thanks for the explanation! Didn't realize you had free shipping on it.

I'm interested in the NVH side as well, cause I think it uses rod ends, instead of urethane bushings, right? Steeda makes a big deal of that for their version.
Seriously thinking of getting one of these -- my last track outing an instructor did a ride along to graduate me to the next group, and noticed the odd sensation of hiking up in the air with turning to the right, that you don't get turning to the left, with the panhard bar, even upgraded ones. I've gotten used to it, but I was surprised someone else noticed it so quick after getting in.

 

We just took our new car with it installed on a 1000+ mile road trip to Mustang Week, the race car was in the trailer so the new car was driven up and back.

NVH is no different than stock. Given past experience with the evolution watts setup in our race car, I was surprised, but then again, it's stock on many OE setups, so in retrospect, I shouldn't have been all that surprised.

We have it on a couple local customer cars as well, and they have all reported very good results with no noticeable noise difference, just much better control of the rear axle with less difference between left and right corners, and much better ultimate grip level without any other changes to the car in before and after tests.

Yes, the unit uses rod ends, but with the o-rings installed properly and regular maintenance, there should be no issues. It is much better than using urethane in there anyway, as IMHO I think the reaction slow-down that urethane would cause in a watts would be a bit "unsettling" at speed in rapid change-overs or even in sweepers until the car takes a "set". The quality of the unit is very nice, everything was included, and well packaged, both in the box and once in the car. Watching the watts "react" under simulated loads once installed is a work of art, as everything moves just as it is supposed to in smooth motion.

We don't offer anything on our site that we haven't tested ourselves - I put the unit in right at home on a hot Saturday, just to see what was involved for a DIY guy in his driveway. Other than a couple larger sockets required to do the job properly, it's a very uneventful and straightforward affair. The instructions are excellent with pictures and explanations, and there is no problem in doing the whole job in 3 hours or so, drink breaks and fixing Ford's fuel lines included. (I was unhappy with the plastic "tree" used to hold 3 lines near the exhaust, so I replaced it all with proper line clamps) FYI I set up one position below center as the pivot point is adjustable and the car was already lowered. YMMV on settings, and as always, it is a tuning aid that can help you dial your car in to your individual driving style.

FYI - one more thing for full disclosure: I am also a Steeda dealer, and I'm not trying to take sides here as both units are quality pieces that can do the job that a PHB can't. I'm happy to offer you a Steeda watts if you prefer, but for my own car (#10 is my daily driver) you can see what I chose to use.

 

From a physics stand point I can certainly see how much better the watts linkage is the better system. It's just hard to justify the cost of the system vs. an adjustable panhard. Especially for daily driver. Just my thoughts. Everyone else may see it differently. If I could justify the cost, added with the Springs,Dampers,Strut-Brace,Bump-Steer,Upper 3rd, and Sway Bars, I would love to do the watts. It's just that the pocket heft is really weighing in.

Edit: Just priced the Competition adj. Panhard bar/brace and now I am seeing.

 

You can get the steeda setup for ~250. Its more difficult to tighten the passenger side but you only need to once.

 

Remember though, that suspension isn't something that has to be done all at once. If you have the right foundational pieces, it can be improved over time as budget allows. And many, many times, driver skill will increase with the increase in grip that the new suspesnion mods allow.

Most importantly, many times when you increase the grip, you narrow the range of "breakaway" feedback that the car gives - think about an Indy car, very precise, very high G-load, very low margin for error. Same goes for a Mustang - the better the ultimate grip gets, normally the less indication the car is going to breakaway until it happens. If you're not ready for it when it does let go because you suddenly dumped a huge amount of money into a whiz-bang suspension package that you're not quite ready for, then you can quickly get in over your head and end up having a bad day.

When in that situation, the better the geometry you have to work with, the better your odds of a good recovery and outcome.

 

So when did this start? When the springs went on? Generally getting rid of the stock shocks settles the back end down a lot.

I don't believe that an LCA change will really help much. A Watts link would settle things way down, but I have to wonder some other things first. Like are you running a lot of air in the rear tires?

Lowering springs are both shorter, and stiffer than stock springs are. That means you have less effective travel, and the travel you do have is firmer as the springs are stiffer. I sell Ultra-lites, but usually prefer Sports (only one of the two versions however) as, despite the numbers, Sports are effectively a bit softer.

I carry the Fays2 Watts. It's $650. Shipping runs about $30 to most places--so figure $680 shipped if you want to try one.

But "bumps" is kind of generic. Small bumps, big bumps? When you are going straight or when you are turning, or both?