fuhrius

I don't want to fiddle with the suspension setup much on the boss, out of the box...I'm feeling pretty good about the level of attention that went into this car and that seems to be playing out in the early reviews of the car.
however, I think the car could benefit, cosmetically, from a little drop...maybe an inch to inch and a half...and every car I've every lowered ends up handling better after correcting the rest of the suspension, when necessary, for the drop.

anyone thinking the same?

any recommendations of the best way to go about this?

4pipes

Take it here:
http://www.customalignment.com/

5 DOT 0

When I was going to buy a 5 DOT 0 I was going to use the Steeda sport springs (with Koni Yellows) which drop the front an inch and rear just over an inch relative to a GT. That would lower the front of the Boss by half an inch and the rear an inch. I'm not sure of the spring rates of the Steeda's but Sam Sprano seems to have a lot of knowledge on the GT's. While I'd like to do this I'll let the rest of you figure this out first. I've seen two LS cars in person and there is a large gap between the top of the rear tire and the bottom of the fender.

fuhrius

especially for you local (norcal guys)...they seem to have some very thoughtful suspension engineering going into mustangs. I'm going to chat with them and see what they think.

5 DOT 0

Let us know what they think. Hopefully they won't want to sell you a complete overhaul of the suspension.

LateApex

I find this interesting as well. Ford could have done anything with this car, and yet the rake remains. I wonder why, from an engineering standpoint. Lowering intelligently almost always produces better handling once tuned. But even on the LS, its not significantly different from a base GT. A little, but not significantly so.

4pipes

They probably have to meet corporate ground clearance and suspension travel standards for street cars.

cloud9

I'm guessing that's it as well. Here's to the first person to figure out a compromise of new parts to get it where it should be for better track handling without breaking the bank and creating all kinds of other issues

LateApex

I second this!

fuhrius

I suspect Griggs will lean toward some of their proven full kits...but I don't want to go overboard on this. this will likely only ever be a few-day-a-year track car for me...but my daily driver for almost all conditions. I'll likely always have another car focused on mostly-track usage.

so I want some mild, but effective, changes. again, starting really only from a cosmetic desire.

re: the rake - that's something that I definitely would be really careful to mess with. I found on some cars, the porsches in particular, that they can very sensitive to changes in rake...and bad things usually happen when you mess with that.

I'd also like to be able to dial in more aggressive camber settings...I've always preferred more camber in cars that the stock setting...even than the stock components generally allow for.

for the guys who are already tracking mustangs: what's the most effective way to change camber on these cars? and what types of camber / toe settings do you run?

4pipes

Those guys in MV carry Griggs and others and will not likely try to sell you the whole shebang like Griggs would.

LateApex

MM caster/camber plates are the way to go. A lot factors into what is best per se, so you'll want to play with that to find what works best for you. I would start with -2 deg. Camber as a baseline and adjust from there if needed.

Overboost

I'm sure the rake is there for design. I don't recall any FMVSS standards to adhere to for ride clearance.

Keep in mind fellas, with you trying to modify a vehicle designed for a specific purpose, you really need to scrutinize which suspension pieces you use. With higher spring rates than a base GT, you'll want to compare data and make sure you are indeed getting a part that's superior.

I say this because in the Mazda world, a lot of very misinformed people thought springs between a Mazda6 and a Mazdaspeed6 were the same. What ended up happening was those who used the wrong springs (only two MS6-specific spring sets ever came out) had very little suspension travel, and usually complained of body roll that wasn't there before.

Do your homework!

cloud9

I agree with your assessment....and have Griggs on my GT500. While it's effective, I don't want to stray that far with the Boss if I can help myself. With regards to camber, I had J&M c/c plates before I switched to the full Griggs suspension. Both worked equally well. I ran -2 degrees and found moderately higher inner tire wear with Hoosier R6s and moderately higher outer tire wear on Toyo R888s on track. On the street my Yokohama Advan Sports have worn very well and show no signs of excessive inner tire wear after 10k street miles. At the end of the day I'll probably try to get the Boss to -2 for a decent compromise between track and street.

Someone mentioned in another forum that they were able to get -1.8 on their Mustang GT with the stock suspension. If true, I'll probably start there with the Boss before going with c/c plates. One issue if you start changing strut mounts is that Ford redesigned them on the '11 models. To date, none of the after-market struts or coilovers are designed for the '11 strut mount. You can get an '11 c/c plate from MM but not struts. If you were changing the struts you would want an '05-'10 c/c plate.

cloud9

This.

4pipes

I had a stage II Dinan M5 with about -2deg camber. Handled great and trashed the insides of my $400 tires. It was my DD.

12C/OBoss

As a rule improper toe settings will wear tires MUCH quicker than aggressive camber. I ran -2.5 on the front of my STi on the street and -3.5-3.75 for auto cross and had almost no wear on the insides of my tires. Trick is to set the toe first and then set the camber...the other way around=trouble

4pipes

What can I say, Dinan aligned the car.

fuhrius

on my last track car...a 2001 boxster s...we were running -2.8 degrees camber in the front with zero toe, and -2.6 rear with 1/16 degree negative toe running dunlop star spec street tires (and a full boxster spec suspension...pss9's, gt3 lower control arms, gt3 sway bars, adjustable toes links and such to get it dialed correctly) and the car railed. I was running consistent 1:45's at laguna seca (on street tires) in a 250hp car. says something about weight...I had lightened the car to about 2800 pounds. porsches love camber. (pfc front rotors, pfc pads, srf fluid, stainless lines, stock calipers and rear rotors).

chief_charlie

Fuhrius,
"Porsche track car"? Do you club race or time trial with PCA, Golden Gate Region?