Stage_3

Awesome!
Have fun and good luck!

5.M0NSTER

After the first track day on the new suspension I can tell you it's frikkin awesome!

I went to one of my home tracks, which I'm very familiar with, and I drove like I always do. Except now I was a bit faster, and I still had more grip left where the old limits used to be.

Adjustable dampers make a lot of difference, and dialing them to where I want them was a fun experience.

The over exaggerated roll, pitch, dive and squat were gone. Did that make me faster? Actually looking at the data, not really. But it gave me more confidence and allowed me to push harder and still feel like I'm in control of the car.

The cornering grip did improve dramatically (1.31g peak vs. 1.12g on stock suspension with same tires). This is mostly thanks to stiffer car and Steeda HD strut mounts. I'm running -2 deg of camber up front, and thus I can use more of the front tire in turns. This is why I gained ~0.2g in max cornering force. Over 11 turns this gained me ~ 0.5s over last year on a ~90s road course.

I like it. Faster setup that feels better and has larger envelope to explore. I choose wisely

5.M0NSTER

So it's been a few months, and I thought I'd update this thread from a time and mileage perspective. Over 4 months and 4000 miles with the new suspension. And I'm still loving it!

But let's start with the complaints:
- Front sway bar started squeeking, which I guess isn't surprising for poly bushings. I'll have to re-lube it soon.
- Harsher bumps feel more abrupt for sure. I'm OK with it, but just last weekend my wife was in the car and after we went over some "patched" concrete she says "OUUUUTCH". I hear her, I guess I just care less given the positives.
- And I'm still not sure why initial steering off center feels more lazy now. Before I'd need 45 degrees of initial steering to make a turn. Now I need 55-60. Not Bad, but different. And I can't put my finger on why. It's not understeer. It doesn't plow. Car is remarkably hooked up, but it feels like I have a steering rack with a lower ratio now.

And now for the praise
- DAAAAAAAAAAMN the car feels remarkably hooked up! Off throttle turns, on throttle turns, constant radius, decreasing radius, increasing radius, over the crest turns, it doesn't matter. The front end seems to have monumental amounts of grip. I'm still amazed. You go into a clover ramp at 60mph and your instincts are saying "WE'RE GOING TO DIE!!" but the car just turns, hunkers down and grips. Hardly even making the tires scream. Before 50mph was pushing it and the tires were singing all the way around the curve. Huge improvement.
- Corner exit is fantastic. It was good before, it's even better now. I can roll on the throttle more aggressively than before with no drama.
- Body motions are very subdued. Very little pitch and dive, and just a tiny bit of roll which you can further slow down by stiffening the Koni Yellows. I used to think that recovering from oversteer would be more difficult with stiff suspension, but I find the opposite to be true. Since now I can feel the yaw and lateral motions in a more linear way, instead of feeling pitch and roll in addition to yaw and lat.
- No more wheel hop on hard launches, which actually surprised me. I was expecting to have to do more to fix that, but I hasn't happened since I got the new set up on in April.

Overall a great improvement, and a huge transformation to the way the car drives. It's like a whole another Mustang in the best way possible.

Final, to close out the thread here is a video from a track session earlier this summer. I should have some more in September. Planning 2 more events then.

EF1

Did the competition sway bars make much of a difference? I have a similar set up and am currently considering adding them.

5.M0NSTER

I did them all at the same time, but I think so. The reason car stays so flat in the corners is thanks to the front sway. I attribute the tremendous front end grip to the CC plates, and the flat cornering to the sway bar. Of course there is some interaction between the two characteristics.

EF1

Do you have the set with the adj front and rear, or just the front?

5.M0NSTER

Just the front. I don't think the rear needs to be any stiffer than it already is in terms of sway. And on smooth tracks I can just increase the stiffness of the Koni yellows. I attribute the great corner exit to this setup

5.M0NSTER

I've come to the conclusion that the S197 chassis benefits the most from proper shock damping. Last Monday I did a track day at Gingerman, which is very curvy. I forgot to adjust my shocks before the first session, so I did it with the full soft setting. The body roll was noticeable, the grip was sub par, and it didn't feel confidence inspiring.

Later in the day I kept dialing the shocks stiffness up, and by lunch I ended up with the final setup (which also was the sweet spot at Mid Ohio earlier in the summer). 1/2 stiff rear, 3/4 stiff front.

This setup really leveled out the car, significantly reduced the body roll, and allowed all 4 tires to be used more evenly. It felt hunkered down, hooked up, and really allowed me to focus on the line to knock out some good lap times.

So if anyone out there is wondering if springs alone, or springs and non-sdjustable shocks are enough for road course driving, my answer is a resounding NO. I would go so far to say that for the S197 dampers are the most important suspension component. Not springs, not sway bars. Dampers.

The springs and sways are important also, all these components have to work together to achieve a proper balance, but good adjustable dampers are the glue that holds all those other components firmly together.

13GetThere

Great feed back Monster. When I finally do my suspension, I want adjustable dampers, but I was wondering where they should be set for road courses, and I think this is the first time I've seen someone give a recommendation based on their experience.

laserred38

I've gotten so tired of telling people that they need to do their shocks and struts when lowering these cars, to "do it right." Everyone wants to cheap out and just get some Sportlines and an adjustable PHB, and call it a day. Same with the S550 guys, though to be fair they only recently have had multiple options to choose from. I'm not sure why it took so long to get some dampers out for the S550 platform.

5.M0NSTER

You will have to play with your settings as you go to find your own sweet spot. I typically do half turn less on the rear than front, which works well with the big front sway. I've heard other people here say that as well. The actual setting also varies depending on how smooth or rough the track is. I haven't tried full stiff yet as the tracks by me have some bumpy sections.

If you plan to track it, definitely go adjustable, It makes a huge difference. You'll love cornering.

Ditto. If you're driving on the street only I think it's fair to say you don't need adjust ability, but always a nice to have in case you end up changing spring rates down the line.

dmichaels

I need to do adjustable setup... I'm kind of amazed I've gotten away with the SRT.T's and SR springs this long... I guess the upside is the adjustable suspension on stiff springs that i'll do this winter will make the car feel that much more capable next season.

I'm looking at going ~550# fronts and 400# rears, but am going to talk with the Ground Control guys as I've had recommendations by fellow track rats to go talk with them. I'm not sure what dampers to get though, as I don't want to go grab a set of Koni Yellows but then discover I want them re-valved to handle higher spring rates later... decisions decisions

5.M0NSTER

If you talk to GC guys about springs this stiff, see what they recommend for dampers.

Or conversly, perhaps with good adjustable dampers you don't need spring rates that high. My car feels like I go from a 200# to a 300# spring when I go 3/4 stiff.

5.M0NSTER

Here is some video from earlier this week. The black Z06 was an instructor with the club I was running with. Good times. My suspension is awesome!

Nelson964

Nice video and great driving !

Thanks for sharing

5.M0NSTER

No problem, and welcome to the forum!

ElkGroveFordGuy

I'm glad to hear you like your set up!
As you know I have had a very similar set up for a while,
And I love it as well!
I run the shocks full soft around town, just to smooth things out!