Best Street Suspension - Opinions Welcome!

[jojobee]

Sportlines are going to be rough, I think they are very similar to the FRPP K Springs. Not much bump travel, but I'll be darned my Mustang handled dam close to a go kart when I had them on with the Yellows. Was just way too stiff for the road.

Interesting is that when I was talking with Jason at Vorshlag, he noted that the "P" Springs are actually stiffer than the K's, in the front at least. For optimal handling, run a bigger diameter bar in the front with the K's. Rears are pretty stiff.

Thats odd since i am running P springs with Koni STR.T and the ride quality is good.

I recently added a watts link but even before that i felt that the car handled extremly well with this combo.

 

[kcsvt94l]

H&R Super Sport and Tokico D-Specs. Rides great no bottoming out (Trimmed two ribs off bump stops) On full soft it's great unless you hit a large bump then it gets a tad bouncy as for handing on full firm. Insane in the membrane!

 

[Chris Proia]

I've been super happy with the Ford Racing adjustable suspension pack. You get adjustable shocks/struts with either choice of P or K springs, adjustable rear sway bar, poly everything, massive billet sway bar end links, GT500 strut mounts and strut tower bar.

 

[bam2012@TBR]

H&R Super Sport and Tokico D-Specs. Rides great no bottoming out (Trimmed two ribs off bump stops) On full soft it's great unless you hit a large bump then it gets a tad bouncy as for handing on full firm. Insane in the membrane!

Full firm? Never gone past 4 turns off full stiff. Might need to give it a try when the rain stops here. How is off the line with full stiff?

 

[corruptor]

Hey nate, been looking into that stuff but not sure if they'd target what I'd want to. I took your advice and called Vorshlag, however, see below for details!



Hey Action,

I know I go very much against the grain in the mustang community, but I did not like that set up. It was borderline, and over some NY roads seams I'd catch air off the seat. Car felt "heavier" and more sturdy for sure, but still had enough roll that I'd say the trade-off wasn't worth it. I had yellows on some of my past project cars and they've all been firm, and you'll notice that if you google it for other applications people say the same.

Taking Nate's advice, I dialed up Jason at Vorshlag who was very helpful. Jason took the time to explain to me that the twin-tube setup in the Koni's, while great for budget, doesn't allow for a very large piston diameter and enough digressive damping characteristics to filter out a lot of high-frequency responses - i.e. road imperfections - the way a monotube damper would. To be clear, I'm not expecting stock-like ride quality, but I feel that with the yellows my handling actually decreases over imperfect roads. On the other hand, he said, it's hard to beat Koni Yellows for a budget autocross shock.

In short, my issues with suspension were in fact due to the Yellows, which would explain why the spring changes didn't do the trick.

For a high-end street shock, he recommended me this package: Vorshlag-Bilstein StreetPro Monotube Suspension Kit (S197 Mustang) - Vorshlag LLC

Monotube Bilstein's with Ford P Springs. There's a video showing ride vs stock, and it doesn't look bad at all. Looks like great damping over the nasty bits! (railroad tracks, etc).

Anyone in the same predicament, I highly recommend dialing up the guys at Vorshlag. They didn't try to oversell me on the AST's (in fact, recommended me away from them). I'll be doing a review on the package when I get it in, and letting you all know if it compares favorably to the Yellow combinations I've run (fingers crossed!).

Also, if anyone is interested in purchasing lightly used Yellows, K Springs, Steeda Sports, or BMR springs, let me know!!

:beer:

This is good info, thanks for doing the legwork. Curious about the Bilstein setup - did he say what the various handling characteristics were of the different springs offered?

 

[CSG]

Vorshlag knows their stuff on this chassis for sure. From my experience not enough rebound dampening is the culprit in poor ride a lot of the time. Even stiff springs can be bearable if they are controlled well.

 

[kcsvt94l]

Full firm? Never gone past 4 turns off full stiff. Might need to give it a try when the rain stops here. How is off the line with full stiff?

I still have to baby it out of the hole or it's a smoke show. But i'm on a 30 series sidewall in the rear. Thinking on a bigs and littles setup it'll hook great. I haven't took it on an actual road course, However we have a ton of cloverleaf entrance/exit ramps here. rated at 25-35 MPH and i've been threw them at 85+ tires just starting to squeal a tad. Very linear feel from a hard turn one direction flipping to a hard turn the other direction. Makes me feel like the car would be easy as hell to drift but I can't justify the cost of 20" tires

 

[IT-Purrrs]

I live in the metro Detroit area and the roads are horrible here! I know how you feel OP.

I am running Koni Sports with Steeda Ultralite springs with Steeda HD mounts and I usually run my struts on full soft or a half or full turn from soft when I DD it and I think it rides really close to stock besides some of the big bumps.

 

[bam2012@TBR]

I still have to baby it out of the hole or it's a smoke show. But i'm on a 30 series sidewall in the rear. Thinking on a bigs and littles setup it'll hook great. I haven't took it on an actual road course, However we have a ton of cloverleaf entrance/exit ramps here. rated at 25-35 MPH and i've been threw them at 85+ tires just starting to squeal a tad. Very linear feel from a hard turn one direction flipping to a hard turn the other direction. Makes me feel like the car would be easy as hell to drift but I can't justify the cost of 20" tires

I run 18's and usually 4 turns off stiff time to go full stiff and see whats up.

 

[Lucky_13]

Thats odd since i am running P springs with Koni STR.T and the ride quality is good.

I recently added a watts link but even before that i felt that the car handled extremly well with this combo.

Interesting. I've noticed a bit of a difference when reading reviews of STR.T's vs Yellows. Forum heresay seems to believe that the STR.T's are essentially the Yellows locked on full soft, but maybe there is more of a difference?

H&R Super Sport and Tokico D-Specs. Rides great no bottoming out (Trimmed two ribs off bump stops) On full soft it's great unless you hit a large bump then it gets a tad bouncy as for handing on full firm. Insane in the membrane!

I bet! Your car looks awesome

I've been super happy with the Ford Racing adjustable suspension pack. You get adjustable shocks/struts with either choice of P or K springs, adjustable rear sway bar, poly everything, massive billet sway bar end links, GT500 strut mounts and strut tower bar.

This was the other option that tempted me. If you read reviews on the Shelby GT350, which runs the exact same pack, it's been called the best handling Mustang ever.

2011 Mustang Shelby GT350 First Drive - Motor Trend

^Seems pretty darn good at putting the power down too! Two FRPP dealers I've contacted have been completely unresponsive at getting back to me, though, and I'm a big fan of giving it back to people like Terry and Jason at Vorshlag who really make the Mustang community a better place imo.

This is good info, thanks for doing the legwork. Curious about the Bilstein setup - did he say what the various handling characteristics were of the different springs offered?

I didn't ask for particulars besides the P and K springs, but I'm sure Jason would be more than happy to tell you if you sent him an email. Before I was even inquiring about a purchase he told me the rates of the P springs, no questions asked.

Vorshlag knows their stuff on this chassis for sure. From my experience not enough rebound dampening is the culprit in poor ride a lot of the time. Even stiff springs can be bearable if they are controlled well.

This is true, and I've experimented with more rebound in the Koni's. It makes for arguably a better ride but the initial compression stroke is my complaint with them, and those characteristics haven't gone away by dialing in rebound. Sure makes for a fun handling car, though

I live in the metro Detroit area and the roads are horrible here! I know how you feel OP.

I am running Koni Sports with Steeda Ultralite springs with Steeda HD mounts and I usually run my struts on full soft or a half or full turn from soft when I DD it and I think it rides really close to stock besides some of the big bumps.

I can believe that. I think my initial mistake was being convinced that linear Steeda Sports would ride better than Ultralites, which I believe are progressive. Wish I had tried them out instead. That being said, with winter coming I think the Ultralites will drop me a hair lower than I'd like, especially if you believe that Koni's add 1/4 inch drop to whatever spring you're running. Good to hear from someone who feels my pain though!

 

[rextang]

I run base GT springs, Koni yellows and 19" wheels in Oakland county, MI. It's as stiff as I am willing to go. I think I now have my rear shocks slightly stiffer than the fronts to minimize the initial compression jolt from running through the car. The following is advice I posted a few months ago on another forum
"I have the Koni sports on stock springs (GT500 mounts in front) and have spent the last few months tweaking. When making adjustments, the smallest change has noticeable results. I use my left hand index finger and line it up with any of the bumps on the knob. Turn the knob with the right hand while holding left finger fixed. Then you can count each bump on the knob as +1 or -1 depending on the direction you are turning. You can also be consistent from left to right damper settings. Experiment with the front slightly stiffer than the rear or vice versa. Also my car did not like higher than recommended tire pressure. I found that slightly higher pressures yielded very harsh bump (compression) impact. Lowering tire pressure to 31 or 32 when cold seems to have cured my biggest concern. Additionally, you may want to swap lower controls arms. Harder acceleration events are much more controlled and the rear feels much more 'planted'."

 

[nosympathy]

Interesting. I've noticed a bit of a difference when reading reviews of STR.T's vs Yellows. Forum heresay seems to believe that the STR.T's are essentially the Yellows locked on full soft, but maybe there is more of a difference?

I can tell you by next week. Swapping Koni Str.t for Koni Yellows. Only change being made. They come in Monday, might get the shocks installed Monday, but won't get the struts done until maybe thursday because of work.

I'll run the yellows at full soft and can say if they are remotely the same.