Traction and Handling

[Stanger86]

This is one area that I have not been able to find a whole lot about for the four-eyes. What companys sell alot of suspension for our cars. What would you reccomend doing for suspesion on my cars. I want the best of both worlds handling for the street and traction for the strip. I was thinking about just going to HP Motorsport here in town and getting thier whole rear setup that they make and then just go with a set of quality lowering springs and some new shocks and struts.

- Chad

[Evil86lx]

Since you have easy access to HP i would just go their..

Their parts are excellent quality and they race what they sell..

When i lived in that area they where really helpfull and pretty easy to deal with..

kyle

[underdogGT]

There are a lot of companies out there. Pick up a copy of Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords or a 5.0 Magazine. I personally have used a lot of companies and really like the service and quality parts that i have gotten from Steeda

[Freejack]

Also pick up a copy of Mustang Perfomance Handbook Vol 2, which specificly covers suspension and handling of the Fox chassis.

Volume 1 covers the drivetrain and engine, mainly 5.0

Jake

[Zap's 85 GT]

The absolute best suspension upgrade you can make to your car is to convert it to a torque-arm rear suspension. Even the new mustang has converted to this style of rear suspension. I'd use Maxamum Motorsports or Griggs.

[madmike8]

Steeda 5 link...

[phat86gt]

I installed the megabite upper and lower control arms on my car real easy to do and they do the job.At the same time i installed mac springs and tokico shocks,while your under there why not. :) I would go with the mega bites there adjustable and customer service was great.

[v8only]

There are a # of things you can do to your 86, and be sure you do your homework before embarking on anything.

For a real world budget, the best thing you can do to your rear end is attach a set of upper and lower rear control arms on it. If this IS a street driven vehicle, you DO NOT want polyeurothane bushings on both ends of the control arms, as this will cause binding, hurt your cornering, and eventually rip your torque boxes out (very bad)

perhaps THE most popular setup seems to be the maximum motorsport lowers with the frpp or cobra uppers (they are identical and the cobras are CHEAP!!)

The max motorsport arms use a poly bushing at the frame end, but a solid spherical bushing at the axle end. This is the ideal setup for a car that sees strip and street duty. The cobra/frpp uppers are stronger than oem and use rubber bushings.

I went with that setup, except used pro3i lower control arms, as they are a near identical copy of the maximum motorsport lowers at a cheaper price.

A lot of people ditch the quad shocks with a control arm installation. Don't believe the hype, there is a good chance you will still have wheel hop even with aftermarket control arms. I ditched my quads, and put on the upper/lower control arms AND 3.73 geared rear end in all at once. No wheel hop, except on full throttle launches, when my rear then bounces all over the road like I have no suspension. The quads are going back on before the drag races.

If you want to do a little better, intall also a panhard bar.

Not sure if you have a ttop or vert, but even if you have a coupe/hatch (ha ha, I didn't say "hardtop ;) ) you cornering will be helped greately by a good set of full length subframe connectors and a good strut tower brace.

The LAST thing I would do is then lower the car. Be sure to match your spring rates with the shock rates. Don't buy crap like gabriel, monroe, or KYB. I hear tokiko makes some damn good shocks/struts.

Keep in mind that a control arm swap and a lowering job MAY put your car at a slight rake, meaning the rear higher than the front, as many springs lower the front more than the rear, and control arms can have the tendency to make a rear sit higher (that is what happened when I did my car) so if you are anal with ride height, you may want to consider purchasing the lower adjustable arms so you can adjust ride height.

Good luck!!

Oh yea, the lower/upper control arms will GREATLY help traction. I think that is part of my problem with wheel hop, that the tires and arms grip too well now, and the axle can't do anything but bounce around.

[blkntr]

also for conering purpose check out max/mtrsprt k-member and tower brace for the front end. i have the kind set up with that company and they rock!

[Zap's 85 GT]

Almost all of the lowering springs cause the earlier foxes to have the rake because they are much lighter in the rear compared to the later 87-93 cars.

[jazzcat2001]

front:
aje tubular k member and a arms
stock 4 cylinder front springs
90/10 struts
no sway bar

rear:
8.8 rear end with 4.30 gears
drag rear spring kit with air bags in both sides
steeda track upper and lower control arms
steeda rear sway bar


thats what set up i will have in soon as it gets warmer out...pretty much track only with minimum street use