Is there anything that improves the suspension a lot but doesn't destroy ride quality?

bennylava

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I guess this is kind of a broad and general question. Is there anything that will improve the handling of my 94 GT, but doesn't really hurt the ride quality?

For now, I could stomach a little hit to the ride quality. But only just a little. Such a small amount that most people still wouldn't say the car rides rough (for a mustang).

What upgrades can I do that fit this description? I know there's some small room for improvement on the sway bars. Not sure how much though. And I've heard that converting to coil overs improves handling and actually improves ride quality. Anything else?

Anyone got any pointers here? Thank you!
 

Wmac

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I was pleasantly surprised at how well E/S sway bar bushings improved the steering/handling. Maybe one of the best bangs for your buck.

And subframe connectors were a close 2nd.
 

Warhorse Racing

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Everyone has a different idea of what "good" ride quality feels like, so you might not be 100% happy with all of these mods. When you're trying to improve handling, you have to think about your suspension as a whole. It all has to work together. And it all has to be in good working order. You might want to consider:

1. Replacing your rubber bushings (all of them). If they are OEM, they are old and tired. If ride quality is your primary focus, go with rubber bushings. If you want better handling and are willing to accept more NVH, go with polyurethane. Delrin or spherical bushings aren't ideal for your goals. If you decide to go with poly bushings and you want better rear control arms, get a good set with 3-piece poly bushings. Putting poly bushings in OEM rear control arms isn't a good option.

2. Install progressive-rate lowering springs. Make sure they don't lower the car too much, and that the spring rates aren't too high (I just posted a video about choosing lowering springs in the autocross section). The Eibach Pro-Kit might be a good option for you.

3. Install adjustable shocks & struts. They allow you to adjust ride quality (and they can help increase/decrease understeer & oversteer to get the car neutral).

4. If you have OEM sway bars, install a stiffer rear sway bar (25mm). That will help reduce the "factory-installed" tendency to understeer. I also posted a video about sway bars in the autocross section that will help you choose the right sway bar to improve the handling of your Mustang. Don't put a stiffer front sway bar on the car unless you have the right supporting mods.

I hope that info helps.
 

shovel

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I guess this is kind of a broad and general question. Is there anything that will improve the handling of my 94 GT, but doesn't really hurt the ride quality?

For now, I could stomach a little hit to the ride quality. But only just a little. Such a small amount that most people still wouldn't say the car rides rough (for a mustang).

What upgrades can I do that fit this description? I know there's some small room for improvement on the sway bars. Not sure how much though. And I've heard that converting to coil overs improves handling and actually improves ride quality. Anything else?

Anyone got any pointers here? Thank you!

As mentioned everyone's idea of good is different and everyone's idea of improvement is different. The usual way people lower these things will increase the length of the roll couple which increases the car's tendency to lean and because of how strut geometry works the lowered car will also transfer its roll center toward the outside wheel which leads to front lift and understeer. Those are all undesirable things but at least you don't have to be reminded that before vehicle stability control cars used to be built with room for snow chains?

If you have 17" or larger wheels you could spend the $ for drop spindles, that lets you lower the front with none of the above compromises. They just cost more money that's really the only downside unless you consider reduced ground clearance also a downside.

I don't happen to subscribe to the idea that lowering is necessary for, or equal to an improvement in cornering performance. For a solid object with no suspension our intuition tells us the lower the object the closer its center of mass is in line with the direction of force (the ground pushing back against the contact patch of the tire), the more responsive it will be to driver input. But cars have suspension and that means they don't behave at all like solid objects so you have to spend a lot more time studying where the forces actually go.

Results on a race track isn't a complete picture either because public roads are unpredictable and anyone who's not a dialed-in athlete level driver, anyone who has a self preservation instinct needs a car whose suspension is progressive and telegraphs its level of grip well in advance of catastrophe. An athlete driver on a prepared course might be able to drive at 9.99/10 of what a car can give & return excellent lap times on a suspension that would put the rest of us out of commission on public roads.

People with coilovers to sell you will definitely tell you coilovers improve things. The springs on the OE split macpherson setup are inboard and don't have to move as far or accelerate as fast so any claims about sprung or unsprung weight that doesn't take into account motion ratio is not a rigorous study.

You can install a great set of shocks/struts.. I know everyone advocates for adjustables but it's been my experience that anything which can be adjusted will be adjusted badly. Just a regular set of Bilsteins doesn't suck, don't forget the quads.

When Ford wanted to make the Cobra outperform the GT they put 275/40ZR17 tires on it in contrast to the GT's 245/45R17 .

You can relocate the battery to the trunk.

You can make sure the parts that were supposed to be there 30 years ago are still there, like the strut tower brace and the lateral brace under the K-member (if yours is a coupe). Maximum Motorsports makes an improved version of that brace if yours is gone or was turned into a banana by contact with road debris or a fool with a floor jack.

Anything you can do to add lightness will improve handling without ruining ride.
 
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ttocs

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Since almost all the performance kits require lowering the vehicle you are going to take a big hit in ride quality just because of the reduced movement in the suspension.
 

96blak54

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1st line of defence to ride quality is the tires. If you have 20" wheels with close to the correct diameter tire the side wall will be very thin and not allow for alot of cushion. The opposite would be 15" wheels with close to the correct diameter tire the side wall will be thick and youll be able to run a lower tire pressure allowing for alot of cushion, taking the hit to most bad road conditions. Side wall thickness has a lot to do with ride comfort, so keep this in mind
 

PNW Mike

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If you can ride along in other cars with various changes to feel how they work, that can help you target your changes towards your goals.

Start with the obvious - replace any worn suspension or steering bits. Old, stiff, and cracked rubber bushings and loose ball joints add slop into the suspension and make the car ride weird, handle badly, and make it generally no fun to drive. To state the obvious, if worn parts go too far, the car becomes downright unsafe. Use good quality parts - cheap stuff is usually cheap for a reason, and replacing suspension parts is not something you want to have to do regularly. My steering shaft was very loose, and in my case that helped more than I expected.

Next, the specific shocks and struts you pick will matter a lot for your ride quality and handling, and if you have worn shocks/struts, replace them. Cheap no-name shocks and struts rarely perform as well as you want, but sometimes you get lucky. This is a huge topic if you dig into it - shock valving can be customized in lots of ways. You can spend a lot for double adjustable shocks/struts to tune your suspension easily, go with a known high quality aftermarket brand (Koni, KYB, Bilstein, etc.), or you can pick a good quality replacement set at a more reasonable price. For example, I really like how the OEM Bilstein shocks/strus on my Challenger ride (they are equivalent to the aftermarket B6 versions, IIRC), but I might like a firmer ride that you do. That's also a much heavier and larger vehicle than my Mustang, so may not be a direct comparison.

Next, pick the right set of wheels and tires for your goals. Low profile tires handle better, but do so at the expense of ride quality. If you've ever had the chance to try something like different diameter wheels with equivalent width tires on the same car, the difference from the shorter sidewall tires on larger diameter wheels is very noticable. The short sidewall tires on my Mustang ride like rocks compared to the tall sidewall tires on my Suburban. The Suburban tires soak up a ton of bumps, but also make it ride very soft and squishy - I think they're too tall, at least for what I like. Even the brand of model of tire can make a difference in comfort, and they will absolutely make a diffence in your available traction. I find tirerack.com does good tire reviews and they have a lot of purchaser reviews as well, but they are sometimes biased towards all out performance vs other tradeoffs.

Beyond this, opinions will vary. It matters how much you want to do to the car and what your budget is.

I'd recommend subframe connectors as a next step (if you don't have them already), especially if you have a convertible. If the car itself isn't stiff and stable, the suspension can't do its job right. My '97 was a felt a bit like a wet noodle before I put in subframe connectors - feeling and in some cases seeing the body flex over things like railroad tracks was crazy. It helps make the car drive better and let the suspension work better - for my car this was one of those rare all around wins with no compromises.

Beyond this, all of my research says that a good set of coil overs is the next step for the front of a Fox or SN95 Mustang. A big box of parts from Maximum Motorsports for my '97 is on my todo list once other projects and emergencies stop draining my bank account. :) They offer free consultations and will help you spec out parts to go as crazy as you want to - I have been very impressed with them so far. They are total suspension nerds and it shows. I found their tech pages very helpful - they helped explain things and gave me a lot of food for thought about how to proceed with my project. The consultation I did with them was also very helpful.
 

cobrajeff96

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A Mustang from the 90s was just a 'pony car' and that means compromises were part of the design language. You'd have to spend a lot of money to get both performance along with equal amounts of ride quality, putting in gains where the OEM put in losses for the sake of a cheap MSRP. These were designed as straight line cruisers that can take a weekend thrashing, but no more than that. Unless you have a serious passion for working on this car (spending a lot of money and time while doing it), don't ever expect it to be anywhere near on par with modern vehicles' capabilities.
 

ttocs

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just to throw it out there if the budget allows, there are some performance air ride systems that I sacrifice a little bit of the cornering but adds to the comfort and not being scared of speed bumps. I have Ridetech shockwaves on mine and they are adjustable damping and of course you can adjust the ride height to drop it when you want, or air it all the way up for high-water mode. I say this "if the budget allows" because the systems are not cheap but I would classify it under buy once cry once. After your write the check it is all smiles so how long are you going to keep the car?
 
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bennylava

bennylava

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It's been many years, but once on Horsepower TV (remember them?) they showed a company that used bags for racing suspension.

It was on some old car, a 70's camaro iirc. The same kind of air bags that you would see on some lowered truck. But they were running a road course with it. The driver said something like "Everyone thinks bags are just for soft ride and you couldn't race with them, but you can".

Is there any truth to this? Is there some kind of bag out there, that could adjust the ride height while also giving you better handling by changing a setting? Maybe that could be an upgrade that improves handling and ride quality.

Without needing fixed all the time.
 

cobrajeff96

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The real fix for sport handling is a change in geometry. Ford's design for the SN95 is to have the thing at basically 4x4 height in order to give it a liveable ride. Everything needs to be addressed (roll centers, roll couple, camber gain, basically everything) because the original design was 'good enough for the average customer'. Lowering the SN95 often creates more problems than it fixes. Unfortunately you have to put serious money into it to get it better in both aspects, comfort and performance.
 

ttocs

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It's been many years, but once on Horsepower TV (remember them?) they showed a company that used bags for racing suspension.

It was on some old car, a 70's camaro iirc. The same kind of air bags that you would see on some lowered truck. But they were running a road course with it. The driver said something like "Everyone thinks bags are just for soft ride and you couldn't race with them, but you can".

Is there any truth to this? Is there some kind of bag out there, that could adjust the ride height while also giving you better handling by changing a setting? Maybe that could be an upgrade that improves handling and ride quality.

Without needing fixed all the time.
ridetech and a couple of other companies have made performance bag set ups that are similar to coil overs for years now(called shockwaves by ridetech). They are lighter than traditional coil overs when you take the 4 steel coils out and replace them with an aluminum air tank, some bags and a compressor and the damping is adjustable but I know that when ridetech or its employees make a competition car they go with their coil overs over the bags but these are purpose driven and designed racecars where performance is the top priority, comfort/ride quality 2nd. Now I am willing to bet if you asked some of them that you would find one or two that has the shockwave setup on their personal cars that they daily drive. It depends on what your priorities are and what the budget is as well.
 

shovel

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An article on motortrend 20+ years ago said they asked Ford about the wheel gap and Ford said the mandate for Mustang was to always be something a person could own as their only car and actually use as part of their daily life not strictly a performance car for the track and that's why they left room for snow chains right up until ABS and advancetrac became standard (and tire technology became much better, too)

There's nothing unique about the ride height of a Mustang, it just looks weird when you compare it to a 2020's car.

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Terrorist 5.0

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I agree with Shovel, I never have ever said “hey, the SN95’s look like a 4X4 with that ride height”, I never understood why everyone says that.

If anything, I think it’s just the front fender has a slightly larger than usual wheel well, causing that misconception.
 

cobrajeff96

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Yea, you can damn near fit an arm between the fender and tire. It's a fucking monster truck, dude.
 

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