Coilovers Available for the S550 (LIST) - Seeking inputs and opinions

KW will be releasing clubsports in the next 2 months or so. Those should be cool.

I was working with a coilover company and when we looked at prototyping they were not fond of converting the rear suspension to a a true coilover due to strength concerns.

Ridetechs bracket looks pretty robust and looks like a good solution.

Anthony@HTM said:

I was working with a coilover company and when we looked at prototyping they were not fond of converting the rear suspension to a a true coilover due to strength concerns.

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exactly my thoughts... hopefully aFe can shine some light on their design reasoning.

Hey Merv,

Ryan wanted me to check to see if you got the emails that he sent you about the coilovers being ready to ship. I tried PM'ing you but it wouldn't go through!

Yea, thats pretty much a 1K rear spring hanging off two bolts top and bottom that were only meant to take strut stress levels. Not going on my car without some long term durability testing.

theman said:

@aFe - glad to see your presence in the thread! I posted this in your sway bar thread, but figured this may be the place to cover it instead... some questions come to mind on the aFe coil-overs, and I don't see another solo thread yet for them so I'll ask the aFe folks here.
- Besides some weight savings, what was the purpose of moving the spring to the shock?
Not to second guess your engineers on this $3k suspension, but I would be more inclined to keep the car's weight better distributed across the stock spring location, as does most BMW, Infiniti, Mercedes, etc., etc... as the top small 2-bolt mount of the mustang shock does not seem the most inherent place to now put all that load once spread across a much larger and inboard spring seat located.
The Mustang top shock mount is not the typical 3-bolt wide top plate you'd see on many GT class performance cars with coil-over strut from the factory(supras and SCs had a nice setup that way)...so it doesn't make sense to now stress a part of the car not built around the amount of new load it would see.
The load across the cast aluminum lower control arm being more finite now may also be a future concern...

I notice on RideTech's pics for their similar setup, that they include a very robust extra mounting plate to augment the small top shock mount points... I still feel like this may not be enough distribution of load for the long haul, but still a bit more than the aFe rear setup.

@RideTech - don't see RT participating in here yet, but if so at some point hopefully you can answer the engineering thoughts on the load point change from stock as well.

Just more things to ponder... If going coil-overs, I'd be more inclined to go the KW route looking at the entire spread across the board currently.

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theman said:

exactly my thoughts... hopefully aFe can shine some light on their design reasoning.

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Impulsed7 said:

Yea, thats pretty much a 1K rear spring hanging off two bolts top and bottom that were only meant to take strut stress levels. Not going on my car without some long term durability testing.

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Well to address the concerns you guys may have on the forum, here is our reasoning on developing this design.

The main reason [MENTION=17993]theman[/MENTION] for doing a true coilover design, is the ability to change out springs on the shock. So for owners that wish to go to a softer spring or stiffer spring, they will have the ability to easily change springs and purchase from just about anywhere. Race springs are easier to obtain ex. Eibach, and Swift springs are examples of companies that sell race ID springs. While going with a OEM style coilover offers a challenge. Those are big wounded heavier springs, their unique design and their main purpose is to keep things quiter. But the draw back is their custom springs and essentially you are kinda stuck with that spring. You could get custom made springs but would be expensive. Their also heavier, as an example. A OEM style spring can weigh about 10lbs, while a race spring can weigh about 5lbs making it ideal for track coilover

We create BMW coilovers with the OEM style seperate spring design, one main factor for developing it differently on that car. Noise, many many BMW owners would not like noise to be apart of their driving experience. So we have to keep in mind that and try to balance it.

So does our design create alot of noise? No, it will be a subtle noise coming from there rear. But the mustang does such a great job at keeping a quite ride, you won't hear it much. It is a high performance coilover and there are some compromises to be had. Does this design give you option to purchase springs easier? Yes. Does this design give you guys more options when it comes to tuning? Absolutely, at a more cost effective price.

Now to address the "weak point" concern. We have been using this style of mounting system on the Corvette's for many years. As durability is concerned, there is none as it is a proven setup we have used. One thing you will notice on our coilovers, and I can personally take shots when we get our car back from being wrapped. Is our mount is much more robust, and slimmer than the OEM mount. The rear shock mounting location is going to be attached to the body, meaning it will be strong and you can't break the body unless you wreck the car badly. But what we do is push the coilover in as close to the body as possible, via a small crevice very close to the shock itself. What this does is lessen the chance of failure as there is no leverage to snap or break the mount we have provided.

The stock piece is strong and yet there is a greater chance of breakage, due to the fact that the shock mount pushes the stock out some. This leads to increased leverage and a greater chance of failure, especially since those rubber bushings can fatigue quicker under repetitive hard loads.

I hope this answers some questions as to why we chose this design. We are very confident in the design and thought that went into this coilover, and we are certain you guys will enjoy this upgrade for your mustang.

We love that you guys are asking questions, and we are happy to answer them

I come from BMW's and am skeptical of rear shock mouting points. I have seen many e36 and some e46 with shock mounting point (not the mounts themselves) failing. Primary reason was stress and that was just with shocks (usually M3). Some 90's designed coilovers for the e36 tried to mount at that shock mount and disappeared quickly. I want my stang to be around 20 years from now, much like my older bimmers. I'll mount at the stock locations, for now.

I'm with you Impulsed, used to track days, and plenty of M3 experience... they would tear up stock top mounts easily. Imagine a newer e93 convertible weight(3800+lbs) car having its inboard rear spring load over a broader cross-section now being shrunk down and combined to 2-bolt 5" load point out on the body where only a shock rebound load used to be.

aFe - if you could share pics on the same setup you refer to on the vettes used over a few seasons of track time that might be helpful to quell concerns... I get your weight and spring swap points, but then why aren't the fronts converted to the same standard of easy swap race spring sets as well? I still see big OEM style springs over struts in the aFe setup...

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I can't wait till more coilover options become available for purchase. I've driven the car hard in the canyons and on stock struts/ shocks with Eibach springs, while much better than stock, the bounce was still present. I have a track day coming up in a few weeks and I have a feeling its going to be even more emphasized.

kkakonn said:

I can't wait till more coilover options become available for purchase. I've driven the car hard in the canyons and on stock struts/ shocks with Eibach springs, while much better than stock, the bounce was still present. I have a track day coming up in a few weeks and I have a feeling its going to be even more emphasized.

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Have you considered an of the coilovers on the list or are you waiting for a particular manufacturer (Bilstein, Eibach, Ohlins etc...)?

socalsnake said:

Have you considered an of the coilovers on the list or are you waiting for a particular manufacturer (Bilstein, Eibach, Ohlins etc...)?

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KW's have never seemed to fail me but I think they are still a few more weeks out. The AFE's sound intriguing at that price point, but like the KW's are not out officially. I had Ohlins on my FRS and the combination of the two was amazing. But I don't know if they've ever done stuff for Mustangs. It just seems were still in the early phases, where coilover options have either just come out or coming soon. I think as consumers the more options that are out there the better.

kkakonn said:

KW's have never seemed to fail me but I think they are still a few more weeks out. The AFE's sound intriguing at that price point, but like the KW's are not out officially. I had Ohlins on my FRS and the combination of the two was amazing. But I don't know if they've ever done stuff for Mustangs. It just seems were still in the early phases, where coilover options have either just come out or coming soon. I think as consumers the more options that are out there the better.

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I've run KWs on 3 cars but they were never tracked and I was very satisfied with them. The Ohlins sound amazing, but they probably won't develop anything for the S550 and I'm sure they'd cost at least a 1/4 of what the car costs!

I'm kind of waiting for the track junkies like yourself to make a selection on coilovers since you'd have more criteria when judging the product since you'll be pounding on them at the track.

I didn't see the Ford Racing Handling Pack Assembled mentioned (was it called something else?). I am considering doing a coil over, and that's the one I have my eye on.

What is the primary thing you get with leaving the bottom tier (~$1300) and moving up to the next one (~$2600)? Longevity? Ride quality? More adjustments?

What kinds of things would cause someone who went with a $1300 coil over go, "Ah, shoulda got the $2600 one. Nuts." and then go upgrade?