Ford Performance track package or steeda suspension kit?

[LalaLlama]

Hi everyone! I'm looking to upgrade my suspension on my 20 mustang gt non-pp. It's pretty stock now but I do plan on doing a supercharger build in the future. This is mainly a dd with a lot of spirited back road driving and the car will see a few trips a year to the track/strip. In my research so far it seems like I'm better off doing a solid set of shocks and struts than a cheaper set of coil-overs.

I have narrowed it down to two separate builds to start but I can not decide between them. From my research steeda would be the first option but the value out of the ford performance track pack seems too good to pass up. The FP kit includes the sway bars and toe links while I would have to purchase those separately going with the steeda build. Either way, I want to include the "stop the hop kit".

It's a $700 difference between the two builds, I don't mind spending the money if it's going to perform better. But I don't want to spend the extra money on a very similar performance.

Does anyone have similar builds that can share some insight?

Any help or feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thank You

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[FreePenguin]

Steeda all day. call them, see if they can cut you a better price on all that gear. they may be able to help you out even with it being off sale. you also have lifetime warranty on parts. a plus.

why aren't you considering progressive springs and going linear they are great for DD with occasional track stuff. I personally love them, but thats what they are sold as, DD with sport stuff. linear is more track oriented. atleast thats what ive gathered.

all id change out if its truly a DD with track stuff, is springs to progressive.

but imo steeda>ford in this question, if car came with PP stuff I wouldn't of upgraded, but if I was upgrading from a base, id go Steeda.

found a post that shows that the following cars run progressives.

here's a thread on difference between linear/progressive
https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/mustang-progressive-vs-linear-springs.138095/

they also offer military discount I believe, mention mustang6g if not, see if they can work a little better deal to get within your budget. for DD id gt progressive everyday.

 

[larr12]

Shoot @tj@steeda a dm. Tell him your goals and he will give you a technical-honest opinion.

I went with the Stop the hop starter kit and minimum drop springs. I will also add the vertical links and camber plates. For the struts Im still between FP Track struts or Steeda Pro-Action.

 

[luc]

Steeda all day. call them, see if they can cut you a better price on all that gear. they may be able to help you out even with it being off sale. you also have lifetime warranty on parts. a plus.

why aren't you considering progressive springs and going linear they are great for DD with occasional track stuff. I personally love them, but thats what they are sold as, DD with sport stuff. linear is more track oriented. atleast thats what ive gathered.

all id change out if its truly a DD with track stuff, is springs to progressive.

but imo steeda>ford in this question, if car came with PP stuff I wouldn't of upgraded, but if I was upgrading from a base, id go Steeda.

found a post that shows that the following cars run progressives.

here's a thread on difference between linear/progressive
https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/mustang-progressive-vs-linear-springs.138095/

they also offer military discount I believe, mention mustang6g if not, see if they can work a little better deal to get within your budget. for DD id gt progressive everyday.

Just curious, is your opinion based on experience, meaning you have driven 2 identical cars, one with Steeda and the other one with Ford performance track handling kit... or ...?

 

[FreePenguin]

Just curious, is your opinion based on experience, meaning you have driven 2 identical cars, one with Steeda and the other one with Ford performance track handling kit... or ...?

I owned a 15 ecoboost with performance package, and now I own a 17 with Steeda handling package. Not exactly the same, but my 15 ford perf handling package is really stomped by the Steeda in every way.

now that said, I test drove GT's with FP handling package, while I owned my EB w Steeda, I was curious. the power was there, but I did not like the handling vs my car. I couldn't realllllly romp on it, as its my dealers car.

 

[luc]

I owned a 15 ecoboost with performance package, and now I own a 17 with Steeda handling package. Not exactly the same, but my 15 ford perf handling package is really stomped by the Steeda in every way.

now that said, I test drove GT's with FP handling package, while I owned my EB w Steeda, I was curious. the power was there, but I did not like the handling vs my car. I couldn't realllllly romp on it, as its my dealers car.

The OP wasn’t talking about the Ford performance package which is a PP1 with a 1” drop but rather the Ford performance track kit which is a all different animal
Also the ecoboost performance package fall way short of the GT PP1 package

 

[FreePenguin]

The OP wasn’t talking about the Ford performance package which is a PP1 with a 1” drop but rather the Ford performance track kit which is a all different animal
Also the ecoboost performance package fall way short of the GT PP1 package

I was unaware. I thought what he was buying was what came stock on the stock GT PP's. ie. ford performance handling pack. the only thing there I know isn't on the mustangs is the stop the hop kit. I dont know now. if it also drops it 1 inch, it could be a nice alternate.

but even if so, if Steeda could get the price down, and was even. 90% of the guys on here buy the Steeda products, and are very happy. many actually doing track days. I still dont feel he is being steered in the wrong direction. especially with their customer service/lifetime warranty on the products.

 

[luc]

I was unaware. I thought what he was buying was what came stock on the stock GT PP's. ie. ford performance handling pack. the only thing there I know isn't on the mustangs is the stop the hop kit. I dont know now. if it also drops it 1 inch, it could be a nice alternate.

but even if so, if Steeda could get the price down, and was even. 90% of the guys on here buy the Steeda products, and are very happy. many actually doing track days. I still dont feel he is being steered in the wrong direction. especially with their customer service/lifetime warranty on the products.

Well, most people that I know that track their car, and that Include me, use the FP track kit.
It is a well designed kit in which every single parts is engineered to work together, which is by far the most difficult thing to do when putting a suspension together

 

[1 old racer]

I have installed several sets of both Steeda progressive and Ford Perf Track set up's for myself and my friends, and I would say for all around good handling with good ride go with Steeda Progressive springs and Steeda shocks and struts and just use Camber bolts for adj. For more serious track car set up go with F.P.Track kit. I personally run F.P. Track springs, shocks and struts. with Steeda adj F/R sway bars, Steeda bump steer, Steeda Sway bar end links, Steeda 4 piont front k brace, Steeda Rear IRS brace And Max Motorsports camber plates. I love my track set up but My wife doesnt like the overall stiffness. Please remember the closer you get to a good track car you build , the less of a comfortable street car you will have.

 

[Hack]

Hi everyone! I'm looking to upgrade my suspension on my 20 mustang gt non-pp. It's pretty stock now but I do plan on doing a supercharger build in the future. This is mainly a dd with a lot of spirited back road driving and the car will see a few trips a year to the track/strip. In my research so far it seems like I'm better off doing a solid set of shocks and struts than a cheaper set of coil-overs.

I have narrowed it down to two separate builds to start but I can not decide between them. From my research steeda would be the first option but the value out of the ford performance track pack seems too good to pass up. The FP kit includes the sway bars and toe links while I would have to purchase those separately going with the steeda build. Either way, I want to include the "stop the hop kit".

It's a $700 difference between the two builds, I don't mind spending the money if it's going to perform better. But I don't want to spend the extra money on a very similar performance.

Does anyone have similar builds that can share some insight?

Any help or feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thank You

I just swapped over to the FP track handling kit on my 2017 GT. I would say that it's just slightly stiffer but in the same ballpark as the 2016 GT350 I used to own. My Fiesta ST suspension is actually significantly stiffer yet.

I've noticed really good body control and the car is still very comfortable to drive even on the crappy local MN roads. In my opinion it will be great for daily driving.

I prefer the Ford kit over Steeda because I believe that Ford's engineers have more expertise with the Mustang and I think Ford has deeper pockets with respect to development. However, I haven't A-B driven the two on the street or track to be able to judge the difference.

 

[tj@steeda]

I just swapped over to the FP track handling kit on my 2017 GT. I would say that it's just slightly stiffer but in the same ballpark as the 2016 GT350 I used to own. My Fiesta ST suspension is actually significantly stiffer yet.

I've noticed really good body control and the car is still very comfortable to drive even on the crappy local MN roads. In my opinion it will be great for daily driving.

I prefer the Ford kit over Steeda because I believe that Ford's engineers have more expertise with the Mustang and I think Ford has deeper pockets with respect to development. However, I haven't A-B driven the two on the street or track to be able to judge the difference.

I can't speak for the Ford Team but I can tell you we are at the race track almost every weekend - adjusting, changing, tweaking to continue to refine our set-ups & design. We have several cars we push to the limits

Here is our track car -we throw everything at this car.

Give us a call at 1800 950 0774 & we can look at the pricing & speak through your complete set-up.

Have a great night.

 

[shogun32]

Also the ecoboost performance package fall way short of the GT PP1 package

shock wise it's the same part numbers GT/PP1 vs EB/PP. I don't remember about the spring SKU.

IMO if going Steeda, get the adjustable dampers! If you don't want to adjust get the FRPP Track shocks (or Bilstein). I think the Steeda progressive are too soft in initial rate - I had them on my EB/PP running the Pro-Active suspension. Linear is predictable and should be the first choice unless you have the luxury of tailoring the knee points in the spring rate curves and the instrumentation to support it.

Maybe @tj@steeda can elaborate where the transition occurs between the very soft initial rate and the firmer?

Also punt on the Steeda rear bar if you already have a PP1 car. And frankly I'd pass on both bars - that front one is HEAVY/STIFF. I'm on the softest setting even with the PP1 rear bar and it should be the absolute LAST part to install and only after you've ascertained that indeed more bar is the answer.

The 'starter' stop-the-hop is plenty. Warning: personal pet peve - if you get the trimmed bump stop option, have them cut the plastic collar off the rear bumpers.

 

[krishelnino]

I upgraded my base suspension and went through 2 different set of springs. FYI, I use mine mostly as a daily driver with occasional track use and lot of spirited back road driving.

Initially, I tried to stick with Ford Performance for warranty, so looked at getting the FP Track kit I was concerned with stiffness for a daily driver. However I rolled the dice and was pleasantly surprised with how comfortable it was even on the street, and the handling improvement was night and day.

The FP track shocks/struts are one of the best out there. With the kit you get progressive springs, however I later changed these springs out to BMR SP083R handling springs which are linear. I'd recommend the linear springs over what you get in the kit. The car feels more planted and flatter through the corners with the linear springs.

An essential piece in the kit is Toe Link to knuckle Bearings M-5A460-M which you can get separately.

I have the Steeda camber plates and they're good. But they don't have caster adjustment and now there are other options which offer both camber/caster adjustment so that's something worth looking into. You can look at BMR or Vorshlag.

Since you already have a PP1, skip the rear swaybar and get a adjustable front swaybar. The Steeda swaybars are too stiff and even the bars included in FP track are slightly stiffer than what's needed. I'm planning on changing my front FP swaybar to BMR 3-point adjustable SB044R

Steeda Stop the Hop Starter kit is more than enough.

I highly recommend the Steeda front control arms (Lateral and tension links) with Bumpsteer kit They make a significant difference in improving the steering response. They also help with roll center correction after lowering.

So in short I'd recommend starting with this list and later add more as you need.
1) Ford Performance Track Shocks/Strut Kit M-18000-F
2) Toe Link to knuckle Bearings M-5A460-M
3) BMR SP083R handling springs
4) Steeda Camber Plates - or BMR/Vorshlag if you need caster adjustment
5) Steeda Lateral and Tension links with bushings
6) Steeda Bumpsteer kit
7) BMR SB044R 35mm front sway bar
8) Steeda stop the hop starter kit - alternative BMR cradle lockout CB005.

Finally - get a performance alignment !

This is the setup that worked for me and many people on here also had good results with it. You'll get good value out of it for sure. I've had many people ride in my car and no one complained about the stiffness or harshness. A few of my friends who drove it felt the car was so stable and planted. I don't notice any significant increase in NVH over stock, but the increase in handling and ride quality is amazing.

 

[shogun32]

2) Toe Link to knuckle Bearings M-5A460-M

I have 2 pairs of these, new that I'd love to get rid of...

 

[Roadway 5.0]

The FP track shocks/struts are one of the best out there. With the kit you get progressive springs, however I later changed these springs out to BMR SP083R handling springs which are linear. I'd recommend the linear springs over what you get in the kit. The car feels more planted and flatter through the corners with the linear springs.

The FRPP Track springs are NOT progressive. They are linear. The rear FRPP track spring may look progressive, but it is a linear spring with a helper portion that is fully compressed under load (dual rate).

FRPP Track springs are estimated in the same rate neighborhood as OEM GT350 (not R springs) at about 200ishF/915ishR. Your SP083s are 250/980 last I read, which is where the handling improvements surfaced—not from a transition from progressive to linear.

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