Mach 1 "floaty" feeling

[sycd]

Hey all, I find that in general my Mach 1 has a "floaty" feeling especially at highway speed. I have a non-HP with about 6.5k miles, everything stock. Is that the nature of the car, would an alignment help? Does this car require wider wheels and tires to feel stable?

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[Roadway 5.0]

Hey all, I find that in general my Mach 1 has a "floaty" feeling especially at highway speed. I have a non-HP with about 6.5k miles, everything stock.

Is that the nature of the car, would an alignment help?

An alignment can help remove some dead on-center feel (steering float), especially if you move it to 0.00 on toe or go towards slight toe-out.

As for suspension float, I’d be surprised to hear it considering you have magnaride. My 2016 PP GT suffered from this and the solution was better tires and monotube shocks and struts.

— Mike

 

[Ctodd1]

I have the same car, no float at all. Check tire pressure and alignment. I think the dealer will do one under warranty.

 

[Charlemagne]

Check for shipping blocks maybe?

How the car is planted on the road amazes me every drive, be it in corners or on the highway. I didn't notice any issues at 80-100 mph on highway, no tramlining either.

 

[Mach1Mike]

Make sure you don't have the shipping blocks on your springs in the front.

 

[sakman84]

Echoing what everyone else is saying the M1 rides much more stable than prior Mustangs, S550 and S197s.This is probably attributed to Magneride, aero downforce and spring rates. To me the car does not exhibit excessive vertical motion even at highway speed on crap roads. It rides considerably better than prior cars.

Also verify the condition in multiple drive modes. For me the car firms up quite a bit in sport mode, especially the back end.

Check the simple thing first, shipping blocks and tire PSI. If those check out Id look at trying to talk a shop into letting them measure the alignment for minimal charge.

Let us know what happens with this...

 

[JuicySmollet]

No "floaty" feeling in sport+...I will say though, if it's in normal mode with comfort steering on, it does float a little on high speed (80-90) turns, but I expect it with those settings. Flip it to sport and it feels stuck to the road, track even more.

 

[Mazman]

What tire pressures are running?

 

[ChitownStang]

Same car here and I have never felt that floaty feel.
Car feels like I'm doing 50 at 100mph. I'm so impressed with this car on the highway
Tire pressure cold- 33psi
Had the floaty feel in my 15GT and spent $2k in Steeda suspension to get rid of it.

 

[Dave2013M3]

What is your magnaride setting at? In sport mode these things are pretty buttoned down. I don't have a M1 but I drove a base Mach 1 in sport mode and thought it felt pretty good. I will say not quite as buttoned down as the Ford Racing Track Package though I have on my PP GT.

 

[LowFlying65]

Hey all, I find that in general my Mach 1 has a "floaty" feeling especially at highway speed. I have a non-HP with about 6.5k miles, everything stock. Is that the nature of the car, would an alignment help? Does this car require wider wheels and tires to feel stable?

It's called Ground Effect.

Ground Effect is the name given to the positive influence on the lifting characteristics of the horizontal surfaces of an aircraft wing when it is close to the ground. This effect is a consequence of the distortion of the airflow below such surfaces attributable to the proximity of the ground.

 

[sycd]

Thanks all for the replies.

I'm not lifting off yet thankfully I'm usually driving with normal suspension settings, sport suspension is just not fun with crappy roads. I would not expect that much difference from sport mode on the highway, but I'll spend time in sport next time and report back.

Switching steering to sport from normal helped a bit, but I don't have that feeling of a planted car that I would expect from from this car. I'll double check my tire pressure, even though I checked not too long ago and adjusted to spec.

Also when do the spoiler/front lip from the HP start making a difference? Not sure if they would make a noticeable difference at highway speeds, but they would look cool.

 

[Atlas1]

Also when do the spoiler/front lip from the HP start making a difference? Not sure if they would make a noticeable difference at highway speeds, but they would look cool.

biologically speaking, they start attracting stares from beautiful women the moment you leave the driveway.
from an aerodynamics perspective, maybe freeway speeds? supposedly it affects mpg's so it might work at lower speeds than i would have guessed. i assumed closer to 100 or so

 

[Kermut]

biologically speaking, they start attracting stares from beautiful women the moment you leave the driveway.

That's just his way of bragging that his wife watches him leave the house

 

[murick]

@sycd Few notes from a pure armchair mechanic/physicist:
If what you call "floaty" means lack of proper/expected response to the steering input then there is a row of potential causes:

1) The steering, it may not work correctly, or, as some already pointed out, it may work correctly, but simply not in a way you expect.

Or, if steering is ok, then there must be something else countering it, which could be:

2) The front wheels geometry (camber, caster, toe-in/out)
3) Tires: Assuming you are riding the OEMs, there is not much to do about them apart from keeping them at the right pressure.
4) Suspension (shipping blocks?)

For 1, 2, 4 you probably would need a shop to check them. 3, you can do yourself.

Now, while the list of all those points does not help much to fix them (and might be more or less obvious), something you can conclude from it as well:

Front splitter may look cool, but it cannot not fix the wheels geometry, or the steering, or the tires or the suspension (assuming you are not trying to "fix" the car design, but a particular instance), neither the wider tires can fix those.

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