Rear sway bar and Strut tower brace

[Dana Pants]

Greetings,

I've spent probably more time than anyone trying to make a S550 handle well within the ruleset allowed by the SCCA F Street autocross class. You can find my various misadventures in the giant SCCA F-Street thread (and plenty of dissenting opinions).

If you are trying to dial out understeer and are cheap, here are some thoughts:
-There is a Ford service procedure to add camber to the front tires --> do this!
-While getting an alignment, make sure rear camber is about -1.7 deg, minimal rear toe-in, and give the front tires max negative camber and minimal toe-out
-Try a few more psi in the front tires
-I am running a stiffer rear sway bar with the stock front swaybar. If you look at the progression of swaybars in the ford Mustang lineup, usually higher performing models get bigger and bigger rear swaybars, so you are on the right track.
-As you get closer and closer to a neutral setup, everything starts to affect the balance of the car. Things like tire age, tire brand, weather, fuel level, ... so the only way to get the suspension tuning right is actual track work.

here is a video of my car with the rear strano swaybar on full stiff... I preferred this at the time, but went to the middle setting after changing tire model:


The video shows that the setup works, but isn't for the faint of heart.

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[RRRob]

That's some nice driving @Dana Pants . I ordered the extension panel from the dealer and I am getting the strut tower brace very soon, I might have to let this be a Christmas gift from my wife .

I did feel some unsettling rear wheel hop/skipping this weekend. I was in a 180 turn. this is an off ramp that goes back under the highway and heads back towards the opposite direction on ramp. It is a fun corner that takes me to my Saturday morning tee time. Well the road surface under the highway is not great. I was doing about 60 in the corner and when I hit the uneven pavement the rear end started to skip. I need to lift of the throttle. It felt like there was not enough rebound dampening and the tires were skipping.

Has anyone else found this issue?

 

[spaz mk will]

That's some nice driving @Dana Pants . I ordered the extension panel from the dealer and I am getting the strut tower brace very soon, I might have to let this be a Christmas gift from my wife .

I did feel some unsettling rear wheel hop/skipping this weekend. I was in a 180 turn. this is an off ramp that goes back under the highway and heads back towards the opposite direction on ramp. It is a fun corner that takes me to my Saturday morning tee time. Well the road surface under the highway is not great. I was doing about 60 in the corner and when I hit the uneven pavement the rear end started to skip. I need to lift of the throttle. It felt like there was not enough rebound dampening and the tires were skipping.

Has anyone else found this issue?

The car in nearly all trim levels is under damped and under tired from the factory. It’s a comfortable, fun, sporty feeling vehicle, but not a sports car, by design - it’s really a grand tourer at heart and on the cheap. This includes a healthy amount of understeer, which is safe for a mass market car that serves as a rental or fun-enough for most people vehicle (not a knock on choosing an ecoboost, this statement is just part of what Ford does to make margins etc, and the GT suspension isn’t setup much better. The car has to have broad appeal to sell and be accessible but safe for many types of drivers and skills levels).

So under that context, what you’re experiencing is pretty normal and expected I would say. The car also has known wheel hop issues under hard acceleration. Most all of this can be remedied with aftermarket suspension components/tires and some increase in general NVH tolerance. It just depends on your goals for the car and how you want to use it.

This probably comes off as insulting, which I am not intending to be, just talking through the reality of what this car is, isn’t, and can be depending on your preferences. As long as smiles per mile is high, then the car is doing it’s job for you, in my opinion.

 

[K4fxd]

The stock dampers suck.

 

[RRRob]

The car in nearly all trim levels is under damped and under tired from the factory. It’s a comfortable, fun, sporty feeling vehicle, but not a sports car, by design - it’s really a grand tourer at heart and on the cheap. This includes a healthy amount of understeer, which is safe for a mass market car that serves as a rental or fun-enough for most people vehicle (not a knock on choosing an ecoboost, this statement is just part of what Ford does to make margins etc, and the GT suspension isn’t setup much better. The car has to have broad appeal to sell and be accessible but safe for many types of drivers and skills levels).

So under that context, what you’re experiencing is pretty normal and expected I would say. The car also has known wheel hop issues under hard acceleration. Most all of this can be remedied with aftermarket suspension components/tires and some increase in general NVH tolerance. It just depends on your goals for the car and how you want to use it.

This probably comes off as insulting, which I am not intending to be, just talking through the reality of what this car is, isn’t, and can be depending on your preferences. As long as smiles per mile is high, then the car is doing it’s job for you, in my opinion.

I am not insulted. At least I am not imagining it. I saw the Stop The Hop kit and the install looks like it all makes sense. I am not going to go wild on the car, it's my fun car to drive but I will look into improving the handling over time.

 

[RRRob]

Thanks for the replies an suggestions everyone. I'm taking the advice of @K4fxd. I just ordered the strut tower brace and the extension panel. They are X-mas gifts from my wife, she will find out that soon. I'll post once they are in.

 

[K4fxd]

There are 3 pieces in that kit. A strut tower brace, a strut tower to firewall "K" brace and 3, the cowl extension panel.

The tower brace is the least effective. The K and extension panel are needed.

 

[RRRob]

I got all 3! the extension from the local Ford dealer and the strut tower and firewall "K" brace form American Muscle.

 

[\dave]

Hey RRRob, I got to your thread a little late. Glad to see you got the Ford Performance kit. I got one for my '19 Eco convertible, and the strut brace made a nice improvement in stiffness (my car already had the cowl brace, which I suppose is factory for all verts?). I started with a Steeda strut brace because I didn't need the cowl brace that comes with the Ford kit. But the Steeda didn't bolt up because their bolt holes didn't have enough grace for the mount locations (note that Ford's strut brace uses large fastener holes and flanged nuts). MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

[RRRob]

I feel like this is the gateway drug part. low cost, easy to install, looks good, and "improves handling". I haven't even installed it and I want to find my parts dealer and get another fix!

 

[bnightstar]

I feel like this is the gateway drug part. low cost, easy to install, looks good, and "improves handling". I haven't even installed it and I want to find my parts dealer and get another fix!

May I suggest camber plates and front sway bar then. Find your local steeda dealer and get your fix.

 

[RRRob]

Well I couldn't wait and the wife didn't seem to care so I installed the braces today. Worst part was getting the wheel puller for the wiper arm removal (3 stores and an hour of wasted time for a $9 puller). Took the car for a short test ride and it feels tighter. I will have to really test drive it tomorrow.

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