SP083 / FP Track Damper vs. Steeda Dual Rate / Pro-Action Adjustable?

[TheLion]

Just looking for feedback on both setups. I've been leaning towards the former for a while, but I"ve also seen a lot of good feedback on the latter. I believe the latter will provide slightly better track performance with roughly the same street comfort. It is my understanding that on the dual rates the fronts at 230 lbs/in progressing into 350 lbs/in and the rears are 800ish lbs/in progressing up to 1200 lbs/in. I had the Ford Performance Street X springs on my ecoboost and really liked the balance of the progressive springs (assuming the softer coils aren't fully compressed at ride height, otherwise they only serve to keep the spring in the strut at full extension), but based on what I've read, Steeda's Dual Rates do seem to work in the lesser region at ride height.

SP083's are linear's at 250 / 980. Running GT350R bars with the SP083 / FP Track strut setup would give nearly identical bar, spring and damping as the GT350R with just a hair more spring in the rear giving the car a bit more traction / throttle steer on exit, but I doubt you could tell the difference.

I'm wondering how the steeda setup compares if I run stock bars with it to the GT350R like setup. For track the consensus is to run more spring and less bar, so you get the anti-roll without loosing as much wheel motion independence making the car more planted and providing more ultimate grip. More bar and less spring seems to be more popular for a street setup to keep ride quality good without compromising handling too much. Keep in mind that I am running factory 40 profile tires, so the tire is not as ridiculously stiff as a 30 series, it does provide some minor damping.

It would be really nice to hear some feed back on both setups and what you do / do not like about either. The cost of the Steeda springs / adjustable dampers is about the same as the cost of the SP083's / FP Track Dampers / GT350R OE Bars, it's just a matter of which one will give me the best balance of handling and ride with a greater emphasis on handling, especially on somewhat bumpy roads and at this point I'm thinking the steeda setup might be a bit better.

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[Bluemustang]

I doubt you'll find anyone who has run BOTH of those setups. The Steeda guys will say the Steeda is better and the BMR guys will say the BMR is better. I think it all comes down to what do you want?

 

[BmacIL]

I'm sure both of them handle extremely well and by all accounts both are quite reasonable on the street. You could also do SP083s with Steeda or Koni adjustables to have some tunability there.

 

[NightmareMoon]

IIRC the Steeda Dual Rates sit at ride height with all, or very nearly all of the soft part of the springs fully compressed. That said, having just installed them, the ride aint bad, except on the biggest bumps where nearly all lowering springs will bottom out.

No experience with the BMR offerings, so Ill just say Im happy so far with the Streda DRs and that I expected them to ride worse than they do on the crappy streets in my ‘hood. I’ve only done about 40 minutes of track time so far with them but the ride on a tight smooth road course gave an excellent feeling of control with quick planted transitions. Im sure the BMR linear handling springs are good too.

 

[Nagare]

I doubt you'll find anyone who has run BOTH of those setups. The Steeda guys will say the Steeda is better and the BMR guys will say the BMR is better. I think it all comes down to what do you want?

100% agree and I think @TheLion needs to stop theory crafting so much on it and try a setup to see how it actually performs to him and go from there.

With Black Friday around the corner, I'm sure Steeda will have a sale that brings the price well within reason for you and you could still grab the GT350 sway bars under what you're looking at for total price right now.

 

[TheLion]

I was hoping to find someone who has at least ridden in or driven a car with a competing setup or something similar like a GT350. The SP083's with ProAction Adjustables isn't a bad idea, giving me some rebound tuning capability.

I'm leaning towards the DR's / ProAction's and staying with the stock bars as opposed to running SP083's with GT350R bars. A little more spring and a little less bar is going to give me the best handling at the limits on bumpy roads, I can always add more bar later, but it's a much bigger pain to change springs and dampers, not to mention far more costly.

Bars are a trade off and if we could get the appropriate anti-roll with NO bars at all and not be too stiff on the spring such that you get tire float, we'd do it, but alas it doesn't work like that with static setups as those two characteristics are mutually exclusive, so we use bars to compensate to a degree. Now if there were current controlled coil springs (not damping rate, but variable spring force) that could increase it's resistance force...now that would be something interesting. Maybe some day :-).

By the way, according to steeda, their extended ball stud lateral links are set up for a factory roll center at a 7/8" lowered front ride height. That makes them absolutely perfect for SP083's or Steeda DR's. Either way ones goes, if you want to correct the geometry that's the way to go (along with their bumpsteer end links and an alignment).

I really couldn't believe how much of a trade off the SP080's made by throwing off the geometry. Sure the lower CG was nice, makes the car feel more connected, there was notably less dive and squat, but I had tire wear issue, a LOT of push in corner entry / mid corner and sluggish steering response combined with less lateral grip (due to optimized contact patch).

Even minimum drop springs have those negative traits, anything more than about 0.5" starts to throw geometry to the wind, but minimum drop springs do it less than more aggressive setups like the SP080's. It's a good spring with a corrected geometry for a corner carver, but I'm beyond just that now, pushing WOT at 90 mph on mid / exit.

I get a lot of inside tire spin and can't put the power down and that's why I'm looking for a more spring / less bar setup. But I don't want the car to become completely un-enjoyable to cruise in either. Maybe I should go test drive a GT350 base to get an idea of what the SP083 / FP Track Damper setup would be like...

 

[TheLion]

BTW for reference, the Ride Frequencies are as follows:

Stock PP GT (165 / 728): 1.37 Front 1.52 Rear with 1.11 ratio
SP080's (170 / 740: 1.39 Front 1.53 Rear with 1.10 Ratio
SP083's Old Version (300 / 980): 1.85 Front 1.76 Rear with 0.95 Ratio
SP083's 3rd Revision (250 / 980): 1.69 Front 1.76 Rear with 1.04 Ratio
Steeda Comp DR's (350 / 1200): 2 Front 1.95 Rear with 0.98 Ratio
GT350R/TP Stock (240/ 920): 1.65 Front 1.71 Rear with 1.03 Ratio

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a ride frequency in the 2 Hz region typically starting to get into dedicated track car regions?

 

[BmacIL]

BTW for reference, the Ride Frequencies are as follows:

Stock PP GT (165 / 728): 1.37 Front 1.52 Rear with 1.11 ratio
SP080's (170 / 740: 1.39 Front 1.53 Rear with 1.10 Ratio
SP083's Old Version (300 / 980): 1.85 Front 1.76 Rear with 0.95 Ratio
SP083's 3rd Revision (250 / 980): 1.69 Front 1.76 Rear with 1.04 Ratio
Steeda Comp DR's (350 / 1200): 2 Front 1.95 Rear with 0.98 Ratio
GT350R/TP Stock (240/ 920): 1.65 Front 1.71 Rear with 1.03 Ratio

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a ride frequency in the 2 Hz region typically starting to get into dedicated track car regions?

Yes. Thus why I wanted something in the 1.5-1.7 Hz region. It's great that Steeda's made a setup at 2 Hz that seems to ride well. I have no regrets on my setup, though. @Demon Coyote @MTECH6G @jbird60 chime in, guys.

 

[TheLion]

It's going to be a hard choice. I do know someone with a GT350 non-R. Maybe I can get him to let me drive his or at least do a ride along to get an idea of the general feel. Balance can be tweaked but using both front and rear R bars with SP083's yields a nearly identical spring rate, balance and ride frequency to the R Track pack.

I realize the R Track Pack is NOT perfect. GT350R guys do change their setups from stock for better track times, but my car is NOT a dedicated track car, it's a dual purpose car and the R is pretty darn fast. So it's a hard choice, but I'd imagine the SP083's might also be a little more forgiving / less edgy making it easier to exploit the limits without going over them which is always a good thing for your average driver. Slightly softer springs will provide more ultimate grip (too little roll and the car will not gain enough camber unless you run more negative static, also can over load the outside tires).

One thing I know, I'm still going to use 1/8" rear spacers. I want just a slight rake and to keep the rear roll center closer to stock. There's a reason the GT350R didn't drop the rear as much as the front and I believe it's due to front / rear roll couple being optimized for a specific feel. Maybe I'm wrong and it's not a huge difference (1/4"), but might be enough to notice. That an I really like the look of the rake!

 

[BmacIL]

You could always do GT350R springs, then...

Drops have been measured at 0.7"/0.3" front and rear. Fronts have been measured at 245 lb/in. The rears vary depending on who measured, but around 900 linear rate in the working range.

 

[Bluemustang]

I love the rake of my SP083s. No rear spacer needed. It's perfection IMO.

Honestly, I think you may be overthinking things a bit. Your setup with the RC correction is great for street IMO. Add some bars for increased roll resistance and you're in business. I ran SP080s and BMR bars and it was great. I only switched setups because the KONI Sports were too much IMO for those springs. And the RC correction kit didn't exist back then. If not, just try one of the other setups and see how you like it. Personally, I like the approach of the SP083s. GT350R + is what I'd call it. And the 7/8" drop is right in the zone for the RC correct control arms. So I guess I lucked out in that respect. Anyways, if you're set on trying a different setup just pull the trigger. Theory is good to a point until you actually drive it and see how you like it.

 

[EFI]

IMO the only real difference between those is the adjust-ability of the Steeda dampers. If you're not going to mess with that, then get whatever has the best deal.

Although I will say that on certain sale days, you can get the Steeda package (including camber plates) for just about the same price as iust the FRPP dampers and BMR springs. I was all set to get those until I ran into the Steeda sale going on which pretty much made up my mind.

 

[TheLion]

Interesting for the 6th gen SS: https://www.chevrolet.com/performance/gen6camaro/suspension

Looks like GM offers a factory 1LE suspension tuning package. Guess what's in it? Lateral links with longer ball studs just like Steeda's extended ball stud lateral links for the S550, 1LE sway bars and 1LE springs. That's a very similar package to the one I'm making for my GT by using the Steeda extended ball stud lateral links / bump steer kit and the spring / strut / bar combo I go with. I wonder what spring rates the 1LE uses? It's similar in wight, power and dimensions to the S550.

Both the S550 and the Alpha use dual ball joint front end setups. They differ in the rear in that the Alpha uses more traditional trailing arm independent setup where the S550 uses the BMW esque Vertical Link setup, hence why the S550's trunk is 50% larger, it's a more compact architecture, not sure how the motions / camber curves compare between the two or if there's a meaningful difference, but it is what it is.

Basically by pairing the Steeda Lateral Links, Bumpsteer kit, SP083's, FP Track Dampers and GT350R sway bars it's a Ford equivalent. Both the 1LE and GT350R are extremely good track cars that are still street-able. I think the Gt350R is usually a little faster because of it's 70 HP advantage but both cars have absolutely stellar handling characteristics.

GT's PP's biggest weakness is still it's lack of cooling from the factory vs. 1LE even with the suspension tweaks (including bushings) which are fairly cheap and easy. I haven't heard of too many issues on the track with the trans and there is a passive cooling duct for it, but the diff needs some costly cooling upgrades as the Ford Performance diff cooler kit is what, 2k?

Is running 140 wt enough for serious track work?

 

[SteedaTech]

If you want to be a winner at the track and have exceptional ride quality, than the choice is Steeda Dual Rate Springs and Steeda Adjustable Pro-Action dampers!

 

[Bluemustang]

Basically by pairing the Steeda Lateral Links, Bumpsteer kit, SP083's, FP Track Dampers and GT350R sway bars it's a Ford equivalent. Both the 1LE and GT350R are extremely good track cars that are still street-able. I think the Gt350R is usually a little faster because of it's 70 HP advantage and much broader rev range.

Yes. I agree. This is my intended route. I actually have the GT350 bars in the my garage which have a softer rear bar than the R version. The SP083 has a slightly stiffer rear spring rate than the GT350R so I feel like the R bar is not needed.

Also, add a 2018 intake manifold, CAI, injectors and E85 (like I am planning to) I think you will get pretty close to that GT350. I saw a video of a 15-17 car on stock headers - just E85, CAI, and 2018 intake manifold beat a GT350R in a half mile race. Basically a GT350 on the cheap. Not quite but you get the idea. The Ford Performance track dampers are also monotube like the ones on the GT350.

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