Square vs staggered setup

[slowhand99]

Probably going to show my ignorance here but I haven’t seen anyone talking about a ‘square’ setup vs. the ‘staggered’ setup the GT comes with.
Part of this is prompted by talk of GT rear ends wanting to overtake the front; [MENTION=13598]Gibbo205[/MENTION] s brilliant series about mods; general tyre and spare wheel availability and the appearance.

As I understand it the Ecoboost comes with 9j x 19", offset 45, fitted with 235/40 R19 tyres all round. It has less power and a different torque curve to the GT, is lighter at the front end, and by all accounts has nice progressive manners on the road.

The GT comes with 9j x 19", offset 45, fitted with 255/40 R19 tyre on the front (so same wheel as the EB but a wider, and therefore very slightly taller, tyre) and 9.5j x 19", offset 52.5, fitted with 275/40 R19 tyre on the rear; and is rather less forgiving.

The higher offset of the rear has, as I understand it, the effect of moving the wheel in slightly to tuck the wider rear in. [MENTION=13598]Gibbo205[/MENTION] I think you fitted 15mm spacers on the rear and 23mm spacers on the front which has the effect of negating the offset and also lined the wheels up perfectly. I think I commented at the time that 15mm front and rear, with a set of rears on the front might look the same (the 8mm spacer difference almost equals the difference in offset). I’m guessing that a spacer would be required on the front for the rear sized wheel/tyre to clear the suspension but I’ll check this out when I get my car.

The wider rears on the GT are presumably there to help us stick the increased power and torque down but we don’t get much help at the front for the extra weight of the V8. I’m sure Ford spent a lot of money optimising the set up (?) but road cars also have a certain amount of understeer dialled in for safety.

So; it seems like there may be some advantages to a square set up such as:

• Possibly a more neutral dry handling characteristic than standard?
• The front and rears running in the same track (assuming front and rear track is the same) therefore clearing water better for the rears when in a straight line.
• One size of wheel/tyre on the car which makes having a spare easier; tyres can be ‘rotated’ etc.
• Looks good
• Use the safer Eibach 15mm spacer setup on front and rear.
• Reduce the standard rake a bit (although the front will now sit higher, so other mods almost certainly needed)

But would it affect the general handling in a good or bad way; and have I missed something blindingly obvious???

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[Gibbo205]

A square setup gives a more balanced handling, its more neutral. Staggered setups naturally have more understeer.

A good simple mod would be to run rear wheel size 19x9.5" all round. But even better would be buy lighter wheels and run 19x10 all round with 285 width tyres fitted, good grip and balance.

My M3 runs a squared setup, 265's all round as the stock 235/265 setup had to much understeer and not enough front-end bite.

On the Mustang I need a lot of tyre in the back because of future power plans hence staying staggered, but if I was staying NA I'd fit 19x10's all round with 285/35/19 tyres as that would handle and drive lovely.