Great looking car and thanks for the advice! Yes, I actually just ordered the spring - have heard many good things. In fact, you just saved me $80 because I had bookmarked the entire spring / perch assembly - didn't realize until now that I could just get the spring.
Really crude ballpark - strut suspensions of typical dimensions seem to go a little over half a degree further negative for the first inch of lowering.
Maybe, maybe not. There's no guarantee that any individual car even starts out with "factory preferred" camber settings (could just as easily start out less negative than preferred as more negative than preferred). Nor is "factory preferred" necessarily going to be best for everybody even in just their street driving, and everybody can at least live with at least a small range of camber values without issue.
I think, for the most part, your list would work very well. Personally I would tweak it a little based on your goals / wants for the vehicle. This is my recommendation, with no smoke and mirrors or placebo-effect parts involved.The first major modification I will do for my '18 GT PP1 will be a complete suspension overhaul. My goals are as follows:
So far, I've come up with the following. What am I missing? What is unnecessary or will detract from my goals? Are there alternative products I should consider?
- Would like to stay in the ~$2,500 mark for suspension components, excluding installation
- Install a well-dampened setup, as the majority of my time will be on the street (i.e., avoid commonly over-dampened setups)
- Setup the car to handle more power (will not be a drag car, but needs to "hook up")
- Setup the car to handle more grip (will upgrade to 305 front / 315 rear setup)
- Eliminate a good bit of the wheel gap
- KONI Sport Adjustable Shock, Strut & Eibach Pro-Kit Lowering Springs ($980)
- Maximum Motorsports Caster Camber Plates ($247)
- BMR IRS Cradle Bushing Lockout Kit - Hammertone ($220)
- BMR Billet Aluminum Vertical Links w/ Delrin Bushings ($200)
- Ford Performance Knuckle to Toe Link Bearing Assembly ($72)
FWIW - the rear camber gain is above and beyond the fronts. The rear will swing 'almost' 1 degree per 1" of bump compression. We see .8 to 1 degree of gain on our cars depending on toe settings.
Really appreciate it. I've heard a lot of great things about those particular BMR springs when paired with the Ford Performance track dampers.I think, for the most part, your list would work very well. Personally I would tweak it a little based on your goals / wants for the vehicle. This is my recommendation, with no smoke and mirrors or placebo-effect parts involved.
-Ford Performance Track Damper Kit (very thorough kit, very good performer, plug and play and never worry about adjustment)
-BMR-SP083 Handling Spring Kit (these pair VERY well with the FP Damper Kit, or any other aftermarket damper for that matter)
-BMR-CB005 Cradle Bushing Lockout Kit (no explanation needed
-BMR-BK081 Lower Control Arm Bearing Kit (I would highly highly suggest these over the Vertical Links)
-M-5A460-M Knuckle Toe Bearing Kit
Past that point, if it were me, I would probably go ahead and throw in a nice adjustable front bar like our SB044 ($249) and our ELK013 Front Links ($149)
The reason I think our 250lb/in front spring and bar combo would be good for you is because of your plans to eventually put the 305 on there.
As for the CC plates, you do not need them.
If you end up going with this set-up shoot me a call and I can send you over a nice street/handling PDF to get the car set up effectively.
Good Luck!
FWIW - the rear camber gain is above and beyond the fronts. The rear will swing 'almost' 1 degree per 1" of bump compression. We see .8 to 1 degree of gain on our cars depending on toe settings.
Ha. Honestly, it's pretty overwhelming. I see BMRs recommendation - seems great. I received Steeda's recommendation over email - seems great. And of course, many are supportive of both. I have no idea, lol.
But seriously, that was a good, honest reply from them, bravo. It was nice that they mentioned the effect of rear camber gain from lowering the car. Since ~ -2.5* is too much and will increase rear tire wear, I'd get bmrs rear camber arm, or Steedas rear toe bracket to dial out that unwanted camber.
You won't see me 'pushing' them on people very often. Not sure where you came to that conclusion? You will actually see my posts from 2014/2015 when I was testing, and many posts after that where I have stated clearly on this forum that vertical links are one of the most overrated parts for the IRS. Do I defend them, yes. I have personally bent a stock one on my own car while drag racing. Do they make a difference? Yes, in some cases they absolutely do. On my 2016 GTPP that I bought to rigorously test parts with for a span of 1 year and well over 20K miles, I noticed a very nice improvement during daily use with our Poly bushing links. What I have found is that the Delrin and Poly bushed links do a great job at assisting with stabilizing the knuckle assembly. The Delrin essentially locks it down, while the poly offers some compliance. The compression and extension loads on the links in stock form are more than capable of being handled by the stock design for most applications, though.Wow, BMR didn't push their vertical links! Did hell freeze over?
You do not need either components to get within factory specs on rear camber with lowered vehicles. Our rear camber adjuster helps make the adjustment easier.Wow, BMR didn't push their vertical links! Did hell freeze over?
You should tell Ford their factory-direct racecar's are wrong, and if they spend tens of thousands of dollars on components like racing brakes, dry sumps, sequential gearboxes, aftermarket control arms, racing dampers, Motec data systems, etc... They could easily afford to "upgrade" the stock vertical links since you deem it so beneficial
Everybody takes a different approach to suspension tuning. You are correct their rear suspension is set up totally different than a production S550.You should tell Ford their factory-direct racecar's are wrong, and if they spend tens of thousands of dollars on components like racing brakes, dry sumps, sequential gearboxes, aftermarket control arms, racing dampers, Motec data systems, etc... They could easily afford to "upgrade" the stock vertical links since you deem it so beneficial
And that's definitely noticed and appreciated. I'll give you a ring when I place the order to grab that PDF! BTW, any shop recommendations in the Houston area (ideally west Houston)?You won't see me 'pushing' them on people very often. Not sure where you came to that conclusion? You will actually see my posts from 2014/2015 when I was testing, and many posts after that where I have stated clearly on this forum that vertical links are one of the most overrated parts for the IRS. Do I defend them, yes. I have personally bent a stock one on my own car while drag racing. Do they make a difference? Yes, in some cases they absolutely do. On my 2016 GTPP that I bought to rigorously test parts with for a span of 1 year and well over 20K miles, I noticed a very nice improvement during daily use with our Poly bushing links. What I have found is that the Delrin and Poly bushed links do a great job at assisting with stabilizing the knuckle assembly. The Delrin essentially locks it down, while the poly offers some compliance. The compression and extension loads on the links in stock form are more than capable of being handled by the stock design for most applications, though.
I do agree on the rear camber being too much. This is why we offer a fixed length camber arm (that is a different length than stock..) that works for most ANY and EVERY combination of street car. Drag oriented will pull them out on the inside slots of the subframe mounts and the handling crowd will push them inboard fully. I spent a lot of time with the S550 Geometry when I got our cars, and have continually made strides in development - hence the reason we are about to release two new rear camber components that are unique to the industry.
As for the bracket you mentioned, that does not really offer anything beneficial from my experience...other than the ability to make easier adjustments. It will not give you 'more or less' camber....and in some cases, may even take away from your goals. I had a customer recently that I had remove those because he could not achieve our drag alignment specs - FWIW. Maybe he was doing it wrong, but removing them fixed it.
I put together a system above that I would wager to be the most capable suspension system for the S550 per dollar spend. I could easily put a sheet together with exactly $2500 worth of parts, but saving him $1000 so he can put that money in other places that will see a higher ROI is my style, and always will be.
Good luck OP!
