Chasis setup

[dvcobra]

I have upgraded my suspension components for road racing but need help on initial setup.
I installed the flaming river rack, tubular front control arms w/ carrera coil overs from Bethania garage. The rear has 13" 200lb. springs w/Pro SM600 shocks. I am currently running front & rear CR upgraded sway bars but plan on testing with the GT rear sway and disconnecting the front.
My questions are as follows:
1. How do determine the correct ride height for best cornering. I've heard that lower doesn't always mean better.
2. Any recommendations on Toe-in/out, caster and camber?
3. Should the front lower control arm be parallel with the ground?
4. Should the frame be parallel to ground?
5. My rear end seems to sit high but the the jacks are at their lowest position.
6. I don't have the equipment to weigh the corners, do you have any suggestions?
Hope there aren't too many questions but I am just tired of getting passed on the turns. Maybe I just need a larger set of web..*(*))._

[dscott]

This looks like a question for DV or Jay.
Don

[Double Venom]

dvcobra,
First off, what is, custom classic roadsters sway bars? Never knew they had any sway bar but one.

When you installed the SM600's did you mount them in the original frame holes or did you drop them down a little?

The rest is just a matter of tweaking to your own personal tastes.
I know we add a wee-tad of toe-in for the track, but this is really Jay's forte. I'll see if I can't pull him away from the shop long enough to jump on here and help on this.

As I have said many times, we have found the front "stock" CR's sway bar to be way to heavy for the car. We simply unhook it, or leave it off completely, and use the rear bar only. We have done hours and hours of skid pad testing and this set up produced the best results with exactly the same set up as you have.

DV...It's cookie time

[dvcobra]

I quess the reason I called the sway bars custom was because they were an optional upgrade when I purchased everything.
I installed the SM600 shocks in the stock holes.
Does the car look like it's riding high?

[Curt C.]

Don Scott has recommended running the following alignment specs a while back:

Caster +3.75 +/- .5
Camber - 3/8 +/- 1/8
Toe in +.03 - .06

I run this set up with the exception of negative camber at .75. I recently had the car aligned with a laser system and then had the corner weights set with me in the car. This is achieved by lowering or raising individual corners via coil over adjustments. Here are the weights I achieved with me in the car:

LF 743
RF 687
LR 750
RR 703

The goal here is to get the LF + the RR to be as close as possible to 50% of total weight. This balances the car. If you do the math, you will see that my cross diagonal weighting is 50.1%. If you are interested in this procedure, go here http://www.grmotorsports.com/cornerweight.html

I had my car on a 2.2 mile road course 11/1/03 in Pahrump NV. Even with the temperature high of 60 degrees, my car was the most compliant it has ever been. The Goodyear stock car slicks I race on stuck better than they ever have. I attribute this to the corner weighting excercise coupled with swapping from stock MII control arms to the Bethania units (lot less flex now).

[Jack21]

Hopefully, you purchased Bethania Garage upper control arm brackets with your coil overs. If you haven't, send Tom another $100 and get them. These brackets fix one of Fords stupider ideas used on the stock MII suspension. Front end now can be precision aligned with shims like most GM cars, and not have alignment change, or collapse when you go over your first bump.

Mine is a street, not track car. I start with getting the oil pan to ground clearance set at 5"- 6", and the front frame to ground measurements the same. Rear then gets set up for 1" - 2" viewed horizontally from top of tire to bottom of wheel opening. This gives me a car that looks right, feels right, and works.

Power steering equipped cars need more caster for returning to center when cornering. Don Van Cleave while he was still at CR recommended 5 1/2 deg +/- 1/2 deg caster, both sides the same (which can be accomplished with shim adjusted upper control arms).

[Double Venom]

Curt, Jack...well done! You guys make this " hobby " easy!
DV

[cobra427mnsi]

DV

I am pulling my motor (FE 406) to put in an FE 427 Top oiler. While the motor is out, I thought it might be a good time to upgrade my Mustang II suspenion and my brakes. Currently I have 11" Granada rotors with Camero Calipers (a big improvement over the 9" mustang II rotors and calipers). But it is still hard to get this thing to stop. I think I need a larger master cylinder (have stock mustang II) also. I have rear drums on an 8.8 solid rear end.

What do you recommend? Bethania's parts or do you make your own?

I would also need the upper control arm brackets that Jack21 mentioned as I have a hard time aligning the (and keeping it aligned) front end.

Paul

[Double Venom]

Paul, you can look at "HEIDTS" or there are numerous makers of the tubular control arms out there. Tommy, (Bethania Garage) makes a very nice, but pretty standard set of tubular control arms. (We use em all the time.)

Lately, I've been going with strutless lower control arms, OR using an adjustable strut in it's place. Gives you a much wider range of adjustments over the stock fixed rod. If you go with Tommy's---have him set you up with the Carrerra coil overs (or we will). You will want to go to 500lb springs with that block.

If you really want to get serious let us supply you with a full set of Wildwoods or Baer brakes. Now you're really ready to stop that big block! Whichever way you go, it's time to get discs on the rear.

DV...when you order the control arms from Tommy, you will get the complete package including the upper bracket