10 different kinds of sick

[NetChemica]

Personally, I own a 2000 GT with nothing more than lowering springs and good tires (GSD3s) as far as the handling mods.

My buddy asked me what suspension he should buy for his 03 cobra. No hesitation, no debating, I immediately suggested MM.

Next thing I know I have 3 huge packages in front of my house with a MM Kmember, 4 coilovers, strut tower brace, axles, and toe links (from different companies) at my house. Few days later we start on his car.

We got the sheet metal kmember out and the tubular in in one day (only up to the control arms though). We worked throughout the weekend and a few hours each day after work.

I got an alignment to MM specs yesterday, and got to play with it ever since. :bowdown::bowdown:

Mother of GOD. He has nitto drags on the rear and BFGoodrich GForce Sports on the front, not exactly the best tires for going around corners, but even with those tires, this thing is disturbingly agile. The steering response is amazing, and has no play in it (love the solid steering shaft).

I still have to install the axles, we just wanted to make sure the suspension is okay before we get too deep into it and overwhelm ourselves with problems in case something would have happened during installation.

 

[NetChemica]

One more thing I should add:

The ride quality is superb. You feel the bumps ever so slightly, but not hard enough for it to be uncomfortable. The car tracks straight over any kind of grove and grease in the road and the nvh is MUCH better than stock.

 

[Jroc]

Cool! I loved my old Nitto 555r's in the corners. I could tell that they had softer sidewalls than my Falken Azenis RT615's and they didn't feel as predictable, but they held. In a corner where 40 mph is pushing the car pretty hard I could go WOT midcorner in third with the Nittos. If I try that with my Falkens they will start spinning and that rearend will come around. Don't get me wrong I like my Falkens, and they feel like a tire much more devoted to handling than the nittos, but the compound isn't as sticky so they don't get as much traction.

 

[red03dave]

Having experienced the complete MM setup in both IRS and live axle setup, I am live axle man through and through. I bought an '03 GT w/ a terminator swap and put in a a full MM setup. What I have found that the IRS setup acts more like a scalpel, quick turn in, but gets agitated when stuff comes up mid corners, on top of that feels like it has less play with traction.

My live axle setup has a pan hard adjustable sway torque arm all the goodies and it is more forgiving in the corners along with being less agitated with mid corner bumps, stays flatter, has more traction/throttle control, the only down fall is you lose that slight twitchy scalpel like exactness on the turn in, where an IRS car the back end tracks immediately. Another thing when the back end starts to wag the live axle stays ten times more neutral then the IRS which has a tendency to snap back around if you get real crazy.

I may be bias but I have gone down both roads with the same exact front end setup on both cars with exactly the same motor. I am addicted to more road racing then drag. Anyone have any thoughts?

Heck I may be the only '03 GT with a Terminator swap that is turbo'd and a complete front and rear MM setup, who knows, Turbo swap should be completed here in about a month, waiting on a fuel cell and then it has to go to the fabricators then the tuner.

Congrats though that car does feel sick! And sorry to hi-jack the thread and go off on a tangent here...

 

[Kevin the Clean 1]

NetChemica,

I agree with you that a full MM kit on the 03/04 makes it a much more agile & trackable car. Even on the street it performs much better. ;-)

I have to disagree with (red03dave) though. I'm not sure how you could say that the IRS tends to " snap back around if you get real crazy". Those are the characteristics of an SRA not a IRS... :dw:

 

[Jroc]

I have to disagree with (red03dave) though. I'm not sure how you could say that the IRS tends to " snap back around if you get real crazy". Those are the characteristics of an SRA not a IRS... :dw:

x2.

You can apply much, much(and I mean much) more power midcorner with the IRS than with a SRA without the rearend breaking. IMHO thats the biggest benifit of the IRS. I have owned other Mustangs and I love the IRS on my Cobra. I'm not much of a DR'er though.

 

[ShelbyGuy]

Don't forget to add a torsen t2-r for when you want to get on the gas BEFORE the apex and help the car rotate. The sooner you can get hard on the gas, the more corner exit speed you will carry.

 

[red03dave]

x2.

You can apply much, much(and I mean much) more power midcorner with the IRS than with a SRA without the rearend breaking. IMHO thats the biggest benefit of the IRS. I have owned other Mustangs and I love the IRS on my Cobra. I'm not much of a DR'er though.

The live axle to me is just more neutral the snapping point on the IRS setup (with delrin and full MM kit with a billet flow brace) was much more unforgiving once you got the tail to wag. Like I said I have been in both rear ends completely setup, guess it is just preference...the tq arm is the great equalizer, anyone that has been in one knows