Steeda suspension mods on my '09 GT500
Finally got Steeda's sport springs & adjustable panhard bar installed today on the GT500, as well as some polyurethane bushings for the front & rear sway bars. Topped it off w/a set of camber bolts and a solid alignment job by my new, favorite, local shop & blammo, all done. Now I can breath a sigh of relief cuz it all came together perfectly and can say 'WOW.'
You know how it is w/mods sometimes. Hit or miss, right? I am always concerned about mods because, let's be honest, sometimes we think we want something but when we get it, it ain't what we thought it was gonna be. I'm that way w/suspension set-ups especially. Too tight and the car rides like a buckboard. Not enough & it gets sloppy really quick. Still, I tend believe in the 'less is more' strategy as I'm sure the Ford engineers put a lot of time & effort into designing the base systems, particularly for cars like this.
Yeah, I looked at lowering kits from a number of suspension shops and nearly fell for the BMR set-up- really like what they did w/that package, but in the end, I decided even that was just a touch more than I wanted to do. IMHO, the base suspension package on the GT500 is good enough for my daily driving pursuits and it really only needed to be tweaked a tad, not redesigned or rebuilt.
To be clear- no new: upper strut mounts, camber plates, jounce bumpers, end links, sway bars, lower control brackets or lower control arm relocation brackets- nothing but the parts I mentioned.
And I couldn't be more pleased w/the results. W/the Steeda sport springs, the car now sits perfectly, no more ridiculously oversized fender gaps. The OEM wheels fill the fender well like they were supposed to. The springs dropped it about 1.25" all around and the car just sits flat- beauteous.
The ride quality is astounding. You'll note I did not swap out the OEM struts or shocks. Yeah, yeah, I can hear you guys moaning about your Bilstein, Eibach, KYB and Koni shocks and what a difference they made and I can tell you that - for me- staying OEM worked out perfectly, especially w/the Steeda sport springs. The lowering springs offered me that flatter cornering I was looking for and the OEM struts/shocks still have the car riding like a Cadillac, perhaps even better than the OEM springs- don't ask me why but I think the suspension is actually more comfortable now. I can't feel any squat on take-off either.
Always a huge Steeda fan, my GT500's suspension is just perfect now!
Lee
Finally got Steeda's sport springs & adjustable panhard bar installed today on the GT500, as well as some polyurethane bushings for the front & rear sway bars. Topped it off w/a set of camber bolts and a solid alignment job by my new, favorite, local shop & blammo, all done. Now I can breath a sigh of relief cuz it all came together perfectly and can say 'WOW.'
You know how it is w/mods sometimes. Hit or miss, right? I am always concerned about mods because, let's be honest, sometimes we think we want something but when we get it, it ain't what we thought it was gonna be. I'm that way w/suspension set-ups especially. Too tight and the car rides like a buckboard. Not enough & it gets sloppy really quick. Still, I tend believe in the 'less is more' strategy as I'm sure the Ford engineers put a lot of time & effort into designing the base systems, particularly for cars like this.
Yeah, I looked at lowering kits from a number of suspension shops and nearly fell for the BMR set-up- really like what they did w/that package, but in the end, I decided even that was just a touch more than I wanted to do. IMHO, the base suspension package on the GT500 is good enough for my daily driving pursuits and it really only needed to be tweaked a tad, not redesigned or rebuilt.
To be clear- no new: upper strut mounts, camber plates, jounce bumpers, end links, sway bars, lower control brackets or lower control arm relocation brackets- nothing but the parts I mentioned.
And I couldn't be more pleased w/the results. W/the Steeda sport springs, the car now sits perfectly, no more ridiculously oversized fender gaps. The OEM wheels fill the fender well like they were supposed to. The springs dropped it about 1.25" all around and the car just sits flat- beauteous.
The ride quality is astounding. You'll note I did not swap out the OEM struts or shocks. Yeah, yeah, I can hear you guys moaning about your Bilstein, Eibach, KYB and Koni shocks and what a difference they made and I can tell you that - for me- staying OEM worked out perfectly, especially w/the Steeda sport springs. The lowering springs offered me that flatter cornering I was looking for and the OEM struts/shocks still have the car riding like a Cadillac, perhaps even better than the OEM springs- don't ask me why but I think the suspension is actually more comfortable now. I can't feel any squat on take-off either.
Always a huge Steeda fan, my GT500's suspension is just perfect now!
Lee
