Drop kit questions

[upstate]

Since I don't know much about drop kits....Last I knew was in the 60-70's air shocks in the rear. Anyway can you put the 1" drop springs in the front only to give it a more raked look. Would this cause problems? Kind of like what we used to do to the cars in those eailer days.

 

[ruffy]

I think it would put a lot of stress on your ball joints. Back in da day when I had my GTX jacked up in the back I was always changing them out.

 

[Darkhorse845]

yes a 1" drop will look nice!

 

[SMP]

How low do you think this Mustang GT is dropped? Anyone want to guess on the size rims?

 

[mikes stang 05]

I know that H & R springs has a kit for the 2005 Mustang ready to go. Im told they make two diffrent kits. I think one is a 1 inch drop and the other is a 1 3/4 inch drop. Im pretty sure Eibach also has a kit ready to go. Depending on the kind of wheel and tire combo that you will want, you can put 19, 20 or 22 inch wheels on a 05 Mustang. The white and orange boy racer at SEMA had 22 inch wheels and tires. The Street Scene orange mustang had 20's- this one used 20x8 inch front wheels and 20x10 inch rear wheels. Tire sizes were 255x35x20 fronts and 285x30x20 rears.

 

[rcinco]

Speaking of the raked look...

What would putting 20" wheels in the rear and 19" wheels up front do to the driving dynamics of the 05 Mustang GT?

 

[M1Rifle]

What would putting 20" wheels in the rear and 19" wheels up front do to the driving dynamics of the 05 Mustang GT?

Meaningless question. What brand and model of tire? What size? What weight wheels, front and rear? What backspacing? Did you match new shocks to the new unsprung weights? Even if you answered ALL those hypotheticals, I'd be an idiot to say I knew exactly what it would be like.

The quick answer is that "it would screw it up". The more radical you go with tire size (and the commensurate lowering of the profile that usually follows), the more tweaky or sensitive the tire is to camber change and to road smoothness. So you take a relatively well rounded (but boring) stock setup like I have on my 05, and it performs really well, but not excellent. But it does well in many conditions.

I'd be hard pressed to find a 19/20 combo, in a wide enough tire for it to look good, that would be lighter than the stock wheel/tire combo. So now you are looking at something that will, at best, perform better on a track or perfect roads, but would be horrible for daily driving in an area that has poorer roads. More weight in the rear will bring about a worsening of the live axle setup that Ford has tried so hard to optimize. New weight means that you've also upset the 3-link tuning they've done, which matches unsprung weight, shock valving and power delivery in order to produce adequate anti-squat. Will you get worse axle-hop? Maybe so. I can guess that it probably will not become a BETTER live axle setup with radically heavier wheels.

I suggest that people approach the style issue by making performance decisions first. Once you start thinking about performance first, and looks second, it turns out that there are a lot of VERY BEAUTIFUL solutions out there. They are beautiful because the technical eye looks at them and says "that's right".

 

[rcinco]

Nicely written...thanks.

Meaningless question. What brand and model of tire? What size? What weight wheels, front and rear? What backspacing? Did you match new shocks to the new unsprung weights? Even if you answered ALL those hypotheticals, I'd be an idiot to say I knew exactly what it would be like.

The quick answer is that "it would screw it up". The more radical you go with tire size (and the commensurate lowering of the profile that usually follows), the more tweaky or sensitive the tire is to camber change and to road smoothness. So you take a relatively well rounded (but boring) stock setup like I have on my 05, and it performs really well, but not excellent. But it does well in many conditions.

I'd be hard pressed to find a 19/20 combo, in a wide enough tire for it to look good, that would be lighter than the stock wheel/tire combo. So now you are looking at something that will, at best, perform better on a track or perfect roads, but would be horrible for daily driving in an area that has poorer roads. More weight in the rear will bring about a worsening of the live axle setup that Ford has tried so hard to optimize. New weight means that you've also upset the 3-link tuning they've done, which matches unsprung weight, shock valving and power delivery in order to produce adequate anti-squat. Will you get worse axle-hop? Maybe so. I can guess that it probably will not become a BETTER live axle setup with radically heavier wheels.

I suggest that people approach the style issue by making performance decisions first. Once you start thinking about performance first, and looks second, it turns out that there are a lot of VERY BEAUTIFUL solutions out there. They are beautiful because the technical eye looks at them and says "that's right".

Nicely stated, thanks.

 

[Darkhorse845]

Meaningless question. What brand and model of tire? What size? What weight wheels, front and rear? What backspacing? Did you match new shocks to the new unsprung weights? Even if you answered ALL those hypotheticals, I'd be an idiot to say I knew exactly what it would be like.

The quick answer is that "it would screw it up". The more radical you go with tire size (and the commensurate lowering of the profile that usually follows), the more tweaky or sensitive the tire is to camber change and to road smoothness. So you take a relatively well rounded (but boring) stock setup like I have on my 05, and it performs really well, but not excellent. But it does well in many conditions.

I'd be hard pressed to find a 19/20 combo, in a wide enough tire for it to look good, that would be lighter than the stock wheel/tire combo. So now you are looking at something that will, at best, perform better on a track or perfect roads, but would be horrible for daily driving in an area that has poorer roads. More weight in the rear will bring about a worsening of the live axle setup that Ford has tried so hard to optimize. New weight means that you've also upset the 3-link tuning they've done, which matches unsprung weight, shock valving and power delivery in order to produce adequate anti-squat. Will you get worse axle-hop? Maybe so. I can guess that it probably will not become a BETTER live axle setup with radically heavier wheels.

I suggest that people approach the style issue by making performance decisions first. Once you start thinking about performance first, and looks second, it turns out that there are a lot of VERY BEAUTIFUL solutions out there. They are beautiful because the technical eye looks at them and says "that's right".

Yes nicely stated!