Quote:
Originally Posted by fraydoe  so would raising the back create problems for me in the future as it creates stress on the frontend? and also, i think me and amustangrocks are on the same page...
so what would the size of the front wheels be? and even if i cant get the style of rims i want in the back, there ARE rims like that right? and it would fit on my mustang right? i really want some wide tires like i see on corvettes...
and how much would it cost for just the springs? |
When I was a lad of 17, living in the Los Angeles area, the low-in-front, high-in-back was known as "putting it on a rake", or "Dago", after San Diego, where we thought the practice originated. It involved a dropped (solid) front axle, and long shackles on the rear leaf springs. It did look cool, and for those who were committed to it, it worked good.
Those who were committed to it were drag racers. As a sacrifice to perform in that line, they labored mightily to turn corners, and eased up and down driveways at painfully slow rates. The cars went like clappers in a straight line, but they were near-useless as daily drivers. In my school the boys who had their cars altered like that used to ditch the periods before lunch and the end of school, so they would have time to bring their cars around and park in front of school to pick up their girls. Two hours of work for five minutes of show, every day.
If you've had your car for a month, you're beginning to learn about what it can do. Everything not of a cosmetic nature you do to it from now on
changes what it can do, and not always for the better.
Lower the front, look forward to painstaking transitions at parking curbs, driveways, some intersections. Raise the rear with fat tires and expect it to want to go straight when you are thinking "turn here".
Most of the things you do to make the car look "good" are relatively inocuous: stripes, wheel color choices, stickers don't hurt or help safety or performance.
Changing the front/rear relationships and balance can be appearance-enhancing but safety-reducing. Very mild lowering - at both ends - improves cornering and braking power, detracts just a little from the ride quality, and makes the car look better, in my opinion. Radical changes at either or both ends result in a comic-book "beauty" and can hurt performance and safety.
If you live a comic-book life, nothing wrong with that; if you live in the world with the rest of us, physics governs safety and performance, and for all but that five minutes of show a day we are vulnerable to the effects of what we do to our cars.
If you have only one car, it's important to be happy with it in all modes, not just the five minutes a day when looks count so much.
I have a V6 convertible with Steeda Sport springs (lowered 0.8" front, 1.2" rear) GT takeoff sway bars front and rear, Tokico D-Spec adjustable struts/shocks, GT takeoff 17" Bullit/Pirellis, GT front brakes. It is a delight to drive, comfortable, performs very well in all modes, including "looking good", and is safer and faster than the stock car. Cost of the improvements was about $2,000 total, something over a year and a half ago. You should be able to get to the same level for about the same, these days, I think.
In previous configurations it (V6 automatic convertible) had very special front and rear sway bars, very special wheels and tires (two different sets), and it was much faster around the autocross track, in absolute terms - but rougher riding, less of a pleasure to drive on the street. I took off the special stuff, and it's still just a tiny fraction slower, but sooo much better a car in every scenario except those few minutes on the autocross track every other week.
Compromise is a fact of life. Very much so in car ownership. You have to decide what your car means to you, what it is for, how to make it fill your needs best.
Some months back a magazine conducted a survey: name, in order, the top ten things a Mustang purchaser should do to his car. I listed ten; after a few months experience and thinking, I'd revamp the list:
1) Nothing. Don't make any costly changes for a few months, so you won't be going back and erasing as many inappropriate alterations.
2) Wheels and tires. For a V6 the GT takeoffs are a benefit and a bargain. Improves looks way out of proportion to cost.
3) GT takeoff muffler. Another stone bargain and it changes the whole Mustang experience for the better, every time you start the car.
4) Sway bars. GT takeoffs again. Same comment as for the muffler, plus, they improve safety through better handling.
5) GT front brakes. See #4 and #5. Cheap, easy, effective.
6) Lowering springs. Here we're getting into serious alterations. More potential problems and decreases in utility as a daily one-car.
7) Struts/shocks. Worthwhile even farther up the list on a car with 20,000 or more miles on it. Should go on in the same operation as the springs.
8) Tuner/tunes: not really a requirement unless you are able to sense minuscule changes in power and delivery. Indispensible on an automatic, not so much on a manual shift.
9) Cold Air Induction, for competitive event participants. A K&N drop-in filter is reputed to be a worthwhile improvement, in the interim. I don't think it is much of an improvement in power or economy, but won't cost as much over a couple hundred thousand miles.
10) Surely that's enough!
I see evidence in the forums that people who aren't immediately able to afford the bigger stuff are impatient, and fritter away their resources on window tints, billet accessories, tape stripes, and all that bit-by-bit stuff. I advise saving up and doing the essential stuff first. That kind of thing is important when you drive, not when you sit and look at it or show it off.
And
driving is what Mustangs are for, eh?
Having a "tilt" 
