Vintage Shelby Mustang Suspension Mods

[shelbydoug]

The most recent term that I can think of not using the word copying is "modeling".

What you do is find a very successful car very similar to yours and copy what they did.

Ideally or maybe in a "perfect universe", we could test drive in advance what we want to create or what we think we want to create. Like picking a camshaft?

Remember, the grass always looks greener across the street.


Lots of controversy on these changes have their origins on what Kar Kraft was doing privately in development of "Trans-Am cars" around 1969 and 1970.

At some point it becomes very difficult or even impossible to determine if a modification was sourced directly from them or was "developed" at some later time by and independent race team.

There simply is not documentation on what they were doing. Only discovering on others cars what they had done secretly.

Determining all of this isn't necessarily an issue, or really shouldn't be. It's kind of fun in a strange way IF you are an enthusiast. It's kind of like what the attorneys do in discovery?



I'd take a guess (simply because I can't test drive all of these cars) that there are simple reasons why some modifications work well on one car and are close to a disaster on another? For instance, power steering vs. manual steering.

Another might be master brake cylinder bore diameters?

What I do know is that you WANT a "Mustang" to understeer, not oversteer. If it's understeering then it is a simple adjustment for the driver, slow down a little. If you oversteer, you are going to cause a St.Jovite car pile up and others will be looking to protect their second amendment rights against YOU.


Also what tends to work on a street car, a short track car, an oval track car, a long track car and an autocross car are going to vary and often by a lot.

If you are going to autocross the car, what class do you want to run in? Stock classes are going to limit you pretty severely to what you can change on the car.

B2's were no better stock then anything that came without a rear bar.


I gave up on autocross in parking lots in the '70s. Those were only fun for 911's or bug eyed Sprites running through the course in first and second gear at 8,000 rpms. Let's just say that is not my cars forte and leave it at that?


One thing that I never tried but PROBABLY is as significant as anything you can do, is do the engine lowering thing? I'll bet you a nickle the good running cars have trick engine mounts that lower the engine's like the race Cobras did?


Having said all of this the single most effective component is the tires. Without EXCEPTIONAL tires, most of the modifications won't have enough of an effect.