Vik2000

well kid talking about his godly stang isn't rare so...

hariku821

for the 09 all i found suspension upgrade wise was this

* Unique strut tower brace
* Unique shock and strut tuning
* Rear spring change that lowers vehicle ride height
* Carbon metallic front brake pads for improved performance

Wouldn't it need independent rear suspension to be close to the s?

Luckyaze

Just because you drive a presumably fast car that doesn't mean you are!!!

sola77

I would say in non repetitive, non road course environment it is a drivers race. The S has considerable capabilities, but you have to have the right 'moves' to make it dance at the sharp end of the game. Mustangs have easy power and adequate handling and that helps competitiveness on public roads. The S does have many advantages in the chassis department over a Mustang but capitalizing that potential requires knowledge and skill.

wills2k106

My judge for handling is typically how the car does at the Solo Nationals. Those guys will wring out every last thousandth there is to be had in a car within the rules, and sometimes a little beyond, all on a relatively tight course that emphasizes handling over power. The S2000 is currently classified in A Stock and the Mustang is classified in F Stock. Both cars won their respective classes but the times aren't that far apart. The winning Mustang was a Shelby GT (315 non-supercharged horses on 3480+- pounds) at 83.709 seconds. The S2000 was a year 2000 model that ran an 82.183. The times are an aggregate of two seperate runs added together. 8 tenths in a single run is a lot to a seasoned racer, but to the average Joe on the street that isn't really enough to be bragging about. Between regular guys it will be more about tires and drivers, than live axles and weight.

Side note....the Mustang time is faster than the Boxster S, Cayman S, and STi, and a Mazdaspeed Roadster bests the S2000.

http://cms.scca.com/documents/solo_results...0for%20book.pdf

Yellow_S

A heavy car with solid rear axles is never going to handle like a light-weight sports car. Sure, it may be faster on some tracks due to power, but with handling and agility alone, never gonna happen.

ahrmike

I totally agree. If you can drive the car, you'll win (in a road course type race, not a straight line unless you go nuts on the S). Honestly, if I was up against a good mustang driver, I doubt I could beat him in the twisties w. my S.

The great(ish) thing about those V8s are that you dont have to be 'great' to be fast. You just need to not be stupid and slide everywhere, open it up when it hits straight..and you pull away. If its a really twisty cousre I guess youre better off, but the S2K isn't that nice of a gripper eithier. Its sort of scary because youre never sure where the limit is..and if it gives, you better react fast.

ts80

Personally, I don't have any input on the Mustang since I haven't driven the new one, let alone with the handling package.

But I read an interesting article from a magazine (C&D I think) on a handling shoot-out. If I remember correctly, they broke down handling into 3 categories:
- Grip (skidpad)
- Timed tests (Slalom, track)
- Intended path/control (Figure 8, lane change)

At the conclusion of the article, the best handling car was NOT the one with the highest skidpad or fastest time through the slalom. But it heavily factored in the control portion.

Basically, they switched lanes quickly and saw how composed and easy to control the car was. Then they did figure 8s at speed and saw how closely they could follow the path was.

The highest skidpad and grip went to the Viper ACR or ZR1 I believe, but they were ranked in the bottom half, because of how poor they performed on the control portion. Although grip was ridiculously high, which led to really fast times, it wouldn't travel on the path that the driver wanted...thus it didn't have as much control.

I believe that MAY be the case with the s2k vs Mustang/or many other cars that supposedly beat the s2k on objective "handling" tests...the s2k feels great to drive because it does what the driver wants, even if the limits are lower.

Saki GT

[quote name='wills2k106' date='Jan 27 2009, 09:55 PM'] My judge for handling is typically how the car does at the Solo Nationals.

aklucsarits

The current Mustangs with the Shelby conversion suspension or the Ford Performance suspension do handle very well. The Shelbys (and Shelby clones) dominated their stock class at SCCA Solo2 Nationals last year.

But the S2000 weighs like 700lbs less than a Mustang GT, and all other things equal, no amount of suspension work is going to overcome that weight disadvantage when it comes to handling.

Andrew