Straighter-Lighter-Faster?

Less is more. The skinnier Mickey Thompson 26x4.5-15 ET front runners are made from nylon and feature an ultra-lightweight design to reduce rolling resistance. What’s even tricker is the way the runners use airplane tire technology to achieve a wider tire patch upon deceleration to help bring the car to a stop. We then combined them with a set of factory aluminum spares to shed roughly 22 pounds per wheel—that’s a total of about 45 pounds of weight off the front end.

With deadline pressure on us and only one track day left before we had to ship the magazine, we stopped at Fast Track Performance on the way to the dragstrip, where Robert Varoujanian was kind enough to install our Competition Engineering struts and shocks while we waited.

King Matt puts on his best He-Man impersonation to emphasize how trashed the stock strut can be after 15 years of heavy-duty service. The struts were so wasted that they allowed the car to bounce up and down as the suspension loaded and unloaded during our manual-trans upshifts. Combined with the poor alignment and “staggered” front tires, the car was steering itself hard to the left every time we shifted. Scary!

When changing the front struts, start by removing the hold-down clamp (arrow) to fully extend them.

Be sure to reuse the original plastic strut cover to protect the rod from external grime before installing the new piece.

A spindle change on ’87-and-newer Fox-body Mustangs resulted in two different-thickness lower strut mounting bosses, but the spacers supplied with the Competition Engineering struts allow the same strut to be used across the model run. Just be sure to check for a gap and use them if needed; we didn’t on our ’86 model.

The rear shocks are adjustable in three stages. The R setting puts the shocks in a 50/50 mode, which means they will compress and rebound with equal force. The F setting will set the shocks at 60/40, which means they will compress at 60 percent and rebound at 40 percent. The third setting is XF, which will set it at 70/30. Generally, the 50/50 setting works best, but stiffening up the rear shocks takes some of the “bite” out of the suspension and can help to compensate for less-than-ideal traction conditions at the track. CC

“She’s starting to shake... She’s starting to shimmy....”

This is not the way a mild 12-second car should feel going down the track. And even though Editor King Matt insisted our project ’86 Mustang coupe ran straight as an arrow (as long as he had a death-grip on the wheel and resisted the urge to correct the erratic steering) we begged to differ. Every once in a while, the King deigns to let the lowly staffers indulge themselves by strapping into the rolling tin can with worn-out struts and shocks and two different sized front rollers. We quickly found that running high 13s with these minor imperfections was one thing, but dipping into the mid-12-second zone was something else. The torque-roll between shifts was worse than anything we’d ever experienced, and on our last outing we almost got chummy with the guardrail. It’s also worth mentioning that sliding all over the track instead of going straight only adds more distance traveled; instead of 1,320 feet to the end of the quarter-mile, it may be 1,400 feet or more before you cross the traps. Not only does this kill your e.t. and mph, it’s downright dangerous!

However, prior to the changes featured here, we had run a 12.67 at 108.50 mph with a best 60-foot time of 1.70 seconds, so we knew the Metco suspension and E.T. Streets were doing their job. What we wanted now was for the front suspension to come back down slowly, rather than slamming down and bouncing the car down the track, which unloads the rear tires and makes the steering problem worse. To correct this, we added a set of Competition Engineering adjustable rear shocks and 90/10 front struts. These not only allow the front suspension to lift rapidly to help aid in weight transfer, but also set it back down gradually for a more controlled and predictable run. We also tossed out the unequal-sized front radials and bolted on a set of pizza cutter spares from GT Fox-body convertibles. They aren't the prettiest things in the world, but they’re light and can fit a set of 26x4.5-15 Mickey Thompson ET Front Runners (never run the stock factory rubber spares).

On test day at Los Angeles Country Raceway, the difference was shocking. During previous testing, the Mustang’s tire tracks resembled a slippery when wet sign; with the new shocks and struts and the equal-height front tires, it ran straight as an arrow, allowing us to concentrate on shifting, rather than steering. Unfortunately, the car hooked so much harder that we blew out our well-used stock clutch. Damn variables! The best pass was a 12.82 at 108.9 mph. Too bad the 1.86-second 60-foot time was about a tenth off our previous average. After our last pass, we smelled clutch all the way back to the pits and onto the trailer. Next stop: new clutch.