Quote:
Originally Posted by ImportConvert
It's still a huge handicap when you're not on a track. When an irregularity on one side of the car has the ability to unsettle the other side of the car, it's no good.
Maybe you live in a state that uses pavement. I don't. This is a huge deal for me and SRA stands out like a sore thumb in my experience. Of course, your SRA is more composed than the one in my '01 F-body, but still, the problem remains that you can't cheat physics.
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I live in Northern Virginia which has some of the worst roads in the country at the moment thanks to all of our construction, so I know a thing or two about rough surfaces (that's what she said). SRA really isn't a problem over bumps as long as the dampers and geometry are well sorted. If you are driving an '01 F-Body or a SN95 with the 4-link and crappy OEM dampers it's not going to feel good over rough surfaces.
The 3-link on the S197 with the better dampers makes rough roads almost a non-issue. The only problem is the panhard bar which locates the axle on the body. Since it connects to the body on one side and the axle on the other, it forces the axle to move in a slight arc when it travels up and down. Basically this means the body shifts slightly relative to the axle during travel. If you have crappy dampers this won't feel very good. If you have good dampers, it's hardly a problem.
There are also some little intricacies on how you drive with a SRA setup that has a lot of that arcing. When the suspension travels and the body shifts ever so slightly during, an experienced driver knows what is happening and why it's happening... he keeps his foot in it. A less experienced driver might get scared and back out... and depending on how quickly you're moving through a corner completely coming out of the throttle might not be a good thing.
But again, hardly a problem with proper damping.
If you want to make it even better, there's the watts linkage which locates the axle in the center of the body 100% of the time. And you've got the added benefit of an consistent roll center turning left and right (better transitions) and you can adjust it too depending on how much roll steer you want.
Anyways, I have no doubt that the ZL1 has the better suspension what with it's magnetosuperduperlogical damping. It's a really trick setup that I think just about everyone would love to have. But I don't think a good SRA setup is bad, either. It just gets a bad reputation due to 1) age and 2) years of Mustangs handling like crap in OEM form.
It does remain to be seen who will be faster. I think the GT500 with the Bilstein setup is going to be very nice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ImportConvert
Traction over rough surfaces, as well.
The ZL1 has far more rubber on it compared to the GT500, which uses tires almost exactly the same size as a 370Z regarding width.
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More rubber doesn't always mean more traction. 285s out back may very well do the job if they sort the suspension so it can get the power down. And the traction and launch control systems are supposed to be pretty trick based on some of the prelim testing. I know MM&FF got a sneak peak at the car and were able to test it at the drag strip. They think the car will be well into the 11s, so it's got to be putting the power down pretty well otherwise it'd be running in ZL1 territory... 12s and slower.
Regardless, both cars give me a raging hard on.
