After a couple of years of wanting to to this I finally pulled the plug. 36 bushings total. My car has 65K miles on her and was starting to feel a little loose. Suspension mods include: KWv2's, Hotchkis sways, strut tower braces front and rear. I used Pedders San Diego installer "Renegade Performance Mustang and Motor sports". Classy bunch of guys with a professional, knowledgeable shop. Here is a link of their website blog with a writeup and pics of the install: http://renegademustangs.wordpress.com/ I picked up the car yesterday at around 5:00 pm when it was raining. I drove two hours (usually a 30 minute trip) in the traffic and rain. It rained again this morning but I drove it around anyways. My initial impressions are that it feels solid. My wife has a 2007 BMW 328i with a sports package (Michelin Pilot Sport tires 140 treadwear rating) that handles incredible. The Charger now feels closer to what the Beemer does. Where you point the wheel it goes. The bump steer is gone. Once the weather clears up and I throw the Nitto NT05's on her I'll get to some real testing. The one litmus test I do have is a clover leaf that I can do at 48mph with the Toyo Proxes (pre Pedders). My OEM rubber bushings were in really good shape at 65K miles? The irony is that I was expecting them to be destroyed. Anyone who has driven with me knows I beat the hell out of my car....all the time. Could the good weather here in San Diego have something to do with it? Have the destroyed OEM bushings we've seen Pedders document over the past few years be a result of colder climates (salt, heat, cold)?
Yea...nice pics the shop looks like they did a good job. The Pedders kit is on my list for the summer.....got a few other things to get done before SpringFest 6. There are tons of nice long sweeping turns and twisting exits and entrances on the freeway connections in San Diego. Especially where they cross the 8 Frwy in the San Diego River valley. The 52 Frwy has some wide sweepers too. These are good for testing lateral G's effect on grip, body roll, and steering. But where is there a true cloverleaf? Actually.... don't a couple of driving clubs have events in the stadium pacrking lot? By the way....you should have put a Getrag LSD in while they had the rear end down.....no insalllation charge. ..
Yep....I know....the wife didn't think so though. She didn't want to spend the extra before Christmas and the car was already apart when I thought of it. I'm thinking of doing the Wavetrac without gears or upgraded half-shafts I always do some pre runs whenever I push the car to make sure there isn't anything on the road to include people, debris, or cars....Thanks for the heads up!!!
Parts, labor, and 4-wheel alignment cost $2916. I wish it was cost effective to take off the KWv2's, sways, and front and rear strut tower braces to see if the bushings caused that much of a dramatic handling improvement as the other suspension mods did. I also wish it would dry up here so I could give her a proper test....as my wife is saying "karma's a bitch". LOL Yep...pretty darn good. As I've said for years, the sidewall stiffness of the Vreds work well in the lateral handling department of our cars.
