More comfortable highway travel?

Stock mufflers to reduce noise fatigue, polyurethane steering bushings and sway bar bushings to greatly improve tracking, lots of good CDs.

(X-pipes do NOT reduce drone. The Bassani cat-back has resonators in the tips to reduce drone on a near stock engine. Only the stock type mufflers eliminate drone.)

LJH

95GT

Given your requirments there may not be alot to be done. Poly bushing will make the car handle better, but will transmit more road noise into the cabin. An X pipe won't do anything for the drone. What mufflers are you running? Most aftermarket mufflers will up the drone a lot. If noise is a big issue you may want to consider dropping gear ratio to keep the rpms down or maybe some type of resonator tip for the tail pipes. what size tire are you running? While lower profile tires are great for looks and handling the shorter sidewall dosen't absorb near as much of the bumps in the road. You may play with tire pressure a little, but don't go to far for highway speeds. Over all I'd say a set of comfy seats may be your best bet.

MadDAWG

I would think a softer shock and tires that are more highway than low profile, meaning more meat on the sidewall. Though either or both will affect the handling by making it less responsive in the twisties.

If you were to lower it, my experience has been that it makes the car ride rougher.

Kate

98 cobra Drop Top With a personal touch.. or two.

If you're using stock springs/shocks now, they're already low-rate progressives and about as 'comfortable' as you're going to get.

If you want to get rid of noise, stay with the OEM exhaust and replace the shifter with the OEM unit. I got tired of the noise from my TriAx, and replaced it with the original. HUGE DIFFERENCE. It is so quiet now that I can hear a passenger in the back seat whispering at freeway speed. Intalling quiet, all-season tires will also eliminate whirring/whining tire noise. The Potenza's I'm running now are noisy as hell, and won't be bought again.

Kidneys still getting bruised? Put a big pillow under your backside.

-JD

** What would be the best modifications to my 1992 GT convertible to make ** highway travel more comfortable? I will be driving quite frequently ** between New Orleans and Houston (350 mi, 6 hours) and I would like to ** arrive without being beaten up. ** ** My car has 91K miles with the following modifications: subframe ** connectors, 3.55 gears, Pro-5.0 shifter, battery relocated to the trunk, ** CD player and new speakers, new mufflers, and strut tower brace. ** ** Because of the heat and humidity, I cannot use underdrive pulleys and ** because the roads are so bad (and they flood), I cannot lower the car. ** ** For example, would progressive rate springs help? other shocks or ** struts? change in the steering column to reduce vibration? additional ** insulation to reduce noise? x-pipe to reduce cruising drone? ** ** Thanks.

Buy yourself an inexpensive highway car for trips. IMHO it's not worth all the $ and time to increase the drivability of a 92 GT. Besides even after you make the modifications the car may still be a bone shaker.

A bone stock set-up would be best. This is why I often recommend to people NOT to go nuts with modifications. In my opinion, at least in terms of the late model Stangs, they handle perfectly from the factory... that is, a perfect combination of COMFORT (which is what you're concerned about now) and excellent sports-car performance. I took my new bone-stock Stang on some hilly-twisty Connecticut backroads not too long ago, and could not believe how well this little Stang could handle... bone stock. I was seriously flying through some pretty wild road conditions, probably a little TOO fast really, and the car could take anything I dished out, and did it with style. I never went that fast through the twisties before (other than on a motorcycle). This is why I cannot understand why some people complain about the stock Stang's handling, etc. Ok, on an all-out race course, perhaps the stock Stang is under par compared with say a Corvette or whatever, but I think most people use their cars 90% of the time on the STREET, not on a race course. Stiff springs, lowering the car, heavy anti-sway bars, super low-profile tires, all this stuff will make the car super uncomfortable to drive on the street. I know I'm gonna get flamed here a bit from guys who have spent thousands making such mods to their cars wanting to justify their expenditures, but that's just my opinion. Back in the day I hot-rodded the suspension on my old Trans-Am, and I learned the hard way. Shortly there-after, I put the suspension back to stock (other than for using some poly-U bushings in place of the stock rubber ones, and using 60 series tires instead of the stock 70's.) The stock height, springs, shocks and anti-sway bars were way better for the car than any aftermarket stuff. Bottom line, if a new Stang with a stock suspension cannot corner fast enough on the street for you, then you are going WAY too fast for STREET conditions. You will eventually meet some wet leaves or gravel and will put the car straight into a tree. For strictly off-road race use, none of this applies of course. So, in sum, lesson of the day... when in doubt, leave it stock. And then when you need to do some long distance traveling, or even just use the car everyday to go to work or whatever, you will have a nice well-mannered quiet comfortable car to drive, as well as one that performs well enough too. Suggestion for original poster: put the car back to as close to stock as possible (stock rear gears, stock exhaust, etc), and it will be comfortable and economical to drive long distances.

Poly bushing in the steering rack and sway bars did not increase noise or vibration in my car one bit. They did make long distance travel MUCH easier though because now I can virtually point it and forget it. No more constant corrections and no more following ruts in the road. A huge improvement with no downside IMO.

LJH

95GT

This isn't a flame, but perhaps a difference of opinion....

While I'd say that my '97 Cobra has a great mix of comfort and handling (and that car is essentially GT suspension with slightly sitffer anti-roll bars), none of the Fox cars I've had were good at either. I currently have a 1985 Mustang GT with 77k original miles on it. The roads here are not by any stretch of the imagination smooth, and the car is almost unbearable to drive around town because the suspension is so stiff. Every bump and crack in the road gets transmitted directly to the passengers and driver. I can't begin to tell you how uncomfortable that is. When it comes to the twisties, the car is too stiff to handle well on the roads here because the rear end hops around every corner - every corner has been patched and is bumpy to no end. My 72k original mile 1987 Mustang LX 5.0 notch was almost as bad.

I've owned enough Fox chassis cars that I need my toes to count them all, and there was only one in memory that had suspension that even comes close to my '97 Cobra in terms of comfort and driveability. This was a 1983 Mustang GLX convertible - 3.8L auto. The car held the road very well and was comfortable to drive.

Would I upgrade the suspension on my Cobra? Of course. That, though, is a car that I'm looking for performance out of over comfort. The body roll is still a bit much, and it's not nearly as sure-footed in the turns as I'd like it to be. My 122k stock (including the original suspension components)

1989 Probe GT will handle just as well with the cheapest Yokohamas I could get as the Cobra will with new 17x9's and a set of 255/45/ZR17 Nitto 555's. Before the wheel and tire swap, the Probe handled much better.

Each car is set up differently from the factory. While I agree that the OP's car should probably remain stock, it might not necessarily be the most comfortable riding machine on the planet.

JS

Thanks for the informative response. I am somewhat new to the Mustang world... what exactly is the "fox body"... what years? The only Stang experience I have really is with my 2003 Stang. I have other general suspension experience with older GM cars as well... maybe that's why I am so impressed with my new Stang, because coming from big old super heavy GM bombs, my little Stang seems absolutely wonderful. My `76 455 Trans Am handled really well for what it was, especially with that ridiculously heavy engine sitting over the front wheels, but compared to the Stang, it was like a SCUD missle or something, and very unbalanced. I can only imagine what a new Cobra must be like with the indie rear, etc. Thanks!

1979-1993

Having had both a stock 2000 GT, and a modified 2000 GT, I can speak freely on this subject. When I traded my 1994 Firebomb in for the GT, The handling difference was indescribable. The Mustang was in EVERY measurable sense far superior. Sparking my interest in handling for the first time, I became more in tune with handling, and found a few things to be lacking in the Mustangs. They are great, but I outgrew what mine could give.

1. Snap oversteer. This is a fun one. Brought on by the steer-you-my-way quadralink when you're losing traction in a turn. Scary. Fixed by either a panhard rod setup, or in my case Global West lower control arms with solid bushings and Koni shocks.
2. Floaty. This is noticable at highway speeds, and is brought on by conservative alignment settings and crappy rubber bushings. If you look at your steering rack, and have a buddy turn your steering wheel when you're looking at the rack, you'll actually see it move all on its own. It moves enough to change your camber in the middle of a turn. Fixed by solid (or poly) rack bushings.
3. Geometry. These cars need more positive caster. You can't have too much without horrible bumpsteer. The fix is to change the front geometry by moving the front wheels forward. This can be accomplished with a new K-member, or offset front lower control arm bushings like mine. You can then offset your steering rack, and increase caster to about 6 degrees. This will give you excellent tracking, and improve negative camber gain in a turn.

Ever driven a Mercedes Benz at 125 - 140mph? Notice how sure footed they feel? Try that in a stock Camarobird or even a Mustang. I guarantee you a white knuckle experience. Now, my GT can have cruise control set at 125 and feel like 80 used to feel. Springs and shocks have a lot to do with it.

It's all in what you want out of your car. A footnote is that this is NO LONGER my daily driver, but it could be if I needed it to.

Vic

2kGT 5m blk suspension upgrades