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Anyone tried squared tire setup on stock Boss?

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1
How does it handle?
I do get mild understeer mid corner... And was wondering how a square setup would fare on this car.
My past car I ran square (E36 M3), but that thing also didn't have 444 hp :)

Is it manageable on the track, or is it too loose? I don't want to get into the scenario where I have corner exit oversteer. Waiting to get on the throttle is no fun!
 

ArizonaBOSS

Because racecar.
Moderator
8,730
2,734
Arizona, USA
I've tried it and it's too loose, got high speed oversteer in a number of places. Some people have said lowering the rear rebound makes this better, but I had an adjustable rear bar with me and installed that between sessions instead.
 
I took the risk and bought a square setup, which ill be running in two weeks. I'm planning on mitigating any oversteer with shock damping adjustment and patience with the throttle lol.

I'll try to report back... Hopefully its not too loose, or I may be in trouble :-\
 
Wouldn't the rear/ front shock adj. help mitigate some of that? I have the stock setup with the staggered tires but I found a neutral point by staggering the shock settings. 5 front 3.5 rear. I'm still learning but considering the front back weight ratio and my off the cuff thinking more back less front tweeking would help. Maybe I'm in left field but someone that knows what their talking about will chime in.
 
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F.D. Sako said:
I took the risk and bought a square setup, which ill be running in two weeks. I'm planning on mitigating any oversteer with shock damping adjustment and patience with the throttle lol.

I'll try to report back... Hopefully its not too loose, or I may be in trouble :-\

Thanks for the feedback, boys.
I want to stay away from playing with rear rebound to reduce any oversteer.
I set my rear rebound to stiffest to mitigate the crazy amount of rear rise under braking in efforts to slow forward weight transfer when braking hard.
Not sure I'd like less rebound out back to address the issue of running square.

I guess staggered it is!

FD Sako, I'd be interested to hear back about your experience in 2 weeks :D
 
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mcmmotorsports said:
Kind of off topic but I thought the Boss shock adjustments were compression, not rebound.

I'll have to dig it up again, but I found a shock dyno of Tokico Illuminas and they are rebound only.
They do move compression also, but in veryyyyyyyyyy small increments.

found it:

tokicorear.gif

EDIT: You can definitely feel that the adjustments are for rebound.
You can feel the suspension packing down when you go over a series of bumps in quick succession (because it doesnt rebound quick enough at higher settings), and you will see much slowed weight transfer response. Not when the car is going down, but when it's coming up.
 

Senderofan

Having more fun than should be allowed..in my Boss
I'm going to run a square set up in a couple of weeks as well....but I'm not running the stock suspension. I'm going to run 3rd firmest hole on the front bar and softest on the rear. I'll fine tune by adjusting the Koni yellows. I'm running 305 slicks x 4.

Wayne
 

Mad Hatter

Gotta go Faster
5,237
4,227
Santiago, Chile
I made a slow migration to square... went to 275/35-19 up front first with stock size rears. The tail rotates out gently in mid corner compared to before (OEM) which is nice, but have to watch the throttle like always coming out!! Actually that could be more due to the -1.5 camber I added at the same time as the tire size upgrade??? Have a set of square Direzza ZII on the way in 275/35-19, should be on in about 6 weeks.... Trying to save some money on tires by rotating!! And the Direzza on come in that size in 19"

If you run 10" rear wheels and 9" fronts can you tone down the overstear a little in the square setup?

Cheers all!
 

drano38

Wayne
1,130
318
I went to square Enkei 18x9.5 wheels and Nitto NT05 285/35 tires.
At the same time, I installed front and rear Strano sway bars. I think I've got front full firm, rear full soft. Works well.
Now I've got Koni Yellow/Steeda Sport/Whiteline Watts/UMI LCA/FRPP LCA brackets. Overall it felt great at Brainerd in July.

I like being able to rotate tires anywhere. If I know its going to be dry, I'll run the tires backwards to even out wear.
 
F.D. Sako said:
I took the risk and bought a square setup, which ill be running in two weeks. I'm planning on mitigating any oversteer with shock damping adjustment and patience with the throttle lol.

I'll try to report back... Hopefully its not too loose, or I may be in trouble :-\
It will be loose, but not undrivable. Just be very aware of it as the back will want to step out on high speed corners WITHOUT throttle, let alone with it. ;) I was able to run with the stock suspension square, but even as crazy as I am, I didn't care for it. Adjusting the rear dampers didn't really do anything for me. The solution is a smaller or adjustable rear bar, or adjustable front that's on a stiffer setting or firmer than the stock one at least.
 
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cloud9 said:
It will be loose, but not undrivable. Just be very aware of it as the back will want to step out on high speed corners WITHOUT throttle, let alone with it. ;) I was able to run with the stock suspension square, but even as crazy as I am, I didn't care for it. Adjusting the rear dampers didn't really do anything for me. The solution is a smaller or adjustable rear bar, or adjustable front that's on a stiffer setting or firmer than the stock one at least.

wow ok, that sounds horrible.
I will not consider going square as long as i retain bone stock suspension then!
Out of curiosity, did you have any videos of this? Sounds like a riot :D
 
boro92 said:
wow ok, that sounds horrible.
I will not consider going square as long as i retain bone stock suspension then!
Out of curiosity, did you have any videos of this? Sounds like a riot :D
I wouldn't say it was horrible, just not preferred for me. I don't have video of it, but it's not like I was driving like Vaughn Gittin either ;)
 
boro92 said:
Calling F.D. Sako on feedback for square setup + new pads :)

hey boro!
Sorry, I couldn't remember which thread I was supposed to report back to lol. So, I made a separate one, which I've included my impressions of the square setup with stock suspension and Carbotech XP12/XP10 combo. Check it out!
 
I finally got some wheels so now I am running 18x9.5 square all around. I don't have the rear sway bar and I got an alignment from John Mueller (he advised to take off the rear sway bar) with -2.0 degrees of camber in the front. It was a bit of a shock having that much understeer with the factory wheels and 245 tires in front with 275 in rear. It is much more behaved with 275 on all four corners. I can really get on the throttle early in a corner with the square setup and no rear sway bar.
 

domesticpower

Track Addict
190
135
NS
I have square 285/35's on 18x9.5's all around and love them. I can't say how much more oversteer I got by going to a square setup because I unfortunately didn't want to wait and put the square wheels and tires on along with the Torsen diff after my first couple of days at the track with the car (my car didn't have the Recaros option package). The car actually had les than before with the stock staggered setup because of the Torsen so the combination felt like a win/win for me - less understeer mid corner with the square setup and better traction coming out because of the Torsen diff. I set the shocks at 5/4 f/r and I have a Fays2 Watt's link with the "propeller" crank position set to neutral or middle which makes the back end feel a lot more settled. The tires are Conti's ExtremeContact DW.
 
Been running 295/40-18 R6s on 18x10 +42ET F14s all summer. Have had a few instances of mid-corner oversteer getting on the throttle too hard too early, but I'd say it's not chronic -- probably more due to poor technique on my part -- and when it happens it's easily corrected/controlled. The rear bar could probably be smaller and/or a larger or adjustable front bar should help. But overall I'm pleased with the square setup so far and really like the bonus of being able to rotate tires as needed. Been getting more life out of this set of R6s than I thought I'd would, which I attribute to continually rotating tires to even out wear.
 
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loco pantelonez said:
I finally got some wheels so now I am running 18x9.5 square all around. I don't have the rear sway bar and I got an alignment from John Mueller (he advised to take off the rear sway bar) with -2.0 degrees of camber in the front. It was a bit of a shock having that much understeer with the factory wheels and 245 tires in front with 275 in rear. It is much more behaved with 275 on all four corners. I can really get on the throttle early in a corner with the square setup and no rear sway bar.

Interesting.
I just saw your review of the BFG Rivals and watched your video. You can certainly get on the beans early without that rear bar--it's evident in your videos alone.
Maybe I shall try this afterall!!!

Do you run brake ducts up front, and if so how is the clearance?
 

pufferfish

Supporting Vendor
1,094
66
Maryland
so, of course I have no first hand experience with switching from staggered to square, since I have a gt, but I have never heard of anyone complaining about upsetting the balance when increasing negative camber on an otherwise stock boss. it stands to reason that adding grip via camber would be as effective at upsetting balance as adding extra contact patch.

personally, i believe that going square is proper for ANY track driven mustang. these things NEED some oversteer to turn effectively. maybe its the nose heavy balance? maybe its the live axle? maybe its crappy front end geometry with strut suspension?
 

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