2014 GT CAMC Front A-Arms

[gregb]

2014 GT CAMC autocross car... I'm ready to ditch the hydro bushings in the front a-arms but not sure which direction to go.

I'm considering the Whiteline anti-dive bushing set or the Ford Performance Boss 302 Delrin bushing set. Does anyone have experience with either of these or have strong opinions about which is the best for autocross. The only street miles this car sees is back and forth to about 45-50 local events per year which is maybe 1500-2000 or so miles.

I did briefly consider tubular a-arms but a little research turned up too many failures of the BMR version. There is also a version sold by Team Z Motorsports that looks to have much more gusseting and has heim joints and delrin bushings but I think I'm too cautious to try them and want to stick with the oem arms.

Fyi, the rest of the setup is MCS single adjustable dampers, camber plates and 550lb front and 250lb rear springs. 3.5* neg camber with just a touch of toe out. Whiteline rear upper and lower control arms and watts link. 19x11 wheels with RT660 305/30r19 rubber all around (at least for this year).

 

[RocketcarX]

The most durable option is the Delrin set up. Whiteline would be my second choice. The rub is the whiteline bushings correct a suspension geometry issue.
Sooooo, the real answer is Maximum Motorsport K member and the 302 set up. This corrects the suspension geometry issue and give you the best performing strut suspension.

 

[gregb]

I'm not interested in doing a K-member swap. I just noticed that Steeda has Boss Competition front control arms that already have poly bushings installed. Seems like that might be an option for me to avoid the messy hydrobushing removal. They do come with Steeda extended ball joints which I would swap out for standard length, maybe Proforged. I could run the poly bushing until they fail and then swap for the delrin bushings or do the delrin upfront.

Anybody running the Steeda Boss Comp control arms?

 

[JC SSP]

I don’t have these on my car but have other Steeda items and they perform flawless.

Dario the owner of Steeda is an accomplished racer and most if not all the parts designed for the mustang came from track R&D.

 

[RocketcarX]

Steeda is bottom of the barrel in the road course world, you don't see it in serious cars.

 

[Vorshlag-Fair]

Aftermarket control arms tend to have a horrible track record of massive failures. Have seen dozens of racers with horror stories there, all trying to save "ones of pounds" on these heavy cars in all the wrong places. Same goes for aftermarket crossmembers, which tend to be made for drag racers - not road course use.

WHY WE KEEP RUNNING OEM S197 FLCAs

My wife and I often co-drove our TT3 Mustang on the same race weekends and one time at MSR-Houston she got into a tank slapper and clipped a curb with the front wheel sideways at speed.

Bent the wheel, bent the tie rod, and BENT the factory control arm. But it didn't break. We secured the TT3 win in an earlier session on that Saturday of a 2 day NASA weekend... if we had aftermarket control arms we would have dragged it onto a trailer, because that bish woulda BROKE.

You better believe I swapped front wheels, re-set the toe, and raced it on Sunday! That RF corner had positive camber, but I still won the TT3 class that Sunday. Wasn't ideal, but it also wasn't broken, like any aftermarket arm would have been. The OEM steel front LCA is a TANK!

As for the Whiteline front LCA bushing setup, we recently noted that the Boss 302S bushings were TRASHED on this S197 race car.

We're swapping to the Whiteline bushing kit as soon as it arrives (next week). I've had such great luck with ALL of their S197 products.

This car also has their "dual durometer" adjustable upper rear control arm (KTA205), too. And yes, its a race car. And yes, that is just fine. One less spherical bearing to have to be replaced 1-2 times per season.

Stay away from aftermarket arms and try the Whiteline LCA bushing kit.

Cheers,

 

[JC SSP]

I don’t have any vested interest in Steeda, heck I don’t even know Dario but have seen them race and place very well.

http://www.steedavehicles.com/steeda-highlights-milestones

This appears to me to be a serious competitor and successful business, but you know… opinions very. Lol lol lol

 

[gregb]

When I get ready for this project I think I'll get some oem replacement control arms and swap out the bushings for the Whiteline stuff. Probably sometime later this summer or early fall. Thanks for all the input.

 

[gregb]

Tubular aftermarket control arms are a failure waiting to happen. My buddy that I autocross with in a 2014 V6 Mustang in CAMC had BMR control arms for maybe 2 seasons but the passenger side failed at an event last year which ended his day plus associated major body damage from the wheel pushing back into the fender. Against advice to get oem control arms he replaced them with another set of tubular control arms from Team Z Motorsports and he had another failure today. This time on the driver side with associated body damage. These aftermarket arms just don't seem to be able to handle the loads from 305 or 315 wide sticky 200TW tires.

I wasn't considering tubular arms but this reinforces my decision making process. Just to clarify my earlier comment, the Steeda Boss Comp control arms are the same as the oem arms but with poly bushings and Steeda extended ball joints. They are a few hundred dollars more than a set of Ford oem arms but could save me the aggravation of removing the hydrobushing. I wouldn't use the Steeda extended ball joints and would have to replace them with standard length ball joints. It would be a lot easier to replace the poly bushings with the Whiteline bushings than replacing the oem bushings on a factory control arm. Decision time, do the messy job of removing the factory bushings from a set of eom control arms or spend money to avoid the aggravation.

 

[yote0]

I have heard that EPAS and stiffer control arm bushings don't mix well. Any real world opinions/experience on this?

 

[RocketcarX]

I have heard that EPAS and stiffer control arm bushings don't mix well. Any real world opinions/experience on this?

Not at all the case. There were some issues early on in the software. Ford revised it in late 2011. You can find some good EPAS tech here: https://wireeverything.com/s197-epas-conversion