Thank you for all the replies.
I am on stock Bullitt special edition wheels. The car currently has brand new 235/45/18 Pirelli P Zero Neros. The fact that they are brand new is why I don't want to change them, but I am worried that if I spend money on suspension and keep these P Zero Nero's on the car, I will still have the same or perhaps slightly more grip.
To be completely honest, the only reason I was considering the Ford Racing kit is because I feel it would increase resale value of the car (if I ever do want to sell it) when compared to Maximum Motorsports or Vorshlag. And it's kinda cool to say that your car has "Ford Racing Suspension" Yeah, I know I know, kinda pathetic :/
I have been talking with Jack Hidley at Maximum Motorsports, and he was the one that brought up the point about getting new, wider wheels. So far he has recommended that I get a sway bar kit from them (the adjustable one) and their CC plates. And I was ready to pull the trigger (I literally had my credit card info in the website), but had to drive the car somewhere, and came back from the drive extremely disappointed in the tires. The car hits it's limit of grip so much sooner than I would like, and I am worried that suspension won't be able to fix this given the bad tires. But then I tell myself that better suspension will be able to "utilize" more of the tire and so on, but I still just don't know what to do.
I am pretty positive the car is running stock, O.E. recommended camber. The reason I am not super keen on getting just an alignment is it has never helped that much on some of my other cars. Or rather wasn't really worth the price that I paid for the gain that I received. I'm sure caster camber plates+alignment will help a ton (because a stock mustang with no CC plates is such a horrible starting point), but again, I feel my starting point is at rock bottom due to the terrible tires.
You might get somewhat better grip by changing the tires while keeping everything else the same, but that won't change the balance of the car (if anything, it is likely to induce greater understeer as you'll be that much further into the positive side of the camber curve up front).
I think you'll need to first decide if what you're primarily after is a short-term solution or a long-term one. In the short term, changing the tires will get you more grip (possibly at the expense of greater understeer). But tires are wear items that are guaranteed to be replaced sooner or later (and the harder you run them, the sooner they'll be replaced), and stickier tires tend not to last as long. That means you'll be replacing your current tires at some point no matter what, so you don't really gain that much by replacing them now -- that gain is merely more immediate.
Changing the suspension itself is a longer term solution. While you may not see much additional grip from the tires, the
balance will be something you can change to suit your own personal handling tastes, at least if you get adjustable sway bars. And camber plates will help your front tires last quite a lot longer, which will reduce your expenses in the long run (though making your current tires last longer might not exactly be what you want
), while also increasing front grip and thus reducing understeer.
If it were me, I'd modify the suspension with, at a minimum, camber plates and sway bars (I'd get better dampers as well, if that's in the budget -- Koni Sports if you're not changing the springs, and perhaps Bilsteins if you're getting substantially stiffer springs -- but would do the sway bars and camber plates first). Tires that don't grip very well can be quite a lot of fun in their own right if the car is nicely balanced. You probably won't win competitions that way, so if winning is more important than having fun (or is necessary to you for having fun) then simply modifying the suspension won't be enough for that. But then, simply changing the tires probably won't be quite enough for that either. Winning probably requires better tires
and a suspension with better characteristics, so you may as well do the suspension first and have large amounts of fun with the tires you have. You'll have to replace them eventually anyway, at which point you'll be able to get something much closer to what you're after (and if you replace the wheels as well, then you can get 18x10 or perhaps even 18x11 wheels all the way around with seriously grippy tires).
You're quite obviously budget limited, otherwise you'd be taking care of the whole kit and kaboodle all at once. That means you probably want to spend your money in a way that maximizes your return on investment. I can't climb into your head to know what's most important to you here, but if it were me, I'd modify the suspension first to make the car handle to my liking, and then replace the tires once they're worn out. I'd do that because it would be the fastest way to maximize the fun I could get out of the car, even if it meant sacrificing some initial autocross wins.
And trust me: driving the car at the limits of grip and making it do whatever you want because it responds so nicely to your inputs is
massive fun, no matter whether you're winning or not. I can't speak for you, of course, but I'm in this for the fun of it first and foremost (why do it otherwise?).