With the full Steeda suspension in place (G-Trac Street, Stages 1 through 4), we let Winter back on the track, and as expected, he was 6.74 seconds quicker using the NT-555 tires. The drastic time drop was easy to see as the car simply hooked and went. As he states, "In certain areas, I was as much as 15 mph faster because I was able to plant the power fully and earlier in the turns without the car being unstable. That made the biggest difference, in addition to the flatter cornering in the faster turns."
Our subsequent follow-up drive on the road course backed his comments and reinforced our belief in leaving track driving for the track. But later, the ultimate test was on the street where we could see how it was to live with the new suspension. The ride is slightly stiffer than before. We'd say the ride is about 10-15 percent firmer. The car now has a more aggressive stance that not only looks the part, but also acts the part with incredible stability on the highways and byways.
In case you were wondering,...
In case you were wondering, this is how our Cobra took turns when it was stock. As you can see, the already-high ride height didn't help the car in turns as it leaned heavily, placing most of the weight on the outside front tire and almost lifting the inside rear tire. This explains why it is so hard to throttle out of a sharp turn in a stock Cobra, even when you're using sticky rubber. Despite this, Chris Winter, our hired driver for the day, was able to muster a respectable 1:24.77 lap time.
Since we were able to only...
Since we were able to only get about four laps before the Cobra started to run hot and shut down under throttle, we had plenty of time to admire our Dark Shadow Gray SVT Coupe in the pits. Note how silly the stock ride height looks, especially in back. Those Steeda Pentars sure look purdy, don't they? We used the Nitto INVOs here, but found the more-aggressive NT-555s to provide the best lap times despite the more pronounced understeer.
With our new suspension in...
With our new suspension in place, you can see how more composed the car is in the turns. In fact, we could induce throttle oversteer, which is nice. The INVOs made the car more predictable as understeer was no longer obvious. We were now 6.74 seconds quicker with a best lap of 1:18.03. If we had more engine cooling, we could have been able to whittle it down into the 1:17s.