BMR Suspension And Tires Fix - Launch Control

Whether it's on the street or at the track, traction is immensely important. Spinning your tires will get you nowhere fast, and as high-horsepower Ponies become more and more popular, getting your power to the ground becomes more difficult.

In the past few months, we have stepped up the power output of our '11 AMSOIL Mustang GT. We've been cranking out high-10-second e.t.'s with relative ease, but a few issues have begun to decrease consistency and the quality of our launches at the track.

When we first began testing the car, we would hit the gas and the car would go. It was drama free, and we didn't have to work hard to keep the car straight. After some dyno time with Justin Starkey from VMP Tuning, power production jumped up, and the first 150 feet of every pass became a lot more exciting.

I use the word exciting because launching with more power is always, well, exciting. But also, the car reacted completely differently-bodyroll had become an issue. When we hit the gas before, the nose picked up slightly, the rear squatted a little, and before we knew it, we were crossing the stripe. Now the nose picks up much harder and the rear squats significantly more, but as power transfers through the drivetrain, it twists the body of the car as it rotates the tires.

Bodyroll equates to wasted motion. As the body rotates, it absorbs power being transferred to the rear.

To reduce this deflection of power, we turned to BRM Suspension. The Thonotosassa, Florida-based suspension company makes components for classic and late-model American muscle cars, and its line of products for the '05-and-up Mustang is a perfect fit for our AMSOIL GT.

To fortify the rear suspension and reduce bodyroll, BMR supplied us with its adjustable upper control arm and mount with multiple mounting locations, double-adjustable lower control arms, lower control-arm relocation brackets, and Xtreme antiroll bar kit. These parts are designed to strengthen the rear suspension and improve the suspension geometry for harder, more consistent launches.

Another problem was tire spin out of the hole. Up to this point, our dragstrip testing has been at Bradenton Motorsports Park (BMP), and the starting line was always prepped well. Now tire spin has become a near constant in our testing, so we tapped Mickey Thompson for a set of ET Drag slicks. Being that our tune and rear gearing is based around a 28-inch-tall tire, we ordered a set of 28x10.5-inch slicks to keep the gearing close.

After a trip to Weaver Tire in Brandon, Florida, to have the new slicks mounted and balanced, we headed back to BMP. During out last outing, we were able to crack off some passes in the mid-10.80 range, with a 1.75 and 1.69 60-foot time respectively. After heating the new slicks, we inched to the line and staged as shallow as possible. Leaving off idle, our AMSOIL GT hooked and went dead-straight out of the hole. The 60-foot time showed improvement, with a 1.57-second short time.

Unfortunately, mid-summer Florida air is not good for making power. We tripped the beams in 10.76 seconds at 126 mph, while our mid-10.80 passes from (much cooler) mid-May were done at over 130 mph.

Sadly, this was the quickest and fasted time of the night, but the 60-foot times were consistently 1.57. Imagine how quick we can go if we shed a few pounds and make a few more horsepower!

As power transfers through the drivetrain, it twists the body of the car as it rotates the tires.