Motovicity Ticket to Ride – Ford Mustang Build Part 2
With a few more ponies under the hood and increased braking performance, it is now time for the team at Performance & Styling to tackle the handling and power delivery of the Motovicity Ticket to Ride Ford Mustang. The goal of the Ticket to Ride builds has been to showcase the performance gains that can be obtained from readily available quality bolt-on parts. and we now take a look at some of the better options available to keep your Mustang under control. In part two of the Motovicity Ticket to Ride Ford Mustang Build we stay on target with a set of KW Varient III Coilovers, Exedy Clutch, STACK gauges, Whiteline swaybars, Watts link and more.
For the Ticket To Ride Mustang, Motovicity chose KW’s Variant III coilovers part# 35230045. The Variant III is KW’s high performance street oriented coilover with track capability. The Variant IIIs are more softly valved and sprung than the weekend warrior Clubsport, but are still independently adjustable for compression and rebound damping and have KW’s sophisticated valving. The VIIIs are a daily-driver friendly coilover that can still take care of business on the track. Like Most KW street dampers, the VIIIs have a corrosion resistant stainless steel body. The spring seat is stainless steel overmolded with a tough self lubricating plastic. This stuff was designed to weather harsh German winters and have KW’s limited lifetime guarantee. These suckers won’t seize up and are a true East Coast winter capable coilover. I don’t think any other coilover on the market can hold up to salted roads for long.
The VIIIs use a custom taper wound spring that allows the use of the stock upper spring seat. They also use a tender spring to help keep tension on the spring pack when the suspension is extended under droop to keep things quiet. The VIIIs also use micocellular urethane progressive bump stops with integrated dust boots. The MCU bump stops allow for a more progressive cushion at the end of the travel and make the car less likely to get upset in a bumpy turns.
The Variant III uses the stock upper spring seat for less NVH in daily driving. Pillowball mounts and camber plates allow for a lot more ride harshness and noise which is irritating in daily driving. The shocks rebound damping adjuster is found up the top of the shock shaft where it is easy to get to.
Here is the VIII in place. You can see how the tapered spring fits the OEM spring seat perfectly.
The rebound damping adjuster is found here at the bottom of the strut housing. You can also see the slotted upper spindle bolt hole. This gives you the ability to adjust camber from the bottom of the strut. The KW strut body is shorter so the suspension won’t lose bump travel when the car is lowered.
