IRS and Live-axle mustang options -- what makes sense?

[68fastback]

Well, we got into this subject in another thread so I thought it might be worthwhile to see how we all feel.

 

This was a tough poll to construct (spent almost five hours on it) because there's no facility to have mutiple selections, and every question must have one and only one answer.

 

So please feel free to set me straingt if I've missed something important to you.

 

One of the key issues I could not figure how to guage was the tradeoffs on cost and strength, especially given Ford's widely publicised statements on their rationale for the live axle in the GT500 and the history of IRS in the Cobras, which had to be designed to use existing live-axle hard points and clearly presented some tradeoffs not necessarily inherent in a purpose-built IRS designed as the sole suspension for the mustang. Neverthless, here we are in 2006 with the possibility of some changes not likely until MY '09 or '10.

 

I'm personally convinced that an IRS will be important to the competitiveness of the Mustang in the future and feel it's almost barbaric not having one available after years of IRS Cobras -- even though the SN95 was not specifically designed for an IRS.

 

But, enough about what I think -- what do you all think?

 

 

 

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<edit:> in the last question, the "we" should be "were" ...sorry (no, I'm not a Ford employee... just a typo) but the question still works ok, I think.

 

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[kb67]

Ford should try and offer as much variety as possible a option of differnet rear end configurations and ratio options could be nice selling points especially from a performance point of view. Once they have the setup solid it won't take much to bring in into the production line you have parts ABC for one kind and parts XYZ for the other. Its a value add and you can have something to point to when you speak to the performance opportunities

a Mustang posseses versus the competition.

[68fastback]

Ford should try and offer as much variety as possible a option of differnet rear end configurations and ratio options could be nice selling points especially from a performance point of view. Once they have the setup solid it won't take much to bring in into the production line you have parts ABC for one kind and parts XYZ for the other. Its a value add and you can have something to point to when you speak to the performance opportunities

a Mustang posseses versus the competition.

 

 

I agree KB... the mustang is all about choices and personalization.

 

I'd actually like to see the '09 refresh go native, purpose-built IRS with a live axle option for the drag enthusiast (or anyone else who wants it), since they have to do IRS in volume to make it worthwhile and I can't see not offering it with Camaro and Challenger both (reportedly) with IRS standard.

 

As you say, peformance opportunities vs competition. My fear is that they may wait until the ground-up re-engineered 'stang (MY'12 per R&T), which I think is way too late.