The 2011 – 2014 Mustang GT’s have proven to be a competent combination, both comfortable street/commuter car and capable weekend road course warrior. Thanks to our friends at Ford Racing, they have a solution that will allows S197 owners to enjoy their cars even more on both the highway and the road course.

Step one in upgrading the car for better handling was to replace the stock rubber with Nitto NT05s.

The Adjustable FR3 Handling Pack part number M-FR3A-MGTAA* is a simple, bolt-on suspension solution that provides a significant increase in grip on the road course, while still being comfortable enough for daily commuting and cross-country road trips. It’s so simple to install, that your author installed one on this street-driven 2011 GT in the garage at Texas World Speedway – a historic and fast 2.9 mile roval (road course and oval) just south of College Station, Texas. The guys from Chicane23 handled the installation with a simple assortment of hand tools, floor jack and jack stands.

The first step was to baseline the stock GT out on the road course – all the way down to the stock air cleaner element and 235/50/18 Pirelli Pzero Nero Ultra-High Performance All Season tires. We then bolted on a set of the 19×9 Ford Racing Track Pack wheels (M-1007KIT-DC199B) and some 275/35-19 Nitto NT05 tires and promptly knocked 2.25 seconds off our lap times. The tires helped, but it was clear that they were “overpowering” the stock suspension and it was time to address that.

The Ford Racing kit includes new front and rear sway bars.

A key component of the kit are the Tokico preassembled front and adjustable rear struts.”

The Chicane23 guys installed the FR3 Handling Pack consisting of adjustable Tokico front struts (pre-assembled with upper strut mounts and springs) and adjustable rear shocks, lowering springs, revised rear bump-stops, Ford Racing strut tower brace and some pretty slick adjustable sway bars for both the front and the rear of the car. The install, complete with a quick alignment, took about 1.5 hrs to complete and lowered the car 1.25 inches front and rear.

With the shocks set to full firm, we headed back out onto TWS’ 2.9 mile course to get a feel for the new suspension and to see how how much more time we could drop. By the time we were completing the first lap, we could sense just how much more composed the car was, especially in the high-speed turn-ins and mid-corner stability. The Nitto NT05 tires had helped, but now, the suspension was able to deal with the extra mechanical grip, combining it with the revised lower ride height, better shocks and struts and well-calibrated sway bar combo.

After a couple of laps to “get the feel” for the new combo, we turned up the speed and managed to drop another 4.53 seconds off our lap time. For those of you keeping score, that’s a total of 6.79 seconds per lap faster than the stock tire and suspension combination.

The suspension allows us to burn up the track during driving events, and then set things back to “street mode” and drive several hundred miles in stock-like comfort.

Since that afternoon at TWS, this car continues to see both street and track duty. In fact, the car is so much fun to drive, we’ve moved away from the trailer and are now driving the car to and from the track, adjusting tire pressures and strut/shock settings when we get to the track, driving the snot out of it all weekend and then, adjusting it back to street-mode before heading home. The suspension has even withstood the addition of a VMP TVS Ultimate Performance supercharger system, which increased the rear-wheel horsepower from 402 to 605.

In 2014 alone, this combination has been exercised for over 15,000 street and track miles and has enjoyed trips to Sebring International Raceway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Mid America Motorplex, Gateway Motorsports Park, Gingerman Raceway, Waterford Hills Raceway and Motorsports Park Hastings (Nebraska). The combination was even comfortable and capable enough to put up with two track days before the 2014 Woodward Dream Cruise and Mustang Memories Show in Detroit and Dearborn, Michigan respectively. Thanks to the team at Ford Racing for putting together a combination for 2011 to 2014 Mustang GT’s that can truly give you the best of both highway durability and comfort combined with a substantial increase in on-track performance.